Greetings

I have been having a break over the Christmas period and won't be back at work until next week, when I will resume regular blogs. Just before I broke up I posted a Christmas message which went a bit pear shaped and there were problems, which I hope are now resolved.

In the meantime I wish you all a Happy New Year and hope that 2009 will be a 'good' year for Conductive Education everywhere. Considering the global economic problem, it certainly should be an interesting one!

How does your garden grow?

It is amazing what is in the library here and though I can no longer remember everything held, it only takes a question to make me call to mind material available. The item on the Conductive Community Discussion Forum re gardens made me think that there was something relevant and I was right.

Earlier this year Magdi Kovacs wrote an article about the new garden at the Rainbow Centre, Fareham (UK) and how it was being used conductively. This was published with photos in Special Children, no.180, Dec/Jan, 2008, pp.37-39.

If anyone would like a photocopy please contact me.

A truly 'conductive' library in New Zealand

I have just received the latest issue of the New Zealand Foundation for Conductive Education Newsletter which contains items, amongst other things, on the 2009 AGM and Conductors' seminar, the Awareness Week 2009 at the end of May, production of a new DVD and a mini report from the New Zealand Conductors Association (NZCA). They seem to be very organised and working together well, so there is quite a lot happening.

One section particularly caught my attention in the NZCA report:

The conductors are gradually building up an array of resources for NZCA members. The 'library database' is now available to conductors. This lists books, journals, CD-ROMs, DVDs and other teaching resources which are relevant to our profession and practice and which conductors can borrow from each other. This database will be an ever growing list of literature and will be updated once a year.

.

What a wonderful arrangement: making items acccessible to all, no central storage, flexibility and above all, sharing information and costs. I would like to know more about this and have asked if they would keep me in their loop.

Are there any other co-operative schemes like this in Conductive Education? I do not know of any, but if you do, please let me know.

Why is it 'conductive'? Because it takes things that are separate and brings them together in a single whole.

Conductive Education back in the news

There have been no news stories about Conductive Education for quite awhile which led to the removal of the news section from this blog, so it was great to read a CE news item with a positive story to tell - at some length too. Yesterday The Independent Florida Alligator published such a story about 29 year old Rafal Strzalkowski who has cerebral palsy and experienced Conductive Education in Hungary. He left Poland in 2003 to study law in America and has volunteered at the Gainsville Conductive Education Academy.

For the full story see :

http://www.alligator.org/articles/2008/12/11/news/features/081209_profile.txt

World Congress 2010

It was great to find out via Andrew's blog that the VII World Congress in 2010 is now in the serious planning stage with its website under construction. Two years seems a long way away but it will soon be here. No doubt a call for papers will follow in the New Year.

The first six congresses have resulted in a mixed bag of materials including programmes, a magazine, books of abstracts and some of the presentations included in issues of Conductive Education Occasional Papers (these incidentally appear to have ceased publication), which are held by the library here. But no full proceedings. The last congress in 2007 did have a website but only produced a brief report and evaluation.

I hope that SAHK will put this on the list of things to do and produce proceedings as there are bound to be some people who don't/can't go to the congress but will still be interested in what the presenters have to say. This international congress offers an opportunity for disseminating what is going on in Conductive Education all over the world and reporting what conductors are actually doing. Publishing the proceedings would also add to the literature as I have mentioned before in a previous blog.

I don't think I can over emphasise that there is a great need for people to write things down in detail for others to read, share and learn from as happens in other professions , so please forgive me if you think I am repeating myself.

http://www.ce-congress2010.com/

http://www.ce-congress2007.com/v1/main.html?lang=en

http://ce-library.blogspot.com/2008/08/please-write-as-well-as-speak_22.html

Conductive Education Classics: no.1.

This is the first item to be highlighted in the way I mentioned yesterday. I would like to stress there is no particular reason for this choice and the same will go for future selections, it will be serendipity. Perhaps I will do a poll after a reasonable number to see what is known, what is considered 'a good read' or 'useful'. We may end up with a top ten! Suggestions for inclusion will be very welcome.

Dina was published jointly by the Foundation for Conductive Education and Alabanda Verlag in 1991, the only account of its kind, and since then it has enjoyed modest sales.
I have taken the synopsis on the back of the book as the best explanation of its contents.
This book is an argument for trusting the personal responsibility and initiative of parents of babies and young children with cerebral palsy.
Frau Seiffer, the mother of Dina, who is twenty months old and severely brain damaged, takes her life and the life of her little daughter into her own hands. With the help of Conductive Education she succeeds in discovering her own abilities, submerged and unrecognised by specialists, and uses them to set her child’s personality development in motion and significantly reduce the symptoms of her child’s cerebral palsy.
Conductive Education means practising a way of living based upon intense co-operation between the mother (or a person to whom the child relates very closely) and the child, co-operation which gives the child’s motivation a central role.
From the correspondence between Frau Seiffer and Frau Gross, who also has a little daughter with cerebral palsy, and the authors, the reader comes to understand not only how the children’s personalities develop but also how their mothers’ insight into the unfamiliar Conductive Educational way of thinking grows.
The ‘Booklet for Mothers’ is directed towards mothers of infants and young children with cerebral palsy and intended as a practical manual for living.
DINA appeals to parents and specialists alike. It also has something to offer the academic and the researcher. One chapter deals with the theoretical basis of Conductive Education. The book gives insight into the way of thinking of the Pető System and also shows how it can be used in everyday life. With this system success can be achieved in a way which is thought impossible in the world of therapy, determined and fragmented as it is by different specialists.
Publisher: Foundation for Conductive Education and Alabanda-Verlag
Date: 1991
ISBN: 0 9515507 7 2
Price: £11.95
This available to buy from me for £11.95 plus postage and packing - email me for details gill@nice.ac.uk - or via Amazon. Photocopies are not possible.

Highlighting Conductive Education material

Whenever a new Conductive Education publication appears I always check the references to see if there is anything I don't have in the library, which I am pleased to say is rarely the case. Frequently these references are 'old', that is pre 2000, and some even from the late 1980s and early 1990s. Later publications are either unknown or possibly just ignored. Why is this? Journal databases (which cannot and do not include every journal title published) such as Medline, are not the only source of information for items in Conductive Education, e.g. we have the Internet, the most accessible, which offers all sorts of information about journals, books etc., and some academic libraries do have Conductive Education books and papers in their collections. Perhaps a factor is the fact that lot of Conductive Education material is unpublished or produced in small quantities limiting their circulation, so the usual sources may not be enough.

The library here has a wealth of information just waiting to be read, evaluated and discussed so I thought that if I profile items regularly it might spread knowledge of their existence, content and possible use.

I hope to select an item in the library - book, article, conference paper, unpublished document - and profile it on this blog by giving some basic bibliographic details and a little precis of its contents. Included will be details for purchase (if thats possible) or the procedure and cost for photocopying.

Watch this space.

Blogging: it's a start!

I've just read the comment on Andrew's blog by Becky about her reasons for starting a blog, stopping and starting again. For her it rested on the question whether someone, anyone would want to read it rather than on the writing itself. Could it be interesting to others? This I imagine is quite a common feeling as going public can leave you open to all sorts of things, some good and some not so good. It certainly was a factor in my decision to start this blog and Andrew convinced me to give it a go. Despite the paucity of comments, I don't regret it - yet!

Perhaps this feeling of not producing something 'readable' or 'interesting' could be the reason why the literature of CE is not more extensive. Why should you write what everyone knows? I'm not doing anything new or amazing so there is no need for me to write it down, is there? These are probably some of the words that flit through a lot of people's minds. Blogs are a good way of getting thoughts, ideas, events and developments down in an informal way, which hopefully may lead on to more formal reporting, discussion and analysis and encourage others to join in with comments or even start their own blog.

As I am always saying - it would be a start!

Blogs, blogs everywhere and not a minute to read them

Susie has posted an item about blogging, the proliferation of blogs and having the time to read them.This partially echoed a conversation I had with Andrew Sutton about comments on blogs and how easy it is to miss them, probably due to reading quickly and their not being displayed prominently.Maybe down to the fact that bloggers usually are computer buffs and are looking for such facilities. This is a shame as frequently the comments are very interesting and can lead to further discussion as happened with Andrew's item about mentoring.

We bloggers like to have comments too, as it shows that people are reading our postings and would like to talk to us. Laszlo was getting disheartened because of this last week.

So, please do comment and contribute to sharing knowledge, opinions, information etc. Could we say that this in itself may be a form of mentoring and encouragement ? Comments please!

Susie's posting

http://konduktorin.blogspot.com/2008/11/just-quiet-evening-for-conductor.html

Laszlo's posting

http://szogeczki.blogspot.com/2008/11/thinking-strange.html

Educação Condutiva em Santa Catarina: Avaliação de um Projeto. A report from Brazil

The publication of a research report on Conductive Education in Brazil was mentioned on Andrew's blog, including references and contact details, a couple of days ago. I contacted Célia Hoefelmann who has responded very quickly indeed, and a copy of the report was in my email this morning. I will add it to the library's collection of papers/reports on research into Conductive Education in all its applications.

Thank you, Andrew, for the details, its great to know that someone else is out there keeping an eye on publications etc, as it is not easy to keep track of everything published in Conductive Education, in all languages. All such information is much appreciated and helps me to continue adding to the collection of material here in Birmingham.

Cerebral Palsy Conference, 2009

Sydney, Australia is the chosen venue for the 3rd International Cerebral Palsy conference, 18-21 February 2009. The organising committee states :

The aim of this conference is to facilitate collaboration between internationally renowned researchers across all disciplines to help find the answers to cerebral palsy. The conference will have a theme of 'Across the Life-span'

More details can be found at http://www.cp2009.com.au/ including a provisional programme which includes presentations by such familiar names as Peter Rosenbaum, Robert Palisano, Dinah Reddihough and Johanna Darrah. No conductors as far as I could see.

Early bird registration is required before 18 December 2008.

What do we know about András Pető?

Those of you who are following Andrew's and Susie's blogs, will have realised that knowledge of András Pető the man is very skimpy indeed with a lot based on hearsay and comments of those who actually knew him. He gave very little away and much of the personal information we have is reminiscences, often contradictory, and not factual evidence.

I have compiled a list of material in held in the National Library which includes unpublished material, newspaper articles, contributions to books and also some items written by the man himself. These are in a variety of languages - English, Hungarian, German, Swedish and Norwegian. A student conductor in the late 1980s did start to investigate his life and work but never finished (Szorenyi, 1990; 1994), Judit Forrai published a collection of reminiscences (1999), and Mária Hári (who spoke at his funeral) produced several accounts of his life and establishment of what became the Pető Institute.

As you will see very little published material by Pető has been traced so far, but further discoveries may be made in the future. In the 1920s and 1930s he published under a variety of pseudonyms, some of which are included in the list below.

I am sure this is not everything and would welcome any information about other pieces, and especially copies of such items, that would make useful additions to my collection.

Pető the man

Ákos, K. and Ákos, M.(1997) The enigmatic Dr. Pető. The Conductor, 6(3-4),
pp.49-55.

Anon (1993) In memoriam Pető. In International Pető Institute, Pető András (1893-1993), Budapest: International Pető Institute, pp.30-37.

Anon (2000) Pető an König. Fortschritt, nos.2-3, p10.

Anon (2006) András Pető. [online] Wikipedia Fooundation. Accessed 20 December 2006. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A1s_Pet%C5%91

Bachmann, W. and others (1977) András Pető. In Bachmann, W., and others, Biographies of Hungarian special educators. Rheinstetten: Schindele, pp.94-95.

Balogh, M. and Ocsenás, T. (2001) Hungarians of the century: András Pető. In International Pető Institute, Abstracts of the 4th World Congress on Conductive Education. Budapest: International Pető Institute, p13.

Billington, I. (2003) András Pető. In Billington, I., Petö-metoden – en tverrfaglig utfordring. Oslo: N.W.Damm & Søn, pp.26-28.

Bíró, K. (1993) Remembering András Pető. In International Pető Institute, Pető András (1893-1993). Budapest: International Pető Institute, pp.16-23.

Dévai, J. (1997) The first years with András Pető. Unpublished paper.

Dezséry, L. (1962) About a wonderful school. Magyar Hétköznapok, 29 May.

Fekete, G. (1970) Professor Pető’s legacy. Népszabadság, 31 October, p.6.

Forrai, J. (1999) Memoirs of the beginnings of conductive pedagogy and András Pető. Budapest: Új Aranyhíd and Foundation for Conductive Education.

Forster, V. (1997) A view from the past. The Conductor, 6(3-4), pp.43-48.

György, I. (1967) The man to whom there were no hopeless cases. Népszabadság, 13 September, p.11.

Halász, Z. (1965) Home thoughts from across the Channel. [Brief mention of Pető, pp.112-113.] New Hungarian Quarterly pp.100-113.

Hári, M. (1996) In memory of Pető. Pető Magazine, Summer, pp.5-8.

Hári, M. (1997) A konduktív pedagógia története. Budapest: MPANNI.

Hári, M. (1999) Die Geschichte der konduktiven Pädagogik. Budapest: International Pető Institute.

Hári, M. (2001) The history of Conductive Education. Conductive Education Occasional Papers, supplement 2. Budapest: International Pető Institute.

Hári, M., and others (1991) The origins of Conductive Education. In Hári, M., and others, A konduktív pedagógiai rendszer, Budapest: International Pető Institute,pp.9-20 and 212-213.

Harris, C. (1989) Pető - friend of the CP child. Therapy Weekly, 15 June, p.6.

Horváth, J. (1997) András Pető; a brief biographical sketch. In Taylor, M. and Horváth, J., ed., Conductive Education occasional papers, no.1. Stoke-on-Trent: Trentham Books, pp.1-6.

International Pető Institute (1999) Who was András Pető? http://www.peto.hu/Tortenet/peto.htm (Accessed 25 October 1999)

International Pető Institute (1993) Pető András (1893-1993). Budapest: International Pető Institute.

Kapronczay, K. (1993) Remembering András Pető. In International Pető Institute, Pető András (1893-1993), Budapest: International Pető Institute, pp.24-29.

Kenyeres, A., ed. (1985) András Pető. In Kenyeres, A., ed. Magyar Életrajzi Lexikon. Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, pp.613-614.

Kerényi, P. (1989) Pető, the man. Hungarian Observer, 3 (2), p5.

Lehnhardt, R. (1965) Lebenshilfe für Bewegungsversehrte. Schwabische Zeitung, p? [English translation in The Conductor, 4(4), 1992, p65.]

Liljeroth, I. (2004) Pető’s liv fram till starten av KP. In Liljeroth, I. Konduktiv pedagogik. Goteberg: Bräcke Diakoni, pp.19-22.

Liphart, A. (1993) From András Pető to the Pető Institute. Unpublished paper. [English summary by R. Szörenyi of a programme broadcast by Izülőföldünk, 10 September]

Medveczky, E. (2006) Dr András Pető. In Medveczky, E. Conductive Education as an educational method of neurorehabilitation. Budapest: International Pető Institute, pp.11-13.

Mallet, S. (2008) Angels and souls, to me its one and the same. Nurnberg: Mallett.[online]http://konduktorin.blogspot.com/2008/11/angels-and-souls-to-me-its-one-and-same.html

Nádas, P. (1967) A man dies. Pest Megyei Hírlap, p?

NATIONAL LIBRARY OF CONDUCTIVE EDUCATION (2000) András Pető 1893-1967; a selection of items from periodicals and the Hungarian press. Unpublished collection.

Papp, C. The spirit, rehabilitation and character formation. Magyarország, 1 October, p.24.

Pintér, G. (2003) András Pető and Jacob Levi Moreno. In Balogh, E. and Kozma, I., ed. Conductive Education Occasional Papers no.10. Budapest: International Pető Institute, pp.1-12.

Popper, P. (2001) Buddha Budapesten. In Popper, P. Holdidő. Budapest: Saxum, pp.51-70.

Ruffy, P. (1967) Professor Dr András Pető. Magyar Nemzet, 15 August, p?

Ruffy, P. (1974) Nagyszerü mérges ember. In Ruffy, P. Úttalan utakon. Budapest: Szépirodalmi Könyvkiadó, pp.97-102.

Ruffy, P. (1987) An angry man with the face of Buddha; András Pető. Magyar Nemzet, 4 July, pp.8-9.

Sarkány, J. (1994) Memories of Dr András Pető. The Conductor, 5(3-4), pp.75-76.

Sutton, A. (2000) The mysterious András Pető; report on the literary evening.
Unpublished paper.

Sutton, A. (2008) Dialogue with Judit 1. Birmingham: Sutton. [online] http://andrew-sutton.blogspot.com/2008/11/dialogue-with-judit-i.html

Sutton, A. (2008) Dialogue with Judit 2. Birmingham: Sutton. [online] http://andrew-sutton.blogspot.com/2008/11/dialogue-with-judit-ii.html

Szörenyi, R. (1990) A portrait sketch of András Pető, founder of Conductive Education. Unpublished paper.

Szörenyi, R. (1994) Bibliography of Pető’s works1921-1935 with chronology of his life 1893-1922. Unpublished paper.

Török, S. (1979) Table talk with Pető. In Török, S. Egy kis kertet szerettem volna. Budapest: Magveto Kiadó, pp.245-259.

Vekerdy, T. The charisma of a maverick healer. New Hungarian Quarterly, 34 (Spring), pp.115-120.

Wikipedia (2008) Pető András. San Francisco: Wikimedia Foundation. [online] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andras_Peto

Pető’s Works


Bärnklau, O. (1965) [pseudonym] Unfug der Krankheit. Hanau: Verlag Karl Schustek.

Bärnklau, O. (1965) [pseudonym] Gibt es unheil bare Krankheiten? Nein! Lindau-Bodensee:Rudolph’s Verlagsbuchandlung.

Jernqvist, L., ed. (2005) Pető’s letters to Ester Cotton 1965-1966. Cumbernaud: Jernqvist.

Pető, A. (1921-1935) Papers written under various pseudonyms. Wiener Medizinische Wochenschrift, [In German]

Pető, A. (1930-1931) Papers written under various pseudonyms. Biologische Heilkunst, 11, 12. [In German]

Pető, A. (1952) Szoviet mozgásterápia módszerek.[ Paper read at Hungarian Special Education and Training conference, December 1952.] Unpublished paper.

Pető, A. (1955) Curriculum vitae. Unpublished paper.

Pető, A. (1956) Konduktív mozgásterápia mint gyógypedagógia. [Conductive movement therapy as special education] Gyógypedagógia, 1, pp.15-21. [Annotated and abridged version by A. Sutton in The Conductor, 5 (2), 1993, pp.37-39.]

Pető, A. (1959) Letter to Dr. König. [Briefly describes the practice of Conductive Education]. Unpublished paper.

Pető, A. (1962) Bevezető a konduktiv mozgáspedagógiába. Budapest: Tankönyvkiadó.

Pető, A. (1965) Notes on organic neurocare. Unpublished paper.

Pető, A. (1965) Pető’s proverbs. Compiled by E. Cotton. Unpublished paper.

Pető, A. (1965) Pető’s proverbs or truth in a nutshell. Compiled by J. House 1969. Unpublished paper. [A version of those by E. Cotton]

Changes

As you can see, I have changed the format of this site which I think gives it a better structure and clearer, distinct layout. All the additions made over the past few months to the blog in its previous format seemed to give it a very 'busy' feel that was somewhat disorganised. Please let me know what you think.

Practical information

Special libraries in the main tend to hold academic material suited to those who are studying or professionally interested in a subject and because of this more practical information can get missed or overlooked. This library aims to include information at all levels and today I happened to be adding the latest issues of a number of journals/magazines to the library which are of a more practical nature, and are produced by charities/organisations in the UK set up to help those with Parkinson's disease, stroke and multiple sclerosis. Titles of such magazines include:

The Parkinson (Parkinson's Disease Society)

MS Matters (Multiple Sclerosis Society)

New Pathways (Multiple Sclerosis Resource Centre)

Stroke News (Stroke Association)

Different Strokes (Different Strokes)

These offer personal accounts of conditions, tips for managing, coping, alternative therapies, drug information, advice for carers, latest government statements, information about the latest research projects. Very useful for those with such neurological conditions and their carers. These magazines can be obtained from their publishers free or for a small annual subscription - more information is available on their websites.

The Parkinson's Disease Society

www.parkinsons.org.uk

Multiple Sclerosis Society

www.mssociety.org.uk

The Multiple Sclerosis Resource Centre

www.msrc.co.uk

Stroke Association

www.stroke.org.uk

Different Strokes

http://www.differentstrokes.co.uk/

Such practical information related to cerebral palsy is not so easy to find. Cerebra Bulletin, published by the charity Cerebra, www.cerebra.org.uk set up to help children with brain related conditions, does includes cerebral palsy, but nothing aimed exclusively at those with cerebral palsy of all ages is published in the UK as far as I'm aware, and if anyone knows otherwise please tell me. In the United States, Cerebral Palsy Magazine is produced, concerned mainly with children and more information is available on the internet at

http://www.cerebralpalsymagazine.com/

History of Conductive Education

On looking at the items I have in the library that contribute to the history of Conductive Education I realised that the use of the word history can be a little arbitrary to say the least. What constitutes history? When does an item become an historical account/critique? What do we mean by history? When does something/an event become history? Is yesterday history? Barack Obama made history yesterday we are told.

Not easy questions to answer, at least for me. According to Collins English Dictionary, history is :

a record or account often chronological in approach of past events, developments

So I have put together a list of items that present a historical overview of Conductive Education by those looking back to the beginnings, either relating their experiences or presenting the facts of the events as they have been able to discover them, and are about the development of Conductive Education itself rather than the man. András Pető himself is shrouded in mystery as he did not reveal much at all about himself, but there is still a reasonable amount of material. He deserves a separate list which will follow at a later date.

Conductive Education; an historical overview

Ákos, K. and Ákos, M.(1997) The enigmatic Dr Pető. The Conductor, 6(3-4), pp.49-55.

Anon (1996) A history of the International Pető Institute. The Pető Magazine, Summer, p10.

Dévai, J. (1997) The first years with András Pető; the birth of Conductive Education. Unpublished paper.

Forrai, J. (1999) Memoirs of the beginnings of conductive pedagogy and András Pető. Budapest: Új Aranyhíd and Birmingham: Foundation for Conductive Education.

Forster, V. (1997) A view from the past. The Conductor, 6(3-4), pp.43-48.

Hári, M. (1970) The short story of conductive education. Unpublished paper.

Hári, M. (1990) The history of Conductive Education and the principles of the Pető system. In International Pető Association, First World Congress; conference proceedings. Budapest: International Pető Institute, pp.3-5.

Hári, M. (1997) A konduktív pedagógia története. Budapest: Mpanni.

Hári, M. (1997) Die Geschichte der Konduktiven Pädagogik.Budapest: International Pető Institute.

Hári, M. (1999) The history of conductive pedagogy. Budapest: International Pető Institute.

Hári, M., and others (1991) A konduktív pedagógia eredete. In Hári, M., and others, A konduktív pedagógiai rendszer hatékony működésének alapelvei és gyakorlata. Budapest: Nemzetközi Pető Intézet.

Kilborn, E. (2007) The Hungarian origins of Conductive Education: an educational system for children with neurological disorders (1945-2001). Unpublished paper.

Sutton, A. (1986) The social-historical context. In Cottam, P. and Sutton, A., ed., Conductive Education; a system for overcoming motor disorder. London: Croom Helm, pp.3-28.

Sutton, A. (2004) Handling ladies. Unpublished paper.

Sutton, A. (2006) Notes towards a history of Conductive Education. Unpublished paper.

Sutton, A. (2006) Conductive pedagogy yesterday, today, tomorrow. Unpublished paper.

Anything on history of rehablilitation?

A request today for information on the history of rehabilitation from Laszlo led to finding very few useful references. Looking at Amazon and Blackwells online bookshops, I found a multitude of books written on rehabilitation for animals, those with drug addiction of all types and criminals. Very little on the physical rehabilitation for those with a disability and then it appears to have been considered by each separate type of therapy rather looking at the whole picture, probably because it is such a large subject. Even so, I have not been able to track down many references and those below are for books held in this library. More could probably be found by doing a search of journal databases, such as Medline, CINAHL but I do not have full access to these. After a search on the internet, I have found similar results, that is history of a specific type of rehabilitation or for a specific condition. It is possible to find some general information if you click on the URLs.

This led me to thinking about the history of Conductive Education and the fact that there is very little available on the history of its development and Peto himself, and what there is can be contradictory. I compiled a list of items a few years ago but will now revise it and blog it shortly.

See list below for books and internet references on rehabilitation. If anyone can recommend any titles, papers etc, please let me know.

Books/Journals

Partridge, C. (1996) Physiotherapy approaches to the treatment of neurological conditions - an historical perspective. In Edwards,S.(1996) Neurological physiotherapy. New York: Churchill Livingstone, pp.3-14.

Physiotherapy, vol. 80, no.A, 1994. Special issue on development of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy.

McGlown, D.(1990) The major schools of rehabilitation: historical perspectives and a critical appraisal In McGlown, D., Developmental reflexive rehabilitation. London: Taylor and Francis, pp. 14-46.

Turner, A. (2002) History and philosophy of occupational therapy. In Turner, A., and others ed., Occupational therapy and physical dysfunction. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone, pp.3-24.

Internet

http://www.rehab.utoronto.ca/News/History%20of%20Rehabilitation.htm

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=AWxL26QinwYC&pg=PA3&lpg=PA3&dq=history+%22rehabilitation%22&source=web&ots=ZSJaU0_Hk3&sig=MWARV8I-MC9iecrPR10YdIeuOQ0&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=10&ct=result#PPA7,M1

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=RUnPpis7bO8C&pg=PA1&lpg=PA1&dq=history+%22rehabilitation%22&source=web&ots=z0okIQII0_&sig=QBQbTR_DLI2D2yxQs2ebXulUwUQ&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=4&ct=result#PPA2,M1

New items in the Library

In the past I have put lists of new additions to the library on the library page of the Foundation for Conductive Education's website but I will be posting regular updates on this blog too. This list is a small selection of the 100 items added over the past twelve months in a number of different formats, papers, articles, DVD, items on the internet.

Only the basic details of each is given and an abstract/further information re the content is not included.If anyone is interested in following up on any of the references please let me know.

BAKER, W. and SUTTON, A. (2008) Parent-child interaction as focus for early intervention: experience from early-age Conductive Education. Interconnections Quarterly Journal, 1(2), pp.14-22.

BALOGH, M. (2007) Mária Hári and her Conductive Education. Budapest: International Petó Institute.

BRITTLE, N., and others (2008) Short term effects on mobility, activities of daily living and health related quality of life of a Conductive Education programme for adults with multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease and stroke. Clinical Rehabilitation, 22(4), pp.329-337.

BROWN, M. and PAVEL, A. (2007) The impact of Conductive Education on quality of life for people with acquired neurological conditions. Birmingham: Foundation for Conductive Education.

CLIFTON, E. (2007) I wouldn’t be where I am today. Presentation made to Tsad Kadima cerebral palsy conference, December 2007. Unpublished paper.

DALMON, M. (2007) Conductive Education has given me my very own ‘pocketful of tricks’. Unpublished paper.

FELLNER, G. (2006) Conductive Education.[online] Sheffield: Paces. http://paces-school.org.uk/CONDUCTIVE%20EDUCATION.pdf

GONCZY, K. (2007) Conductive Education in practice; the role of the conductor. Unpublished paper.

JENKINS, H. (2006) Evaluation of an early intervention strategy based on the principles of Conductive Education to assist students with mobility disorders. Unpublished report.

KILBORN, E. (2007) The Hungarian origins of Conductive Education: an educational system for children with neurological disorders (1945-2001) Unpublished paper.

MIKULA-TÓTH, Á (2007) Conductive Education for adults with cerebral palsy. DVD. Unpublished presentation.

MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS SOCIETY (2007) Conductive Education project. London: Multiple Sclerosis Society.

ROTH, J. (2004) Comparison of two teaching methods: Reggio Emilia and Conductive Education. [online] Virginia Beach: Roth. http://www.conductiveedconsulting.com/freearticles/teachingcomparison.html

SUTTON, A. (2007) CE-related research: a memorandum to the Norsk Forum for Konduktiv Pedagogik. 2nd version. Unpublished paper

Conductive Education and spina bifida

Twenty years ago there was a spina bifida group at the Peto Institute and one of the first British children to go there was a little girl with the condition (Tippet, 1988, Ash, 1990). Since then the prevalence of spina bifida has been greatly reduced and children are placed in groups with athetoid children.

Consequently, some newly qualified conductors have not had training or experience in working with this condition. A request for help on the Conductive Community Discussion Forum made me look at what I have in the library. Not very much at all.

Here is a list which could be of some use and if anybody would like photocopies please get in touch with me. If you have anything else you are willing to let me have, please let me know.

Ash, A. and Ash, P. (1990) Our beautiful daughter has spina bifida. The Conductor, 2(4), pp.86-87.
Sutton, A. (1984) A note on the spina bifida group at the Institute for the Motor Disabled. Unpublished paper.
Sutton, A. (1987) Conductive Education and spina bifida. Ability, no.9,
pp.11-12.
Sutton, A. (1988) Conductive Education and spina bifida. Part II. Ability, no.10, pp.22-24.
Sutton, A. (1988) Conductive Education. Part III. Unanswered questions. Ability, no.11, p6.
Tippet, J. (1988) First experiences: Sophie Tippet. The Conductor, no.3,
pp.48-49.
Tippet, J. (1991) Life after Peto. The Conductor, 3(4), p84.
Whelan, K. (1986) Observation of the spina bifida group at the Peto Institute 16-18 June 1986. Unpublished paper.

Discussion forum gets going

The new Conductive Community Discussion Forum has started to get going and has had over 160 visitors since it went live on 13 October. Quite a few people have registered as users so all we need now is lots of topics up there to be discussed. To try and raise awareness of the forum a link has now been put from the Foundation for Conductive Education website for any people who visit the website. The Foundation did have its own forum in the past but this was withdrawn by the hosting service provider and it was felt a link to Elliot Clifton's forum would do the job just as well.

So, log into www.conductive-community.com and post, 'listen' and learn! The library holds print outs of threads from the old forum on topics of interest, such as sage baths, piedro boots, AAC in Conductive Education , and what does CE really do for cp. I will look forward to adding more.

Conductive Education and multiple sclerosis

Most people know that conductors work with children with cerebral palsy but less are aware of CE's benefits for adults with neurological conditions such as Parkinson's disease, stroke, head injury and multiple sclerosis. Last year the MS Society in collaboration with Neurosupport in Liverpool ran a pilot project for people with MS with the help of Laszlo Szogeczki, conductor and I have discovered that information about this has now been posted on the MS Society website. Thank you, Andrew.

http://www.mssociety.org.uk/for_professionals/resources/conductive_ed.html

This includes a short video of the participants and a downloadable booklet on the project. Both of these are also available in the National Library of Conductive Education

Let's hope this raises the profile of CE with adults and leads to more projects.

Some of you may also be aware of Laszlo's blog recently started at

http://www.szogeczki.blogspot.com/)

Wii and Conductive Education

Yesterday a conductor referred me to a piece on the internet, put up in May 2008, about conductors at the Peto Institute using Wii to motivate and stimulate adolescents with cerebral palsy. Thank you, Kati.

Using the Wii once a week has improved muscle tone, balance and standing and the short film shows how much enjoyment and satisfaction is achieved along the way. Conductive Education showing how adaptable it can be without losing any of its core principles.

If you log on to

http://index.hu/tech/hardver/szrkf080411/

You will be able to find out more about this development.

It is in Hungarian but use of the translator should help those who need it and just watching the film as I did, by clicking on the picture of the boy holding the wii controls, tells it all.

TV news item

It is great that A Child Can Do All Things, Dallas has finally had their centre on the news and I will look forward to watching it. Getting CE centre stage is very difficult, so well done, Jacolyn Lieck!

Over the years I have collected such items in the library as they add to the historical record of events in CE worldwide, so if anyone has a copy they could let me have, that would be terrific.

We seek it here, we seek it there

Trying to find information on the internet can be very frustrating , particularly when looking for Conductive Education, as there are so many choices of where to search, but there is not just Google out there. An item on the BBC News website today about the re-vamp of Ask to try and raise their hit rate

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7646579.stm

highlights the difficulties that other search engines have in competing with Google, which has very good search features and is almost everyone's first choice now. But there are others, and a considerable number worth considering when searching the world wide web.

Before starting remember:

1. Every search you make produces a small snapshot of what is available at that particular time. Searching again later could well produce different results.

2.Search engines can be temperamental and illogical and results depend on the search engine, country version and time of day.

3. Some things are hard to find because they are poorly ranked or even ignored by some search engines.

4. Sometimes pages are changed or even deleted and a way of finding them is using the Wayback Machine at http://web.archive.org/

5. Sometimes it is possible to find items by using BananaSLUG, a long tail search engine, which will combine your term with random words from a category of your choice at http://bananaslug.com/ I've found some interesting material on CE using this that I didn't come across elsewhere.

6. Perhaps most important of all, remember anyone can put any thing up on the internet, so it is up to you to exercise quality control.

So don't stick to Google, use Yahoo, Exalead, Bananaslug, Lycos, Hotbot, AltaVista, Allthe web, Ask etc and help keep these engines alive. On trying a European engine, Acoona, this week I discovered that it was no longer operational 'due to an overwhelmingly competitive search market'. Shame, as I had found this one particularly useful for tracking CE news.

The Bobaths and Conductive Education

The Bobaths' and their system seems to be back in the forefront of things at the moment - well, in 2 blog postings over the past few weeks. Andrew Sutton mentioned meeting an old colleague who told him about Berta Bobath trying to stop CE being known outside Hungary

http://andrew-sutton.blogspot.com/2008/09/fantasy-and-eaality.html

and yesterday Susie Mallet posted a piece about Bobath and CE.

http://konduktorin.blogspot.com/2008/10/dr-karel-and-mrs-berta-bobath.html

If anyone is interested in knowing more about the Bobaths, the Bobaths and CE I have in the library a number of items. These include:

the article by Kate Hedges and the Bobaths' reports of their three day visit to the Peto Institute in September 1966.

and

Balogh, E. and Hari, M. (1997) Berta Bobath in Budapest. Conductive Education Occasional Papers, no.3, pp. 19-26. This includes copies of letters sent to Peto by Berta Bobath.

Other papers attempt a comparative analysis of CE and Bobath and anyone interested in following up on this could look at

Campbell, P. and Finn, D. (1991) Programming to influence acquisition of motor abilities in infants and young children. Pediatric Physical Therapy, 3(4), pp.200-205.

Tatlow, A. (1987) Conductive Education and the Bobath concept: an evaluation. Paper read at a symposium held on 8 March 1987 by Duchess of Kent's Childrens Hospital at Sandy Bay [Hong Kong]

Berta and Karel Bobath published a number of papers/accounts of their work including one , entitled The neurodevelopmental treatment, which was published in the classic text

Scrutton, D. ed. (1984) Management of the motor disorders of children with cerebral palsy. London: Spastics International Publications.

Incidentally this book also includes a chapter on Conductive Education written by Maria Hari with Thomas Tillemans.

New features on this blog

I'm gradually learning about the features of this blogging site and adding some of them to this blog. So far you will see that I have put up a CE in the News feature which gives a few (rather than all,unfortunately) current items found by Google - a taster, that will keep you up to date.

In a previous posting I mentioned trawling the internet for CE news using various search engines which give a fuller picture.

http://ce-library.blogspot.com/2008/07/conductive-education-in-news.html

Note also the translation features from Google and Webforditas (with thanks to Andrew Sutton)

Just for fun, I've added 'this day in history' near the bottom of the page, which so far has included some amazing (if not totally useful!) facts.

Let me know what you think.

Google's birthday

Google is ten years old! Difficult to believe, it only seems like yesterday to me that I first used its services.

You might like to join in the celebrations and offer suggestions for the future

http://www.google.co.uk/tenthbirthday/

Sad case highlights problems and difficulties of parents of disabled children

There has been a lot of media attention to the trial and conviction of a UK mother who drowned her 4year-old daughter with cerebral palsy over the past week. Today in The Times, Alexandra Blair looks at the problems and difficulties faced by parents bringing up disabled children, who battle daily to get services , none of which will be new parents of children with cerebral palsy.

http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/families/article4820556.ece

These comments are supported by other parents who speak out about the pressures and how close they have come to breaking

http://www.eveningleader.co.uk/news/Parents-of-disabled-children-need.4527081.jp

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2008/09/25/i-weep-for-naomi-and-her-mum-i-know-what-it-s-like-to-get-pushed-to-the-brink-115875-20751469/

including a mother whose child receives Conductive Education

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2008/09/23/mother-guilty-of-murdering-disabled-naomi-91466-21883091/

and a mother (and journalist) describes her sympathy for the mother of Naomi in the Daily Mail after meeting a man struggling with his severely disabled son in a supermarket car park

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1061302/Yes-evil-act-deserved-punished-So-I-feel-sorry-mother-drowned-little-Naomi.html

Norman Perrin has highlighted similar problems with a posting about the difficulties his adult disabled daughter has obtaining the right care in her own home
http://paces.typepad.com/paces/2008/04/does-anyone-at.html

There are many more examples to be found by searching the internet and I wonder when care will be provided according to need and not according to how much it costs.

I do have an article on the psychological well-being of mothers of children with cerebral palsy written by some researchers at Coventry University, which concludes that

levels of psychological well-being are a cause for concern and warrant exploration of interventions that will reduce maternal distress and increase self eficacy

Barlow, J., and others (2006) Psychological well-being among mothers of children with cerebral palsy. Early Child Development and Care, 176(3-4), pp.421-428.

Getting together - Conductor Associations

Conductors are now working all over the world, some on their own, some in organisations employing more than one conductor, and anything that helps with feelings of professional isolation and offers contact with others in similar situations has got to be of potential benefit. Some conductors have joined together to form associations to help with such circumstances and have created websites to help spread knowledge of their existence, so report of the new website of the German Conductors Association

http://www.konduktorenverband.de/

is very welcome as it joins others on the internet:

Hungarian Conductors Association

http://www.konduktorok.hu/

New Zealand Conductors Association

http://www.nzconductors.org.nz/

European Conductors Association

http://www.institutkeil.at/Kooperationspartner/ECA.html

ACENA (Association for Conductive Education in North America)

http://www.acena.org/ invites membership from conductors working in North America

In the UK, a professional organisation is currently being set up (more news on this as it comes)

These associations offer different things to their members such as a discussion forum, job and membership information, calendar of events and meetings as well as contact details, and are in German, Hungarian and English according to the country.

If anyone knows of any other associations/groups, please let me know.

Visitors

I have been away on holiday without quite being able to forget CE and all things Hungarian as I found a Magyar menu at a taverna on Corfu and saw an aerovista travel bus from Budapest at Stonehenge - perhaps these things have always been around and I just notice them now. Still its nice to be back and also be back to welcome a visitor.

Visitors are always welcome at the Library and tend to come in fits and starts (a bit like buses), and arrive from all over the world. This year they have come from Hong Kong, New Zealand, Hungary and of course, the UK. My visitor this week is from Canada, working for March of Dimes in Toronto and is a graduate of the BA Conductive Education course with qualified conductor status, started in 1997. She is here for her professional development in all aspects of running CE services and hopes to update her knowledge of the CE literature too. There has been quite a lot of items added to the library since she was last here so should be able to take a number of relevant references and possibly photocopies back with her.

If you are in the area or can manage to include a visit, you will be very welcome and it would be a pleasure to show you around the unique collection of material on CE that is here.

My last posting included some references to recent journal articles and I did receive requests for copies of them. It is all part of the library service to provide such copies but I do need to point out that for legal reasons (the Copyright Act of the UK) I do have to make a small charge but I hope this will not put people off, as having photocopies may be the only way of accessing the collection here.

Some new articles

The library has received some new issues of journals over the past couple of weeks which contain a number of articles which may well be of interest.

Families of disabled children today have a very hard time trying to get the services that are needed and dealing with the beaurocracy of the system. One mother writes in Support for Learning about her experiences

We had to struggle and fight to get anything, and, when the service was delivered, it ws provided in the most dehumanizing way possible

Tomlinson, C. (2008) The proof of the pudding is in the eating: two contrasting tales of a family's experience of services. Support for Learning, 23(3), pp.102-103.

Philippa Russell looks at recent trends in government (England and Wales) policy and practice for supporting and involving parents of children with special needs and in particular the Children's Plan and Every Child Matters. She concludes that :

These are ambitious policy developments - but they offer a real opportunity to address the historical fragmentation of support for children with disablities or SE and, importantly they place rights and responsibilities( with appropriate support) on families

Russell, P. (2008) Building brighter futures for all our children' - a new focus on families as partners and change agents in the care and development of children with disabilities or special educational needs.
Support for Learning, 23(3), pp.104-112.

An article in EPPN journal provides a checklist for all people with Parkinson's who drive, and outlines factors to consider.

McCall, B. (2008) Staying in the driving seat.
EPPN Journal, Summer, pp.16-17.

The National Strategy for Carers published by the English government in June is summarised and explained in

Carers UK (2008) A new vision for carers? Caring, July, pp.8-11.

These journals are all available in the National Library and anyone wishing to have copies of the articles should contact me at gill@nice.ac.uk

Maria Hari on conductive pedagogy

Producing Maria Hari on conductive pedagogy took a lot of hard work but was a labour of love. The library had copies of a number of Mari Hari's unpublished papers produced 1968-2000 which deserved a wider audience, so eight were selected, edited and published with explanatory introductions to each by Andrew Sutton. Our aim was to end up with a book which 'explained' Conductive Education in a easy to understand way in the words of someone who knew what it is all about and according to Susie Mallett, it appears that we were successful.

http://www.konduktorin.blogspot.com/

Thanks very much, Susie, feedback is very welcome!

It has proved to be a steady seller since publication in 2004, being purchased by conductors, parents, students, academics and health professionals all over the world and hopefully more and more people will want to buy, read and 'enjoy'. It costs £10.00 plus post and packing of £1.00 in the UK and £2.00 overseas. The other book that Susie mentions, Dina, is also available for £11.95 plus postage and packing as above. Anyone who would like to order either or both books,can do so by contacting me at gill@nice.ac.uk or can order Maria Hari on conductive pedagogy from our bookshop on cafe press.com.

http://www.cafepress.com/foundationce

Anyone else who would like to share their thoughts and opinions of either book, please let us know and I will report views on this blog.

The end of the world as I know it?

Ever since I was a small child, books have held a fascination for me and been an important part of all aspects of my life, work and pleasure. So, today on seeing an article in the Daily Mail about the launch of an electronic book jointly by Sony and Waterstones (the book shop), I had mixed emotions.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1051254/The-electronic-book-spell-end-paperback.html

It is wonderful that modern technology can make it possible to carry 160 books around with you on a small machine about the size of an average paperback and initially this one will come with a free CD allowing you to read such classics as Pride and Prejudice, Dracula and Great Expectations. Wow!

I immediately thought of something I had read several years ago. This announced the Built-in Orderly Organised Knowledge device and talks about technology and books and I have found several URLs for it:

e.g. http://bob.bob.bofh.org/~robm/manual/book.html

This extols the virtues of the printed word - which doesn't need batteries, an on/off switch, never crashes or needs re-booting, has an index to lead you to the part you particularly want to read etc. Libraries historically contain books which provide a bigger selection of information which is just as readily accessible and available (at little or no cost), but are moving with the times and now also collect electronic media such as Videos (which are now on the way out as the machines to watch them become obsolete, but the trusty book is still very much to hand),CDs, DVDs, and academic libraries in particular,have electronic books in their catalogues.

Personally, I think I will stick with the printed word for now and watch developments while continuing to collect information about CE regardless of its format.

Please write as well as speak

There have been quite a few Conductive Education conferences over the years and the library here has a collection of proceedings from the 1980s. With the advent of computers and the spread of the Power Point presentation programme, the writing up of presentations and publication of these in proceedings seems to have diminished considerably. Selections from the World Congresses have appeared in the Conductive Education Occasional Papers published by the Peto Institute, but there has been very little else.

A number of conferences are coming up and the posting of the programme for the forthcoming conference in Chicago http://www.acena.org/site6.htmon on Andrew Sutton's blog http://www.andrew-sutton.blogspot.com/ has prompted this posting.

There are five other conferences/meetings I am aware of. The Germans have one in Munich, 24-25 October, http://www.phoenix-kf.de/

CEPEG (Conductive Education Professional Education Group) has its conference on 14 March 2009 in the UK, and there is, I believe another in Belgium in May and one in Finland in June. The next CE World Congress is in Hong Kong, 2010. More details about these later.

Finding information can be very difficult, I would be happy to put notification up on this blog if organisers would like to send me details of conferences in future.

Written published material from such meetings will help the Conductive Education world in its aim to continue to establish CE as a dynamic growing profession. If you do go to a conference, please write up your presentation and send it to the library here gill@nice.ac.uk or even submit it to RACE, the online CE journal http://www.race-journal.org/. If no published proceedings are being considered then those unable to attend the conference will be able to access developments, accounts of conductive practice and philosophy etc. and gain an overview of what is happening in CE worldwide. If you attend but don't present, a report of the events would also make a useful record. If there is nothing to chronicle the contributions and outcomes the CE literature will be poorer for it.

Cerebral palsy and walking

The Scene, newsletter of The Spastics Centre, New South Wales, Australia has created a blog which this week has a very interesting, controversial entry about cerebral palsy and walking:

http://www.cpblogs.org.au/thescene/index.php?option=com_myblog&show=Myths-of-cerebral-palsy-independent-walking.html&Itemid=3

This was first published in 2006 by Iona Novak, a researcher and reports the responses of adults with cerebral palsy to efforts made in their childhood to help them walk. It is suggested that the time would have been better spent helping them to have independent mobility rather than concentrating on walking

While it is natural for parents to want to do all they can to assist their child to walk independently, with the benefit of hindsight in years to come, independent mobility, not walking per se, is likely to be seen as more important. What all parents want most for their children is a happy and fulfilled life. Walking independently is not the only way to achieve this

It would be interesting to have conductors' comments on this, but as I see it the last two sentences sum up what every conductor aims to do!

Anyone for blogging?

Blogging has certainly taken off now as more and more people take the plunge and talk about their lives online, sometimes in great detail. Look at the number of hits you can get for Conductive Education (which increases daily), just do a search on Google.
>http://www.google.co.uk/blogsearch?hl=en
These informal sources can provide a wealth of information for all those interested in CE , quite often of a different sort to that found in formally published articles and books, whilst giving an opportunity to respond with comments or questions. Many of these are written by parents via cerebral palsy websites e.g. http://www.cpblogs.org.au/covering life with a cerebral palsied child and some include details of their experiences of CE with their children on short summer camps or longer sessions, amongst other family matters and activities. e.g. http://lieck3.blogspot.com/2007/11/conductive-education.html http://blog.autismaspergersandmoreohmy.com/2008/07/29/conductive-education--little-things-mean-a-lot.aspx http://biscuitlife.blogspot.com/2008/07/its-been-so-long.html
The amount of support and responses they get from strangers is quite amazing.
Conductors are beginning to record their daily experiences with groups or individuals providing insight into their work in a personal way, giving examples which help to make CE and 'how it works' somehow more real. They are talking about what they actually do rather than discussing theory and principles etc. Look at
http://www.konduktorin.blogspot.com/
http://geekconductor.blogspot.com/ and a new site written by Hungarian conductor, Laszlo
http://www.szogeczki.blogspot.com/ - soon to be in English too.
Norman Perrin has set up a conductive web via pageflakes with the aim of linking all such postings together - a mighty big task in the circumstances and is a good starting point. http://www.pageflakes.com/PacesCEO/22370788/
Andrew Sutton is also keeping us up to date on his blog http://www.andrew-sutton.blogspot.com/
by finding even more, encouraging the start of new ones and continuation of those already going.

A blast from the past

Summer is a quiet time in the library giving an opportunity to do some tidying, checking and sorting through the build up of paperwork, new additions and such like. As this has been going on throughout the organization, not just in the library, various discoveries have been made. One of these is a number of back issues of The Conductor, the quarterly newsletter/magazine produced by the Foundation 1988-1997. There are 24 issues in total. Pieces about Pető, Hári, research, Ester Cotton’s principles, development of adult and parent and child services in Birmingham, setting up the BA(Hons) Conductive Education degree and memories of those who worked with Peto are included. This is a goldmine of information recording the development of CE not just in the UK but worldwide during those years and includes news items, reports and lots of photographs. A great read for the nostalgics and historians! If anyone is interested in having copies please contact me for further details.

New search engine

A new search engine has been launched called Cuil ( pronounced ‘cool’) by people who previously worked for Google. http://www.cuil.com/
In the press release it says that it is the world’s biggest search engine, examining more pages than any other, and:

Rather than rely on superficial popularity metrics, Cuil searches for and ranks pages based on their content and relevance. When we find a page with your keywords, we stay on that page and analyze the rest of its content, its concepts, their inter-relationships and the page’s coherency.

Apparently cuil ‘is an old Irish word for knowledge. For knowledge, ask Cuil’.

I have done a search for Conductive Education and found the layout of hits to be in two columns and quite different to other search engines. A few of the hits have the Foundation for Conductive Education logo attached despite having nothing to do with FCE. A temporary glitch, no doubt!

Any new service is worth investigating and taking the time to familiarise oneself should show whether it is a viable option to user-friendly Google for you or another complementary engine. I find using several different search services can produce different selections.

Let me know what you think.

Feedback from the other side

The library contains all sorts of items about CE written by all sorts of people; conductors, students,academics, health professionals and those who have experienced CE themselves or have children who have. These reports are what I want to talk about today.

Experiental accounts present some of the most interesting views and perspectives on the practice from the other side, whilst debunking some of the myths about 'boot camp' or 'just exercises'.

Last week I was reminded of how powerful such reports can be when I was sent an account by Maria, a 52 year-old woman with cerebral palsy who had experienced CE for the first time as an adult despite reservations as she is keen to maintain her mobility and independence which had been affected by age.

I was very sceptical of trying this treatment as I thought how can any intervention help me now at my age, but hey, anything is worth a try to help me maintain my independence and mobility.

She goes on to say

How wrong was I? Conductive Education is very different to physiotherapy. Physiotherapy only exercises my muscles. Conductive Education teaches me many different series of tasks to help me get the most practical control over my body. It teaches me how to make may movements in a 'normal' and correct pattern and aims to replace my old habits with new. Every movement is broken into steps, which I learn to do counting a rhythm. I have also been taught to use controlled breathing which assists me in making my movements.

During the last five years I have continued with sessions of Conductive Education. My general well-being, self esteem and confidence are vastly improved. I don't feel as exhausted as I did and have more energy. I have learnt so much about cerebral palsy and now understand how my body functions.

She is just one of a number of adults to record such experiences which help to form a body of experiental affirmative literature in the absence of any academic research on CE for adults.

Parents, too have recorded their and their child's experiences of CE and talk about CE being more than just exercises. For example, in 1997, Celeste Repasky wrote

While the gross, fine motor and speech improvements are visibly apparent, our daughter's progress in the cognitive/personality realm is more subtle but equally important. After Conductive Education our daughter was more confident, and independent and had increased self-esteem.

As a result of such changes and development some parents have gone on to establish centres in their home town to enable more children to benefit from this education.

A list of accounts can be found at

http://www.conductive-education.org.uk/2008/pdfs/LIBRARY/bibliographies/CEwhatdoneforme.pdf

and parents' experiences at

http://www.conductive-education.org.uk/2008/pdfs/LIBRARY/bibliographies/Parents%20Experiences%20and%20Expectations3.pdf

Perhaps Maria should be given the last word

Conductive Education has given me my very own 'pocketful of tricks'.I carry my'pocket of tricks' with me all the time; even take them to bed with me. When ever I am struggling to do a task out come my 'pocket of tricks'. My 'pocket of tricks' are tasks combined with controlled breathing which Conductive Education has taught me.

They live with me, they never fail me.

I would be grateful if anyone who has written or has copies of such experiences could send them to me either in paper or electronic form to add to the library's collection.

References

Dalmon, M. (2008) CE for life. Unpublished paper.

Repasky, C. (1977) Conductive Education; a parent's perspective http://members.aol.com/jimceleste/cond_ed/cenews.html

News

It just shows what determined parents can do. Three mothers from central Oregon have managed to raise funds and get a conductor for a summer camp for a month in Bend, Oregon. This has resulted in a substantial report in their local newspaper, The Bulletin, looking at their efforts, their children and the CE situation in North America.

http://www.bendbulletin.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080703/NEWS0107/807030309&nav_category I have not seen such a long piece for quite a while and it will be interesting to see if it sparks off further interest and reporting in Oregon.

How many collections?

Recently I discovered online, the Conductive Education Resource Library catalogue of the Jockey Club Marion Fang Conductive Learning Centre, SAHK .
http://jcmfclc.spastic.org.hk/Library_Catalog.doc
This lists a substantial amount of material on CE and associated subjects held by SAHK (previously the Spastics Association of Hong Kong), some of which -I think! - is new to me. It is hard to be sure as details of some items are basic, but I hope to follow up on these. Up until then I was only aware of two libraries (at the Peto Institute and the Foundation for Conductive Education) with collections of a reasonable size. The published literature of CE is small (but growing) and unpublished items far outweigh these in number, therefore it is very difficult to keep track,obtain copies and raise awareness of ALL that there is.
Are there any other collections whose contents lists are so freely available? Are there any other organisations or even individuals starting or hoping to start a library?The two libraries I mention are not so accessible because one catalogue is up on a Hungarian language website http://libsrv.peto.hu/F and the other, the National Library of Conductive Education catalogue is not available on the internet. Perhaps there could be a way of working together to share what we have.
I hope to post here lists of new additions to the National Library regularly to keep people up to date.

Conductive Education in the News

Conductive Education does not feature very often in the news in either a big or small way, but I do a trawl of the internet almost daily to see what has been reported and add items to my extensive collection of cuttings from the media that go back to the 1960s. The instant availablility via the internet of items in newspapers and periodicals all over the world has been a great benefit to keeping up to date.

Over this last week CE has featured as a side issue to the award of what is thought to be the largest compensation payment by a hospital trust in the UK, resulting in 14 articles picked up by Google. After errors by hospital staff at the birth of Owen Johnson in 1999 he was left severely disabled with cerebral palsy and has now been awarded £8 million. Owen has attended the National Institute of Conductive Education and made good progress as mentioned by

http://www.expressandstar.com/2008/07/01/8m-for-boy-left-disabled/

http://www.birminghampost.net/news/west-midlands-health-news/2008/07/01/8-million-payout-for-dudley-boy-disabled-by-medical-failure-65233-21212564/

and not just the regional papers covered this:

http://www.legal-medical.co.uk/news/11910.html

http://itn.co.uk/news/ec810395d218c3d18d8c45ea79507247.html

The regional TV programme Midlands Today report can be seen at

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7484431.stm

Other items include a community award to a centre in Leicestershire

http://www.loughboroughecho.net/news/loughborough-news/2008/07/03/community-award-winners-revealed-73871-21220948/

A fundraising effort to send a child to centre in County Durham

http://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/news/39I39ll-get-my-skates-on.4242263.jp

A centre in New York, Standing Tall has been named as a charity partner for the NY marathon by NIKE

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/06-19-2008/0004835336&EDATE=

Not all search engines produce the same results so its worth checking others such as Acoona

http://www.accoona.com/search?col=mc&expw=1&expb=0&expn=0&pg=1&order=0&qt=%22conductive+education%22

and Yahoo http://uk.news.yahoo.com/

and it is possible to set up an alert to your email in-box from some search engines, e.g. Yahoo, Google when items are posted or even blog postings from Google!

Conference in Chicago

I'm not sure yet what my parameters are for information put up on this blog, but today I'm including a link to ACENA's website which has now posted details of its conference in August.

http://www.acena.org/site6.htm

If anyone knows of any other conferences, seminars etc, please let me know.

More information

In response to my last posting, Norman has asked for a reference to the Education Bill currently going through the UK parliament as mentioned by Baroness Warnock. After searching ( no reference was given in the Special Children article) I have found several Bills currently going through the House of Commons: one on special educational needs information, one on education and skills and one on the education of children with autism. These can be found at

http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2007-08/specialeducationalneedsinformation.html///

and

http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/publications/educationandskills/ with a collection of associated documents including a brief summary.

and

http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2007-08/educationchildrenwithautism.html

A full list of bills can be found at http://services.parliament.uk/bills/

I hope this helps.

Interesting opinion and statistics

This week I have found two items of interest to those in the field of CE in journals/magazines taken by the National Library of Conductive Education.

In the latest isue of Special Children there is a report of a presentation made by Baroness Warnock to the 5th Annual SENCO Update Conference held in London, May 2008. She gave an overview of the report produced by the inquiry she chaired in 1978 and then states that the statement of need "devised really in order to protect the interests of the most severely handicapped" turned into "what the local authority thought it could afford. So right at the beginning the statement failed". She also expressed concern that in the new education bill going through parliament at the moment " the obligation of the local authority to inform parents of special schools that are available has been whittled down, and now, if the bill goes through, they have no duty, for example to inform parents of the existence of suitable independent schools"

Read the full article in Special Children, June/July 2008 , pp.14- 17.

A small piece in Cerebral Palsy Magazine, an American publication caught my eye. The prevalence of cerebral palsy has increased according to a new study by The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) which shows that about 1 in 278 children have cerebral palsy higher than the previously accepted 1 in 666 children.

Cerebral Palsy Magazine, June 2008, p6.

What does a librarian do?

For centuries libraries have been established to enable easy access to knowledge and save significant items from being lost or destroyed. The people who manage, organise and collect the materials are known as librarians and their roles in the process vary according to the type, size and reason for setting up the collection. Large libraries have a large number of staff and the various tasks necessary to operate can be shared out amongst them. Small libraries, such as the National Library of Conductive Education, may have only one librarian who deals with all aspects of library management, from selection, purchase, processing of items (such as cataloguing and classifying ), answering enquiries and as a consequence gets to know the stock really well.

I had an enquiry last week asking for a list of 'relevant and meaningful' items on facilitation in Conductive Education and this raised the question of evaluation. As it happens I have compiled a pitifully short list of references on the subject, mostly pieces/sections from longer items but all these had not been included in the list because they were meaningful, but because that was all I could find. Because there is so little material that deals with such specific areas of CE anything that is available tends to be included. It is not the librarian's job to be selective or evaluate, that is for the reader/researcher to do. Over the years I have learnt a lot about CE and know what are the most popular texts, but I do not know enough to offer informed opinions yet. I leave this to others such as Andrew Sutton who has now posted a very interesting look at facilitation on his blog

http://andrew-sutton.blogspot.com/2008/06/conductive-facilitation-abolishes.html

The literature of CE is sparse, to say the least and much of it has been written by those who aren't conductors. More written by conductors is needed to ensure that worthwhile accurate information about the philsophy and practice is available to form a firm basis for those wishing to extend their knowledge, increase the number of items available to be included in lists, and build the literature.

A number of lists are available at

http://www.conductive-education.org.uk/2008/CE%20library%20bibliographies.htm

By way of introduction

After qualifying as a librarian, I worked in public libraries until I took a post in the School of Education Library at the University of Birmingham and it was there I met an honorary lecturer who came in to the library frequently, usually with interesting, unusual requests. In 1983 he appeared asking for anything that could be found on Conductive Education. Yes, that was Andrew Sutton and the start of my involvement with CE.

I left the School of Education library in 1984 and a couple of years later I volunteered to help organise what was a growing collection of material that Andrew had in a filing cabinet. In 1991 he obtained the money for the Foundation for Conductive Education to employ a Librarian (which turned out to be me), to start what was to become the National Library of Conductive Education. It is my baby, so to speak, and is still in its infancy.

At present there are nearly 3,000 items on CE, books, journals, articles, conference papers, conference proceedings, unpublished papers, cassettes, videos, CDRoms, DVDs, in twelve languages. Additionally there is a collection of media/press-cuttings going back to the 1960s, student dissertations at all levels, reports of visits to the Peto Institute and the international courses attended there. Most of this material is unique and irreplaceable.

There is also material on the neurological conditions helped by CE, other ways of working with these conditions, child development, anatomy, neurology, disability etc. The library is open-access and available for anyone to use. Please get in touch if you would like more information about it.

New material is appearing all the time, old and new, and I will announce this on this blog, , as this is an ideal system for quick dissemination of information. I would like ask anyone who writes, publishes, presents on Conductive Education to let me have copies as the aim is collect everything on CE, no matter the level, length or language.

More on this later.