Conductive Education Awareness Day - how did it go?

Conductive Education Awareness Day in North America took place on Thursday 25th February. I posted a blog before this with links to the few mentions I had found in the Internet.

http://www.conductiveeducationinformation.org/2010/02/conductive-education-awareness-day.html

How did it go?

Well, I have found a few more links after searching today. No doubt a Thursday was chosen for the 'Day' as it would be good time of the week to get coverage in the media, but not as much materialised as was hoped, I imagine, but perhaps there will be more appearing over the next few days or so.

Most of the links below refer to Grand Rapids, and just one to the Pittsburgh center. As more than 40 centers were taking part this must be very disappointing.

There are videos and references to Grand Rapids Conductive Education learning center at

http://www.woodtv.com/dpp/eightwest/Conductive_Education_Awareness-
http://videos.apnicommunity.com/Video,Item,36028862151892290.html

http://www.wzzm13.com/video/default.aspx#/Conductive+Learning+Center+helping+kids+with+disabilities/68575678001

http://www.wgvu.org/wgvunews/audio/fplayer1.cfm?styid=5898

Various links to these TV items plus a radio interview can be found at

http://zh-tw.facebook.com/posted.php?id=280655096442

http://www.wjrwam.com/Article.asp?id=1711874&spid=

http://www.wzzm13.com/news/health/story.aspx?storyid=118886&catid=9

http://ko-kr.facebook.com/ACCDAT
Lists a number of links re the Awareness Day

http://www.blogged.com/topics/education-awareness-campaign/

Mention of CE awareness Day amongst other campaigns.

http://www.northwestsignal.net/
This had a picture ( no longer accessible) and some text you have to register to read.

http://whitneynelson.blogspot.com/2010/02/pictures-and-news.html
A parent, whose child appeared in one of the TV reports blogs the event.

http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/February2010/23/c3862.html
Press release by March of Dimes, Canada

http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/education/22671864/detail.html
Mention in Pittsburgh TV report of Steps to Independence center.

I hope these links will still be 'live' when you try them as I have found that some e.g. the North West Signal piece, have already been taken down.

If there are others not included in this list, please let me know and I will add them.

Conductive Education Awareness Day

Thursday 25 February has been designated Conductive Education Awareness Day in North America by ACENA (Association for Conductive Education in North America), see

http://acena.org/national-ce-awareness%20day.html

which states:

This day will provide CE Centers everywhere the opportunity to focus on their successes, publicize their programs, inform the general public, build legitimacy, gain political support, increase client base, and drive funders to the Conductive Education cause. A CE Awareness Day Campaign Kit that provides customizable press releases, proclamation letters for local and state government, Conductive Education stats and facts, sample advertisements with a common message, and a post-campaign evaluation has been sent to all ACENA members.

I have found several other references to it on the Internet.

http://www.deweykaye.com/mosaic/JobsWatch/listings/StepsToIndependence_ProgramCoord.html

http://www.michigan.gov/gov/0,1607,7-168-25488_54480-231631--,00.html

http://themoose.aquinas.edu/2010/02/17/come-celebrate-conductive-education-day-2010-thursday-february-25/

http://www.marchofdimes.ca/NR/rdonlyres/DA937E23-BAD9-43FD-91E8-AB0D61A8027E/0/CENewsletterFall2009Winter2010.pdf

There have been other awareness days and weeks in the past which have had a limited effect, so I would love to know how successful this venture proves to be and how many of the 40 centres mentioned in the March of Dimes newsletter used the campaign kit.

In the meantime I hope the day is productive, that awareness is raised successfully and Conductive Education is shown to be a wonderful educational system and not just another therapy.

New website for parents by a parent

I have just had an alert from Google for a website I believe is new this year and it looks very interesting and different from the usual.

http://www.exceptionalfamilytv.com/

Set up by a father of a cerebral palsied child it states its aims as:

Exceptional Family TV is the online home destination for families raising children with special needs, bringing together all the social and multimedia elements in one location.

COMING SOON MAY 2010- Internet based weekly TV show Focusing on the realities of raising children with special needs. Sign up for "Sneak Peeks" of the show.

eFamilyTV Store- Scheduled to launch March 2010. Our online store will feature products specific to the special needs community. Adaptive toys, adaptive clothing, equipment, travel, and so much more. What would you like to see in our store?Click here to make suggestions.

Family Networking taken to a new level- April 2010. Bringing families together locally and internationally by allowing you to search and connect based on child’s age, diagnoses and location. Make friends online or choose to meet up locally for play dates

A request for parents to discuss their experiences and knowledge of Conductive Education has been made at

http://www.exceptionalfamilytv.com/category/168/all

Worth watching - it is on Facebook with over 1200 friends.

Please write, write, write on Conductive Education

Yesterday I read a parent’s blog via a link from Andrew Sutton’s blog, saying how much she liked to read, and how keen she was to read about Conductive Education and how it could help her.

http://www.rojosjourney.com/2010/02/knowledge-quest.html

I responded saying to get in touch with me for suggestions. Later I realised that I might be offering false hope as Andrew had already mentioned Dina, the only really useful item of any substance. As you probably all know, the literature of Conductive Education is very limited, and anything worth reading at any level even more limited. I managed to collect as much as I could for the National Library of Conductive Education whilst the librarian there, but this was everything for the record rather than just all the ‘good stuff’.

What can I suggest? I did produce a list titled Parents Experiences of Conductive Education, but this was mainly unpublished accounts of the results and improvements made by their children after recieving Conductive Education, rather than practical explanations of what actually the conductors did. Anyone wishing to know more about this list should contact me. All items are (or were when I left) in the National Library of Conductive Education at NICE in Birmingham. Other than this, Dina and possible some parents' blogs ( I hope to compile a list of these soon), I can think of nothing. Suggestions would be very welcome as new material may be out there that I do not know about.

Previously on this blog I have called for conductors to write about what they do, explain their practice and offer guidance to parents, or anyone else interested in how it works, in this way. There seems to be a reluctance to do this in case others use the information to ‘practise’ it themselves by offering services with ‘the principles of Conductive Education,’ as expressed in one comment on my posting.

So I ask again, please do write, as one conductor does already, at http://www.susie-mallett.org/ Help us all to understand and be able to explain to others why it is such a wonderful system. Anyone can write down what they do, no prior knowledge or experience is necessary to report and explain.

Research and academic material is still needed but that is a completely different ball game!

So please write, write, write so we can all read and learn, learn, learn.

New feature

Please note that I have just added a 'Search this blog' feature which I hope will be useful. It is located in the column on the left above the directories.

Conductors with Consultancies and Practices

I have found a small number of websites of conductors who run consultancies and offer services to individuals or groups. Most of these are in the UK or US. 
Details of what is on offer may be obtained from their websites or by email.


Australia

Lisa Gombinsky is now operating Pys Ed Studio in Sydney, Australia and can be contacted at lisa.gombinsky@gmail.com

Eszter Agocs works in Adelaide, running Future Footprints Conductive Education at
80a Prospect Road, PROSPECT 5082, Adelaide,  SA. Phone number: +614 00 202 509
Contact her at  eszter@futurefootprintssa.com.au  Website: www.futurefootprintssa.com.au



Canada

Anne-Christian Wittig has set up in British Columbia and can be contacted via her blog and email at
http://movingaheadconductiveconsulting.blogspot.com/
http://www.movingaheadcc.com/index.html


Eire (Ireland)

Hajnalka Kele is offering her services in Ireland at  Norbreck, Belvedere Lawn, Douglas, Cork, Ireland. contact her by telephone: 00353 (0) 879560460 email: contacthandinhand@mail.com
website: http://www.handinhand-conductiveeducation.com/
 
Germany


Susie Mallett, based in Nuremberg, offers services for children and adults
http://www.susie-mallett.org/

Raphaela Ross, based in Paderborn
http://www.raphaela-ross.de/


Hungary

Agnes Borbely has been running her consultancy, Moira, since 1987.
http://www.moira-cec.hu/en/index.html


United Kingdom


László Szögeczki runs Independent Conductive Education Services in the North of England. Please contact him via email or mobile phone only at present.
http://www.i-ce-s.com/

Path for the Disabled Ltd is based in Exeter with Erszebet Gordon.
http://pathforthedisabled.co.uk/default.aspx


Judit Szathmary has Szathmary Training and Consultancy based in Hampshire, England.
Phone: 07967 1944 33 email: judit.szathmary@virgin.net


Lisa Kovacs is the contact for the service Learning Alternatives based in Wales

http://learningalternativescymru.co.uk/default.aspx

Noemi Nagy

http://www.ceforadults.com/index.html

Angelina Dawson, based in the West Midlands, offers to work with children and adults
http://www.ce-services.co.uk/home/

Gábor Temleitner has been operating for some years now and can be contacted at
http://www.qcet.net/

Amanda Elliott runs New Forest Conductive Pedagogy and works with adults and children. Contact her  at mandyelliott100@gmail.com



United States

Krisztina Abonyi Bernstein‘s consultancy, Conduktiva, in San Francisco has a website at
http://home.earthlink.net/~conductiva/

Eleonora Tamasne is in San Jose, California at Learning Together and can be contacted by phone on +1 408 858 2238 and has a website http://learningtogether-ce.com/

Judit Roth runs Cerebral Palsy Solutions, Coaching and Consulting Inc., a consultancy in Virginia, US.
http://www.conductiveedconsulting.com/

Ssuzsi Balogh's consultancy, Conductive Education for the Motor Disabled, offers services  in Bellevue, WA ( near Seattle) doing home visits only and can be contacted via her blog at http://conductiveeducator.blogspot.com/
or phone 425-351-3559.


There may be more I have not tracked down yet. Please let me know of any not listed above or any details which are wrong.
Hand in Hand
Norbreck, Belvedere Lawn, Douglas, Cork, Ireland. contact: Hajnalka Kele
phone: 00353 (0) 879560460 email: contacthandinhand@mail.com
website: http://www.handinhand-conductiveeducation.com/