News on the Internet, no.1

I hope to publish regular lists of news items relevant to Conductive Education published on the internet. This is the first such list. Comments and suggestions for future listings will be very welcome.

Cerebral palsy

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/feb/26/cerebral-palsy-child-death

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/4862250/Ivan-Cameron-one-mother-offers-insight-into-the-suffering-of-cerebral-palsy-victims.html
A number of articles appeared in the UK press after the death of Ivan, son of David Cameron, leader of Her Majesty’s Opposition

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7980144.stm
Phil Neville, captain of Everton football team talks about life with his daughter who has cerebral palsy.

http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=284920&version=1&template_id=36&parent_id=16
Study to examine brain damage in newborns announced in Quatar

http://www.kfyrtv.com/News_Stories.asp?news=29108
Story and video entitled After cerebral palsy diagnosis from KFYR TV

Conductive Education

http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/golf/golf-news/2009/03/03/children-s-charity-boost-as-stars-come-out-to-play-92534-23047860/
Fundraising for Rainbow House in Cheshire, UK

http://claytsincircles.blogspot.com/2009/03/please-sponsor-me-my-charity-in_04.html
Individual running a marathon in aid of brain injured children calls for sponsorship to cove costs of CE sessions.

http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/features/4180101.Mobility_matters/
Conductive Education at Heel and Toe Centre in the North of England

http://www.livingwithcerebralpalsy.com/blogger/2009/03/mobility-matters-northern-echo.html
More about the Heel and Toe Centre

http://www.looktothestars.org/news/2228-signed-celebrity-photos-on-offer-for-good-causes
Auction of celebrity photos for Rainbow Centre in Hampshire, UK

http://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?MenuID=77&ContentID=131506

http://lightnur.blogspot.com/2009/03/no-special-teacher-for-our-special-kids.html

Places lost at Kindergarten offering CE In Australia due to lack of funding

http://www.loughboroughecho.net/news/loughborough-news/2009/03/26/memorial-garden-joy-thanks-to-cash-boost-73871-23238345/
Cash boost helps memorial garden project at STEPS CE Centre, Leicestershire UK.

http://www.newsguardian.co.uk/latest-news/Store-hands-over-2000-to.5119608.jp
Tesco supermarket gives cash to help adult CE outreach project in Northeast England

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA0903/S00432.htm
Paper on CE to be read at Early Intervention conference in New Zealand

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/future-of-special-needs-school-hangs-in-balance-14266673.html
Future of Buddy Bear School is still uncertain.

http://news.scotsman.com/health/Council-denies-funds-for-Ellie39s.5180126.jp
Edinburgh council denies funds for child to go to Craighalbert Centre outside Glasgow


Disability Issues

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25262629-5012694,00.html
The difficulties and stresses of caring for a disabled offspring once they reach adulthood is reported here.

Parkinson’s disease

http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/news/health/4295377.Former_high_flyer__44__tells_of_Parkinson_s_disease_battle/
Former high flier tells of his battle with Parkinson’s disease

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/besttreatments/2009/apr/14/side-effects-of-parkinsons-drugs-include-gambling-and-compulsive-sexual
Side effects of Parkinson’s drugs include gambling and compulsive sexual behaviour

http://sev.prnewswire.com/health-care-hospitals/20090414/DC9850914042009-1.html
New website for young on-set Parkinson’s disease goes live

http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/2009-04-06-voa2.cfm
Transcript of radio broadcast on Parkinson’s disease

Multiple sclerosis

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/rowling-quits-multiple-sclerosis-charity-over-angloscottish-feud-1666842.html
http://thirdsector.co.uk/news/Article/898681/MS-Society-Scotland-investigation-OSCR/
JK Rowling resigns as patron of MS Society in Scotland

http://ms.about.com/b/2009/04/15/restless-legs-syndrome-in-people-with-multiple-sclerosis.htm
People with MS five times more likely to have Restless Leg Syndrome

Stroke

http://ms.about.com/b/2009/04/15/restless-legs-syndrome-in-people-with-multiple-sclerosis.htm
Older stroke victims suffer from ageism in English health service (NHS)

http://www.bucksfreepress.co.uk/news/4289477.Fact_files_on_elderly_could_help_their_recovery/
Stroke victim’s daughter urges families to create fact file on their relatives to help hospital staff treat them.

http://news.scotsman.com/scotland/Former-Scotland-footballer-Jess-tells.5156366.jp
Former Scotland footballer tells how he suffered a stroke at 38

Thanks again

Over the past few weeks I have continued to receive more notes of appreciation for the National Library, its services and my contributions to them and I would like to say thank you again to all those who have taken the time and trouble to contact me. I have replied to each of you individually and hope I have not missed anyone out - if I have, please accept my apologies.

It is still my hope that the National Library of Conductive Education will become a ‘living’ library again, providing all established services and perhaps introducing a few new ones. Who knows? A new librarian, a new era, could bring fresh ideas. What is important to me is that the library goes on, carries on being an important resource for all those interested in Conductive Education.

Many of you have asked what I will do now, and all I can say is that I hope to stay in touch with the conductive world and though I am not retired in the full sense of the word, I am not 'working' either. So please do stay in touch and let me know how CE, and you, are in your neck of the woods.

Meanwhile I shall continue a skeleton news and information service here on http://www.ce-libray.blogspot.com/. Let me know if you think that there is any help that you would like from a 'librarian without a library'!

Another delay in new Conductive Education website

I have just seen that the new Conductive Education portal as been put back again until the end of April. Starting something like this is very time consuming and will involve co-ordinating a lot of material and people and there may be lots of unforeseen issues to deal with. Let us hope that the extra time will produce an extra good site.

Check http://www.conductiveeducation.net/ on 30 April and find out.

Who cares?

I have been following the powerful accounts and comments of Norman, Andrew, Judit and Emma re the awful lack of care, consideration and rights of the disabled, not only in the community, but also in the interpretation of the law.

http://www.conductive-world.info/2009/04/personal-and-political.html

I wondered what organisations had already been established that are, or might be able, to fight to change the current status quo and below is a list of what I have found after a short search today on the internet. Perhaps contacting these might generate some coordinated action. Or maybe that is a bit naive of me as this issue is not a simple one and has always been there like the elephant in the room.

There is not as much as I would have expected but a more prolonged search may produce more. If anyone knows of others please let me know and they can be added to the list.

Carers UK http://www.carersuk.org/Home

Offers a free newsletter . It has launched a survey:

Following the Government's announcement that it intends to ban discrimination against carers Carers UK have launched a survey to gather evidence of carer discrimination. Add your story to our 'discrimination dossier' to make sure carers get new protections'

Princess Royal Trust for Carers http://www.carers.org/

Also offers a free newsletter and discussion boards.

Patients UK http://www.patient.co.uk/showdoc/4/

Lists a variety of organisations connected with care

Disability Awareness in Action http://www.daa.org.uk/

This is an international organisation, set up in 1992, fighting for the rights of the disabled. Rachel Hurst, its director, has written a passionate statement on disability rights which can be found at http://archive.waccglobal.org/wacc/publications/media_development/archive/1998_2/forget_pity_or_charity_disability_is_a_rights_issue

Scope http://www.scope.org.uk/

A British charity originally set up to support those with cerebral palsy has a much wider brief now and campaigns for disability rights.

Conductive Education in Spain

The Job Centre on the Foundation for Conductive Education's website is still working despite some technical glitches which mean you need to keep scrolling down to reach the vacancies. There are a number of opportunities for conductors at the moment, which has to be good news in the current financial downturn.

http://www.conductive-education.org.uk/2008/job%20list%20latest.htm

On looking at this I see that there is a new organisation in Valencia, Spain advertising for English and Spanish speaking conductors for summer camps this year. There is a website http://www.fundacionfuvane.org/ for further information.

I am not aware of any other centres/organisations operating in Spain, since the demise of ASPACE a few years ago, but if anyone does know of any, please let me know, as I am trying to compile an up-t0-date list of centres employing conductors.

Update on Conductive Education portal in US

On 18 March I noted that there was a plan to set up a new website covering a whole range of aspects of Conductive Education. It was intended to launch this on 31 March.

http://ce-library.blogspot.com/2009/03/i-recieved-email-today-telling-me-about.html

The plans appear to have been delayed a little and it is now hoped to get it up, on or around 15 April. For further information and updates, go to

http://www.conductiveeducation.net/

Adult Conductive Education Services in Hungary

I have been sent an up-to-date list of adult CE services in Hungary compiled by Mátyásiné Kiss Ágnes and as promised in an earlier blog

http://ce-library.blogspot.com/2009/02/internet-adults-and-conductive.html

I am posting them here. The list sent to me is in Hungarian, so please forgive any missing or wrong accents as this computer does not have the relevant software, and if I have missed any or misunderstood, do let me know.

Please note only one has a website, but all have an email address for contact.

Budapest

Mozgássérült Emberek Rehabilitációs Központja
1024 Budapest Marcibányi tér 3.
Email: merek@merek.hu
Website: http://www.merek.hu/ or http://www.holnaphaza.hu/

Országos Orvosi Rehabilitácios Intezet

1024 Budapest,Szanatorium u.2.

Email: g.beck@rehabint.hu

GYSG Rehabilitácios KFT

1114 Budapest, Pillango utca 12.

Email: aszantai@gysgy.hu

Bács-Kiskun

Bács Kiskun Megyei Önkormá nyzat Konduktív Pedagógiai Intézete és Szakszolgálata
6400 Kiskunhalas Esze Tamá s Iakó telep 6.
Email; kpisz@freemail.hu

Bács Kiskun Megyei Önkormá nyzat Pszichiátriai és Fogyaté kos Betegek Otthona
6400 Kiskunhalas Kõ rö si ú t 16
Email: bkmopbo@t-online.hu

Városi Kórház Mozgósterápia-Konduktív Pedagógia Szakambulancia
6500 Baja, Ró kus u. 10.
Email: mozgasterapia@gmail.com

Önkormá nyzat Képviselõ Testület Gondozási Központ
6066 Tiszaalpár, Dózsa Gy. u.71.
Email: barony.r@citromail.hu

Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén

Mozgásszervi Rehabilitációs Központ
3400 Mezökövesd, Fülemü le ú t 1.
Email: mrkzsory@t-online.hu

Heves

Markhot Ferenc Negyei Kó rhá z é s Rendelõ inté zet Mozgá sszervi Rehabilitá ció s Osztá ly
3300 Eger, Szé chenyi u.27-29.
Email: titkar@mfkh.hu

Komárom - Esztergom

Tatabánya Többcélú Kistérségi Társulás ESZI Szent György Otthon
2834 Tarjá n, Petõ fi S. u.16.
Email: eszitarjan@vivamail.hu

Nógrád

Szent Lázár Megyei Korház Felnott Rehabilitácios Osztály
3100 Salgotarján, Fuleki u.54-56.

Email: ildus.63@vipmail.hu

Pest

Fõvárosi Önkormányzat Idosek Otthona
2100 Gödõllö , Dózsa Gy.u.65.
Email: mailto:bibcock@citromail.hu

Somogy

Egészségügyi Közhasznú Társaság Rendelö Intézet
8642 Fonyód, Szent István u.27.
Email: rudajudit@citromail.hu

Veszprém

Veszprém Megyei Egységes Pedagógiai Szakszolgálat
8300 Tapolca, Nagykö z u.1-3.
Email: tanacsado@nevelesi-tapolca.sulinet.hu

Zala

Kanizsai Dorottya Kórház Felnött Rehabilitációs Osztálya
8800 Nagykanizsa, Szekeres Jó zsef u. 2-8.
Email: fejes_transz@freemail.hu

Honvédelmi Minisztérium Állami Eü -I Kp. Hévízi Mozgásszervi Rehabilitációs Intézete
8380 Hé viz, Ady Endre u. 31.
Email: kissgabi.heviz@freemail.hu

Conductive Education back in the News

This last week has seen a number of items on Conductive Education in the media , not all good news stories but bringing CE into the spotlight.

See those listed in the News column on the right, for further information and a more detailed analysis of the Australian story on Andrew's Conductive World blog

www.conductive-world.info

Further news of effects of economic downturn

Today a local newspaper in the UK reports problems for a local Conductive Education centre.

See:

http://www.lep.co.uk/news/Cash-crisis-for-children39s-charity.5099824.jp

Conductive Education Classic no. 4

Maguire, G. and Sutton, A. ed. (2004) Maria Hari on Conductive Pedagogy. Birmingham: Foundation for Conductive Education.

As I have mentioned before, there are not many books on Conductive Education and even fewer that present a clear account of what Conductive Education actually is, how it is practised.
This book was published in 2004 to make a number of papers written and presented by Maria Hari over a period of thirty years and held in the National Library of Conductive Education, available to a wider audience.
I quote from the blurb on the back of the book:

An edited collection of previously unpublished papers presented in English, French and Russian, 1968-2000, on how to teach children of kindergarten and school-age the conductive way. An unprecendented account in the English language of the philosophy and practice of conductive pedagogy by the originator and developer of conductor-training.

In reading these eight papers, arranged in date order, it is possible to see how her attitude to sharing the knowledge willingly, changed over the years as Conductive Education was taken up by others, and 'practised' without full understanding of the system.
I make no apologies for recommending a book I was involved in producing, as it is an important account of Hari's ideas, thoughts and attempts to share the system combined with recording part of Conductive Education's history.
Copies are available to buy :

on Amazon at

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_ss_w_h_?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=conductive+pedagogy&x=16&y=14

and Cafepress at

http://books.cafepress.com/conductive-pedagogy

and the National Institute of Conductive Education, Birmingham, UK. foundation@conductive-education.org.uk

I hope there will be more in the future which tell us what conductors actually do! If you are aware of any in the pipeline, please do let me know.

Interesting News for the CE World

I received an email today telling me about an interesting development in Conductive Education. I have reproduced it here rather than re -write it and suggest you click on the links for further information. It could become a very useful and interesting contact for all those interested in Conductive Education.

I shall certainly follow it with interest.

I am writing to notify you of the March 31, 2009 launch of The Conductive Education Communications Center (CECC) at www.ConductiveEducation.net.

The CECC will be a website portal and communications center specifically designed, published and under operation for the national Conductive Education community.

In speaking with many of you, it became clear there was a need for
such a communications portal to show and share videos, articles and other
information. The CECC will offer that. Additionally, it will have a discussion
forum so that experts, parents, instructors and others can meet and talk with
each other online, at any time. There will be webinars by experts, a tool box of
helpful documents and forms, a blog, petition support center to lobby your
educators and legislators, grant information, directories of centers and
services and more. Parents, educators, the media and anyone with an interest in
Conductive Education will find the information they need here.

After spending the past two years learning and experiencing many
of the challenges the Conductive Education community and movement has faced, it
became increasingly important to use my almost 20 years in public relations,
marketing and interactive/website communications towards this effort. I have had
the great pleasure to work closely with Sixten’s Foundation, Inc. near Washington, D.C. and the honor of assisting that group with successfully executing what is one of the first Conductive Education pilot programs within a public school system in the United States.

Please take a few moments to review some of the exciting components of this coming website at the temporary site at www.ConductiveEducation.net.

It will be officially launched, in its entirety, on March 31, 2009, but I am taking this
opportunity to inform those of you whom I may have met or with whom I have
spoken or corresponded in the recent past.

At the end of this month, the launch will be supported by a national public relations and search
engine optimization campaign, and a limited number of sponsorship and
advertising opportunities are available for interested businesses, centers and
other service providers. Just visit the “Sponsorship and Advertising on
ConductiveEducation.net” at www.ConductiveEducation.net.

Please e-mail or call me if you have any questions or suggestions. We look forward to serving the Conductive Education community.

Sincerely,


Mike Szimanski
Conductive
Education Communications Center
Publisher@ConductiveEducation.net
202.560.7516

New article on Conductive Education

The latest issue of Able magazine contains an article on Conductive Education for adults and presents it from a different angle. Details can be found below. It is written differently from anything else that I have seen, not telling what Conductive Education people want to say, but trying to imagine what people with disabilities and their families might want to hear. I think this has resulted in an interesting article which should introduce the advantages of receiving Conductive Education to those not aware of it and hopefully encourage them to try it out. Unfortunately this issue of the magazine does not appear to be up on the internet yet but may be soon at http://www.ablemagazine.co.uk/

A list of centres has already been posted on this blog for those wishing to follow up on it.

http://ce-library.blogspot.com/2009/02/internet-adults-and-conductive.html

Sutton, A. (2009) Learning for living. Able, March/April, pp.54-57.

New search engine to come

Today it has been announced that a new British search engine will be launched in May.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1160667/Revolutionary-British-search-engine-important-Google.html

This will be different from other search engines such as Google as :

...the London-born physicist claims his website 'Wolfram Alpha' can
understand what you are looking for and calculate a single precise answer.
So in theory it will be able to answer questions such as 'What is the location of
Timbuktu?', 'How many protons are in the hydrogen atom?' and 'Where is the
International Space Station?'
'There will be one simple input field that gives access to a huge system, with trillions of pieces of curated data and millions of lines of algorithms,' Professor Wolfram said.
This ability to process natural language, understanding everyday speech as well as
computer-programming language, could prove to be a leap forward in how humans
interact with computers.

The stuff of science fiction, but this should make more accurate searching possible. When it is launched I will give it a go and let you know how I get on.

Good news from Canada

I have just been told of something I would like to share with you as it it is such a positive story in these troubled times.

On the front page of March of Dimes (Canada) website is a photo of a little boy, Justin Bower, standing up with a cheeky grin on his face.

http://www.marchofdimes.ca/dimes/

Clicking on this leads you to a letter written to Beth Brydon, a conductor working for MOD in Halifax, Nova Scotia, thanking her for all her hard work. This is a small excerpt:

What you have done for our son in just two short weeks is nothing short of
miraculous. I'm still in shock that you have been able to transform him this
much! You are what we have been looking for since Justin was diagnosed almost
seven years ago. I'm not very religious, but I thank God for you!

Good news for the family and the conductor. Let's have more of this!

Interesting development

An item in the CE News in the left hand column reports an interesting development in Conductive Education for the UK.

A parent has managed to secure a CE input to her son's life by persuading the local authority to start a special unit. I think this is a first for secondary aged children in this country and offers a precedent for other parents wishing to have the same service for their children. I know that Paces in Sheffield provides some services for this age group but the local authority is not involved.

Please correct me if I am wrong.

Looking forwards

I have now officially left the Foundation for Conductive Education and am free to retire to my metaphorical rocking chair. Despite the attractions of that, I hope to do other things ( so I can avoid helping my husband on his allotment as much as possible) whilst still keeping an eye on events in the CE World.

The email contact address has been changed as you can see and I would love people to stay in touch and let me know about new centres, events, publications etc, feel free to ask for help with information and just say hello occasionally.

Thanks again to all those who have written such wonderful things and shown concern for the Library's future. Hopefully it will have one.

What can I say?

Previous postings on this blog have been very factual, informative (I hope) and professional. This one is different. It is the hardest one I have ever written as I want to be personal and respond to events of the past few days.

Being made redundant has led to an emotional roller-coaster for me as I have bounced from sorrow to anger to regret, and had sleepless nights. But it has been made easier to bear by the very large number of emails and phone calls I have received from family, friends and colleagues of the Conductive Education world. It has been overwhelming to read such kind and flattering things, I had no idea that what I have done has been so appreciated. I had no idea that the Library was considered to be so important by others, and not just to me and those at the Foundation for Conductive Education who use it in house.

No-one is indispensable, as any politician will tell you, and neither am I. But the Library is. I hope it will be maintained, developed, and most of all, used in the future. It needs someone to take it forward now and my experience and knowledge of Conductive Education will have to be built up by another. Rony Schenker says that it is not time to say goodbye now. Due to current circumstances, however, it is time to say goodbye to an era, to this stage in the Library’s history and my contribution to it. Worldwide financial difficulties have led to hard decisions, but I think this was the wrong one.

Words cannot convey how much the good opinions voiced openly by my colleagues and students and library users mean to me, how much they have sweetened the pill and I would like to say thank you, thank you , thank you so very much to all those who have come out in support of the Library and its services.

I am sure that the Library will not die, just mark time for a while until something can be done to make it fully operational again.

I hope to stay in touch with the Conductive Education world and am happy for anyone to contact me. Contact details will be posted shortly.

Now is the time to say goodbye to an era

I worked for the Foundation for Conductive Education for eighteen years and was there as it grew, faltered, grew again and is now struggling to deal with the effects of the economic downturn leading to my redundancy this week.

I was employed to establish, run and maintain a Library that would hold information about Conductive Education that would be available in one place to anyone who wanted to find out more. Initially its basis was Andrew Sutton’s own collection, held in a single but overflowing filing cabinet and this has developed into a unique collection of books, manuscripts, articles, conference papers, conference proceedings, press cuttings, dissertations, videos, CDROMs, DVDs and Internet links - all about Conductive Education.

Over 2,000 of them.

Associate material on educational systems, special education, motor disorders, therapies, child development, psychology, neurology, anatomy, physiology, disability issues, disability experiences, disability fiction, history, has swelled the collection to 8 thousand items.

It has not been easy to bring all this together. There is very little published material on Conductive Education and tracking items down and obtaining copies has been quite a challenge at times, but worth it. Finances have been very limited and donations rather than purchases have been heavily relied on. Resources and equipment have also been minimal and lag far behind the big public and university libraries . There is no security system and items get ’lost’, no self-service photocopying, no self-service issuing and returning system. But its size and set up have also been one of its strengths, enabling ease of access to the material and the librarian.

This library has developed an international reputation and received many visitors not just from the UK but from all over the world, and enquiries, other requests and all sots of problems to be solved come in regularly via email and telephone. Along the way the Library has helped bolster the collections of other Conductive Education institutions around the world.

Initially I was apprehensive about taking this job on but went on to derive great pleasure and satisfaction from building this Library. In the process I learnt a lot about the conductive system, about running a library, publishing a journal and editing books, and most of all, myself. I think I can say these years have been my conductive upbringing. This has only been possible because of the support, knowledge and encouragement of Andrew Sutton. Thank you, Andrew.

But what now? All things must come to an end and my time is up. I want this Library to develop even more, continue to be a worldwide resource and help further the knowledge. At the moment there is no one to hand over to and its future is unknown.

I am sure that I will have more to say. Please continue to watch this space.

Cerebral palsy conference online - free participation

On the Conductive Community Discussion Forum http://conductive-community.com/

information and a link has been posted by Mhairi regarding a free online conference on 31 March 2009, entitled

Current Treatment Therapies for Spasticity in People with Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Disabilities: Part 1

It is being organised by Rady Children's Hospital, San Diego in association with the EP Foundation for Education, Inc.

I have registered for archive viewing after the event. For further information and registration for the same or for live participation, go to

http://www.epliveonline.org/ep_20090331_reg.html

This way of participating free in a conference is a first as far as I am aware.

Christopher Nolan dies

Christopher Nolan, author and poet with severe cerebral palsy has died at the age of 43. He would write using a "unicorn" on his forehead to punch a keyboard, with his mother holding his head. He won the Whitbread prize for the autobiographical novel Under the Eye of the Clock in 1988.

Tributes to him can be found at

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/gifted-writer-refused-to-be-shackled-by-his-disability-1648381.html

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/gifted-writer-refused-to-be-shackled-by-his-disability-1648381.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/feb/20/christopher-nolan-dies

Israeli conference abstracts

Tsad Kadima, the Conductive Education organisation in Israel held a conference in December 2007 to celebrate its twentieth birthday. Although the title was 'Throughout life with Cerebral Palsy - Partnership, Environment and Participation ' there were presentations on Conductive Education by conductors and those with experience and knowledge of it's practice. Originally, I believe, there was a plan to publish a selection of these in full but as far as I'm aware this publication is not available yet.

In the meantime, it is possible to find the abstracts of presentations to this conference on the Internet. It is not easy to find and was discovered by Andrew whilst looking for something else, as many gems are!

Go to :

http://admin.darixon.com/Tsad_Kadima/files/conferenceabstracts.pdf

There is no link from Tsad Kadima's website at the moment.

What has Conductive Education done for me?

Further to my previous posting on adults, I have looked at the library's holdings of experiences of Conductive Education written by adults. These are very powerful accounts, making the strongest recommendations for Conductive Education, and have been used to influence the financial supporters of the system over the years.

A bibliography of these is up on the library page of the Foundation for Conductive Education's web site but in need of updating so I have published the updated version below. If anyone knows of any others, please let me know.

Conductive Education: what it’s done for me

BROWN, M. and MIKULA TOTH, A. (1997) Case studies. In Brown, M. and Mikula-Toth, A. Adult Conductive Education. Cheltenham: Stanley Thornes, pp.175-198.

READ, J. (1995) A different outlook. Birmingham: Foundation for Conductive Education.

READ, J., comp. (1990) Travellers’ tales. In Read, J. Conductive Education? Birmingham: Foundation for Conductive Education, pp.13-30.

SMITH, A. (1997) Moving to a different rhythm: Conductive Education; disabled adults transforming their experience of living with impairment.Unpublished thesis.


Parkinson’s Disease

ARMISTEAD, L. (1991) Thoughts on having Parkinson’s disease. The Conductor, 4(1), pp.3-4.

CHISHOLM, P. (1986) Visit to the Pető Clinic for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease. Unpublished paper.

ESSEX, L. (1988) Some experiences of Conductive Education for the patient with Parkinson’s disease. Unpublished paper.

ESSEX, L. (1985) A report on a course of Conductive Education at the Pető András Institute for the Motor Disordered. 2nd draft. Unpublished paper.

HUDSON, J. (2000) In control after 20 years with Parkinson’s. Birmingham Post, 6 September, p11.

JONES, A. (1994) Fighting back. Birmingham Evening Mail, 25 January, pp.18-19.

MARSTON, M. (1995) Conductive Education. Yapmag, Summer, p20.

RAYNER, P. (1990) A visit to the Pető Institute. Unpublished paper.

TWEED, B. (1995) Conductive Education for me. The Parkinson, no.95, p19.

WILKINSON, J. (1985) Conductive Education. Unpublished paper.

WILLIAMS, J. (1989) Conductive Education and Parkinson’s disease. The Conductor, 2(1), pp.12-13.

WILLIAMS, J. (1989) Conductive Education and Parkinson’s disease. Part Two. The Conductor, 2(2), pp.46-47.

Stroke

CHRISTIE, J. (1987) A stroke victim’s report. IFVHSF Newsletter, no.15, pp.8-9.


Multiple sclerosis

BOYD, N. (2004) Two steps forward. The Guardian, 13 April, pp.8-9.

CORNELL, S. (2001) How Conductive Education changed my life. New Pathways, July/August, pp.24-25.

READ, J. (1993) Conductive Education and multiple sclerosis; a new development at the Birmingham Institute. The Conductor, 5(2), pp.23-26

SAMUELSON, M. (2003) Conductive Education. New Pathways, May/June, pp.26-28.


Cerebral palsy

CLIFTON, E. (2005) Lessons in life through Conductive Education. In Maguire, G. and Nanton, R., ed. Looking back and looking forwards; developments in Conductive Education. Birmingham: Foundation for Conductive Education, pp.83-87.

DALMON, M. (2008) Conductive Education has given me my very own 'pocketful of tricks'. Unpublished paper.

GUYATT, J. (1998) Learning to live again. Yours, May, p69.

HESSELMANN, F. (2004) Stumble or sprint – what comes after the ‘S’ is up to you. Recent Advances in Conductive Education, 3(2), pp.28-31.

HIDVÉGI, K. (1999) The Institute. In Forrai, J. Memoirs of the beginnings of conductive pedagogy and András Pető. Budapest: Új Aranyhíd and the Foundation for Conductive Education, pp.41-44, 58-59, 137-143.

LILJEROTH, I. (2006) Anders reser sig upp och går; konduktiv pedagogic som redskap för en ny livsstil. Lund: Studentlitteratur.

LLEWELLYN, A. (2003) Elliot, an Arts student talks to… Special Children, January, pp.38-39.

McDOWELL, G. (1987) An experience I will never forget. Unpublished paper.

O’HARE, S. (1990) Report of visit to Pető Institute. The Conductor, 3(3), pp.49-50.

SAVAGE, J. (1986) Memories of Budapest. Special Children, 1(1), p12.

SMITH, A. (2004) A personal account of life since Conductive Education. Recent Advances in Conductive Education, 3(2), pp.24-27.

STOYKA, D. (2004) Plastic feet. Recent Advances in Conductive Education, 3(2), pp.32-34.

ZEMLÉNY, Z. (1987) Hoppárézimi! Agytakaritás. Budapest: Mecenas, pp.92-93.

Where are all the Conductive Education projects ?

Yesterday whilst searching the Internet I found something interesting that I had not been looking for, as often happens! This was a dissertation by a Brazilian, at do Vale do Itajai University, which I was unable to print off as that facility had been blocked. I do not know why. Andrew has posted a blog about this work at

http://www.conductive-world.info/2009/02/brazil-is-stirring.html

It made me think that there must be more projects, studies, dissertations, theses, out there on Conductive Education that I do not know about and do not have copies of in the library. There is a growing collection of such material in the library, regularly added to by the student conductors on the undergraduate course run here in conjunction with the University of Wolverhampton. Their final year dissertations have covered a wide variety of topics connected with Conductive Education over the past ten years and would provide a good base for anyone wishing to follow up on their initial investigations. I have a list of titles if anyone is interested in finding out what has been done. Two of these (by Hilary Nelson and Ben Foulger) have been reported as articles in Recent Advances in Conductive Education, the Foundation for Conductive Education's journal.

Such studies must be happening all over the world now and I would love to have copies of as many as possible in the library along with information, papers, reports of any other research, investigations etc carried out by centres or health professionals.

If you know of or have completed such a piece of work, in any language, please do get in touch and let me know so I can obtain a copy if possible. Authorship can remain annonymous ( as has happened occasionally in the past) if wished.

I would also like to know of any on-going projects, any projects not started or not completed for any reason, (for example lack of funds) - all useful, interesting information to get a full picture of Conductive Education research worldwide.

Conductive Education Classics: no.3

Proceedings of the First World Congess, 1990
The First World Congress on Conductive Education, ‘Preparation for the Future’, was held in Budapest, 29 November – 1 December 1990, and had delegates from all over the world, mostly from the UK. This gathering was organised by the International Pető Association and the proceedings were published by the International Pető Institute for the International Pető Association. A list of the overseas delegates, opening addresses by Mária Hári and Mr Arpád Göncz, President of the Hungarian Republic, are included with a mix of abstracts and presentations. Many of the presenters – including Helga Keil (Austria), Udi Lion (Israel), Claire Cotter (Australia), Frieda Spivack (US), Andrew Sutton (UK), Masanao Murai (Japan), Brendan McConville (Northern Ireland), Marion Fang (Hong Kong), – were well-known as pioneers of Conductive Education in their countries. Well-known Hungarians included Mária Hári , Ildiko Kozma and Eva Beck.

This publication provides a fascinating glimpse of the Conductive Education world at the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s.

Not only was this the first World Congress, it has been the only one to have published proceedings. Future congresses were reported in a variety of ways but never as proceedings.

Subsequent Congresses

The second took place in Budapest, in 1995, was entitled ‘Continuity and Change’. It was recorded in magazine format. as Pető Magazine, in the summer of 1996. This included some of the presentations, news from around the world, a list of publications (including an advance announcement of the International Journal of Conductive Education, which unfortunately never became a reality), and a list of Conductive Education courses and organisations. There were no abstracts.

Number three, ‘From Creation to Development’, was hosted by the Warasibe Institute and took place in Urakawa, Hokkaido, Japan in 1999. Delegates received a list of abstracts (available in English and Japanese) of all 50 presentations and study abstracts. I am not aware of any other material.

London was the venue for the Fourth congress in 2001, organized jointly with Scope (UK). A selection of papers read were published in Conductive Education Occasional Papers, no. 8 by the International Pető Institute, and the Library has bound copies of a number of written presentations collected on the day by delegates from the Foundation for Conductive Education. A book of abstracts was published as supplement 3 to the Conductive Education Occasional Papers.

The Fifth congress returned to Budapest in 2004, entitled ‘Conductive Education Worldwide Science and Quality’. Conductive Education Occasional Papers no.11 contains a selection of papers and Supplements 4 and 5 contain the abstracts, in English and Hungarian respectively. The library also has a number of papers collected from presenters, in Power Point format as well as typescript.

Move & Walk, Sweden, hosted the Sixth Congress in August 2007 and published a programme, report and evaluation on the conference’s website http://www.ce-congress2007.com/. Bound abstracts were given to all delegates as Conductive Education Occasional Papers, Supplement 6. As far as I know no other material is available.

The Seventh, ‘East meets West: Adaptation and Development’ will be hosted by SAHK in Hong Kong in December 2010. Further details will be published on the Congress website shortly www.ce-congress2010.org/

Let us hope that it is well attended and has many interesting and stimulating presentations, and most importantly these will be published as proceedings.

The International Pető Association’s World Congresses are run in association with organisations in the host countries.

Copies of Conductive Education Occasional Papers and its Supplements can be obtained from the Hári Mária Library at the Pető Institute library@peto.hu

Is there a world economic problem for books?

I have just seen on Amazon (UK) that a used copy of Maria Hari on conductive pedagogy is up for sale at £97.78 plus postage and packing. Is this a typing error or just wishful thinking?!

A brand new copy is available from the Library at £10 plus postage and packing or if you live in North America, direct from
http://books.cafepress.com/item/mria-hri-on-conductive-pedagogy/13389401


Anyone that wishes to buy a copy, please contact me or CafePress.

Hornsey Centre has new name

The Hornsey Centre in London has changed its name to The London Centre for Children with Cerebral Palsy . The centre's website states:

This is to better reflect the work we do, who we do it for and where we do it.
We will continue to run our school and pre-school services, and conductive
education will remain at the heart of what we do. Our school will be known as
The London School for Children with Cerebral Palsy.

and full details can be found on their website at
http://www.hornseytrust.org.uk/news.htm

Adult Conductive Education

After reading Laszlo's blog about the advert for 'new' adult services at the Peto Institute advertised in a disability magazine

http://szogeczki.blogspot.com/2009/01/here-is-comment.html

http://szogeczki.blogspot.com/2009/01/able-news.html

and Andrew's response at
http://www.conductive-world.info/2009/01/yesterday-morning-i-was-rather-shocked.html

I checked my directory and realised that there is another adult centre they hadn't mentioned. This is:

ITI UK based in Buckinghamshire
http://www.iti-uk.org/frameset.htm

Although most items on Conductive Education tend to be about working with children, the library holds a growing literature on Conductive Education with adults including books, journal articles, conference papers, dissertations and unpublished papers too which document the growth and development of adult work all over the world.

Library has good start for 2009

2009 looks as though it could be a good year for the Library after a very quiet end to 2008. It has started with a number of requests, one for photocopying material for personal study, and several for information covering all aspects of the stock here, ranging from the very general to the specific. All in the past week, at a time which is traditionally quiet here. I have been asked for information on how Conductive Education got its name, Pető, rehabilitation, and ‘for everything you have on cerebral palsy’. The last is an impossible thing to do as there are books, articles, leaflets, journals etc at a variety of levels. So, please be as specific as possible when making enquiries.

One enquiry which I blogged and seems to have created a lot of interest, is the one made by Susie about when Conductive Education became known as Conductive Education, as the Hungarian term means something very different. You can see my response to this enquiry on this blog at

http://ce-library.blogspot.com/2009/01/when-did-konduktiv-pedaggia-become.html

with comments that followed, and also

http://ce-library.blogspot.com/2009/01/more-about-konductiv-neveles-and.html

and other relevant postings can be found on Andrew's blog at

http://www.conductive-world.info/2009/01/origin-of-term-conductive-education.html

and Susie's

http://konduktorin.blogspot.com/2009/01/questions-of-conductive-upbringing.html

As I have said already, this subject needs a lot more time spending on it and would be a very interesting project for someone, as its name and the use of the various terms now used, has affected the support and development of Conductive Education worldwide. The facts presented in my previous postings are just the result of a brief survey of materials held here and a thorough investigation would reveal so much more. So please keep this interesting discussion going as that in itself provides a valuable resource for those who wish to extend their knowledge of Conductive Education.

I have also been pleased to see that the number of hits to this blog is now well over one thousand and I hope some of these people will start to make enquiries, ask questions and make comments.

More about konductiv neveles and konduktiv pedagogia....

I was pleased to see Tunde, Andrew and Susie respond to the posting re konductiv neveles and konduktiv pedagogia. I see it as my job to present information about the holdings of the library and leave others with a much more in depth knowledge of Conductive Education to analyse, criticise and comment. This is what they have done, raising further requests for information in the process, so here goes.

The library holds four reports of visits to Budapest by Germans in the 1960s:

Otto Klein, from the Humboldt University, Berlin visited the Institute in 1962 calling it ‘Institut für Bewegungspädagogik Budapest’and produced a detailed report of the work there. He referred to the work as ‘Konduktion’ und ‘konduktive Bewegungspädagogik’ and the staff as ‘konduktor’ and ‘Bewegungspädagoginnen’ An English translation of the report mostly used the term ‘movement teacher’ and after a quick scan of the German I could only spot mention of ‘kondutive’ twice amongst the many references to movement pedagogy. Mention of rhythmical intention is made.

In 1964 Helmut Eckhardt, a doctor visited whilst on a two week study trip to Budapest and had read Klein’s report two years previously. I do not have an English translation of this and my German is very rusty, but he did use ‘konduktorin’ and ‘konduktor’.

Rolf Lehnhardt, a journalist wrote up his visit in 1965, just after the new profession of konduktor had been recognized by the Hungarian State and he does use the term konduktive Methode and quotes Peto as saying,

Seit 1939 nunmehr in Budapest widme ich mich vorwiegend der konduktive
Bewegungspädagogik.

Ungvari and Schmidt, two Krankengymnastinen (physiotherapists) reported on a three day visit to Budapest in 1967. Again I have no English translation of this, but they wrote of Pető’s method, rhythmic intention and konduktorinnen.
None of these four uses the term Konduktive Förderung,(conductive upbringing) a term commonly used in Germany today. All four appear to be positive enthusiastic reports.

As to Pető’s use of education to describe his work, the article mentioned by Andrew is one he published in 1955 in Gyógypedagógia. An edited version in English was published in The Conductor, 1993. Full references for both of these are below.

Tunde raised the English translation of Konduktiv pedagogia (published in 1971 by Hári and Ákos) in 1988 which was called Conductive Education, but the use of Conductive Education was quite established by then and further investigation would find if any other terms were used then too .

If anyone has anything further to add to this discussion or knows of relevant material please do get in touch. As I said before there is so much in the library that could form the basis of a number of research projects.

Photocopies of all the items listed below can be supplied under the usual conditions. Please contact me if you would like any.

References

Eckhardt, H. (1964) Die Behandlung zerebralgelähmter Kinder in der ‘Bewegungsversehrten-Erziehungsanstalt und Konduktor-Seminar’ in Budapest unter Leitung von Prof. Dr. med.A. Pető. Beiträge zur Orthopadie und Traumatologie, 11(6), pp.419-424.

Hári, M. and Ákos, K. (1971) Konduktiv pedagogia. Budapest: Tankonyvkiado.

Hári, M. and Ákos, K. (1988) Conductive Education. London: Routledge.

Klein, O.(1962) Zur Bewegungspädagogischen Behandlung zerebral gelähmter Kinder im Institute für Bewegungspädagogik Budapest. Beiträge zur Orthopadie und Traumatologie, 9, pp.315-332.

Lehnhardt,R. (1965) Lebenshilfe für Bewegungsversehrte. Schwabische Zeitung. [Exact date and page unknown]

Pető, A. (1955) Konduktiv mozgasterapia mint gyogypedagogia. Gyópedagógia, no.1, pp.15-21.

Sutton, A. (1993) Conductive movement therapy as special education. The Conductor, 5(2), pp.37-39. [Summary in English of Konduktiv mozgasterapia mint gyogypedagogia. Gyópedagógia, no.1, pp.15-21.]

Ungvari, E. and Schmidt, H. (1967) Bericht über das Institut für Bewegungstherapie in Budapest. Krankengymnastik, no.9, pp.323-325.

Alberta Conductive Education research report

It is great to find out that this research report is available again on the Internet as reported on Andrew's blog.

http://www.conductive-world.info/2009/01/rejoice-with-me-for-i-have-found-url.html

Answers to enquiries here about research in Conductive Education after its publication in 2000 always included a reference to it and its URL given while it was known. At that time we were having quite a number of enquiries about research in Conductive Education so details of the report went out worldwide. Despite this, I am not aware that any subsequent articles/papers/reports etc have mentioned it or included it in their references/bibliographies. Let's hope knowledge of its reappearance will now make it become a standard reference starting point for all researchers into Conductive Education.

The full bibliographic details of the report:

Ludwig, S., Leggett, P., Harstall, C. (2000) Conductive Education for children with cerebral palsy. Edmonton: Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research.

It can be found at:

http://www.ihe.ca/documents/cond_edu.pdf

When did konduktiv pedagógia and konduktiv nevelés become Conductive Education?

After posting the piece about Ester Cotton's visit to Budapest in 1965, I have received an enquiry about the start of the use of the term Conductive Education. Translating the Hungarian phrases 'konduktiv pedagógia' and 'konduktiv nevelés', (the terminology of choice for most Hungarians) literally gives us 'conductive pedagogy' and 'conductive upbringing', not Conductive Education.

I have had a look at the materials written in English between 1965 and 1972, after which the term started to become widely used in English articles, dissertations and reports. It is not clear, however, from these exactly when and why the system became known as 'Conductive Education'.

Several reports of visits to the Institute made in 1966 give no name to the system, (Bobath, K.; Bobath, B.) but do mention 'conductors', (Parnwell; Seglow), 'the Budapest method' and 'Pető's training method' (Parnwell). Seglow did report that 'Pető regards his education as a conditioning process'. In 1967, Ester Cotton published an article in Nursery World which used the term 'Conductive Education' and another article with Margaret Parnwell in Special Education which mentioned the 'State Institute for Conductive Education of the Motor Disabled'. These were both published after the death of Pető in the September of that year. In 1968 James House, an American professor who visited the Institute, talked only of 'conductors' and 'the Budapest method' in an interview, not 'Conductive Education' (Maas, 1968). In 1971, James Loring, head of the Spastics Society (UK) reported on a visit with no mention of 'Conductive Education'.

James House went on to initiate a research project at Wisconsin University reported by Laird Heal in 1972 also referred to 'Conductive Education'. From this time 'Conductive Education' seems to have become the term of choice in material held in this library and not other phrases, until the 1980s onwards, when 'conductive therapy' and 'Pető therapy' started appearing.

This is the result of a very limited and fairly quick search of the items in English held in the library. Searching in other languages may produce different results and further investigation would make an interesting research project for someone.

Other reports, articles, papers etc not held here may shed further light on the subject, so if you know of, or have any information please let me know!

References

Bobath, B. (1966) Visit to Pető Institute, Budapest, September 1966. Unpublished report.

Bobath, K. (1966) Visit to Dr Pető, Budapest, September 1966. Unpublished paper.

Cotton, E. (1967) They speak to move. Nursery World, 27 October, pp.5-7.

Cotton, E. and Parnwell, M. (1967) From Hungary: the Pető method. Special Education, 56(1), pp.7-11.

Heal, L. (1972) Evaluating an integrated approach to the management of cerebral palsy. Final report. Washington: US Office of Education, Department of Health Education and Welfare.

Loring, J. (1971) A visit to the Pető Institute for spastic children in Budapest. New Hungarian Quarterly, no. 42, pp.140-143.

Maas, R. (1968) Breakthrough in Budapest: an interview with James House. Ideas of Today, 16, pp.110-114.

Seglow, D. (1966) Visit to the Pető Institute. Unpublished paper.

Back in the news

Conductive Education seems to feature in several news stories at the moment so I have re-instated the news feature on the right. I would love to see more in depth serious articles featuring in the broadsheets and perhaps that will come in 2009!

Conductive Education Classics: no.2

The Institute for Movement Therapy and School for 'Conductors', Budapest, Hungary; a report of a study visit.
Over the years there has been a large number of reports of visits to the Pető Institute, in a variety of languages - English, German, Russian and Slovenian, for example. These form an interesting collection in the library as they not only present the different viewpoints of health professionals, parents, teachers and academics but also give different accounts of the work there over a period of time.
The first to come out of Hungary in English was that by Ester Cotton, a physiotherapist, reporting her study visit to Pető's institute in 1965. Her first visit at the instigation of Berta Bobath was only for one day, but she returned after being granted a month's study leave from the Bobath Centre and obtaining a bursary from the UK Spastics Society (Russell and Cotton, 1994). On her return to England her enthusiasm for Pető's system led her to set about trying to bring the system out of Hungary.
The institute was residential and Cotton gave a detailed account of the daily routine for the children which started at 6.00am when the children were woken and finished at 7.00pm. The group, rhythmical intention, and its effect were outlined, along with general background information on the institute's set-up, equipment and staffing. The report included a number of photos of the children on the plinths, standing, and walking with the conductors.
Although she wrote of 'unity of treatment and education' and 'conductors' there was no mention of 'Conductive Education'.
An abstract of the article was appended in English, French and Spanish.
Copies of this article can be obtained from the library. Further details on request.
References
Cotton, E. (1965) The Institute for Movement Therapy and School for 'Conductors', Budapest, Hungary; a report of a study visit. Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology, 7, pp.437-446.
Russell, A. and Cotton, E. (1994) The Peto system and its evolution in Britain. London: Acorn Foundation.

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.