experiences

Air, food, experience and Conductive Education

Gillian Maguire Leave a comment

Today a very interesting, personal piece written by Judit Szathmary, a very experienced conductor and service provider, has gone up on Facebook . It is the November issue of her Digest  and she gives the link from her website for technical reasons.

She writes about air, food and experience and how these things interact with, and are part of, Conductive Education. Do read it and see life from a different perspective.

http://juditszathmary.com/november-digest-posted-here-due-to-technical-isssues

New book coming soon from Conductive Education Press

Gillian Maguire Leave a comment
A few months ago the possibility of publishing a book of blog postings made by Ralph Strzalkowski about his time at the Pető Institute, and his life as a man with cerebral palsy was put to Ralph by Conductive Education Press, and he agreed. Since then we have extracted relevant postings and intend to publish at the time  of the forthcoming CE World Congress, in October, at which Ralph will be a key-note speaker.

Today Ralph has posted on his blog his thoughts about this at

http://blog.lawyeronwheels.org/2013/06/the-book.html

This book may be an eye-opener, as a child’s  perspective of Conductive Education has not been published before. Parents, professionals and researchers have all reported their experiences, thoughts, and opinions, but the memories and experiences of the children have not featured in CE literature. A very different and interesting perspective.

Ralph shows himself to be determined, realistic, hard-working  and personifies Pető’s principle that ‘you should never give up’.
Further information about the book will follow soon. Watch this space.

laying against time – life with Parkinson’s disease

Gillian Maguire Leave a comment

I mentioned this programme on Facebook yesterday and then watched it myself in the evening.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01cc76r

It was a very interesting report of one person’s determination to carry on living her life as she always had done, writing and performing her music all over Europe. Barabara Thompson , a celebrated saxophonist has had Parkinson’s disease for twelve years and has managed it with drugs, determination and the support of her husband. The documentary film makers followed her over a period of five years and there was footage of her playing and writing her music, managing her ‘down’ time and discussing her treatment with a Parkinson’s nurse and doctors. There was no mention of her trying any other means of controlling her PD, such as physiotherapy or Conductive Education.

There was a wonderful scene of her playing with  a group of people with PD who were singing a song about having the disease, composed by a member of the group.

She is still performing when she can despite the difficulty of not knowing when she will be physically able to and lives in hope that a better treatment will soon be available.

I would recommend watching it – there are six more days to do so on BBC iplayer and by following the link above.

Conductive Education – getting it right?

Gillian Maguire Leave a comment

Today a posting on Facebook by Andrew Sutton refers to a discussion thread about Conductive Education that has been written by mums of disabled children. Their knowledge of Conductive Education is patchy to say the least, with some of their comments based on hearsay rather than experience. Definitely inaccurate too, as ‘pain’ and ‘therapy’ are frequently referred to.

http://community.babycentre.co​.uk/post/a11845555/conductive_​education

I would like to hope that they come in contact with the mother whose latest blog posting gives a more accurate picture of Conductive Education and a clear description of it.

http://riddingfamily.blogspot.com/2011/07/conduction-education.html

This Canadian mum speaks for a lot of mothers I am sure, and I hope others will publicise their own experiences of just how good Conductive Education can be for a cerebral palsied child.