Conductive Education, article in engish

In September is being published in England a book about the experiences of families with conductive education at different countries. In the same model of the book Just do it, where the conductor Becky Featherstone said his experience as a conductor in our project in Florianopolis. This time I will be writing our story, how we started and where we go. Post here first hand the article, written by me, soon to be edited by Gillian Maguire and Andrew Sutton.

Para ler em português, clique aqui.


Conductive Education Com Amor: a case in Brazil
Leticia Búrigo Tomelin Kuerten, leticia.kuerten@gmail.com

In 2004 a story on a method for children with motor difficulties called Conductive Education was shown on Brazilian television. This was my first contact with the Hungarian system that would change the way I saw the possibilities of life with my twin children, who have cerebral palsy.
The story was that of a mother who was searching for greater independence for her daughter. She needed resources to go to Hungary and try this method, which would give her daughter the chance of having a more active life.
I immediately thought that this method, called Conductive Education, was not designed for my children, since I saw them with poor movements to execute the suggested tasks. I thought that Conductive Education was for children in a better stage of development than mine.
Anyhow, curiosity made me research the method. I confess to reading and re-reading the information in English, and no matter how much I read I could not understand the functioning of the routines. I tried talking to health care professionals, physicians and physical therapists, about the Hungarian method, but no one knew or had even heard about it.
On obtaining more information, I understood that it was something very different from what we had already tried. It was an educational system that worked in group and carried out repetitive movements for daily situations, perceiving the individual as a complete being.
Following the coincidences life offers us, I casually met a pre-school teacher who told me she was going to Mexico for a summer course on Conductive Education. I realized that the method was closer than I thought.
From week 12 of my boys’ pregnancy, I had to be in total bed rest. I spent most of the time in hospital and was mostly unaware of the risks a twin pregnancy in the infectious state I was in presented. In June 2002 my sons were born at 28 weeks gestation, and they left the hospital with a new surname: cerebral palsy. From that moment on my dedication was fully to my children: I was curious and studied to discover the several stimuli that could stimulate the neuronal plasticity of the brain.
We decided to embark to Mexico in search of this singular opportunity, something of a bonus. It was August 2005.
At this time, we did motor physiotherapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy, hydrotherapy and equotherapy, besides other alternative therapies, in Brazil.
It was at this time that my daughter, who was born 2 years after the twins, learned to crawl and started to bring down the DVDs and VHS tapes that decorated our living room. One of my sons told me, enthusiastically:
- Mom, I also want to bring things down!
Only at that moment did I realize that, even though they followed a daily and diversified routine, they had no idea of how to perform their actions in an independent way. They had good physical stretching but movement had not been aroused as a cerebral intention.
Our experience in Mexico was intense. For the first time in their three years, I saw my children being respected in relation to their motor desires; they were asked about their objectives and interests, and it was the first time I saw them attentive to the conscious objective of their movements. There were four weeks of intense work for the children. My husband and I were able to watch some videos about the Peto Institute, Andras Peto’s biography and read statements by his former students and conductors, which was enough for me to become even more curious about the method, yearning to know it in depth.
At that moment I became deeply interested in Conductive Education and in the way my children were conducted, responsibly and maturely, even though they were only three years old.
My immediate reaction after the course in Mexico was to invite my husband to make a joint decision to search for a new experience in some other country that offered Conductive Education. We decided to invest a year of our lives in our children, following the Hungarian method in England. Once again we followed life’s synchronicity and went to Birmingham, where I had already been received as a guest by a Brazilian friend, many years before being a mother, in her place in front of Cannon Hill Park, which is opposite the National Institute of Conductive Education,
We arrived in England in January 2006, experiencing a new routine, a new culture and a new learning method for children with cerebral palsy.
During this year in England, I spent part of my time in the library, reading books and articles, trying to saturate my curiosity about the history, objectives, developments and possibilities the method offered. I experienced the school’s environment, watching adults and children on external activities, participating in outings with the families, attending lectures and absorbing the full conductive education experience.
I have a doubt that I tell myself time and time again: I don’t know whether conductive education was better for me or for my children. Medicine and physical therapy always taught me to see the limits of what my children could not do. Conductive education has taught me to see the other side, their unrealized potential for learning.
I started celebrating each small step, every victory and to live each moment intensely, in the here and now. I began respecting their individuality and their being as they are, and realized the importance of giving them discipline, with clear cut rules, teaching physical perception and body awareness, always with motivation and the joy of celebrating each conquest.
Conductive education is the joining of simple repetitive movements that provide correct information to a series of small tasks that form a big movement. Information is repeated and motivated by the conductor’s instructions:
- With my feet on the ground, I stretch my knees and position my body in the middle, put my hands on the table and keep my body straight. I am standing. Keep, keep, keep.
Conductive Education is physically and mentally demanding, for it is intense and tiring: it consists in being aware of each movement, building each small task for an active action, with the mind always aware of the body’s movements. It is a system of education that sees the individual as a whole, in a holistic way, stimulating motor, social, emotional and cognitive activities. The children experience daily routines, with short programmes that vary according to each child’s age and development.
I remember when my children went to regular school for the very first time and the teacher asked me for orientation from the physical therapist so as to better include them in the activities. The physical therapist advised the teacher in relation to the children’s sitting posture and the physical education activities, but when asked about break time, the physical therapist said the speech therapist had to be asked about that. The same happened with drawing, writing and working at the desk, when the physical therapist recommended the occupational therapist be asked about that.
Traditional therapy sees my children in bits, focusing in only one movement, member or muscle. Conductive Education sees my child as a whole being, wholly, in a standing posture reflex, group activity, adequate behaviour response, waiting for his turn, among other relationships.
I am happy with just repeating this teaching, because conductive education is rich as a philosophy in teaching us the complete relationships of our actions, our yearnings and conquests.
Which one of us finishes a task thinking of doing better next time? For each task sequence in conductive education sequences the children have an objective, and after its completion they analyse their behaviour and programme themselves for a more positive and precise response next time.
Upon our return from England we decided to start a project forming a group that would cater for my children and other children who would be able to experience conductive learning in our country. It was a dream, the Com Amor Project.
We started with one conductor, my two children and a lot of will to do things. In February 2007 we established a partnership with a regular school and started using their space, one classroom in a period different from regular classes, for the conductive education activities. The school environment is rich in stimuli and the moment we experienced was very pleasant.
We needed furniture and found it easy to have it made in our region. Following photographs and measurements given by the conductor, we built the necessary desks, chairs and bars. Accessories such as mirrors, attachment bars and stools were also built. Rings of various sizes and latex pressure bars came from Hungary.
Within three months our adaptation period was in great condition, we had a physical education professional working with the conductor, helping with the setting up of routines and the language, and both gave their best efforts for the project to be set up. At the end of this short period we managed to have the programs prepared by the conductor translated into Portuguese, using words that fitted the regionalisms.
By means of word of mouth, a family came in to learn about conductive education as a method, and their child joined the group immediately. We had a pre-school group, and my children were 5 years old.
During that year we also elaborated songs that followed Brazilian rhythms and contained conductive instructions adequate to the programmes prepared by the conductor. We formed a group: three children, one conductor, two educators, furniture, songs and a lot of enthusiasm. The dream was complete.
Through the blog (http://educacaocondutiva.blogspot.com), writing more on conductive education and reporting our day-to-day life, more families from other parts of Brazil became interested in visiting us. Due to the distances, we decided to offer a Holiday Course in July for the families to experience the conductive education routines. Since then we have been receiving 8 children every year, who experience the conductive education programme integrally for three weeks.
The Project grew and we had to move to a bigger place. In 2008 we started the year with a new conductor, in a new place: a farm with lots of stimuli from nature, contact with animals and a pleasant feeling of well-being. We adapted the toilets to the group’s needs, designed new furniture such as walkers, parallel bars and new sets of furniture to receive the group of children who joined us.
This year we received the families for the Holiday Course once again, and their presence is always very important for the project’s development and credibility, for they report a positive experience and divulge the Com Amor Project. Observing their children’s development and performance is very gratifying. Each family works toward a goal and ends up reaching many others. Parents describe the learning, routine and discipline obtained through conductive education as fundamental in the development of their children’s daily abilities.
The months that passed helped consolidating the project, the team, and the routines and created a stability that had not yet been experienced by the group. Regarding the children’s performance, however, we noticed that many objectives were achieved slowly, and some goals seemed to become further away. In some moments we see evolution rapidly but other moments seem to be of stability, with little progress. The year passed with many visits and new evaluations.
The dream that was complete did not end. Many accomplishments were being achieved and we decided to set up a room exclusively for conductive education. Following the conductor’s instructions, we used an existing structure and fitted it to our needs, so it now offers a pantry, adapted bathrooms, adequate outings, no stairs and two rooms to cater for the group’s necessities.
In 2010 we inaugurated a new space with our Open Day annual event, when we divulge the method with a lecture and the observation of routines and programmes. We also receive many professionals, families and people who want to learn more about conductive education. We have also received new conductors to lead the group and have generated the expectation of changes regarding objectives and desires from the families who have experienced conductive education in the past years. For the fourth consecutive year we welcomed new families for a very successful Holiday Course.
After these years, we count more than 30 children who at one moment or another have been in the Com Amor project, attending the daily routine, holiday courses in July, visitors’ programmes and evaluation sessions. Most families had the opportunity of discovering conductive education for the first time and while this might not seem a large number most of them came to visit us in search of a new opportunity and hope to improve their children’s performance.
The objectives remain, and for the years to come we plan to establish new routines and cater for twice the number of children we have had to date, remodel the programmes according to group age, create new songs and follow the children’s evolution, because they have become interested in new themes and rhythms with the passing of the years.
We are growing together and already know that our dream never ends. We face all the limitations of the body and mind to achieve a life that is more adequate for children with special difficulties with love, grateful for the days in which we learn. Of one thing we are certain: with the correct stimulus, we always learn!
I can only thank Dr Peto for bringing together teachings in this disciplined educational system that aims at improving the quality of life of people with cerebral palsy and other motor disorders. To him and his followers: conductors, the dream achievers; and parents, hopeful in the search for more learning and performance.

I request that copies of this publication in other locations are consulted to the author or editor.