CONDUCTIVE
EDUCATIONCONDUCTIVE
EDUCATION
Conductive Education is an effective system in education specially designed for people with neurological impairment resulting in weak orinco-ordinated movement. It originated from Hungary and was introduced to the United Kingdom by Ester Cotton. It was introduced to Hong Kong in the early 80s'. Consequent to the numerous visits of Ester Cotton in 1984 and 1986 to lecture on the fundamentals of Conductive Education and the repeated participation of Hong Kong candidates in the "International Courses onConductive Education" held in Hungary since 1987, professionals from the fields of rehabilitation including special education, based on local resources, have adopted Conductive Education for practice by trans-disciplinary teams in special child care centres, special schools and sheltered workshops.
7.1.2 The Fundamental Principles of Conductive Education
The founder of Conductive Education,
Andras Peto is a physician as well as an educator. In his opinion, weak and inco-ordinated movement and perceptual difficulties are symptoms of neurological impairment. Being negative and passive in personality is the worse effect that confusion in functioning may lead to. For this reason, Peto emphasizes that the symptoms manifested by people suffering from neurological impairment should not be viewed as isolated handicapping conditions and dealt with in isolation. He points out that the only way to help people affected by neurological impairment is a process of education which deals with the inter-related key factors and allow them to establish a well co-ordinated system of functioning that would induce them to develop a positive and proactive personality. (Komas, 1951) He also stresses that the intellectual and physical development of neurologically impaired children are not separate . For this reason, their daily living up to their growth in cognition and communication skills are of equal importance and inter-related in their total development. Conductive Education is based on this holistic concept. It integrates the education and treatment of neurologically impaired children into a holistic system of education which is centred around children's need as well as learning and implemented through daily living.
7.1.3 Essentials in Conductive Education
The conductor should have professional knowledge in the rehabilitation processes of people with neurological impairment. They should also be able to integrate the knowledge and skills in education and other aspects of rehabilitation and provide a comprehensive service to their clients. They resemble the conductors of orchestras who need to co-ordinate the activities of each small segment. In Hungary, a qualified conductor needs to attend a four-year course which includes teacher education, educational psychology, neurology and knowledge in brain injury. The aim is to equip the conductor with different expertise related to the treatment and education of people with weak and inco-ordinated movement. This reduces the fragmentation of an integral service if it is to be provided by professionals from different disciplines.
2. Grouping of Pupils
In the Conductive Education system, all aspects of learning is carried out in groups. Conductive Education stresses the inter-active relationship among group members. Besides the positive impact of mutual encouragement and stimulation, group learning provides an environment for normal socialisation.
3.Facilitation
Rhythmical Intention is a unique function that utilises the child's own speech to regulate and assist his/her movement and actions. The idea is based on Vygotsky (1962) and later expanded by Luria (1981) on the regulatory function of speech. Speech, in this respect, serves to formulate the aim of an action, and indicates the basic scheme for the solution of the problem with which the child is faced. The self verbalization of steps of action preceding the actual movement also prepares the child psychologically for the action. The counting accompanying the actual movement acts as a kinetic melody for a smooth and co-ordinated action. Rhythmical Intention at the final stage is internalized as the child's own tool for problem solving in dealing with his/her motor impairment.
Training in Conductive Education is carried out through a purposeful series of tasks. A set of movements may be needed to complete one action or several actions or it may make up a functional activity. According to Peto, various types of learning are going on and different functions are in operation simultaneously and this is the basis of Conductive Education. To maximize the effect, the task series should be conducted through interesting activities and learning situations. Learning situations in Conductive Education must be comparable with the daily living environment of the children. So a corridor in the school is just as good in providing learning situations as the classroom or playground.
4.Daily RoutineConductive Education also emphasizes the keeping of a regular daily routine so there is consistency in what the children are learning each day. It is hoped that functional skills can be put into practice in daily living. So there must be sufficient time to learn and practise walking, toileting, feeding, self-care, communication and other muscular movements.
The purpose of drawing up a daily schedule is to ensure that the learning activities match with the daily living routine, so what is learned can be put into actual practice. The daily schedule is more complicated to design than the school time table because it is a whole day programme and good linkage between specific activities has to be ensured. Through this schedule, both lesson time and outside lesson time or even every segment of daily life can be a learning situation. When designing the daily schedule, there must be flexibility and detailed planning in developing learning situations, time allocation and effective staff deployment. The goal is to offer pupils full day learning and practising in a positive and secure environment.
The function of Conductive Education is to allow neurologically impaired children to learn and practise what they have learned throughout the day in their natural environment through a smooth and uninterrupted schedule.
7.2.2 Conductive Education Implemented under Special Education Provision in Hong KongOver half of the pupils in schools for the physically handicapped are the cerebral palsied (According to the enrollment record of all schools for the physically handicapped in February 1998, the percentage is 56.6) They have weak and inco-ordinated muscular movement. Inco-ordination in movement will inhibit their ability to explore and control their environment. This in turn will affect their development in intelligence and character. So during character and cognitive development, movement and perception are indispensable elements.
Conductive Education emphasises that body movement and thinking are inseparable. Also education and therapy should be integrated. So the adoption of Conductive Education in schools for the physically handicapped which admits cerebral palsied pupils is meant to meet the specific needs of their pupils.
In the place of origin of Conductive Education, the Peto Institute in Hungary, all personnel from administrators to front line workers are conductors.
In Hong Kong, there are no similar conductors. Conductive Education is implemented by a trans-disciplinary team which is made up of teachers, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech therapists, school social workers, nurses and house-parents. Professionals from different disciplines, through co-operation and learning from each other, try to absorb as much as possible the professional skills and knowledge from other disciplines. So they may have adequate knowledge in all aspects of education and treatment. Together they can perform the function of conductors.
For this reason, staff development is crucial in carrying out Conductive Education. Since this system integrates education and treatment, professionals from different disciplines require comprehension of the knowledge and skills of related disciplines. The wider the overlap of cross disciplinary expertise the better it is for implementing the system. Thus cross disciplinary staff development is essential to the development of Conductive Education.
2. Help pupils to practise knowledge and skills learnt through careful organisation of curriculum
An integrated curriculum enables neurologically impaired children to learn, and to put into practice the integrated knowledge and skills that they have learnt. An integrated curriculum can be issue based, learning domain based or problem based. The aim is to provide pupils with opportunities to establish integral concepts instead of teaching them fragmented knowledge. Besides, in a carefully arranged daily living routine, we should provide children with appropriate amount of help, so that they may manage completing each daily living task on their own. The aim is to turn the affected parts of the body from dysfunctioning to functioning, and what is learned is put to use.
An organized daily schedule facilitates continuity in learning so that the experiences attained can be linked up. If there is residential service provided in the school, the daily schedule can be extended to the residential section. For day pupils, through parents' co-operation, learning can also be continued from school to home.
3. Create a favourable learning environment
Through an appropriately equipped environment, we should provide pupils with as much activities as possible so as to strengthen their ability of controlling their environment.
Learning and teaching activities should be geared to the handicapping conditions of the pupils. They should have sufficient time and space to organize their movements or activities. This is the basic requirement in curriculum implementation because it is essential in effective learning.
The various arrangements made through Conductive Education enhance neurologically impaired pupils’ ability of integrating what have been learned and also help overcome their obstacles in character and psychological development. This will in turn enhance their ability of learning and bring their baseline closer to that required by the mainstream curriculum. This also enables them to learn at their own pace within the core learning areas as mentioned in Chapter 4. To speed up their integration, the trans-disciplinary team implementing Conductive Education should continue to develop assessments which integrate elements in education and treatment. At the same time, we should further plan a curriculum which is balanced, coherent and promote pupils' ability to integrate what they have learned.One of the concerns of Conductive Education is that to help children overcome their learning difficulties, we have to study education and the art of creating ideal learning environments. (Compilation of Chinese Material on Conductive Education in Hong Kong 95). The practice of Conductive Education in Hong Kong warrants further investigation and improvement in curriculum, teaching materials, strategies and the organisation of the trans-disciplinary team.