SUSIE MALLETT

My visitors today

Saturday 22 January 2011

Oh dears and delights

Cuttle-fish drying in Tai O

Precious Time

I have been aware of the Snowdrop blog for quite some time now. I think that I have even written about it here before, although quite where and why I do not recall at the moment. I do not look at the site regularly, although I did drop in a few times when I first discovered it.

I decided a long time ago that I can only follow a certain number of websites regularly and this is not one of those that are on my list. I only choose to look at those that do not cause me too much anguish. This one and many others sometimes do.

Now and then I get distracted and, after receiving Google alerts about blogs that mention conduction, I spend an evening surfing the links from one blog that mentions CE to another. Usually, the more links I add to the chain then the less mentions there are of conduction.

Jewels in crowns

Sometimes I come up with gems, as I did when I found Little Henri’s blog. Conductive upbringing features in Henri’s life and is written about on the blog. Moving on from Henri I followed some links, as I sometimes do, and it was on this surfing journey that I went on to discover another jewel, Connie Wenks. This is another wonderful site with a section about Down’s Syndrome and a link to her blog called Kids with a Little Extra.

Little Henri, and the children and adults featured on A Little Extra, all have an extra chromosome: they have Down’s syndrome.

Smiles

If you take the time to have a look at that site I am sure it will be worth your while. I think that it will make you smile. I made me smile and also made me happy in my belief, not that any kind of pedagogy or therapy can heal a brain as Snowdrop believes, but that a conductive upbringing is something positive for each and every one of us and can transform us all if we wish it too.

Wrinkled brows

On other occasions while clicking here and there I find things that make me say “Oh Dear!”. Four Google alerts have now directed me to Snowdrop and the posting telling us that the therapy that Snowdrop practices repairs the brain, whereas Conductive Education does not.

I had decided to save my time, not to look at yet more words from yet another believer that brains can be mended. I decided that I would just stick the link on to my “Oh dear!” list for January.

That is what I did, but even so on the way home from work at ten-thirty at night I found myself with note book in hand penning what you have just read above. I was too tired when I got into my flat to type it up, but still awake enough to notice that in the inbox of my emails there were a few more mentions of Snowdrop.

I have just got back from work again. This time I had been at the annual general meeting with the election of a new board of trustees. It was interesting and successful but also tiring . It went on as always too long.

With this posting still not finished, although I did have the computer on the tram and had made a start on the typing while sitting on the edge of a wobbly seat, I decided to see what Snowdrop was doing.

There were a couple more alerts directing me to the website but more interesting were those directing me into the CE blogosphere, with Facebook also getting its say.

I have still decided just to add this alert to the Oh Dears for January list and direct you to what the others have to say on the subject.

I am off in search for another a blog that makes me smile.

Notes

Little Henri
http://www.der-kleine-henri.de/page6.php


Connie Wenks -
http://www.alittleextra.de/ConnyWenk.aspx
http://www.connywenk.com/down-syndrome/kids-with-a-little-extra/
http://www.connywenk.com/


More bloggers on Snowdrop -
http://thejadenproject.com/mauritius/?p=206
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1540593482

2 comments:

Andrew Brereton said...

Hi.

sorry if my blog causes you anguish, - this is certainly not my intent. My intent is to publish truth and to help children like my own son who died of his cerebral palsy. (A little true anguish for you).

If anything I have said is factually incorrect, please let me know and I will change things so that you are not anguished by them.

And by the way, brain function can be improved. Ever heard of brain plasticity? Perhaps need to keep up with research.

Andrew said...

If I have understood the Snowdrop website aright, this – if fair paraphrase – is the bone of contention –

'… the cause of the cerebral palsy, the brain injury itself... Snowdrop’s aim... is eradication of the problem.'

http://snowdrop-snowdropblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/snowdrop-vs-conductive-education.html

I may have misunderstood.

As for 'research', I did not find convincing evidence to carry this position here:

http://snowdrop-snowdropblog.blogspot.com/p/principles-of-treatment.html

To leap from this to eradicating brain damage looks to me a continuing bridge too far. I admit, though, that I may have failed to keep up with research into this specific issue, and would be most gratefulto be updated.

Nor did I feel terribly convinced that I was standing in the presence of the ideas of L. S. Vygotskii. As ever, happy to be corrected.