SUSIE MALLETT

My visitors today

Wednesday 25 October 2017

A new book and an old posting

First the new book

The book I have been reading recently is Admissions, a Life in Brain Surgery by Henry Marsh, published this year by Weidenfeld & Nicolson. I read the first part of his autobiography, Do No Harm, when it came out in 2014 and I was thrilled to find the second part while I was travelling this summer, it is in that lovely big airport paperback format too which is even better!

Admissions is in my opinion just as interesting as Do No Harm.

Here is a paragraph from Admissions, in a section of the book where Henry Marsh was recalling how he feels while watching young inexperienced surgeons operating, that caused me to mark the page as I was reading –

“But it is very easy to under estimate the importance of endless practice with practical skills. You learn them by doing, much more than by knowing. It becomes what psychologists call implicit memory. When we learn a new skill the brain has to work hard – it is a consciously directed process requiring frequent repetition and the expenditure of energy. But once it is learnt, the skill – the motor and sensory coordination of muscles by the brain – becomes unconscious, fast and efficient.”

References

Admission Weidenfeld and Nicolson,2017, ISBN 978-1-4746-0589-2


Do No Harm Weidenfeld and Nicolson, ISBN-10: 0297869876


I was reminded on Monday of the posting below that is about another of my favourite writers.
I have just copied and pasted it here with no editing so I hope it keeps it’s format and that there are not too many mistakes!


I need to add to the list of Oliver Sacks books on my shelf that comes on the bottom of the blog  –

On the Move
Gratitude
and
25 Life Changing Lessons that Will Inspire You

23rd October 2011

An open letter to Dr Oliver Sacks

 "The Blue Dog Who Mistook Himself for a Gentleman"
by Susie Mallett, 1998

Dear Dr Sacks,

I have read many books of your books, I think probably bought everything that you have written, since I first discovered The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat, in 1986.

I had been an art student, but by the time that I read this book of yours I was already working as an art therapist. Still, I think that I bought that book for its wonderful cover, an illustration by Paul Slater after a favourite Magritte painting of mine, The Treachery of Images, rather than for its contents. At that time I knew absolutely nothing about you and your work, or your delightful way of describing it all.

Since that first reading of that “Magritte book” I was hooked and I have been buying your books regularly ever since. Now I buy for the content not because of my attraction for the covers! I must admit, though, that sometimes it is the mind-catching titles that first attract me. An Anthropologist on Mars could not be left un-purchased, and My Mind’s Eye caught my eye immediately last weekend, at the railway station. Even without opening it I just knew that I had to read it.

Each time that I have seen a new publication with your name on it I have bought it, even if you are mentioned only because you have written the Foreward.

I am at this moment in time enthralled by your descriptions of stereoscopy and prosopagnosia in my latest discovery. I am amazed, although I am not really sure why I should be, at how much insight your words are giving me into the problems of the nine-year old spastic-diplegic children and the sixty-year old stroke victims who are among my present clients and the problems that they have with their own visional interpretations of their worlds.

I am not sure whether they have exactly the problems that you are describing, but even so my eyes are opening even wider to all the possibilities that I must take into account when I work with them.

As I wended my way to work this morning, reading your book as I walked and writing notes in my head at the same time, I was thinking about you and how you bring your own personal experiences into your writing to help describe your client’s problems and their roads to recovery.

It was while walking to work and having so many parallel thoughts that I decided to write this sort of imaginary letter to you. I got out a pencil and paper and began straight away, with the autumn sun on my head and the crunching leaves below my feet.

I was thinking about how you probably would have been lost by now if you had walked from the bus-stop to work with your nose in a book, so appalling is your sense of direction. More important were my thoughts about how inspiring your writing is for me. I expect that it inspires many others too.

I walked into the room where I was going to work this morning and immediately announced to my colleagues that they really would have to find your book in whatever language was easiest for them, (I am English, my colleagues are German and Hungarian and we work in Germany). I believe that even if they only read the middle part of The Mind’s Eye they would learn a lot more about and reach clearer understandings of their clients.

I realised a long time ago that I benefit not only from the information that is in your books but also that the style in which you express it has influenced, motivated and inspired me most of all for so many years.

I wrote my first case-study when I was a newly fledged teacher in Basingstoke in 1988. The report was later praised for its precise detail by my head-teacher, who had needed it for a local-authority decision on a child’s placement.

That report was written three years after I had read The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat. It was a few years later, when I was writing about my observations in conductive settings, that I realised that I actually enjoyed writing these down and that really what I was doing was painting pictures with words, in a way similar to you do in your wonderful case studies.

Now, twenty-five years after reading that book and more than twenty since I wrote that first case-study, I am enjoying writing my blog and still being inspired by your books.

Thank you Dr Sacks, I hope there will be many more case-studies and books to come.

Susie Mallett

Conductor


Notes

René MagritteThe Treachery (Betrayal) of Images:



Dr Oliver Sacks -


His books in my library

Migraine
Awakenings
The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat
A Leg to Stand On
An Anthropologist on Mars
Seeing Voices
Island of the Colorblind
Uncle Tungsten
Oaxaca Journal
Musicophilia
The Mind’s Eye
With a Foreward by Dr. Oliver Sacks - Phantoms in the Brain by Dr. V.S. Ramachandran and Sandra Blakeslee

Thursday 23 March 2017

New in Nürnberg …





…a course for Heilpedagogik that has Conductive Education and inclusion as major parts of the curriculum.
(Heilpedagogik is translated into English as remedial education or therapeutic pedagogy)


Today I have been asked to send the following information to as many people as possible. The easiest way for me to do this is to post it here on my blog.


The people involved in Conductive Education in Germany have been hinting at the establishment of a new conductor training course in Germany for several years and now it appears that everything is finalised and will begin this year. 


 




 

 

 
Neuer Studiengang:


Heilpädagogik BA
mit Studienschwerpunkt 

Konduktive Förderung und Inklusion
erstmalig in Deutschland an der Evangelischen Hochschule Nürnberg (www.evhn.de)
Hast Du Interesse
ü Pädagogik und Therapie in einem Studiengang zu studieren?
ü Menschen mit und ohne Förderbedarf über eine ganze Lebensspanne kompetent begleiten zu können?
ü Erfahrungen durch Semesterpraktika und Auslandssemester in Einrichtungen und Hochschulen weltweit auf vier Kontinenten zu sammeln?


Der Studiengang Heilpädagogik mit Studienschwerpunkt Konduktive Förderung und Inklusion wird ab dem Wintersemester 2017 in Nürnberg erstmalig in Deutschland angeboten!


Der Studiengang:
ü 7 Semester (210 ECTS), grundständig, Zulassung mit (Fach-)Abitur o. ü. Berufsweg
ü Abschluss: Heilpädagoge/Heilpädagogin BA mit Schwerpunkt Konduktive Förderung
ü Der zusätzliche Erwerb des Abschlusses Konduktor/Konduktorin BA ist in Planung
ü Vielfältige Tätigkeitsbereiche in Kitas, Schulen, Inklusions-, Beratungs- und Fördereinrichtungen oder in Einrichtungen der Behindertenhilfe und in der Rehabilitation
ü Zugang zu Masterstudiengängen im In- und Ausland
ü Weitere Infos im Flyer der EVHN oder unter www.evhn.de
ü Anmeldung: 1. Mai bis 15. Juni 2017 http://www.evhn.de/studieninfo.html



Der Konduktorenverband:
Als Fachverband der Konduktoren und Konduktorinnen in Deutschland bieten wir für Studierende mit Studienschwerpunkt Konduktive Förderung und Inklusion
ü Unterstützung und Beratung bei der Suche nach Praktikumsplätzen u. a. in Europa (Deutschland, UK, Skandinavien, Österreich und Ungarn) sowie in Nordamerika, in Asien, in Australien und Neuseeland
ü Kontakt und Beratung bzgl. Auslandsemester in UK, Ungarn und Nordamerika
ü Teilnahme an Fachkongressen, Beratung in Fachfragen sowie Vermittlung von Hospitationsmöglichkeiten und weitere Aktivitäten, wie Sommerschulen und Exkursionen
ü Kontakt:


Schreib uns:
Für Interessierte vermitteln wir gerne Hospitationsmöglichkeiten zum Kennenlernen sowie Vorpraktika in Nürnberg, München, Rosenheim, Starnberg und Würzburg oder bundesweit.


Bundesverband der Konduktoren e.V.


Was ist die Konduktive Förderung?


Wie die Heilpädagogik beschäftigt sich auch die Konduktive Pädagogik und Förderung mit Menschen im weitgehend ganzheitlichen Sinne.
Therapie und Pädagogik gliedern sich an vielen spezialisierten Fachbereichen, wie unter anderem die allgemeine-, sozial- und Heilpädagogik, Frühpädagogik oder Physiotherapie, Ergotherapie oder Logopädie. Diese sind hochspezialisiert für unterschiedliche Entwicklungs- und Persönlichkeitsbereiche oder Probleme der Menschen.


Was tun aber bei einer komplexen Entwicklungsstörung, Behinderung oder nach einem Schlaganfall, welche nicht nur Funktionen des Körpers aber auch kognitive und kommunikative Fähigkeiten beeinflussen und die Betroffenen psychisch, seelisch und emotional betreffen? Da überschlagen sich schnell die Termine für Förderung, Beratung und Therapie und lassen für einen normalen Alltag kaum Chancen.
Insbesondere in Zeiten der Inklusion und mit steigendem Wunsch nach selbstbestimmter Lebensgestaltung von allen Menschen wächst der Bedarf an hochqualifizierten Fachkräften, die Förderung, Beratung und Therapie aus vielen Fachbereichen kompetent abdecken und Menschen mit und ohne Behinderung in vielen Lebensbereichen und bei Bedarf über ihre gesamte Lebensspanne begleiten können.


Konduktoren und Konduktorinnen sind sowohl in pädagogischen als auch in medizinisch-therapeutischen Bereichen ausgebildet. Sie nutzen vielfältige Prinzipien des effektiven Lernens und gestalten einen altersgerechten, motivierenden pädagogischen Rahmen in dem medizinisch-therapeutische und heilpädagogische Handlungen eingebaut werden. Lebenspraktische- und Handlungskompetenzen haben einen hohen Stellenwert in der Förderung und ermöglichen nachhaltig eine aktive Teilhabe im Alltag und im Leben der Gemeinschaft.


Die Konduktive Förderung bietet dazu ein einzigartiges Fördersystem mit eigenen Methoden und Handlungskonzepten. Sie geht von der Bildungsfähigkeit jeden Menschen aus und stellt in jeder Handlung wertschätzend die Gesamtpersönlichkeit des Einzelnen in den Mittelpunkt. Rhythmus, Sprache, Lieder, altersgerechte Spiel- und Kreativangebote sind fester Bestandteil komplexer Handlungsabläufe.
„Gib den Kindern ein gutes Schicksal, gewähre ihren Anstrengungen Hilfe, ihrem Bemühen Segen. Nicht den leichtesten Weg führe sie, sondern den schönsten."
(Janusz Korczak, Gebet eines Erziehers, 1922)


Interessante Links:


Einrichtungen: Fachverbände:
www.phoenix-kf.de www.konduktorenverband.de
www.fortschritt-rosenheim.de www.bkf-petoe.de
www.private-schulen-oberaudorf-inntal.de www.conductiveeducation.eu
www.fortschritt-ggmbh.de www.acena.org
www.vfmn.de www.cepeg.org.uk
www.peto.hu www.e-conduction.org
www.conductive-education.org.uk
www.cecfl.org
www.conductiveeducationwaikato.nz
www.movewalk.se