Easter observations with Aimee

"A host of Easter blooms"

by Susie Mallett 22 April 2011

I was answering Norman Perrin’s comment and the story just got longer and longer so I will post it here instead.

Thank you Norman for the motivation.

Norman, I thought of you as I posted this link. I remembered that you once posted something on your blog about observing your grandchildren as they developed. I knew as I prepared the posting that I would soon be playing with the new addition to my family and loving every minute.

Easter Sunday with Aimee

I watched and interacted with my thirteen-month old great-niece once again on Easter Sunday.
First of all I wondered at the fact that she seemed to remember me. Or did she?

It is nearly three months since I last saw her but she certainly did not behave as if she was with a stranger. Perhaps it was because I was with all of my immediate family and because I was not treated by them as someone special, as foreign or as a guest; this little girl did not see any reason to do so either. It is nice that she has accepted me as a popping-in-now-and-then-part-of-life, just as the rest of my family always has done. She is only following the behaviour of those around her.

Whatever the reason for my acceptance, accepted I was and that meant I was free to play with my little great-niece and observe her to my heart’s content. I also gave her, one by one, a bowl of halved grapes and tiny pieces of strawberry that, despite their slipperiness, stayed in her tiny pincer grip.

My learning curve was, I think, almost as steep as hers is in this early stage of her life.
What impress me most was that she did not want to crawl on grass, she does not yet like the feel of it yet. She was really clever deciding what to do in achieving her goal and patience was the key!

Once I had helped to wash and put together the new, but second-hand, Wendy House and it had been fitted with a ground sheet and a blanket in she went and stayed there and played for what seemed like hours with her little toys, out of the sun. Before the ground sheet and blanket were fitted she would not budge. No amount of motivation would make her move.

Of course as in everything about this little girl I related my observations to my work,
I realised that how right I had been to have ordered the new matting for the group-room in Germany. Even I prefer to move about on it and it is obvious that the children enjoy the feel of it and are much more active than they were on a carpet. It is warmer, it is smoother and it leaves no red marks of elbows and knees!

It has the look of a deep-blue sea, inspiring many adventures. We don snorkels and flippers, pretend ones at the moment, even a tank for deep sea diving, and off we go through the depths exploring for whales, crabs, sharks, mermaids and sunken wrecks with treasure.

On other days we dream of bright blue skies with birds and planes, hot-air balloons and fluffy white clouds floating by.

Our old drab carpet could not inspire such fantasies however much it tried.

It is not only the colour of our mat that inspires movement and activity, it is also the texture of its surface and the density of it.

Just as it is the texture of the grass, and maybe its temperature, that does not inspire Aimee to move, perhaps our old carpets and rugs had the same affect on our children.

Our fantasy-inspiring mat is very solid, not giving under the pressure of a foot-step. It gives our learners the confidence to take that extra step because they know that taking a fall will not hurt.

They know that their foot will not snag on the rough carpet.

The children living a conductive life-style often come across such obstacles as the decision whether to crawl on damp, cold and itchy grass, later on in their lives than thirteen-month Aimee has. The children with a movement disorder perhaps could not make that decision themselves at that young age because they could not crawl or roll to get there to experience it. Maybe they never felt it themselves or perhaps they were put onto the grass by someone reacting with a scream because they did not like it. As these children develop and are able to move under their own steam they also become able to make their own decisions such as whether they enjoy the feel of grass under their skin.

My observing of Aimee at play has reinforced in me the importance of helping children with a movement disorder to experience all that non-disabled children just stubble on in daily living. It has reinforced for me the importance of giving them the experience of deciding if they like grass or not as early on in life as possible. There is such a knock on affect, a spiral of actions and reactions that are so important in the learning process.

Aimee did not like the Wendy-house being on the grass so she waited. She was happy with her toys on the picnic rug. She smiled and looked at us, gave us a dolly and then a rabbit to pass back to her. She knew that if she edged forwards and back enough times that sooner or later someone would make it possible for her to go in and just as important that she would make us laugh by doing so.

It worked.

What a lot of interaction there was going on between all her family members as she motivated us into action so she could get into action. And what a lot of experiences are missing from the lives of those children who cannot do what Aimee did. Not only the crawling but the smiling and the passing here and there of toys all part of her spiral of learning and mine too.

Yes, conductive upbringing is hard work, but it is worth it. As I experienced last week with the Littlie on the swing and her shoes, her new white shoes, becoming red with the dust from the ground as walked backwards to give herself a good start to the swing. When I noticed the dirty shoes her reaction was: “So what!”

How right she was. At seven-years old and at last able to swing all on her own she was allowed to get her new summer shoes dirty, in fact we rejoiced in it.

Try it like this!

Hong Kong Island from the ferry to Discovery Bay

The title of the posting is also the title (I think) of a blog that I just found: Igy probálja!

http://igy-probalja.blogspot.com/

Sometimes going on a search unearths something unexpected and perhaps more interesting than what I was originally looking for.

I do not know whether this is more interesting then what I was looking for, as I have yet to find that, but Try it like this! is worth keeping on record, passing on to others, and taking a look at now and then.

I was searching for websites mentioned over on Geek Conductor in Mauritius:

http://thejadenproject.com/mauritius/?p=206

I do not mind when nothing turns up as long as during the search I come across such interesting items as this.

I was out on the balcony thinking...

"A Snail" by Susie Mallett,
August 2010

..... and as I had my mini-netbook out there with me I decided that I should write down some of my thoughts.

At first I was thinking about something I had read on Andrew Suttons blog. More precisely in the comments from Norman Perrin:

Therapy! Therapy! Therapy!
Why, oh why, oh why are so many people convinced that "therapy" has the answers?

Could it be that they asking the wrong questions?

Rubbish in, rubbish out, as the (politer) computer geeks say.

The right questions? Start with: upbringing, parenting, education, schooling, curriculum, pedagogy, professional training ....

and from Rony Schenker:

I believe that for parents "therapy" means 'recovery", and the word in its deepest meaning meets their wish for their child healing or recovery. I also believe ,that meeting the medical professionals at the very beginning stage of their journey as parents of a child with cp, is in a way, like the "imprinting" described by Konrad Lorenz . It happens in a very critical stage and lasts for long (if not for ever). Thirdly, I believe that it is also a product of the higher status that people ascribe to the medical professions in comparison to education. Not surprisingly, many parents approach CE only after being "disappointed" from the "therapies" that did not meet their dream of "fixing" the child, or when they are at a stage that they do not perceive cp as a disease anymore , but as a condition, a state.

Then I thought this:

Babies are born in hospitals so the first people they and their parents meet are from the medical, and then later the therapeutic professions. As Rony said, the medical profession are held in very high esteem, and at this early stage they are the only people that parents and their babies, and adult who suddenly find themselves with a motor disorder have contact with. They are the first on the scene with the first expert advice.

This is why it is so important that along with our struggle to get conductive education recognised as an alternative to other types of kindergarten and schooling, and also as a part of the adult lives of our clients, that we continue working towards conductive education becoming part of the provision in the premature baby units and special care units of clinics for people with motor disorders. This has been the way in Hungary for a long time. I experienced there how the mothers of tiny premature babies work hard educating their babies along side conductors from day one, how parents return to outpatients and proudly show the conductors the progress that their growing babies are making. Unfortunately I have not been lucky enough to witness the work in the Hungarian clinics with new stroke clients, but I know that they will also be full of hope for an active future.

Having conductors right there working alongside the medical profession educating babies and parents, and adult clients right from the beginning of the life with a motor disorder will prevent the imprinting, as you describe, from occurring on the medical side. Having conductors there at this very critical stage can prevent many disappointments later and create a balance in the lives of those people with motor disorders. A balance between medical treatment and interventions, and education for living.

Conductors can prevent the loss of the hope that these people have had up until this point in their lives.

Conductors can help the clients keep their hope and ambitions for their futures alive. Conductors can show them that life is to be lived to the full and that a condcutive upbringing can steer these people, the babies, the parents, the adult clients and the carers, towards active lives. Towards a balanced life, one where body and soul are looked at and cared for together as part of their way forward, and all happening right from the onset.

We have all heard parents say when learning about conductive education for the first time that it has given back their hope.

I have heard the same from many adult clients too. Many adults with multiple sclerosis tell me that the initial advice from the medical profession was, in so many words, to become less active, rest as much as possible, one even told me they were advised to spend their days sitting in a comfortable chair reading. Stroke clients tell me regularly that they have been told that after three years there is no hope anymore of learning new skills. Even the health insurances stop paying for many therapies at this stage too. Put in a nutshell they were all told this is the end of your active life.

There are, of course, exceptions. Not all my adult clients have been told the same story but the majority say the same as the many parents, that conductive education has restored their hope that there is live despite a motor disorder and many disabilities can be prevented before they even occur.

We must work towards this not being hope restored but hope retained. No rebuilding required because it was never taken away! We have a lot of work before us.

Notes

Andrew Sutton –

http://www.conductive-world.info/2010/08/chickens-home-to-roost.html

Dr Karel and Mrs Berta Bobath

" Bracondale" by Susie Mallett, 1976

Recently it seems that blogs just drop into my hands, like the leaves that yesterday suddenly started falling from the trees.

Two blogs in two days handed to me on a plate. There are a hundred-and-one blogs floating around in my head waiting to be grabbed hold of and written down. Sometimes it only takes a magazine article to be lying around in the office or for a sentence to be uttered by a client and Bob’s your uncle there it is, a blog posting actualised sitting in the palm of my hand.

After work this evening I was searching my files for something for my adult clients and came across something which I would have liked to have had in my hand a week or two back when I wrote a comment on Andrew Sutton’s posting “ Fantasy and reality”, September 20th 2008.

This is what I did write:

"I looked at Barry Hynes webpage http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Barry_Hynes and opened a few of the articles, one of which was "Diagnosis and treatment of cerebral palsy", and I wondered if Bobath trained therapist would be just as dissatisfied with what they read there about their profession as those involved in CE are when they read the definition of CE."

I continued in my comment by quoting the description that Barry Hynes had given of Bobath therapy and implied that it didn’t give us much of insight into the treatment that Dr and Mrs Bobath developed over a 40-year period.

Today I found the article that I hadn’t found on September 20th, a paper written by Kate Hedges, a certified Bobath teacher from New Zealand, THAT gives a much more informed view of both Conductive Education and the Bobath concept than Barry Hynes does . On Bobath she writes:

“Bobath suggests that intervention initiated prior to the full development of the motor handicap could have a preventative effect on the development of secondary retardation caused from the lack of sensory-motor experiences”

I read further and what did I find? That Kate Hedges is writing about handling babies! So I quote this paragraph both to give further information on the work of the Bobaths and to suggest to the Mr Parnells of the world that it is possible to recognise motor disorder in babies and it isn’t only conductors who are working with these babies (See my posting "From the very start of life: pessimism or optimism?", 26th September 2008).

“Neuro- developmental treatment is directed towards the developing nervous system. On the basis of this many and varied handling techniques have been developed which elicit and stimulate controlled automatic responses from the baby. Treatment by handling guides the motor output and results in more normal movement patterns. As the baby learns to be more active in relation to his environment and in daily functional activities, the guidance given by the therapist or parent is withdrawn.

"Techniques, which are only tools, are selected to suit the needs of an individual child.”

Notes

Andrew Sutton - http://andrew-sutton.blogspot.com/2008/09/fantasy-and-eaality.html

Kate Hedges (April,1988) The Bobath and Conductive Education approaches to cerebral palsy. Treatment - management and education models, NZ Journal of Physiotherapy.

Bobath Centre - http://www.bobath.org.uk/TheAdultCentre.html
http://konduktorin.blogspot.com/2008/09/from-very-start-of-life-pessimism-or.html

Susie Mallett- http://konduktorin.blogspot.com/2008/09/from-very-start-of-life-pessimism-or.html

From the very start of life: pessimism or optimism?

"The very start of life" by Susie Mallett, 1979

I was reading Gill Maguire's latest blog and linked from there to a newspaper article from Wales that spoke about the death of Naomi.

In the article were comments on the subject by other parents of children with cerebral palsy, and in the section “Call for register of children with disorder” there were quotes from a Mr Richard Parnell. Mr Parnell is research and evidence manager for Scope, which is all that's left of the former Spastics Society.

Speaking about cerebral palsy, Mr Parnell said: "It is around six to eight months when children are rolling over when you may have cause for concern. It is maybe at that time that you notice. But it is something you don’t find out typically until the child is at 18 months.”

I don't understand how things like this get published or even said!!!

I went as a third-year student alone to a hospital in Budapest with a conductor from the Mother and Child Department at the Petö Institute.

I saw the conductor who took me there again last Easter when I was at the Petö Institute and I told her how I had never forgotten what I had learned on that visit. This conductor was Homoródi Zsuzsa, head of Gyerek Ambulancia, the children's outpatient department.

We visited the premature baby unit. The conductor had a regular clinic there, where she talked to mothers who brought their babies back each week and gave them advice, checked whether the development of the babies was age appropriate and made any necessary referrals to the Petö Institute.

Then we went to the ward where the babies were who had yet to go home. We handled one very tiny baby, eight-weeks old, who had not yet reached her full-term birth date. The conductor showed me and the mother how to position this baby symmetrically and to do so every time the mother made contact with the baby during the day... at least 20 times. This tiny baby had asymmetrical reflexes and the conductor told the mother that if she positioned the child in the correct (foetal) position and turned the head to middle to gain eye contact, then she could prevent some very serious problems and symptoms developing. The baby was so small that I could positions all the limbs and head correctly just by using the tips of all my fingers! It took the skill of this conductor to show me and the mother how to do this.

Why am I telling you this?

Because it infuriates me whenever I read something like the above statement from Mr Parnell, or hear from parents that they have not been given the diagnosis cerebral palsy until their child is 18 months old. If a conductor can see that a new-born premature baby has problems then why can’t a doctor?

My guess is that many hospitals don't tell the parents because they don't know what to say directly after.

They don't know what to advise parents to do.

They do not know how to give parents hope.

I saw one thing to do in that premature baby clinic in Budapest and it was so easy and could prevent so much. The conductor told me that this could mean the difference between a very severe athetoid child and very mild symptoms.

I know that one of my thoughts at the time was that even showing the mother to turn the head in the middle to gain eye contact would make the life of that baby and its view on the world very different.

Why oh why do the Mr Parnells of this world not think like this? What is Scope for?

Notes

Gill Maguire

http://ce-library.blogspot.com/2008/09/sad-case-highlights-problems-and.html

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2008/09/23/mother-guilty-of-murdering-disabled-naomi-91466-21883091/

Scope

http://www.scope.org.uk/