Magic, change and transformation

'Spiral' by Susie Mallett, April 2012

A little bit of magic, plus a little bit of magic, added to several more little bits of magic. 

Hey presto! What have you got?

Change and transformation!

With so much magic weaving its spells it is impossible to know whether it is the one sleight of hand, or this trick or that illusion that is working its wonders.

Magic, life and conductive education do not work like that. We cannot isolate one thing from the other to say: ‘Ah that is why it worked’, we have to observe everything as a whole and then marvel at what happens.

One part of a magic trick may not work without the illusion and the clever sleight of hand, the effects of lighting, a rabbit in a hat, or some other trick up the magician’s sleeve. All the separate parts of a conjuring act depend upon the others and influence the others. Success is reliant on everything and everyone working in unity, just the same as it is in the virtual spiral of living, especially conductive living.

Social, emotional and physical magic

I saw Little Princess yesterday for the first time in almost four weeks.

First I was ill, then there were the school holidays and I have also been at home in England.

It was nice for us all to be together again.

When we got up from the dinner table to walk upstairs where Littlie Princess was to do her homework I just could not believe my eyes or my hands. Littlie needed hardly any help at all when standing up, when standing still or when taking steps, and she walked up and down the stairs with no physical help at all.

She was off, and as is often the case with our children, all of a sudden. 

When we stood still to regain balance after taking a few steps we went through the list, trying to find out what had worked this magic spell, if indeed it was magic at all. 

Perhaps it was just hard work.

We asked ourselves lots of questions.

Was it the lovely new shoes or perhaps her amazing new clothes? (All the girls had treggings on that day!)

Was it the extra centimetre in height? Or had her feet or her arms grown?

Was it due to having spent the lovely school holidays in Berlin or was it perhaps due to her now practising free walking every day at school? 

Was it because of the warmer weather, and the fact that she can be outside for a long time in the evenings on her bike?

Was it joy in knowing that the people in the team that help smooth the paths in her life are so relaxed and enjoy their work?

Littlie and I have often talked about how some activities will become easier with a little extra height or with slightly longer arms and bigger hands. We have also regularly noticed over the years that we have known each other, but especially since she attends mainstream school, that after, or perhaps during a holiday, huge developments occur in her abilities. We also know that school is tiring and it is easier for her when she attends conductive groups during or just after the holidays.

Communication and transformation

At the beginning of March we had a very successful meeting at school with the educational team that works with Little Princess. Littlie was there in school for most of the meeting. We were there to see what help she needed from us in the future, so we needed her help, and of course she is fully aware of how pleased we are. Not only are we pleased with her physical progress and success in her school life, but also our own success in working together so well, communicating just enough to help our Littlie’s path to success.

A week after this happy meeting we had a more social gathering, a gathering that included other members of a wider team around Littlie and her family.

I truly believe that it was after these meetings that the web of magic began to work its wonders. The unity that we work towards was so visible and the souls of all involved were radiating joy, especially Littlie’s soul and the family soul too. We were all filled with renewed motivation to solve problems and achieve success.

Of course this happy working and living environment motivates us all and Littlie no less than the rest of us. 

A break in the routine and lots of time to rest and play also brings its benefits. Little Princess is still little for her age, she uses up a lot of energy during a school day. Having two week’s holiday means that she has a few hours' extra sleep, a few hours' extra play and a lot more hours with her family, and she thrives on it all.

Putting into practice what we discuss in the meetings is also reaping its rewards. 

Littlie and her class assistant decided that they would have the walking-bike at school instead of the rolator, as this affords a much better posture and they decided that they would walk freely a lot more in the classroom where space was a bit tight for the walking-bike. It seems that we made the right decision, Littlie is walking more securely and her posture is improving too.

What about the clothes? 

Well I suppose like all of us Little Princess really does feel like a princess when she is looking chic in her denim-look leggings, and when she adds the new shoes to the outfit then the effect on her walking and posture is huge.

No answers just joy

 After our discussion about magic, Littlie decided, and I agreed, that it is the unity of everything we do that has worked wonders over the past few weeks and has allowed her to take such big strides forwards.

We all agree that a new pair of shoes has helped a great deal, with the heavier winter boots discarded with great ceremony because they have huge holes in them! 

(Photographs will be published later of these shoes because it amazes us that a severely physically disabled little girl has walked holes right through the soles of heavy-duty winter boots!)

The daily walks in the classroom have also contributed to Littlie’s new-found walking skills.

We have stopped searching for answers to who or what casts the magic and have settled down to enjoy the new experiences. One of these new experiences is her getting off her chair and walking a few steps alone before we, the conductors, actually reach her. She is feeling very brave and of course extremely pleased with herself.

A pat on the back and an answer to the questions

I received a note from a Mum of another child last night. It said:

‘I am really so impressed with how Littlie walked today, they are both such hardworking children!’

That sums it all up in one sentence for us: ‘They are both such hard-working children.’

Yes they are, and all that hard work casts a magic spell over us all!

An autumn holiday – the best of my life

"Gondola in Austria" by WH

Not for me but for one of my stroke clients – this is the story:

One of my stroke clients chose a hotel for her holiday from the Happicapped- Reisen, Disabled-travel, annual brochure. She was overwhelmed by how well she felt while there. She says it was the best holiday that she has ever had and wanted to share the experience and the information with others.

I suggested that the charity that provides the adults conductive groups might like to hear about this special holiday to include in its monthly information letter.

This lady is the adult success story from our conductive groups in the same way that the children, who are featured in media articles on inclusion, are the success stories from the younger aged groups.

I have worked with this lady since 1997, three years after the stroke had occurred. At this point in time she had already been told that the health insurance would pay for no more speech therapy, and other therapies would be reduced. By now she could walk but she could not yet speak, cook, sew, paint, sing, all of which she has learnt or re-learnt over the past fourteen years. She says it is not only through conductive education that she has achieved so much, she praises her occupational therapist too, but it is because of adopting a conductive life style that she has developed so far.

Conductively learning life’s skills

This lady decided that she would tell her story about the holiday in the group so I offered  to take notes to pass on to the office for publication, and this is just what I did.

Her husband always collects her and often arrives early enough to sing with the group, or to play the accordion for us. Last week he arrived early to join in the account of the holiday. He is a very good amateur photographer and he uses the photographs as a memory-jogger for his wife. It is easier for her to describe her experiences when she has pictures in front of her. Even if they are not pictures of the actual thing she is speaking about they still help her to recall other memories.

The rest of the group were really interested and asked her lots of questions. Below  I have included the notes that I made while she was talking.

The return of speech

When I met this lady thirteen years ago she could not speak, she could not phone to make an appointment with me, her husband did it all for her. Now she speaks very well. She can deal with any phone calls to banks and official places alone, she can call her family and friends. She has even managed to rejoin the choir.

  

The joy of story-telling 

Her enthusiasm over this recent holiday was wonderful to witness and the interest from the rest of the group motivated her to talk with much more animation than she usually does.

It was such a feat of achievement for this lady to show us these holiday pictures and to describe with such emotion how well she had felt at the hotel, not disabled but someone special.

It is such an achievement that she can even think about passing on the information to others and even more important that she supplied me with so much information.

To relearn the skill of having empathy with others is a difficult task for stroke clients but this lady has learnt it. Working as a group helps to bring out, or rediscover, this empathy. 

All that I have to do is encourage a caring environment and the group takes care of itself and each other!

This is how the lady in my group told us her story, sometimes but rarely she looked to her husband for a word or two. Her husband took a step backwards, literally, he moved to stand behind his wife. He let her tell the tale. 

When she had finished talking and the group members were looking at the photographs he answered lots of questions and filed us in with lots of local history, but the initial story was hers and here it is:

"We had a very lovely holiday, Austria

At a four-star hotel with good food.

We booked it ourselves, from Handicapped-Reisen. We often book hotels from there. This was the best yet.

Breakfast was good, all the normal things, normal eggs, also bacon and eggs. There was muesli, yoghurt and ten different sorts of bread.

Evenings we had five-course meals, starters, salad, soup, main dish and dessert (warm or ice-cream)

Twice there were gala-dinners with six courses, once a fondue and once an “Oktoberfest”, with lamb and piglet turning on the spit and free beer between two and three Pm.!

When my husband was away hiking with his friend the waiter would organize a snack for me for lunch. Once my husband went out early in the morning to watch the sunrise and the hotel staff made sure that I managed to get down to breakfast alone and someone always carried my food to the table from the buffet.

I felt very happy there, cared for and at ease.

Whenever I was alone, when my husband went hiking, the hotel staff looked after me very well. I felt special.

The whole hotel was barrier free, wheelchair friendly. The bathroom was a little small but the rest was perfect, totally accessible.

The hotel staff looked after all the disabled people, there were many of us. I felt special while I was there. Everyone was so helpful, it was perfectly natural to help the guests in whatever way they could.  For example, they noticed that one guest was only eating soups so they asked her to pick those foods she would like to eat and they pureed many meals for her. She did not have to eat only soup for two weeks!

I had taken my electrically-powered wheelchair with me and the hotel lent me a folding  wheelchair, free of charge.

The gondola to the top of the Zugsptize Mountain was also accessible to wheelchair-users.

It was because of the wonderful way that the staff received all their guests, and of course because of the hotel itself and the food, that I had the best holiday that I have ever had."

Notes

Handicapped-Reisen Deutschland, Verlad FVG -

www.fmg-verlag.de

Silence-Sport hotel

Zugspitze

A-6631 Lermoos

How long should school terms be?

"Aimee at Cromer" 20th June 2011,

Or should there be terms at all?

I wrote a comment for Norman Perrin’s blog but it got too long, read this posting of his first:

http://paces.typepad.com/paces/2011/06/children-do-not-have-motor-disorders-only-in-school-term-time-.html

… and then here is my comment!

When I worked in a special school in Basingstoke, before I went to Budapest in 1989, we were discussing the wonderful possibility of working for four or five terms instead of three, so that our children would only have two, or a maximum of three weeks, at home or on holiday at one time.

It was a state school, so, as you can probably guess, it never happened. Even though I had left by the time the decisions were made I was still very disappointed, we and the parents had wanted this arrangement of the school year so much, it would have been better for parent and children, and the teachers wanted it too. Of course we were not talking about longer working hours but no more six week holidays!

I have always considered it such a waste of facilities when conductive centres are shut in the school holidays, a time when children have more energy, time and in my experience are better motivation to take part, have fun and learn. Every summer we offer those who wish to take part a sort of conductive holiday camp, at home or away. With a bit of one, two, three, four, five, daily outings and lashing of conductive living and fun. We call them our “surviving camps” as they are learning-how-to-live holidays.

It is the Whitsun holiday at the moment and at the end of July the six week summer holiday will begin, but we, the conductive centre, stay open for whoever needs us. At the moment we have adults groups in the mornings and evenings and 8-17 year olds with us some afternoons, last week we had the parents and babies every afternoon. There is always a demand.

In Germany all Kindergartens have only a three week holiday in the summer and less than schools have at other times too. Parents need to go to work! So our conductive centre is open at least as long as the integrative Montessori-Petö Kindergarten is if not longer.

It works well, there is continuity to our work and we are happy with it, even though the conductors and social pedagogues do not get as many weeks holiday as teachers get. The holiday is counted out in days not in weeks!

I suppose it does help that I am self-employed and often keep things running when the others take their compulsory three weeks in the summer.

I share your hopes for conductive education, perhaps it will one day be conductive upbringing!