C.E. Jottings

Déjà vu, all over again. The dysfunctional services that confront parents of children with cerebral palsy

Two news items earlier this week: the report in Charity Today “Children’s Disability Charity Launches New Occupational Therapy and Sensory Integration Service” and the announcement by Action Cerebral Palsy of the All-Party Parliamentary Group’s report “Early identification, intervention and pathways of care of infants and young children with cerebral palsy: The case for reform and Investment”. Charity Today has this to say: “CPotential is a one-stop-shop of rehabilitation services for children with movement disorders. The charity also offers physiotherapy, conductive... Read more →

Two-footedness is a coachable skill - why we should keep telling the conductive education story

"Two-footedness, for example, is a coachable skill. The motor cortex and related brain areas adapt when players are encouraged to use both feet and to think in a symmetrical way." All Conductors, I hope and expect, will find nothing exceptional or exceptionable in that statement. So writes Matthew Syed, Sports Journalist of the Year, in The Times last week, in an article about English football's youth academies. What's interesting is what he writes next. "The head coach at one of... Read more →

Has Bradley Wiggins "reached his full potential"? Not if he's minded to overcome fatigue.

Has 2012 Tour de France winner Bradley Wiggins reached his full potential? Have you? Do you know anyone who has? Perhaps the problem lies with the whole notion of "reaching potential"? One of the minor irritations of the Murdoch press is the paywall. Behind it are two of the most interesting journalists writing occasional articles about human performance: sports writer Matthew Syed and Chief Sports Correspondent Matt Dickinson. Just such an article recently was that by Matt Dickinson "Cyclists can... Read more →

More potential nonsense. Sadly. But some good reading, too.

There are few enough books written by those who have cerebral palsy. "I'll Do It Myself" by Glenda Watson Hyatt is one that I have throughly enjoyed reading and highly recommend. (Her blog is on my recommended reading list, too!) Another quite different book but equally enjoyable read is "George's Travelogue", by George McDowell. One of the best regular blogs (because, like the two books, it challenges comfortable, conventional thinking) is "Lawyer on Wheels" by Ralph Strzałkowski. (Both the latter... Read more →

Pondering research, cerebral palsy and education (1)

The fourth and final evidence session of the Parliamentary Enquiry into Cerebral Palsy was held last Tuesday. Led by Action Cerebral Palsy and Chaired by Paul Maynard MP (to whom many grateful thanks), the final report is expected to be published on 27th January 2015. The final session, in part, raised issues around the vexed questions of research and funding. My interest, to declare it up front, is the education of children with cerebral palsy and the continuation into adulthood... Read more →

Outcomes for people with cerebral palsy: life expectancy and quality of life

Can't bring myself to pay the $31.50 to buy the article but this abstract attracted my attention, partly for its headline but mainly for two bits that I have underlined (my emphasis). The abstract below is from Paediatrics and Child Health Volume 22, Issue 9 , Pages 384-387, September 2012. Outcomes for people with cerebral palsy: life expectancy and quality of life. Allan Colver MA MD FRCPCH Donald Court Professor of Community Child Health, Institute of Health and Society, Newcastle... Read more →

Hanif Kureishi can't skip .... but he is an artist of his own life #CondEd

Here's an article I think most of us in Conductive Education will understand. Unfortunately, it's in yesterday's Sunday Times Magazine section, behind Rupert's paywall: Think and You'll Miss It by writer Hanif Kureishi. He begins with an amusing admission that, having recently tried, he cannot skip with a rope; his 13-year old son, on the other hand, to whom he handed the rope, "did the whole thing backwards, singing a Beatles song". Which leads him shortly to: "My son who... Read more →

What is the purpose of schools? asked Anthony Seddon

What is the purpose of schools? Writing in the Sunday Times (£pay site) a couple of weeks ago (“Think Tank: New Ideas for the 21st Century”), Anthony Seddon, Master of Wellington College, approved much that Michael Gove has done as Education Secretary, whilst suggesting “If he has a blind spot, however, it is his lack of a vision for the purpose of schools”. “Gove has let exam passes become the all-important validator of the worth of a school .... Exams,... Read more →

Children do not have motor disorders only in school term-time

The other day, I was reflecting on the possibilities 'Flexi-schools' offer for year-round conductive education. Today, I have been reading of the possibilities open to Free Schools. ( The Daily Telegraph reports a speech by Education Secretary Michael Gove to the Policy Exchange.) The Free School Norwich for instance, plans to open six days a week for 51 weeks of the year, which will integrating high-quality education and child care all year-round. Freedom to set their own staff pay and... Read more →

Concocting a recipe for a new approach to conductive upbringing and schooling from four ingredients

The 4 Ingredients: Cyber-CE Flexischooling Family-centred education Free schools. I have long puzzled about how conductive upbringing, which is necessarily child-and-family centred 365 days a year, might creatively be integrated with conductive schooling with its institutional structures and limitations – whilst having some hope at least of a sustainable business model. Three fortuitous bits of reading and a current obsession - the 4 ingredients - can perhaps be shaken or stirred together to make something wholly new. Crazy? No problem.... Read more →