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A couple of people have asked me for more details of Conductive Education, which I mentioned a day or two ago. Here are some notes on the technique, which I personally feel can do a lot of good. Conductive Education was developed by Professor Andreas Peto in Budapest after the Second World War. It has been known about in professional circles in the West since the early 1960s, but serious and extensive international interest began only a few years ago. Conductive Education is not a treatment, and offers no cure. It is a highly developed system of special education directed at teaching people with motor disorders how to function independently. Motor disorders are problems of controlling bodily movements, due to certain conditions of the brain or spine, including in childhood cerebral palsy and spina bifida, and in adulthood Parkinson's Disease, multiple sclerosis and strokes. Conductive Education is generally given in small classes, with a trained leader or "conductor". A typical class begins with relaxation and stretching exercises for arms, legs and trunk, but continues with an variety of cross-correlated exercises - such as (while lying on your back) touching your left shoulder with your right hand and placing your left heel on your right knee at the same time, then swapping sides. All these exercises are performed while singing a tuneful and rhythmic "one, two, one, two..." in unison, at a tempo of about 80-90 beats per minute. There are also exercises in fine hand movements, such as having one hand clenched in a fist and the other splayed out - then progressively opening each finger on one hand while folding each finger in turn on the other. These cross-correlated exercises are particularly important - and many are actually quite difficult even for able-bodied and able-brained adults to perform. A class might last about 2 hours, and it is recommended that patients attend several each week. As a system of education (rather than exercise or training) Conductive Education aims to transform the personality as a whole, its emotional as well as cognitive aspects, rather than simply teach motor skills and functions. The enormous attraction of Conductive Education lies in its apparent results. Visitors to Budapest over the last 20 years have remarked that motor-disordered children and adults there do not just function better than might be expected, but also seem different personalities - happier, more satisfied and self-assured, less handicapped. They are learning and problem-solving independently. In quantitative terms, records indicate that around two thirds to three quarters of children who have undertaken a full-time course at the Peto Institute in Budapest go into the school system at a level appropriate to their mental potential, without the need for aids, adaptations, class-room assistants etc. After Professor Peto's death in 1967, his colleagues, in particular Dr Maria Hari, who is now director of the Peto Institute, continued to develop the method, and Conductive Education techniques are now used in many countries. In the UK, it is available, for instance, through: The Springhill Centre Cuddington Road, Dinton, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire HP18 0AD tel +44 1296 748278 fax +44 1296 747360 Best wishes, Tim Sanderson ([log in to unmask])