I have to hand in my research proposal next week, for what i want to spend the next year worrying about, fretting over, and generally probably hating - so what have i decided to torture myself with :
the perceptions and opinions of professionals of Conductive Education and the Bobath method of Physiotherapy.........
am i going to regret this choice...... possibly....... but i'm sure whatever i had selected as my topic choice i will end up wishing i hadn't
so i am writing my justification for research - and how do i justify this choice - because i'm crazy.....actually not a bad justification!
Wednesday 30 April 2008
Tuesday 22 April 2008
What is Conductive Education?
Well, an interesting title for a blog posting - an even more interesting title for a presentation that we will be presenting tomorrow morning!
At 9 am me and 2 of my classmates will be standing up to give our views on what exactly is Conductive Education. It is actually a very interesting assignment - we have picked a target audience and using our imagination will be speaking to a group of prospective students about the course of Conductive Education (easy to imagine our lecturers and fellow students as 17 or 18 year old adolescents!)
For part of our presentation we have made and edited a short movie in which we interviewed 1st and 3rd year students, asking them questions such as 'what do you plan to do when you graduate' and what do you like most about the course'. Needless to say their answers have been very interesting, funny and have perhaps widened my own views towards the overall benefits of this course. The first question we asked was 'what is Conductive Education' and I find it so very interesting that the answers to this are so wide and varied. I myself find that when i give a definition of what Conductive Education is, it is dependent on who i am talking to for what my answer is and that even 2 years into this course i do not have a straightforward and standard answer to the question 'what is Conductive Education'.
At 9 am me and 2 of my classmates will be standing up to give our views on what exactly is Conductive Education. It is actually a very interesting assignment - we have picked a target audience and using our imagination will be speaking to a group of prospective students about the course of Conductive Education (easy to imagine our lecturers and fellow students as 17 or 18 year old adolescents!)
For part of our presentation we have made and edited a short movie in which we interviewed 1st and 3rd year students, asking them questions such as 'what do you plan to do when you graduate' and what do you like most about the course'. Needless to say their answers have been very interesting, funny and have perhaps widened my own views towards the overall benefits of this course. The first question we asked was 'what is Conductive Education' and I find it so very interesting that the answers to this are so wide and varied. I myself find that when i give a definition of what Conductive Education is, it is dependent on who i am talking to for what my answer is and that even 2 years into this course i do not have a straightforward and standard answer to the question 'what is Conductive Education'.
Saturday 19 April 2008
More about me.....
Well, day after tomorrow isn't too bad for my second posting!
I guess to understand a little more about how i have reached this point so far in training to be a Conductor - you need a little background on my life before CE...
As stated before I am 26 years old, and I grew up in Cannock - about 20 miles from the Institute in Birmingham with my mom, dad, 2 brothers, 1 sister, a dog and plenty of tropical fish!
My eldest brother has complex disabilities - he doesn't really have one specific diagnosis - he was born with mild Spina Bifida, and began to have seizures a few days after birth which caused extensive brain damage. He doesn't speak, is tube-fed, (due to Barrett's Osophegus), is doubly incontinent, has contracted limbs, windswept posture, uses a moulded wheelchair insert, but the majority of the time is very happy.
He is 31 years old - has always lived at home - and until recently has always been looked after by my parents alone.
But I wouldn't change anything of this situation for the world... this may shock some people, but anyone with a sibling, child, parent or other family member who has a disability, will understand the joy that my brother brings into my life and the way that this experience has helped shape the person that i am.
After A' Levels at school, i went to University and studied for a degree in Food and Consumer Management (I know - totally different!) When i finished this, i decided to go to America to work as an Au-Pair. I particularly stated on my application form that i did not want to work with Children with disabilities - I felt that i had had enough experiences with this and that my year would be more enjoyable to work with non-disabled children - how wrong was I!!!
I got a call and email with photos from a family in Chicago and within about 5 minutes was completely sold to go and work with a family with 4 childen, the youngest who had a Hemispherectomy at 18 months for seizures, and so has no left hemisphere resulting in paralysis to his right side, plus plenty of complex problems - including being diagnosed with Leukaemia 20 months ago...
Anyway, I enjoyed my time so much that i stayed for 2 years (!) and during this time was introduced to Conductive Education, by Szilvia Mark, a Conductor, who began to do private CE in the home, twice a week.
So that was my first introduction to Conductive Education and after the very first session I was straight on the internet searching exactly what CE was, and imagine my suprise when i discovered how very close to my home the training centre was, and so the application was completed, mailed in and i was invited for an interview..........
Will write more soon, i guess my first few posts will be getting up to where i am now - and then they can become more about the present...
And by the way - my oral exam was fine - have actually impressed myself with how much i do know about Conductive Education, but still scares me how much there still is to learn..........
I guess to understand a little more about how i have reached this point so far in training to be a Conductor - you need a little background on my life before CE...
As stated before I am 26 years old, and I grew up in Cannock - about 20 miles from the Institute in Birmingham with my mom, dad, 2 brothers, 1 sister, a dog and plenty of tropical fish!
My eldest brother has complex disabilities - he doesn't really have one specific diagnosis - he was born with mild Spina Bifida, and began to have seizures a few days after birth which caused extensive brain damage. He doesn't speak, is tube-fed, (due to Barrett's Osophegus), is doubly incontinent, has contracted limbs, windswept posture, uses a moulded wheelchair insert, but the majority of the time is very happy.
He is 31 years old - has always lived at home - and until recently has always been looked after by my parents alone.
But I wouldn't change anything of this situation for the world... this may shock some people, but anyone with a sibling, child, parent or other family member who has a disability, will understand the joy that my brother brings into my life and the way that this experience has helped shape the person that i am.
After A' Levels at school, i went to University and studied for a degree in Food and Consumer Management (I know - totally different!) When i finished this, i decided to go to America to work as an Au-Pair. I particularly stated on my application form that i did not want to work with Children with disabilities - I felt that i had had enough experiences with this and that my year would be more enjoyable to work with non-disabled children - how wrong was I!!!
I got a call and email with photos from a family in Chicago and within about 5 minutes was completely sold to go and work with a family with 4 childen, the youngest who had a Hemispherectomy at 18 months for seizures, and so has no left hemisphere resulting in paralysis to his right side, plus plenty of complex problems - including being diagnosed with Leukaemia 20 months ago...
Anyway, I enjoyed my time so much that i stayed for 2 years (!) and during this time was introduced to Conductive Education, by Szilvia Mark, a Conductor, who began to do private CE in the home, twice a week.
So that was my first introduction to Conductive Education and after the very first session I was straight on the internet searching exactly what CE was, and imagine my suprise when i discovered how very close to my home the training centre was, and so the application was completed, mailed in and i was invited for an interview..........
Will write more soon, i guess my first few posts will be getting up to where i am now - and then they can become more about the present...
And by the way - my oral exam was fine - have actually impressed myself with how much i do know about Conductive Education, but still scares me how much there still is to learn..........
Wednesday 16 April 2008
Why, Why, Why?
First posting of this blog, so thought i would start off with some answers to the important question of Why.....
Why am i doing this blog....
Well, I don't really know actually... Best thank (or possibly blame!) Andrew Sutton for that. Today's discussion related to the changing world and the new way of sharing information via the new up and coming passion for blogging. Andrew (perhaps purposefully!) mentioned the lack of any blog written by a student about the trials and tribulations we must go through to reach the final destination of becoming a Conductor.
I have never written a blog before, I have tried (and failed) to keep a diary in the past, and am the kind of person who can forget about replying to an email for months and months, so i don't really know how successful this blog is going to turn out to be.
Why am I here?
Well, I guess at this point i should give a little information about myself. I am 26 years old - what you would call a mature student - (ha!) and I am coming very close to finishing my second year of training at the National Institute of Conductive Education (NICE). It has been a hard and trying journey to get myself to this point - but one that overall i can tell you has been enjoyable, yet challenging. I am a completely different person now than when i started this course - i have developed in more ways then i ever thought possible - and I am very happy with this transformation and the person that Conductive Education has shaped me into.
There are plenty more why questions that i could and should answer but the most important one right now is why have i started this blog tonight at 10.30 pm, and the answer to that question would be tomorrow i have an Oral exam, which i should be studying for, but for which starting a blog seemed like the more interesting option! So anyway, back to the studying - and I'll post more tomorrow - if i remember!!!
Why am i doing this blog....
Well, I don't really know actually... Best thank (or possibly blame!) Andrew Sutton for that. Today's discussion related to the changing world and the new way of sharing information via the new up and coming passion for blogging. Andrew (perhaps purposefully!) mentioned the lack of any blog written by a student about the trials and tribulations we must go through to reach the final destination of becoming a Conductor.
I have never written a blog before, I have tried (and failed) to keep a diary in the past, and am the kind of person who can forget about replying to an email for months and months, so i don't really know how successful this blog is going to turn out to be.
Why am I here?
Well, I guess at this point i should give a little information about myself. I am 26 years old - what you would call a mature student - (ha!) and I am coming very close to finishing my second year of training at the National Institute of Conductive Education (NICE). It has been a hard and trying journey to get myself to this point - but one that overall i can tell you has been enjoyable, yet challenging. I am a completely different person now than when i started this course - i have developed in more ways then i ever thought possible - and I am very happy with this transformation and the person that Conductive Education has shaped me into.
There are plenty more why questions that i could and should answer but the most important one right now is why have i started this blog tonight at 10.30 pm, and the answer to that question would be tomorrow i have an Oral exam, which i should be studying for, but for which starting a blog seemed like the more interesting option! So anyway, back to the studying - and I'll post more tomorrow - if i remember!!!
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