When the Audit Commission published its report on special educational needs in June this year, it called for a high-level Government review and a national debate to instigate reform. One radical proposal came from a well-known charitable organisation, the Foundation for Conductive Education, which runs services for children and adults who have motor disorders such as cerebral palsy, dyspraxia and multiple sclerosis.
The Foundation would like to see a 'comprehensive habilitation service' to which families can turn for advice, guidance and practical help in overcoming the short-or long-term consequences of a disability. This would be along the lines of the service the Foundation provides in Birmingham at the associated National Institute of Conductive Education.
The Foundation's director, Andrew Sutton, says, 'If you look at the Audit Commission's report, all people talk about is the choice between ordinary school and special school. But we're meant to be a consumer society, and consumers should have a better choice than that.'
The proposed model of habilitation would bridge the gap between health, education and social services and, instead of just providing access to the national curriculum, would facilitate real social inclusion by teaching children life skills.
'Mainstream schooling is the ideal if it is meeting the child's needs but there is a huge range of alternatives,' says Andrew Sutton. 'It could mean a special teacher coming into the classroom, a child going out to a withdrawal class, it might mean going to sessions in the evening. Different children need different support at different times of their lives.'
How it works
Conductive education has been developed specifically to meet the needs of those suffering from motor disorders - conditions in which disease or damage to the central nervous system affects the ability to control movements. These conditions are incurable, but the aim is to provide the individual with a life-long learning process.
Provision is flexible at all stages, with children and adults attending as few or as many sessions as required. Some may attend intensively for a few weeks, others once a week or more.
The parent and child service provides for babies from a year up until the age of three. As Chas McGuigan, head of operations at the Institute of Conductive Education, explains, 'One of the things you find is that when you have a disabled baby nobody tells you what to do. How do you teach a child who's floppy how to sit?' These issues are addressed, with parents and disabled babies working in small groups with a conductor. With very young babies the sessions last an hour. The first thing learned is balance, sitting balance, then standing balance, then trying to move, communication, eating and continence. The latter is very important: potties and toilets are used, so they become the norm. For the parents of some disabled children the idea that their child actually can become continent is extraordinary.
At the age of three, children move into the nursery, known here as the early intervention service. The nursery covers the same early learning goals as any mainstream nursery. Chas McGuigan says that nursery age is just about the right time for children to start attending without their parents. He talks about 'intelligent love', as it's common for parents to 'mollycoddle' their disabled child. 'You think you are giving a child love by cuddling it all the time, but are you creating more dependence? If you just push it away a bit, encourage it, teach it to do things, you are loving it with a capital L.'
Chas McGuigan knows this from personal experience - his son Matthew, now aged 20, has cerebral palsy. He recalls visiting the Peto Institute in Hungary in 1986 when Matthew was four. 'That was the first time anyone said anything positive about him, 1,000 miles behind the Iron Curtain. The great thing that they did for Matthew was they took a very disabled little boy, who wanted to learn, and they taught him to walk, which they never would have done here. They recognised he had potential, they told us that and that gave us hope. With hope you have a basis for trying to do something.'
There is a primary school based at the institute, where children do Key stages 1 and 2 of the National Curriculum, just as they would in a mainstream school. For most of the children who attend, this is their statemented school, although there are a few private pupils. From ages 11 to 17 children attend secondary schools elsewhere and the institute offers sessional services. Chas McGuigan says, 'We exist in one sense for inclusion, but our definition of inclusion is probably a little wider than just integration in a mainstream school. It's inclusion in society and preparation for that, of which school is a part, of course.'
In order for inclusion to be successful it is vital that the mainstream school is fully briefed. The institute will spend up to a year preparing staff at the receiving school so that the child's progress is maintained.
Conductive education is a wholly holistic approach, with no boundaries of limitation as to what can be achieved. As Chas McGuigan says, 'We exist to help people realise their potential, however limited or extensive that may be. A lot of people think conductive education is about learning to walk.
It isn't. It's about realising potential.
For more information phone 0121 449 1569 or see the Foundation's website at www.conductive-education.org.uk
Factfile
* Dr Andras Peto in Budapest, Hungary, developed conductive education after the Second World War.
* Widespread interest in the UK followed the 1980s BBC documentary, 'Standing Up for Joe'. This followed a British family and their son Joe, who has cerebral palsy, on a visit to the Peto Institute in Hungary.
* A campaign led to establishing the national charity, the Foundation for Conductive Education, in 1986. The National Institute for Conductive Education was opened by Diana, Princess of Wales in 1995. It is the leading UK centre for services and training in conductive education and is based in Birmingham.
* A BA Hons degree course was set up in 1997 to train qualified conductors, the specialist teachers who deliver conductive education. The course is run jointly by the National Institute of Conductive Education and the University of Wolverhampton and is the only degree course to be run wholly outside Hungary.