Awareness week to open doors for children with motor disorders

The Conductive Education Awareness week will run from June 13th - 19th, 2011.

The Conductive Education Awareness week aims to open doors to education for more children with physical disabilities of neurological origin.

Conductive Education is an educational programme developed to improve the quality of life for people with motor disorders.  

It is based on the philosophy that people with motor disorders of neurological origin – such as Cerebral Palsy, Spina Bifida and Global Developmental Delay – can learn.

The programme is taught at nine educational centres around New Zealand.

Centres cater for children from a few months old to high school age, helping them learn to coordinate movements and achieve greater independence.

Dave Ching from The New Zealand Foundation for Conductive Education says the week is about connecting with parents and caregivers of children with a motor disorder who may not know about the programme.

“Families generally find out about Conductive Education some time after they hear the shattering medical diagnosis that their child has a motor disorder,” Ching says.

“Often parents are not presented with all the options and have to embark on their own journey of discovery to find help and support for their child.  The week is about trying to make it easier for people to find us and access the most beneficial education programme for their child and situation.”

A group of dedicated parents seeking the best opportunities for their children opened the doors of NZ’s first Conductive Education Centre in the early 1990s, convincing medical and educational professionals to help establish the programme.

Developed by Hungarian Professor, Andras Peto, Conductive Education programmes are delivered by highly qualified professionals, so-called ‘conductors’, whose role is that of health professional as well as educator.

Training involves four years of study at the Peto Institute in Hungary or at Birmingham University in England.

Each week 180 children and young people attend the programmes, but capacity at the current centres is not meeting demand with the foundation receiving many enquiries from areas in NZ without Conductive Education centres.