AUTISTIC ME

Rational or what?

I rarely applaud much at events, and often not at all.

There is no great principle at work here. Simply, I have always understood that one claps the hands together to signal appreciation, pleasure, perhaps agreement, in order to convey one's feelings to the performer, and does so in proportion to how strongly one feels. How long this is continued, I have understood, indicates the degree of one's appreciation.

I never applaud films or other recorded performances because the feedback element is absent. And I was not brought up to applaud professional or academic presentations – as just not appropriate to such occasions, except perhaps in the case of personal tributes.

I realise that acting as I do in this respect may make me stand out, appear odd, or worse.

I am therefore pleased (cue for applause?) to wake this morning to BBC World Service's report of one of those jolly little social-psychological studies involving undergraduates:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22957099

Oh well, now for the morning's regular 'real news', like dirty doings in our world-famous National Health Service, dodgy bankers, Syria, the busy world of the 'international community', the economy, the weather etc.

Boo...

Reference

Morelle, R. Clapping reveals applause is a 'social contagion', BBC News, 19 June

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22957099

Includes nice onwards links, though the original report is not available on line, not yet anyway.

LITTLE KNOWN AND LONG FORGOTTEN

De facto purge of East German psychology

I have recently been reminded of something that raised virtually no remark in the West in the heady years following the fall of the Wall so rather than rely on my own distant memories, I thought that I would look it up on the Internet.

Like with many another thing, because I knew that it was there to be found, somewhere, I found it – but even so it took some finding.

Here's a handy summing up of what happened, by Lothar and Helga Sprung, for the International Union of Psychological Science –

The development of psychology in united Germany: 1990–2000

After the two German states were unified on 3 October 1990, psychology in the new federal states, that is, in the territory of the former GDR, was newly organized. This was carried out exclusively according to the model of the old federal republic. This new organization process had two very different faces. On one hand, it led to the massive transfer of psychological scholars from the old federal republic to the new federal states within united Germany. Only in scattered cases was there a transfer in the opposite direction. After the unification of the FRG and the GDR, only academic psychologists from the former GDR were evaluated professionally by colleagues from the (old) FRG. Academically employed psychologists from the former GDR were the only ones who had to reapply for their own positions, often without success. The transfer, evaluations, and mandatory new application process for positions already held resulted in the loss of many positions for psychologists from the GDR in united Germany (Vilmar, 2000; cf. Also Scheler, 2000). However, a still greater loss of psychology positions was caused by the collapse of numerous research, educational, and praxis establishments in the former GDR during the unification process. Estimates of personnel and institutional losses for all the reasons cited here lie between 60 and 70%. On the other hand, the new organization of psychology in the new federal states was linked with a significant expansion in personnel, facilities, and technology at existing academic institutions and departments of psychology. Also, new institutes and departments were established at new and old academic institutions, for example in Potsdam, Greifswald, Halle-Wittenberg, Rostock, Magdeburg, and Zwickau. A new Max Planck Institute for Psychology was also established, the Max Planck Institute for Neuropsychologic Research in Leipzig. To summarize this aspect of the unification of the two Germanys, it can be said that more was achieved quantitatively and, to a certain extent, qualitatively, during the years from 1990 to 2000 in the part of Germany once called the German Democratic Republic than during the previous 41 years of the GDR’s existence.

If one applies formal criteria for the genesis of a scientific discipline to the development of psychology since the unification of both German states, then the development as a whole can be evaluated very positively at the start of the 21st century.

http://e-book.lib.sjtu.edu.cn/iupsys/Origins/Imada/im03ch02.htm

So that's all right then...?  A net gain over that decade (leaving out of the analysis all other relevant social and economic changes in the former East Germany over those years).

Broadening the analysis, however, one might conclude rather differently, that over that decade major institutional development stimulated from the West was not reflected in a corresponding increase in qualitative achievement.

Just history now?

A shabby, even shaming little business, a long time ago, bringing with it at the time personal distress and loss for individuals forced out of work and career, and no doubt all sorts of wider social and intellectual waste too – but all forgotten now.

No harm, however, in remembering. It may even help a little better to understand the present. The Sprungs quoted Ingrid Mittenzwei –

A people cannot choose its history. This is something that has occurred and is irretrievable; but a people can and must create a relationship to its origins… and use history to mobilize or to warn.

Explanatory note: abbreviations

FDR – the Federal German Republic, 'West Germany'

DDR – the German Democratic Republic, 'East Germany'

Reference

Sprung, L., Sprung, H. (2009) History of modern psychology in Germany in 19th- and 20th-century thought and society, Psychology: UpsyS Global Resource, Edition 2009, International Union of Psychological Science

http://e-book.lib.sjtu.edu.cn/iupsys/Origins/Imada/im03ch02.htm

POLITICS AND TECHNICALITIES

Chose where you fight

I received this circular notification this morning from Ontario, Canada, via Facebook. This is a sample letter to be sent to Members of Parliament, prepared by the Chase the Dream charity, but with local variations it might be sent in many places around the world where CE's advocates try to get local legislators and insurance systems to pay for Conductive Education for children:

https://www.facebook.com/notes/chase-the-dream/letter-to-your-mpp-please-copy-and-email-to-your-local-mpp/409908312456249

And I am torn about what to think, what to do. The letter carries enormous hope, and it is so right in thrusting this issue firmly into the political arena where it belongs.

Politics

The provision of Conductive Education is a political matter, concerned with choice and power and money, and only an organised political campaign will see Conductive Education through in the face of ubiquitous opposition (it is amazing how few seem to realise this to the point of concerted action). Provision of Conductive Education is not a question for policy-making by 'professionals' and bureaucrats.

The letter's basic position is compatible with this –

Families and friends of children with neurological motor disorders, such as cerebral palsy, Parkinson's, multiple sclerosis, and victims of stroke or brain injury, are asking that the Ontario Health Care system do its homework and recognize that the current system is not meeting the physical, intellectual, social, and medical needs of these individuals. Conductive Education programs offer families a coordinated system of treatment that will help to meet these needs.

Conductive Ed needs to be recognized by the Ontario Health Care system as a legitimate method of therapy and treatment for individuals, young and old, suffering from neurological disorders, and provide financial support to help families off-set the costs incurred while receiving such treatment.

Technicalities

I do not know the structure of services and how they are funded in Ontario but surely no other special-educational service there is provided via the healthcare system.

It is hard enough to fight for Conductive Education for the motor-disordered. Children with other developmental disabilities in the twenty-first century will have been long within the province of the education service, where no doubt their parents continue to strive for ever better upbringing, pedagogy and education accordingly (not treatment and therapy).

Let us not be cynical, nor let us be surprised if fundholders in education everywhere are more than happy if the advocates of Conductive Education divert their enormous energies to assaulting the walls of the fortress next door, that of the the health authorities.

This can line of attack can be certainly justified by Conductive Education's being made to sound to outsiders like a health concern –

Conductive Ed programs work. By re-training the brain through intensive, multi-stimulatory therapy, people with neurological motor disabilities are able to generate muscle memory to enable them to perform body motions – such as sitting, standing, walking, holding and manipulating objects, and drawing – all of which were not possible through conventional therapy currently offered by the Ontario Health Care system. Coordinating services (e.g. occupational therapy, physiotherapy, speech and language) allow families more time and energy to focus on quality family time instead of travelling from one appointment to the next. Conductive Ed programs offer individuals greater independence, thereby, function with less reliance on government agencies in adulthood.

These are not arguments to threaten Conductive Education's opponents within health, though they may maintain or even widen Conductive Education's distance from education.

Torn

I wrote above that I feel 'torn' over this letter. In the early twentieth century so much is taken ans unproblematicly 'medical'. It may be that the assumptions of this age will be strong enough to convince legislators in Ontario that Conductive Education should be pushed through and established within the realm of health provision.

A younger generation of advocates is likely know the spirit of their time better that I.

Reference

Chase the Dream (2013) Help those who can’t – support Conductive Education (sample letter), 28 April
https://www.facebook.com/notes/chase-the-dream/letter-to-your-mpp-please-copy-and-email-to-your-local-mpp/409908312456249

THE WHEELS OF GOD

So exceeding slow

A few days ago I stumbled across this article from 2009, and the world looked just a little better a place:

http://lchc.ucsd.edu/mca/Journal/pdfs/16-4-cole.pdf

Well, I'm damned, whatever next? It would be nice to think that next might be the truly dreadful English-language translation 'zone of proximal development'.

Never mind conceptual substance, though, the social process reported is the more interesting – how once existing ideology is served and the damage done, then there is no turning the reactionary oil-tanker. Oh well, contradictions in all things!

I wonder whether Vygotskii will ever be be redeemable in the West. Or the rest of the psychology, pedagogy, upbringing, defectology etc. that he represented.

So it goes.

(Nothing here peculiar to Vygotskii, of course)

Reference

Cole, M. (ed.) (2009), The perils of translation: a first step in reconsidering Vygotsky’s theory of development in relation to formal education (editorial) , Mind, Culture, and Activity, vol. 16, pp. 291–295

http://lchc.ucsd.edu/mca/Journal/pdfs/16-4-cole.pdf

JORDAN

Another intervention

Jordan has seemed to have stood on the sidelines of Conductive Education for years, not quite taking a first practical step. I recall years and years ago being visited by a high-powered lady from Jordan (the wife of the Prime Minister, if I remember right) who wanted to get something going and, a few years later, I was not sure why, the Jordanian Embassy in London arranged a visit from a Jordanian Princess. As far as I knew at the time, nothing came of either. I am sure that there will have been other initiatives elsewhere, but nothing concrete appears to have resulted from them either.

I have only just noticed another, more recent initiative.

The Jubilee Institute is a non-profit, independent, residential, co-educational secondary school for gifted Jordanian pupils, located in Amman, Jordan. A group pupils from the King’s Academy had visited different centres in Jordan offering services for children with cerebral palsy, finding that further development is required in developing services across the country. A search of services available around the world suggested Conductive Education to be the best approach to enabling children to integrate into their communities.

Wanting to share their findings and enthusiasm for CE with professionals working with children with cerebral palsy, the pupils organised a conference in March of this year, opened by Princess Rajwa Bint Ali, the first to be held on this topic in Jordan on this topic.

The conference

King’s Academy in collaboration with the Pető Institute (Hungary)
Independent Life through Conductive Education
24 – 26 March 2013

The workshop will discuss the effect of conductive education on children with cerebral palsy. The workshop will be led by speakers from Jordan, Hungary and England. Papers will be presented to describe various experiences with cerebral palsy and the challenges that are faced.

Topics to be covered

• Basic elements of Conductive Education
• How Conductive Education is established in some Arab countries
• Cerebral Palsy in Jordan (this lecture will cover statistics, services and 
  challenges)
• A unique experience for Conductive Education in UK

Participants

• Professionals working with physical motor disabilities.
• Recommended for undergraduate students in the universities who study physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy or high school students, and educators who work with cerebral palsy

.Venue

• Royal Medical Services – Royal Rehabilitation Center (Farah Center)

Dates

• The workshop will be held from March 24 - 26, 2013
• Consultations will be available on March 27 and 28, 2013.

Time

• 9:00am – 1:00pm (each day)

Speakers

• Pal Csuka / Pető Institute – Hungary
• Eszter Daroczy / Pető Institute – Hungary
• Magdolna Kovacs / Rainbow Center – United Kingdom
• Dr Saleh Al Ajlouni / Queen Rania Hospital – Jordan
• King’s Academy Students

Rates

150 JD per student, 200 JD per specialist, includes:

• Attendance fees for the workshop from March 24 – 26, 2013
• Coffee break
• Certificate from the Pető Institute
  
  https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?id=272098622859795&story_fbid=451178588285130

One Jordanian Dinar = 0.90 British Pound Sterling.

References

– (2013) International recognition for the Rainbow Centre (press release), Rainbow Centre, undated

Jubilee Institute (2013) Conference programme, Facebook, 19 March

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=451178588285130&id=272098622859795

EQUIPMENT AND INFORMATION

Any change from three years?

Previous postings on Conductive World remain on line, and will appear in Internet searches by Google etc. Readers who feel strongly about what they find are free to post a Comment on such old postings.

(All postings, along with any Comments posted by readers, will be publicly available for some long time yet, courtesy of the web archives.)

Nearly three years ago a posting addressed the perennial issue arose of finding 'CE equipment' to use at home, part of the much wider question of lack of information for families in general. This had arisen within the context of England but is not unique to that country. In England failure of a major national organisation (Scope) to provide basis information was remarked upon – this too is hardly an England-specific problem. A parent's particular personal enquiry on line had sparked this posting – in the event this was answered by fellow parents:

http://www.conductive-world.info/2010/08/scope-for-improved-awareness-in-uk-too.html?showComment=1370773462499#c2898806639378513789

Now, nearly three years later, a further Comment, also from a parent...

I just came to this as I was looking for some Conductive Education bits and bobs for my son, to use at home. I was totally confused about the question posed in the 'article' above 'Why does somebody want to get kitted out with wooden furniture etc? Is it hoped that this stuff will work some miracle?'. What kind of question is that?

The whole principle of 'School for Parents' for the 0-5 year olds is that we learn Conductive Education skills that we then practise at home with our kids. We don't need a conductor there - we just need to integrate aspects of CE into our lives. Dycem mats to stick our child's plates and cups down so they don't fall off the table when the child tries to grab them, grab rails on the table so we can practise sitting in less supportive chairs and work core muscles, slatted stools to sit on when we practise our self-dressing skills instead of being laid down on the floor and dressed like you would a baby.

I don't think the woman who was after this stuff was criticising anyone and I don't think anyone had failed her – she was just trying to find what she wanted without having to pick up the phone and ask someone's advice. Smirthwaite do the basic stuff you might need and their name comes up when you Google “Conductive Education equipment” but they don't do all the stuff you might see in a CE school.

I think there's a need for a broader selection of equipment to be sold including some of the accessible items you might find at School For Parents including specialist scissors, rolling mats, standing ladders etc.

Anonymous

And Scope still seems to be holding CE at arm's length.

Any further comments?

Reference

Sutton, A. (2010) Scope for improved awareness in UK too. Is the paid help up to the job? Conductive World, 10 August

http://www.conductive-world.info/2010/08/scope-for-improved-awareness-in-uk-too.html?showComment=1370773462499#c2898806639378513789

EMAIL FROM DOWN UNDER

Lisa likes to tease, and provoke

Received this morning, from conductor Lisa Gombinsky –

Potential, Disability, and Human Worth

You'll want to read this...

http://kimchilatkes.com/2013/06/07/potential-disability-and-human-worth/

I replied –

Not a lot!

Thanks.

Actually, I do think a little more than that. I think that it is a wonderful blog that Lisa refers to, beautifully written and demonstrating so clearly that, however glibly so many professionals trot out the word 'potential', with no idea of what they are saying, or its effects, there are many parents who find this word deeply unsatisfactory as they struggle to make sense of their world.

In the blog posting that Lisa sent me, a mother calling herself just Jisun (sorry, I could not find her full name) poses common but fundamental questions –

So what is potential? Is it a bottle that we fill, predestined to be a certain size at birth? Is it a balloon that stretches and deflates according to our circumstances?What, specifically, are we discussing here? Potential for what? Happiness?  Wealth? Influence? Raw ability? What kind of ability?

I think of how parents are so poorly served by what I think might be described as post-modernist, relativist explanations of disability (Lisa will most certainly correct me if I misuse these words). Whatever the term that I am searching for, however, Jisun sums up this position perfectly –

Disability and a person’s potential are defined by the world’s ability to interact meaningfully with them, and not the other way around.

I do not blame Jisun for writing what she does, for she lives in a world where the position that she conveys is well-established amongst right-thinking people, and frequently expressed as 'progressive'. Ultimately, however, it is an inherently weak position that she has been offered, hardly a firm bulwark against modern eugenics.

Reflection

Jisun continues –

Potential is simply a mirror, reflecting the world’s biases, but having nothing to do with an individual himself.

L. S. Vygotskii lived in a society manifesting very different suppositions. Indeed, its very founder had written of human consciousness's being a 'reflection' (отражение) of objective reality – but a material (not an ideal) reflection. 

Conductive Education was born and permitted to survive (indeed to thrive) in an outpost of that world – and even in 2013, this shows. It is therefore hardly wonder that even many of its advocates in the West fail to grasp its essence.

Children's potential is created (not defined) not by 'the world's inability to interact with them but out the material transactions between children and their worlds, particularly their social worlds. There is a vital distinction here.

Is that what you wanted me to say, Lisa?

Reference

Au, W. (2007) Vygotsky and Lenin on learning: the parallel structures of individual and social development, Science and Society, vol. 71, no 3, 273-298 (esp. pp. 273-280)

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=EJ5NXsUs8zEC&pg=PA174&lpg=PA174&dq=lenin+reflection+vygotsky&source=bl&ots=Qfe8bLDslh&sig=qLzfrxelMewTNHbzS5UXnxh5gf4&hl=en&sa=X&ei=gv-1UdS6Fo340gXE5oCABQ&ved=0CDsQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=lenin%20reflection%20vygotsky&f=false

Kimchi (2013) Potential, disability, and human worth, Kimchi Latkes, 7 June

http://kimchilatkes.com/2013/06/07/potential-disability-and-human-worth/

MÁRI HÁRI AND ANDRÁS PETŐ RECOMMEND

Szalai Cukrászda

Mári Hári loved the opportunity for eating out – and ice-cream.

I think that the first of many, many times that I ate out with her was in May 1984 when she took me and my small investigatory party to the Szalai Cukrászda at Balassi Bálint u. 5. She had taken us on a first-time-visitors' tour of the sights of Budapest and after showing the outside of the Parliament House she walked us gleefully a few yards up Balassi Bálint utca to what was then a shabby little café at no 5.

This, she proudly announced, had been András Pető's favourite cukrászda (cake and coffee shop). She did not add that he lived just a couple of blocks down the street (we hadn't asked), nor that she herself lived just the other side of the Parliament House, in Munich Ferenc (now Nádor) u. They had often eaten ice cream at the Szalai Cukrászda together.

'It is the dynasty,' she explained – meaning that the shop had been passed down through a family. 'It is the best ice-cream in Budapest'. It was certainly very good. What flavour would I like, she asked. It was impossible to chose just one. 'Mixed,' I replied.

'Mixed like this?' Vigorously, with two hands, she mimed bringing dispersed things together into one place. 'Or mixed like this?' With a finger, she just as vigorously, she mimed stirring. I chose the former, and a private joke was born. Many time in later years we had cause to ask each other 'Mixed like this – or mixed like this?'

In later years still

Now in 2013 I see that the Szalai Cukrászda and the Szalai family are still there, everything bigger and smarter nowadays, with their own website and facebook page:

http://www.szalaicukraszda.hu/

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Szalai-Cukr%C3%A1szda/236349133122454

The dynasty continues*, and independent on-line reviews confirm the continuing validity of AP's and MH's good taste.

Also in 2013 'Mixed like this – or mixed like this?' seems just as valid a distinction to make when considering some of the questions around Conductive Education.

Flood alert

The Conductor blog reminds that the current Danube floods are lapping close to András Pető's old flat:

http://www.susie-mallett.org/2013/06/along-budapests-number-2-tram-route.html

I do hope that the waters spare this ground-floor café.

A memento of Mária and the no 2 tram

Sutton, A. (2010) Hári, Nietsche, Kant, Sinatra. Memento mori – memento vitae, Conductive World, 6 October

http://www.conductive-world.info/2010/10/hari-nietsche-kant-sinatra.html

I see that to date that this posting has attracted 211 visits.

*     Egyéb információ

Az első üzletet az alapító Szalai István cukrász mester nyitotta 1917. december 17-én Budapesten, az akkori V. Lipót krt. 7. sz. alatt, ma Szt. István krt. 7. (a jelenlegi Európa Kávéház).

Az üzlet szépen fejlődött, túlélte a II. világháborút és működött egészen 1949-ig, az államosításig. Ekkor egyik napról a másikra kitették a saját üzletéből. Mint ún. "osztályidegen elem" nem tudott a szakmában elhelyezkedni ezért volt lakatos segédmunkás, élelmiszerbolti eladó stb.

Az 1953-ban bekövetkezett politikai enyhüléssel megnyílt a lehetőség, hogy újra üzletet nyithasson. Természetesen nem kapta vissza a régit, hanem az V. kerületi Balassi Bálint utcában nyitott újra egy kicsi helyiségben egy új cukrászdát igen nehéz körülmények között.

1968-ig - nyugdíjba vonulásáig - dolgozott majd átadta fiának id. Szalai Györgynek aki 1990-ig vezette az üzletet. Nyugdíjba vonulása óta fia ifj. Szalai György vezeti az üzletet és unokája Szalai Bence is - immár cukrászként - a cukrászdában dolgozik.

http://www.iranymagyarorszag.hu/terkep/I201712

In English, something like this –

The first business of the founder, pastry chef Istvan Szalai, opened on 17 December 1917, in Budapest District V, in the then Leopold u., today's St. István krt. 7 (the current Európa Kávéház).

The business prospered, survived the Second World War and operated until nationalization in 1949, Then with no notice he was kicked out of his own business. As a so-called 'declassed element' he could not find a job his profession so he became a locksmith's labourer, a grocery assistant etc.

The political thaw in 1953 opened the way to starting to one's business again. He was not of course given back to the old one but opened up again with a new pastry shop, in a small room in very difficult circumstances, in Balassi Bálint utca in the V. District.

In 1968 – retirement – and he handed over to his son George Szalai who already worked there and ran the business until 1990. Since his retirement his son George Szalai Junior runs the business and grandson Szalai Bence is now a pastry chef working in the pastry shop.

http://www.iranymagyarorszag.hu/terkep/I201712

Mária was right about this too , a dynasty indeed.

CONDUCTIVE EDUCATION REMEMBERED

Aged two to five in Hamilton, New Zealand

Michael Pulman is a young man who has grown up among the sometimes 'harsh realities' of life with a disability even in God's own land of New Zealand. Two years ago, when he was nineteen, he published a small book, a reminiscence of his life so far.

Between the ages of two and five he attended Conductive Education for three to four days a week in a school in Hamilton mainly intended for children with 'siribel pausy' ('cerebral palsy' rendered in New Zealand English)

Parts of the book are available open-access on line, through Google Books. Fortunately for those concerned specifically with CE, these include pages 18 to 22, covering his experience of Conductive Education.

The phrase 'never give up' and 'keep trying' would be something that I would learn very quickly over the next few years... (p. 19)

When he was five Michel's diagnosis was confirmed as cerebral spinal atrophy. He has a passion for writing and works as a sportswriter.

Other such memoirs of conductive childhoods are coming into print (I know of a couple immanent), offering child's eye views of conductive experiences and contributing cumulatively towards a fuller understanding of this human process.

Michael's also reminds one that the development and history of Conductive Education now unfold in places far removed from Hungary.

Reference

Pulman, M. (2011) Such is Life, Trafford Publishing

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=8EkQddioURQC&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22conductive++education%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=iM6yUbbaF6nT0QXewYHgCw&ved=0CGgQ6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=%22conductive%20%20education%22&f=false

The complete book (and Michael's first novel) can be purchased on line:

http://bookstore.trafford.com/AdvancedSearch/Default.aspx?SearchTerm=pulman

Hardback US$ 12.33

Softback US$ 9.99

WHAT GOES AROUND, COMES AROUND

Vygotskii lives!

The following fundraising video went on line on Youtube today, in which father Andy Hopwood describes a game that he has developed to raise funds for Conductive Education.:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4eWYc4Sg20

This put me immediately in mind of the little cards in A. Ya. Ivanova's teaching experiment that I utilised in the mid-seventies to demonstrate – to my own great personal satisfaction but to no wider interest whatsoever – the distinction between temporary retardation and oligophrenia, by means of distinctly different zones on next development as revealed in the process of obuchenie (teaching), see for example:

Sutton, A. (1980) Measures and models in developmental psychology, Educational Studies, vol. 6, no 2, pp. 111-126

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0305569800060202?journalCode=ceds20#.UbJFPPmTiSo

Ivanova's cards were of course based upon the venerable 'Vygotskii-Sahharov Blocks', once upon a time about the only thing that L. S. Vygotskii was known for in the English-speaking world – and still, I see, used in the experimental elucidation of concept-formation:

http://vimeo.com/10689139