Memorandum submitted by R Wilkinson and
J Rashleigh
CEREBRAL PALSY1. This
submission primarily discusses the difficulties of living with
cerebral palsy since this is the most common physical disability
that we encounter within our daily work. However, Conductive Education
also teaches children with a wide variety of other movement disorders.
CEREBRAL PALSY—MISUNDERSTOOD
AND NEGLECTED
2. Cerebral palsy has a severe and profound
effect on those suffering from it and their families. We see—first
hand—how the birth of both children with cerebral palsy
has a devastating effect on not only the children, but also their
immediate and extended family.
3. Such children are born into a system
which views their disabilities as creating purely physical problems
and does not even begin to consider the huge impact that their
disability has on their ability to learn, to motivate themselves,
to create social relationships and to take control of their own
lives.
4. We see how these misunderstandings in
the system's current approach not only fails to address and ameliorate
fundamental problems in children's development, but also puts
additional pressures and problems on the families of those who
already have the strain of living with a cerebral palsied child.
5. No matter how severely or mildly affected
children with cerebral palsy may be, the biggest impact of their
condition is upon their learning. From birth children with cerebral
palsy are unable to access and interact with their environment
in a functional way and thus their learning is dysfunctional.
This dysfunction affects the ability and the desire to achieve,
learn and succeed. "Access" to opportunities to learn
is therefore not enough.
For example; children with cerebral
palsy may have disabled `access' at their local swimming pool
but this does not automatically mean they can learn to swim.
CURRENT PRACTICE
6. Many children with cerebral palsy are
allocated a learning support assistant. In the overwhelming majority
of cases these assistants have little or no experience in teaching
a child with a physical disability. In essence they are not sufficiently
trained to facilitate a cerebral palsied child's learning. Similarly
most class teachers have vastly inadequate training (in fact no
training at all) in how to differentiate their teaching for these
children.
7. How can one begin to teach children with
cerebral palsy when one does not really understand what their
problems are? This is like asking a general practitioner to perform
surgery with no appropriate training! This may seem an extreme
comparison but the consequences of providing inadequate or counterproductive
teaching and learning can have a devastating impact on the life
of a child with cerebral palsy.
A mother of one of the cerebral palsied
children with whom we work spoke to us because her daughter is
having problems at school. Her teacher knows she is intelligent
and deems her `lazy' because she never initiates the completion
of her own work in class. In fact the child wants to take a greater
part in the class work but lacks the basic skills to initiate
her own learning. Her assistant—in trying to help or "support"—always
takes the lead in completion of the child's work. No one within
the classroom has the basic knowledge of how to motivate this
child and in how to make her learn independently. In fact, she
is being taught not to learn independently but to be dependent.
8. The learning difficulties of cerebral
palsied children therefore, can not be solved merely by the provision
of ramps, lifts, adapted seating, wheelchairs and hoists—nor
simply by enlisting additional staff members within a classroom
environment. Whilst these measures might offer some help in "managing"
the children's condition, they do little to facilitate the multitude
of difficulties that these children face in "learning to
learn". However this is what the current system provides
and what it seemingly views as sufficient and appropriate.
THE NATIONAL
CURRICULUM AND
CEREBRAL PALSY
9. The National Curriculum needs to admit
explicitly that the developmental needs of children with cerebral
palsy include learning basic functions such as self-positioning,
mobility skills, toileting and hand-control and thus should be
part of the curriculum like language skills are included for the
deaf. Conductive Education can teach these explicit needs that
the National Curriculum currently ignores.
For example; If a six year old child
cannot grasp a pencil then the curriculum will not allow this
lack of ability to be ignored and the child would be taught how
to hold the pencil. However if a child with cerebral palsy finds
it difficult to grasp a pencil then he is not taught how to hold
it but is given an aid such as a computer. Whilst this aid may
provide some help for the child in acquiring academic knowledge,
his explicit developmental need to be taught to grasp a pencil
is neglected.
WHAT CONDUCTIVE
EDUCATION CAN
OFFER
10. Conductive Education teaches people
with physical disabilities (primarily cerebral palsy) to learn
actively to achieve purposeful movement which can then be applied
throughout their daily living. Conductive Education also works
to improve people's social, emotional, cognitive and communication
skills, helping them to become autonomous, valuable members of
society. This in turn positively affects the morale and wellbeing
of their families.
11. Conductive Education offers
— The only educational approach that
is specifically directed towards the needs of children with cerebral
palsy.
— Conductors who are the only teaching
professionals specifically trained to an expert level in physical
disabilities.
— An example of parental choice in
operation.
— A system of teaching that can directly
enhance a child's inclusion both educationally and socially.
— A system that improves a child's
physical and academic abilities.
— A comprehensive system of teaching
for people with any severity of physical disability and of any
age.
— Teaching not only for the child but
also for the parents.
12. RECOMMENDATIONS
FOR ACTION
We urge that the Government:
— Recognises that cerebral palsy is
a severe and complex disability.
— Seriously considers the conceptional
inadequacies in the current provisions for children with cerebral
palsy.
— Provides, at the very least, adequate
training for teachers and learning support assistants in order
to promote learning and inclusion for children with cerebral palsy.
— Pays serious attention to Conductive
Education as an effective and necessary provision for children
with cerebral palsy.
— Give serious consideration to real
collaboration with the voluntary sector.
— Act upon their promise of increasing
parental choice.
— Listen to the growing number of parents
who have felt it necessary to access Conductive Education due
to inadequacies in the current system.
September 2005
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