Conductive education
BMJ 2004; 329 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/sbmj.0412474 (Published 01 December 2004) Cite this as: BMJ 2004;329:0412474
- Keri-Michèle Lodge, second year medical student1
- 1Leicester Warwick Medical Schools
John is relearning how to walk. He takes a step forward, saying, “I put my weight on my left foot, I step with my right foot. One, two, three, four, five.” John has experienced mobility problems since his stroke five years ago. For the last two years, he has been attending the National Institute of Conductive Education (NICE) in Birmingham, United Kingdom, for conductive education sessions. “His walking has been getting better and better since he started here,” John's dad says. “Conductive education has made a big difference to both our lives.” Yet there has been little research into the effectiveness of conductive education, and there is a lack of awareness of conductive education among health professionals.
What exactly is conductive education?
Melanie Brown, director of conductive rehabilitation services at NICE explains, “Conductive education is an educational approach to habilitation and rehabilitation for adults and children with motor disorders.” Motor disorders arise in people when damage to the central nervous system affects the person's ability to control movement, for example, in cerebral palsy, dyspraxia, multiple sclerosis, stroke, Parkinson's disease, or following head injury. Conductive education teaches adults and children with motor disorders how to achieve control over bodily movements and coordination. People also learn skills to solve movement problems experienced in personal and social situations.
History
Conductive education originates from the work of Austrian-Hungarian physician András Petõ. Petõ developed his ideas while working with adults and children with motor disorders in Budapest, Hungary, after the second world war. Petõ believed problems of bodily control and coordination were not an inevitable consequence of motor disorders. He thought people with motor disorders could learn how to use their bodies more effectively to solve movement problems encountered in daily activities, giving them more independence and dignity. Petõ suggested gaining control over movements and coordination was not a medical but …
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