I have been wanting to take Zack to some conductive education classes for some time now. Pause for brief interlude to explain:
It is a form of education that works toward rehabilitating children with motor problems to help overcome some of their difficulties and to lead more independent lives. More can be read about this at http://www.conductive-ed.org.uk/
Scope run something called school for parents which utilises a form of conductive education in the classroom. The idea is that you and your child go along to classes and both join in the activities, so I found one in Winsford and we went to take a look.
The teachers showed us the early years classrooms and the conductive education class. There are four children in the class and Zack will be the only baby. I say will be as we start school for one morning a week in January. They do stretching to music, sing songs and basically have a nice fun time. I think I was more excited than Zack who seemed to dribble a lot and stare at a glass box that had some creature in it. I am not sure what it was, I didn't fancy looking any closer in case it was some large spider thing.
As we were leaving we went in through another class and there was a group of children gathered around the teacher. Some of them saw Zack which was a signal for lots of ahhhing and ooohing followed by a little girl who wanted to know his name. His name then got repeated by everyone and we all waved at each other. The children were so lovely. some were in wheelchairs, some were not, some were more able-bodied than others, some were more vocal, but what came across was how happy they were. How much fun they were having and if for me that is a glimpse of Zack's future than I am a very happy mummy. I think he will like school....as long as he doesn't try to make everyone his bitch.
Today we went to a fabulous place in Bolton called Vision Aid, (link on the left). This is a charity originally set up by a parent who had a visually impaired baby. Its aim is to support and help parents of visually impaired children. The charities home is a large Victorian House and they offer information and advice as well as loaning out equipment.
We went along and were taken into a large room full to the brim of colourful, noisy toys. Zack didn't stop staring at the shelves, he particularly liked the rainmaker toy. It made him smile....then he went back to serious mode.
The best part of the visit was being taken into a room full of home-made instruments to encourage visual stimulation. There was a huge box on the floor covered in space blankets (the tin foil things that marathon runners get wrapped up in) we popped Zack in the box and then went for a cup of tea.....only kidding. We put him there and then switched on a projector that spun round a bright colourful wheel that made the box sparkle. Zack absolutely loved it. He went really quiet, moved his head to look in different places where the lights fell, it was fantastic. We switched it off to go and look at something else and Zack was so peeved he started crying. I picked him up for a cuddle and we put the projector on a sparkly piece of material, he immediately stopped crying. Hmmmmm, first time he has reacted by crying in order for something to continue.
The charity have loaned me our very own projector. So now project A is to find a huge, gigantic box and cover it in space blankets, then lie the Pants in the box, switch on the projector and have a nice cup of tea.
I have to say, I think we are very fortunate to have access to such a wonderful charity, I hope that many more local children can benefit from it's existence.
Steroid Update
Zack is doing okay on the steroids only noticed three little seizures all day to day. But it is definitely making his stomach upset. He is okay for most of the day but was really irritable this afternoon and very grumpy before bed. His Dad was out at a works do so I am being a single parent and looking after him. This means no messing about and I just popped him in bed at 8.45pm crying or no crying. He was soon asleep and I carried on with the thousand other things I have to do with my life.
Looking forward to Christmas and cannot believe this year is nearly over and what a tough and yet wonderful year it has been.
2 comments:
Hello Linzi,
My name is Becky, I am a conductor and found out about your blog through google alerts, which informs me of any new articles on conductive education. I thought you might be interested to know that there are others who write about conductive education (including parents). If you check out Andrew Sutton's blog www.conductive-world.info/ he recently posted a list of blogs related to conductive education.
It was really nice to hear about your conductive experience and I am sure that I speak for all bloggers that we hope to hear more soon.
Becky Featherstone
Conductor
Thank you Becky I will take a look at those other blogs....all very interesting stuff and thanks for taking a look at my blog, ahem I mean Zack's blog.
Post a Comment