The Principle and Aim of Conductive Education
- Details
- Category: Cikkek
- Published: 21 March 2012
- Written by Pető Association
Physician and educator András Pető developed his conductive educational system after World War II, in 1945. His method opened up a new way for the rehabilitation of motor disordered children and adults whose dysfunction was due to damages to the central nervous system. His approach was first taught and practised in the Institute named after him. According to Professor Pető, in addition to damages of the central nervous system, motor disability is chiefly due to the lack of co-operation among different functions. He argued that instead of applying special therapies, these people need to be treated through real education, and thus he created the system of conductive education to prove the idea. Conductive education is based on the idea that despite the damage, the nervous system still possesses the capacity to form new neural connections.
Physician and educator András Pető developed his conductive educational system after World War II, in 1945. His method opened up a new way for the rehabilitation of motor disordered children and adults whose dysfunction was due to damages to the central nervous system. His approach was first taught and practised in the Institute named after him. According to Professor Pető, in addition to damages of the central nervous system, motor disability is chiefly due to the lack of co-operation among different functions.
He argued that instead of applying special therapies, these people need to be treated through real education, and thus he created the system of conductive education to prove the idea. Conductive education is based on the idea that despite the damage, the nervous system still possesses the capacity to form new neural connections. According to Professor Pető, this ability can be mobilised with the help of a properly guided, active learning process. That is the reason why Professor Pető called his method ‘conductive’ (Latin origin). The Professor saw an indirect way to the integration of functions and the learning of coordinated operations through utilising cognitive and perceptual areas. He was the first to consider disability as an educational challenge and not as a biological problem. He did not share the traditional view of the time that considered injuries to the central nervous system to be irreversible and the disabilities to remain permanent. No case has ever been hopeless either for him or his method.
Pető's conductive education is a specially integrated management of learning and educational processes of the motor disordered. Its essence is in the complex development of the personality based on an active learning process. The objective of conductive education is not to directly change a certain disability but to integrate and co-ordinate various functions. It would be unrealistic to expect the motor disordered to co-ordinate various functions if practised separately and to see them operating these functions in a complex and integrated way. Professor Pető's conductive program teaches the motor disordered to carry out co-ordinated and integrated actions through comprehensive education and daily routines. This program does not require special machines, instruments and auxiliary aids with advanced technology. The principle is that it is not the environment that has to be changed but the motor disordered person needs to adapt to the environment.
Of course, conductive education is not the ‘sole miraculous answer’ for the motor disordered. Patients lacking limbs or having muscular or bone diseases have to choose other methods, just like those who have myopathies, progressive neurological diseases or very serious intelligence deficits. Patients suffering from autism or Rhett’s syndrom do not benefit from conductive education either. Nevertheless, it is a proven fact that at least one third of the motor disordered with damage to the central nervous system develop better with the help of conductive education than by any other method. The earlier a child receives conductive education, the better chance he or she has for improvement. Out of ten young children starting the Pető method before the age of one year, eight will be able to join normal nursery school by the time they reach that age group.
According to the main principle of Pető's conductive education, the primary goal is not the development of motor functions in a strict biological sense but the development of the entire personality, which will indirectly lead to improvement in functions. Traditional methods argue that the central nervous system injuries are irreversible and therefore the disabilities are permanent. Contrary to this view, conductive education is based on the idea that motor- disordered people can improve their movement strategies through proper intentions of actions and thus can reach a higher level of co-ordination. Conductive education is not aimed at changing the disability directly but at reaching co-ordinated operations through the integration of certain functions.
One of the vital factors in conductive education is the role of conductors. The conductor conveys the needs of the socio-cultural environment to the child and creates concrete educational content through specific requirements. Conductive educational work requires very high level of knowledge and a determined mind. Motor disordered children will show special affinity towards solving a task when we provide them motivation and the feeling that they will be able to achieve success independently as a result of active participation.
The conductive educational program is all embracing and highly complex; it includes everything that characterises a healthy child's everyday life from meal times and hygiene to play and learning. The program satisfies all physical, intellectual and social requirements needed for developing an integrated, healthy personality. The concept of conductive education is that gaining information and receiving ethical, emotional and aesthetic education are not separate but highly interrelated processes. The program pays special attention to self-care, voluntary functions and motivation.
The final aim of conductive education is to help motor disordered people reintegrate into society and lead an independent life.
One of the special features of conductive education is the importance of group education in each age group; for disabled children can not be prepared for life in society through isolated, individual education. It is worth noting that conductive groups can achieve significant results through social facilitation even with very young children. Scientific research has shown that being with others presents extra motivation. Our experience proves that even the most passive child becomes more active in a group; after two-three weeks, he or she shows more interest towards the environment and moves much more independently. Conductive groups are heterogeneous as they are based primarily on educational considerations and not on the nature of dysfunction. The groups are constituted according to the child's age and condition, with special reference to the goals to be achieved.
Children can join their group according to their own individual rhythm. While those in the same group learn identical tasks, the ways and patterns of solutions are always different; we seek ways of individual task-solution that can enhance a particular child's development. Working in a group shortens the time for gaining experience and shows how a certain problem can be approached in different ways. It also enables children to acquire a capacity for realistic (self) assessment and to achieve increased motivation. The heterogeneous nature of the group ensures that there are always some children who represent a "pulling force" for others on a lower level of development.
The group also motivates the family of motor disabled children. The common aim and daily results make parents and other relatives realise that they are not alone with this problem. As a whole, group work can be successful only if the tasks are not isolated exercises but are adapted into the family's everyday life. Group work can always be supplemented with individual sessions in case of a particular developmental problem.
The Institute’s Past and Present
Professor Pető set up his ‘institute’ in a Budapest basement immediately after World War II, in 1945. The Hungarian government officially established today’s ‘Pető Institute’ in the 1950s. The ‘Pető András Institute for Conductive Education of the Motor Disabled and Conductors' College’ is the centre of the conductive educational network operating in various countries of the world.
The Institute is part of the Hungarian educational system, and its activity consists of three areas.
1. Training conductor-teachers in the Conductors’ College;
2. Providing conductive education for the motor disabled with damages to the central nervous system;
3. Conducting scientific research in the area of conductive education.
Through the last couple of decades, the Institute has established a national network all over Hungary. Each county has at least one hospital or special kindergarten where qualified conductor-teachers are utilising the Pető method in their work with the motor disabled.
