Guest Post from Cary on Conductive Education

As previously posted I have asked a few of my blogger friends to share their experiences with me on Conductive Education. Cary is my first guest blogger. Many of you may not know Cary, but you have seen her son on my blog before. After all, I have painted not one but three paintings of her beautiful twin boys Ben and Danial. Ben has C.P. and has recently returned back from the Conductive Education Center in Canada and Cary was kind enough to share her experience as well as give us lots of good information. Please show her some love by visiting her blog where she blogs about her families life with twins, one who happens to have Cerebral Palsy at
http://aboutthesmallstuff.blogspot.com/

If anyone else has an experience that they would like to share, please email me
www.harrold.janet@gmail.com

Background Information:

Hi. My name is Cary and I’m a mom to 3 year-old twins, Benjamin and Daniel. Ben has
Spastic Diplegia Cerebral Palsy. For him, this means that his gross motor skills are very
delayed, but his fine motor, speech and cognitive abilities are on target with a typically-
developing 3-year-old. Ben crawls, pulls to stand and cruises along furniture. He also
walks very well with a posterior walker and has even figured out how to run and jump
with it.


Conductive Education Centre Information:

Ben has done 3 one-week intensive Conductive Education sessions at the CE Centre
in Halifax, NS, Canada. The Centre is part of the Conductive Education Canada
program through The March of Dimes Canada. This is a very small centre with only one
Conductor…but that one Conductor is amazing!

The first one-week session that Ben did was done one-on-one with no other “students”.
The last 2 sessions were done with one other “student”, a 4-year-old girl who is very
similar to Ben.

Because this centre is so small, it is possible to choose the type of session you want to do.
Some students do intensive one-or-two-week sessions whereas others do sessions once or
twice each week. Since we live over 2 hours away, we choose to do intensive week-long
sessions, with a 2-hour session each day.

The cost of a session with Conductive Education Canada is subsidized by The March of
Dimes Canada. This results in a HUGE savings. Without the subsidy, the hourly rate is
over $150, but with the subsidy, we only pay $39 per hour. WOW!

Halifax-Area Information

Halifax, NS is very easy to access from anywhere in Canada as well as the eastern
seaboard of the United States. It has a good-sized international airport with flights from
Toronto, Montreal, New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago and more.

The following hotels in Halifax offer suites:

Marriott Residence Inn
Cambridge Suites Hotel Halifax
Hampton Inn & Suites - Dartmouth

We have stayed at both the Marriott Residence Inn as well as the Cambridge Suites.
However, most recently we stayed with Ben’s classmate and her Mom at their vacation
home in Wolfville, NS. Wolfville is a beautiful college town an hour from the Centre.
For information on their vacation rental, check out their VRBO listing.

My Take on Conductive Education

Ben thrives while we are doing an intensive session of Conductive Education. He
loves his Conductor and classmate and really enjoys all the “play” that the Conductor
organizes for them to do. While Ben is there, I notice immediate results. He sits up
straighter, moves better and works extremely hard. Having a classmate is EXTREMELY
motivating for Ben. I personally find an hour PT session exhausting both physically and
emotionally. However, a 2-hour CE session doesn’t feel that way at all. At times it can
be exhausting, but I find it exhilarating at the same time.

At his last session, Ben worked on the following:




Putting on and taking off his own shoes and braces
Transitions from walking to sitting, sitting to laying down and the other way
around
Sitting nice and tall without slouching
How to fall forward safely instead of falling backwards
Independent standing
Walking with pediatric canes
And much, much more







All of this is done in a fun way that Ben LOVES!

After we get home from a CE session, my husband is constantly pointing out new things
that Ben is doing. And my response is always something like “Oh…we worked on
something similar to that at CE.”