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A group of kids of various ages lies on slatted wooden tables. Their therapists tell them to lift their arms, sit up, and lay down again.

 

They have cerebral palsy. But they’re getting better.

 

My brother is one of those kids. One of the main reasons we decided to move to Budapest in the first place was because of Pétő (pay-toe). It’s a world-renowned institute for Conductive Education—the method that teaches that you can learn to overcome motor issues instead of replacing them with things that aren’t as hard. Our western approach is to fix the problem instead of solving it. If a child has cerebral palsy in the States, he gets a wheelchair. If he can’t talk, he gets a communication device. In Hungary, if a child has cerebral palsy, you teach him how to walk. It may not be perfect, but it works. The program also works with stroke victims, people who have Parkinson’s, and people with multiple sclerosis.

 

Cerebral palsy, for those who aren’t familiar with it, is a disorder in the brain that causes dozens of unique cases among children. The four major groups of cerebral palsy (CP) are: spastic, athetoid, ataxic, or a mixture of them.

 

Conductive Education, or CE, was started during World War II by Andras Pétő while he took refuge with a family whose daughter had cerebral palsy. He spent his days working and playing with her, thus developing the method of conductive education.

 

Therapists, called conductors, work with the kids in a group setting five days a week, six hours a day. It also continues outside of the classroom, just like homework outside of school. Children continually practice walking, standing, sitting, and talking. Therapists in the States say that they will get tired. In Hungary, the approach is that if you are hungry, then you eat. If you get tired, rest and have a snack to rejuvenate yourself.

 

For Hungarians, the program starts when the kids are babies. Conductors go to the hospitals and any baby showing any sort of defect is automatically enrolled in the program. And, by age seven, most can walk and lead a relatively normal life.

 

The original Pétő is in Hungary. However, there are places in the States where conductors can be found.

 

For more information on Conductive Education or the Pétő Institute, visit these links:

 

The Foundation for Conductive Education – www.conductive-education.org.uk

 

Pétő’s Official Website – the original webpage is all in Hungarian. But the link is www.peto.hu. If you click on the big picture in the middle, it will take you to the site. There are some nice pictures of Pétő on it. The actual building is the first one (Kútvölgyi út 6), and the bottom (Villányi út 67) is a sort of hotel for Pétő families to stay. On that same page, in the lower part of the upper left corner, is a British flag that will take you to the English pages, which are still under construction.

 

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