I wrote earlier about Conductive Education, (see a previous post for introduction) which is a learning process that may help hold back the progression of the degenerative condition of Parkinson's amongst other neurological conditions. I had attended an induction and had been assessed before the start of a ten weeks course of which I am now half way through.
Without going too deep into why people with Parkinson’s need to re-learn or find new ways to perform tasks that were once automatic responses, it is best explained as being mainly because the basal ganglia in the brain that regulates motor commands has been damaged. This causes difficulty in starting the movements that we have planned, as well as trembling and slowness once we do begin them. Conductive Education not only helps to correct or find new ways of moving, it can help work at a preventable level as the base line of the condition changes over time leading to new or different symptoms being experienced.
Due to the progressive nature of Parkinson’s it is very important to keep ‘ahead’ of the symptoms, rigidity, tremor and slowness of movement being the main ones, which affect almost everything we do on a daily basis. Also the side effects of medicine add their own set of symptoms to the list.
The first few sessions for the group were about ‘what’ we needed to do rather than ‘how’ we needed to do it. We performed a range of tasks and activities to teach our bodies to respond appropriately and with minimum effort and maximum result.
Our posture was corrected often and we had to register how these corrections felt and try to adopt them firstly while in the lying position. Performing these exercises in this position allows for maximising the use of all parts of the body safely and also because we cannot see ourselves whilst lying down, we are learning to ‘feel’ our own movements and are made more aware of our symmetry which is vital for balance, hand co-ordination and for standing and walking.
General posture to help maintain a secure position while performing tasks and fine movements and co-ordination were helped with instructions and encouragement. Also using the link between speech, thought and process of movement and of external rhythm or stimulus to overcome the lack of internal rhythm, helped our bodies respond correctly to the decision to move with less hesitation.
Repeating over what we have learned each week with a little more flexibility and speed makes us feel like we are making real progress but what is more important is that we are learning to perform the movements correctly and with more control. These new ‘habits’ learned at the sessions are helping with every day tasks at home. Also if we consciously develop our problem-solving skills to add to increased awareness of our movements, it will aid our own individual needs.
Another update next week……
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For more about Conductive Education see previous post and/or click 'Here for CE link'