Why does Natalie make us do this?!
A question asked by an 11 year old during a group session…it was not a serious question – instead said with humour and a cheeky smile and it made them all laugh but it did lead to an interesting session the next week. As we decided to ask the question back to them…!
….Why do you think Natalie makes you do this! Why do we do the tasks we do during Conductive Education sessions?!! What big questions!
We asked each child / teenager to choose an activity or task we do during their session each week. They choose:
- Dribbling the ball round the cones
- Step and stop
- Stepping over the hurdles
What do you think we are teaching / they are learning during these 3 activities?
We did each task as a group then they were given time to chat to each other about what they think the aim of that task / activity was and what they were learning. Some of the answers were interesting! As you will soon see! But they understood the basis behind the activities – they understood how we were wanting them to carry out the task and how the skills developed during an individual task could be transfered to a much wider range of activities and everyday situations.
Being able to stop during walking, change direction and step over obstacles while keeping your balance is something a lot of our children / teenagers and adults find difficult so this is something we work on with our mobile groups during a range of tasks and activities throughout the session, slow and steady are words often used by staff!
The question is what answers did they come up with? And are they similar to what you thought?
Dribbling round the cones – “kick things and play football”
Step and stop – “when you are in a queue and you need to stop” “when you are about to walk into a wall” “When you are in a fight and knock someone over you dont want them to crush you”
Stepping over the hurdles – “Stop tripping over” “walking over things” “not fall over things”
Being able to step slowly, then stop and keep your balance is a skill which requires great balance and control. We thought there were lots of good ideas and answers for transferring these skills into everyday life – queuing was a brilliant answer – we do like a good queue afterall! I had never thought about the fact that you don’t want someone crushing you after you knock them over in a fight but you never know when that situation might happen!