Motivation… what does it mean to you?
We often talk about the importance of motivation in Conductive Education – for learning to occur we first must have a reason to attempt the task and to perservere during the activity. What is it that truly motivates an individual to attempt, perserve and succeed?
The motivation to actively participate and initate movements comes from a range of directions – the want to eat lunch motivates the transferring skills required to move to the table – action songs motivate clapping, stamping feet, sitting up from lying – a competition between teenagers motivates perserverence during balancing activities – getting messy and creative motivates sitting balance and hand use during art activities……..
This is a great example of motivation…..
As much as he tries because the conductor and mum asks it of him the motivation to perservere at a task he finds incredibly difficult can only come from his own want to succeed for himself – the power of his imagination has turned a sparkly wand into a crane, his bottom is the bridge (we are singing london brige is falling down) and only he can fix it and save the day! He took part becasue it was asked, facilitation (verbal and manual) ensured he was in a good position for the task and movement, rhythm set the speed of his movement and motivation gave him the reason to try his hardest. All of which led to his success!
This feeling of success will stay with him developing his confidence and he has now experienced how he can extend and flex his hips without pushing backwards – a movement and skill which can be trasferred to different positions and tasks such as high kneeling.