Experiences of a physiotherapist

A few weeks ago, I presented my research project to a local group of students and therapists in Paris. I was there to assist the second Fascia Therapy seminar, and Christian Courraud took this opportunity to have me do a lecture. The goal was not only to pass on know-how (knowledge about autism and how to handle it), but also to illustrate my personal development: I took up the method as a physical therapist to learn new techniques, secondly, to apply those techniques in a particular field (children, and later on autistic children in particular) and thirdly, to reflect on and to do research on the results coming out of the treatment.

When giving a lecture on ‘autism and the body’, I almost always start with telling the audience what brought me to this research, what my motivation was / is. In this blog I will go more deeply into it, and in another post I will write about my approach with autistic children.

Read more … (Read the article)

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14 days ago I found this article in the newspaper:

> New sleeping bag to soothe a crybaby

According to this article’s author swaddling up a baby has effect on a baby since it feels secure (probably reminding it of its time spent in its mother’s belly), and because it can’t wake up itself by making rowdy arm-motions.

According to me there is more. Please read below … (Read the article)

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Almost daily I refer patients to my development-coaching colleagues. Not only because our agendas are coming apart at the seams, but also because the people demanding support often seem to have a good coach living in the neighborhood and practical circumstances need to be considered seen the fact that most children have to practice for half an hour twice week during an average period of one year.

Sometimes parents give me feedback on the coaching course. I am always disappointed when, in these rare cases, it appears that no connection could be made with the child and that this young patient was not feeling comfortable with the coaching.

To find out why a child, per definition, should feel comfortable with going to the coaching and what it holds if this does not happen to be the case, please read below. (Read the article)

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Last month the message below was published on the VKOH website forum.

Hi all,

I’m a teacher in the third and fourth grade. One of my fourth grade children appears to be left-oriented. His primary problems are writing locomotion and spelling. Being a teacher who wants the best for her children, I’m looking for more information and support on this matter. One hour per week I can work with him individually, more or less. What can I do to help him with his situation?

Please let me know.

Kind regards,

a concerned teacher

Until today there has come no response to this question, so I will try to answer it through my blog. In the question raised by this concerned teacher there are hidden questions:

What does being left-oriented mean?
How does left-orientation relate to writing locomotion and spelling?
How can a teacher support the child? What can a teacher do in this situation to help the child?

In various extended articles Prof. Hendrickx described the phenomenon left-orientation and its consequences to the thinking and learning abilities and the child’s behavior (message to the ‘insiders’: I find the last two articles in the series Hoogbegaafdheid (≈Being multi-gifted) very complete and readable.)
Seen the complexity of the issue it is not feasible to give common-or-garden advice so I will spread my answer over multiple posts.

Today’s topic: What does left-orientation mean? (Read the article)

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Each year, the board of the professional association of the Critical Education Coaching, the Hendrickx-method organizes a study day for its members. In the even years we have an ‘internal’ meeting where Prof. Hendrickx talks about a specific subject. The last topics were: ‘The writing hand: mirror of personality’ (2004) and ‘Critical analysis and interpretation of the drawing assignments that are used in problem analysis (child – tree – house)’ (2006). In the odd years we try to set up a meeting between a superior expert within our discipline and Prof. Hendrickx and our method.

In 2005 we invited Prof. Dr. Bouwdewijn Van Houdenhove. The theme was ‘stress and Western diseases’. Last year Prof. Dr. Marina Danckaerts came to talk about ‘ADHD, a child and its environment’. Prof. Danckaerts is the expert in the ADHD field. She works as a researcher and professor at KULeuven, a university in Belgium.

The first encounter between both professors took place a year earlier at a symposium in Western Flanders (North-West part of Belgium). The director of the rehabilitation centre had organized a study day on the relevance of administering Rilatine. Prof. Hendrickx and Prof. Danckaerts were type-casted being ‘the big supporter resp. opponent’ of Rilatine. In this caricature Prof. Danckaerts was pointed out to be the person who would prescribe Rilatine at any time, and Prof. Hendrickx would be the one who would fight this and discourage everyone from taking Rilatine. (Read the article)

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Within the ‘Critical Education Coaching, the Hendrickx-method’, I was assigned to the practical course ‘Projection space’. I believe that Prof. Hendrickx didn’t give me this theme just by accident. I was born for it! It’s an area / a field I frequently apply in my cabinet and where I can rein to my creativity, starting from systematic procedures. Even just knowing the basics of these procedures can take one’s coaching to a higher level. This insight is one of the most important principles I want to pass on.

Until three years ago Prof. Hendrickx had taken care of almost all practical trainings himself, but then we worked out a system of shared courses, where the assistant teaches and Prof. Hendrickx makes his comments whenever needed to adjust things, emphasize or rephrase them. Afterwards it’s up to ourselves. In the near future I will bring across this course theme to the new crop of ‘Critical Education Coaches’ all by myself. 

In my attempt to make the courses as interesting as possible I integrate video recordings in my powerpoint slides whenever I can. Telling the students about a child’s performance during coaching is one thing, but showing it to them is much more attractive, and hopefully efficient too. During my vacation I cut and pasted quite a number of recordings of problem analysis. (Read the article)

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At the beginning of the new school year the ‘Rehabilitation Centre for children with learning and behavioral difficulties’, where I work, in Molenbeek (in the centre of Brussels), organizes a therapist study day.

Our goal is to have therapists talk about their work and research themselves, so that they can learn from each other; besides that, it enables us to have a thorough discussion about themes, for which we can’t make time during the school year.

The therapeutic team consists of quite a number of speech therapists, some ergotherapists, social workers, educators and a very experienced neuropsychologist. It is led by Dr. Naulaerts, neuropsychiatrist and medical director, and Jorn Jehaes, general director.

Like the last four years, Jorn asked me to do a lecture. He is personally interested in the significance of and the approach to the body in the coaching of children with learning and behavioral problems, and grants me speaking time when it comes to thebody. This time he asked me to talk about the body and autism.

In 2006 I gained a pre-doctoral degree at Universidade Modema in Lisbon for my study on ‘The sensitive body and autism: proposals for a therapeutic coaching of an autistic child based on the principles of the perceptive psychopedagogics’. In that period of time I had immersed myself totally into the subject: I treated many autistic children of all levels, from deeply autistic to severely withdrawn children (autism spectrum), I devoured each and every publication (articles, books) I could find on autism, and participated to a study/work group focusing on this subject. (Read the article)

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At the beginning of a new school year the media pay a lot of their attention to school-related subjects. The headlines are usually being thrown at us. On September 5 of this year the most important Belgian newspapers wrote that one out of three children would suffer from learning difficulties. On the VRT evening news (VRT = the Belgian Dutch-speaking public broadcasting) of yesterday there was a report on multi- and highly gifted children. The report showed that this group of children find only little challenge in traditional education and that in the so-called Kangaroo Class these children are being brought together to learn at a higher level.

I always find it difficult to watch this kind of broadcasts. The issue is more than often elucidated in a one-sided way. This was also the case in yesterday’s report, where the multi- and highly gifted child’s situation was being romaticized: In the picture came the successful child, the child that (exceptionally) functions well, the stable child, the child that is able to handle the challenges that life is bringing to him.

Unfortunately, the good life is only reserved for a (small) part of the multi- and highly gifted children. These reports do not reveal the whole issue. The children that we are being faced with do suffer a great deal from their situation (and not only the child, but its whole environment as well). You could say that the problem level is directly proportional to the intelligence of the multi-gifted child (We make a distinction between multi-gifted, highly gifted and exceptionally gifted children). (Read the article)

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Last Saturday, I joined Prof Hendrickx’ course in Leuven. The theme was ‘Problem analysis: the child is always right’.

Initially, I had not been pointed out to be the course assistant, but anyhow, I wanted to participate, as it is a very important, even crucial, course to those who want to learn how to apply the method in a proper way (In this message you can find what I wrote earlier about the importance of problem analysis). Besides that it is also a ‘new’ course theme, namely, it was the first time that problem analysis had been put to the course agenda as an individual case. Despite the fact that, so far, I had already discussed this subject with Prof Hendrickx many times and I had attended many problem analyses at the ‘Wilg’, I was eager to find out new insights to get a better understanding of the matter. Also, I wanted to learn how one can put across a case of such a complex nature towards students. (Read the article)

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Two weeks of peace and quiet … During my vacation, though, I still try to spend some time usefully. The hard discs of my computer are bulging and urgently need a fresh-up.

Year after year I store all information onto my computer. Of each problem analysis performed in my office I take a series of photographs from the motion intention of the child. Besides this, I examine a child at the rehabilitation centre every week. In order to write the report for the team meeting more quickly and accurately, I put these problem analyses on tape. I make recordings of all Prof. Hendrickx’ classes as well. After all these years of archiving video material, I’ve gained a mine of information. This archive will be the main source to this blog.

Today, while browsing through old images, I came across these pictures. I remember that these were the images that brought me to shoot pictures at problem analyses systematically. These images appear to have become very important in objectifying the results of our work.

   (Read the article)

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