Experiences of a physiotherapist

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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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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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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This morning we (Ruben, Caroline and me) took some of our patients to a problem analysis session by Prof. Hendrickx at ‘De Wilg’ in Hasselt.
I can’t stress enough the importance of good problem analysis and synthesis when treating a child. This should be the starting point for every intervention. Thorough problem analysis looks inside the ‘system’ of a person, explores the basic patterns of his being. It always starts from the person’s capabilities and strenghts. Next to this, it also examines where, how and why the system is blocking, what the weaknesses are and which compensation the system uses to answer the needs revealed to this system. (Read the article)

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After a series of blogs on the fasciatherapy, time has come to write on the “Critical Developmental Accompaniment, method Hendrickx”.

In this first blog I could have written about the person Professor Hendrickx himself, on his method, on the structure of the training, but I preferred to pass the word to the Professor himself. In this way, you will get to know what will become an important character of this blog. I consider Prof. Hendrickx, as well as Prof. Dr. Bois as my ‘spiritual fathers’. Both of them have formed me on a professional base (as well as on a personal base). I owe them a lot of what I currently am, know and can. 

Later on I will discuss the theoretical and practical aspects of the method, specifically on the treatment of baby’s.

The video’s are made during the ‘problem analysis’ of my little daughter Michelle. At that time, she was 4 months old. Ann and I attach a lot of importance to this analysis. There wasn’t/isn’t a particular problem with Michelle, but when accompanying baby’s we tend to achieve optimal development. Even if there are no (visual) problems with the baby, it can be important to control if the baby’s body is already (axial) structured or not, and how (and how much) he or she has started to use her or his body.

“Today, we investigate her, but we should look at every baby in this way. Not only the baby with problems, the baby who has this or that. Off course, by definition, they need our help. But also the ‘normal baby’s’ should be taken care of.” (Read the article)