Linked-in. Are you??? Should you???

A couple of weeks ago one of my clients suggested to me to join Linked-in. She explained to me that the is a professional network and unlike Facebook connects people professional without viewing pictures of their last camping trip.

I know this is old news to some but I so far I found it most fascinating. Not really for the fact that I made a lot of contacts (which I haven’t) but more for the discussions that are going on. I joined a couple of groups like “Neurorehabilitation” and Cerebral Palsy groups and been getting email updates about different discussions on a daily basis. Something tells me that those are the discussions we (as in the conductive community) should take part in. Getting out there and let everyone know that we have a voice and a view. And we can get out of our professional hiding-place. There is right now a discussion about Neuroplasticity, rehabilitation and Stroke. We should be in there, shouldn’t we?

Funny that those discussion look a lot like some that have been going on in the boundaries of the CE world. But maybe we still have to decide what our view is. A few of us came to the conclusion not too long ago on Andrew Sutton's facebook wall. Is that true? Quite possible, but who know without real widespread discussion.

Through Linked-in I have made a quite interesting acquaintance with a professional working in Toronto. His name is Nathan Gendelman. I commented on one of his blogs and pointed out some similarities in our thinking about learning and functional application of daily life skills. He replied to me (and allowed me kindly to quote him) “The LIFE concept does have certain common points with Peto, but it does have a lot of differences, which does not mean we can work together under one roof. [Literally as conductors do work for his company] I think if we can benefit to kids and adults with disorders - this is the greatest thing we can do. All the rest can and have to be worked out, so there is one path and all in one treatment.” After some negative experience in the past I have made with different professional, I am very excited to come across some who are looking for the exchange of views. I always knew that they are out there (as I met a couple in the past) and lately I am happy to report there have been more positive experience then negative ones. After a couple of email exchanges with Natan Gendelman, I have been asked to write about CE on the enablekids blog. That is the first time I have been asked such a thing and feel quite honored, who wouldn’t? I said I will give it a go and hope I will be able to come up with something useful.

Anyway, I am in the middle of spring camp and therefore pretty busy just being a conductor working with children and their parents - full time. I think it created a lot of learning for all (of course it includes my learning, too) and that right now reserves most of my attention.

I do hope in the future to be more out there. Discussing, writing and learning.

Notes:

http://www.linkedin.com

http://www.facebook.com/#!/permalink.php?story_fbid=152911594770591&id=1540593482

http://www.enabledkids.ca/

Happy Conductive Education awareness day everyone!!!

Today is the second annual CE awareness day in North America support by ACENA. I hope it is going to be a good one for CE.

ACENA’s goal was to put out one common message about CE across North America. I love this idea and the templates showed that a lot of thought and work went into those. However, I did have to take out some of the brain stuff to stay true to myself. I always have been or at least tried to be a do-as-you-preach-kind-of-person. So I guess the message was more common-ish: that CE needs more awareness and support in order to help more children and adults with movement disorders and their families.

So I tried my part to raise more awareness of CE in BC for that day. I modified the ACENA newspaper template and send it out to a couple of newspapers, TV and radio stations as well as passing on a few flyers to local schools. So far I haven’t heard anything back and I am not too surprised about it either. Making contact with the press takes time and perseverance. Someone told me last weekend its important to keep sending those information so they become more aware of you and one day it might just work out.

ACENA was encouraging to send it out to your local government to get more support from this side. Unfortunately I joined ACENA too late this year to make that happen. Next year might be a complete different story.

It’s also pretty hard with having no consistent group running at the moment. So open houses are out of the question. But with spring camp approaching quickly, we might be able to arrange something.

It has been a learning curve putting those things together too. I guess it is not quite your usual conductor stuff to put out press releases or at least it has never been for me. I feel more confident to do this at a quicker pace the next time it comes around.

I guess raising awareness of CE is a one-step at the time process and I learned to accept that I have time to make this happen slowly out here. In fact a lot of people out here have encouraged me that good things take time and the quick fixes usually don’t last. As I am not going anywhere, I have the time to see it grow. Quite a conductive process in itself.