Examining Conductive Education: Linking Science, Theory, and Intervention

Recognized in many European countries and Canada as a valid form of therapeutic and educational rehabilitation, conductive education (CE) emphasizes cognitive and motor learning principles for movement reeducation. This article illustrates how CE incorporates motor control and motor learning theories in conjunction with unique facilitation concepts, including rhythmic intention, task series, tailored low-tech equipment, and traditional facilitation concepts such as developmental sequence, manual facilitations, and multimodal interventions. Uniquely, CE brings together task series practice and learning, including a lying program, sitting program, standing program, and walking program, along with activities of daily living within a group treatment model. The conductor uses cadence and rhythmic intention to encourage movement exploration in a scripted plan of care. The participants are active learners and use CE slatted equipment to help support movements. Full participation, to the best of the learners’ ability, is realized with activity modifications made by the conductor. Increased motor control arises through repetition, practice, functional context, and sensory feedback that provide guidance for intention and voluntary movement. Motor control and motor learning theories are foundational principles of CE. Individuals with neurologic injuries, including cerebral palsy, stroke syndrome, Parkinson disease, and traumatic brain injury, can benefit from CE. To date, although research studies cannot objectively compare one person’s movement skills with another’s, new research surrounding motor control and motor learning illustrates and supports the principles and practice of CE. CE is an educational therapy model for teaching and developing new movement skills for individuals with neurologic impairments. This article connects the current science of movement and describes the unique principles involved with CE delivery as an intervention for individuals with neurologic impairments.