The pieces fall into place": the views of three Swedish habilitation teams on conductive education and support of disabled children.

A survey concerning how Swedish habilitation staff view the support of disabled children and their families was conducted in 2001. It focused on what support the staff knew about, offered and considered good for the children and parents, and on how they viewed conductive education. Interviews were conducted with 25 team members in three habilitation teams in the south of Sweden. The results show that the support habilitation staff most feel children need is the opportunity to investigate their surroundings, play with other children, meet other children in the same situation and try out different activities. The support that parents are felt to need is mainly aid and housing adaptation, relief, financial help, information, medical knowledge, emotional support and to meet others in the same situation. The staff gave information pertaining to different methods of treatment only if the parents specifically asked for it. What the habilitation teams recommended were contracture prophylaxis, motor skills exercises, riding, swimming, splints, standing shells, surgery, injections and medicines. The habilitation staff were of the opinion that conductive education is focused purely on intensive mobility training.