N.Z. child to attend Hungarian clinic

Press, 28 July 1987, Page 7

N.Z. child to attend Hungarian clinic

PA Tauranga Parents of a cerebral palsy sufferer, Holly Edgecombe, aged four, of Tauranga, hope that she will learn to speak and walk at a Hungarian clinic next year. Gail and George Edgecombe, of Gate Pa, want to raise about $3#,»00 to send their daughter to the Institute for Motor Disorder in Budapest next February. The clinic offers “conductive education” which is not available in New Zealand. The system has a 70 per cent success rate dealing with the intellectually and physically handicapped — the highest success rate in the world. The technique teaches a physically disabled child to stretch a limb through willpower during games. It was developed in Hungary after World War II and is the standard educational procedure for Hungarian children suffering motor dis-

orders. The Edgecombes hope to bring back Hungarian expertise to help other disabled children and would like to see a conductive education centre in New Zealand where children could be taught to walk and be independent in spite of their handicaps. Mr Edgecombe, a supervisor for the I.H.C. workshop at Mount Maunganui, hopes that enough money will be raised after they sell their car so that he can accompany his wife and Holly to Hungary. He particularly wants to study techniques used at the institute which could be valuable in his job.

After suffering a stroke four years ago and relearning speech and movement himself, Mr Edgecombe is also interested in the clinic’s work in rehabilitating adult accident victims.