semmelweis university - Faculty of Physical Education and Sport ...

Tünde Szarka
The András Pető Institute of Conductive Education and College for Conductor Training,
Budapest, Hungary
Supervisor: Dr. Zsuzsanna Szilárd, college associate professor
The Possibilities of Adapting the Movements of Taekwondo for Children with Cerebral
Palsy
The method of physician and educator Pető opened up a new way for the rehabilitation of
motor disordered children and adults whose dysfunction was due to damages to the central
nervous system. Kinetically they are at a lower level than the healthy children of the same
age: it depends on their diagnosis but the tone of their muscles is usually hypotonic,
hypertonic or spastic which means they are rigid. They can also have coordination problems
or excessive movements. It is not only a motoric disorder for them, they have secondary
symptoms like synergism that means if one hand or leg moves, the other one pathologically
does the very same. We can also talk about cognitive disorders as well. Therefore they
especially need conductive education that teaches them how to execute movements that are
ordinary for us but not for them. Conductive education is based on the concept that despite the
damage, the nervous system still possesses the capacity to form new neural connections. Its
essence is in the complex development of the personality based on an active learning process.
As a part of this process tren in the Pető Institute can do swimming, horse riding, boccia,
rowing, play with they had the chance to meet a new self defense sport, a Korean martial art
called Taekwondo. We started to teach 15 children of different age (from 8 to 14), diagnosis
(tetraparesis spastica, hemiplegia spastica, diplegia spastica), different mental and physical
status. We taught them the leg and hand techniques 45 minutes a week in different ways
because of the different diagnosis and physical, mental levels. We used medical aids to learn
how to make it easier as well. I wrote a diary and recorded lots of trainings to see the
differences between the trainings at the beginning and the trainings later. After a year
according to my diary and the videos we can say that it is possible to adapt the movements of
Taekwondo for children with cerebral palsy. After practicing a lot of hand techniques
especially hitting, the secondary symptom synergism hasn't been a problem anymore. The
kicking techniques have become a lot stronger as well. Their stamina, endurance, muscle,
discipline, attention and a lot more have also developed. Their Taekwondo knowledge shows
such an improvement that we are planning to take more belt exams and to go to competitions
as well.
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