New in 1999, is the trialling of a conductive education class. Still in it's infancy, with a long way to go, the school is responding to parent requests for this style of class. This will be a two year pilot program applying the principles of conductive education. Family Background Available data shows that it is virtually impossible to generalise the characteristics of a typical student's family and their consequent ability to cope with the demands of having a child with severe or multiple disabilities. Suffice to say that the parents of our students do not have a uniform set of beliefs, opinions, experiences and needs.
Families differ from one another on several dimensions.
Ethnicity, religion, economic resources, family size and coping styles all combine to distinguish families from one another. A number of volunteers have a marked effect upon the student learning program. Considerable time and effort needs to be put into the volunteer program to both train new personnel and to maintain established programs. Students from nearby private schools also participate in their community experience programs by working at Carson St for half a day per week for a term.