András Pető (11 September 1893 in

Szombathely } Szombathely (; ; also see #Etymology, names) is the 10th largest city in Hungary. It is the administrative centre of Vas County in the west of the country, located near the border with Austria. Szombathely lies by the streams ''Perint'' and '' ...

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

– 11 September 1967 in

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

, Hungary) was a practitioner of

physical rehabilitation Physical therapy (PT), also known as physiotherapy, is a healthcare profession, as well as the care provided by physical therapists who promote, maintain, or restore health through patient education, physical intervention, disease prevention, ...

whose work provided the foundation for

conductive education Conductive Education is an educational system, based on the work of Hungarian Professor András Pető, that has been specifically developed for children and adults who have motor disorders of neurological origin such as cerebral palsy. CE is bas ...

Early life and career

András Pető was born in 1893 in Szombathely, Hungary, as an elder of three sons. His father fell ill in 1907 with

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a neurodegenerative disease primarily of the central nervous system, affecting both motor system, motor and non-motor systems. Symptoms typically develop gradually and non-motor issues become ...

, which compelled András to support the family financially. He worked as a tutor and a newspaper editor. After graduation, he studied from 1911 in Vienna. Originally he to be a journalist, but in Vienna decided to study medicine. During his studies he met Jacob L. Moreno, doctor, playwright and psychotherapist, with whom he formed a lifelong friendship - and also came into contact with the various psychological schools of Vienna centered around

Freud Sigmund Freud ( ; ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies seen as originating from conflicts in t ...

Adler Adler may refer to: Places *Adler, Alabama, an unincorporated community in Perry County * Adler Planetarium, Chicago, Illinois, USA * Adler Township, Nelson County, North Dakota, USA * Adler University, formerly Adler School of Professional Psych ...

and

Frankl Frankl is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Ludwig August von Frankl (1810–1894), Austrian writer and philanthropist * Michal Frankl (born 1974), Czech historian * Nicholas Frankl (born 1971), British-Hungarian entrepreneur ...

. Between 1930 and 1938, Pető published many literary, philosophical and medical works. He was the editor-in-chief of the periodical ''Biologische Heilkunst'' (''Biological Healing'') and was better known as a journalist than a physician. The forced incorporation of

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

into

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

March 1938 made life difficult and dangerous for Jews, so he moved to Paris where he stayed briefly and worked as a journalist, then he returned to Hungary. Very little is known about Pető's life during the time of World War II but it is assumed that he was in hiding in Budapest during the German occupation. His mother was killed in Auschwitz.

Institute

His institute, the National Institute of Motor Therapy, officially opened in 1952. Although nominally under the Ministry of Health, instead of following the medical model of providing therapies, Pető created a framework for an educational model, in which children with disabilities could have an education that met their particular physical and intellectual needs. Accordingly, in the early 1960s his institute moved into the Ministry of Education.

Conductive education

Conductive education (CE) entered the wider public consciousness in the mid-1980s, as a result of two television documentaries —"Standing Up For Joe" (1986), and "To Hungary with Love" (1987)."Maria Hari"
2001 obituary at The Guardian In recent years, CE has gained more and more acceptance in the education of children with motor disorders. While developed first for children who had

cerebral palsy Cerebral palsy (CP) is a group of movement disorders that appear in early childhood. Signs and symptoms vary among people and over time, but include poor coordination, spasticity, stiff muscles, Paresis, weak muscles, and tremors. There may b ...

or brain injury, it has also been used with adults with

multiple sclerosis Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease resulting in damage to myelinthe insulating covers of nerve cellsin the brain and spinal cord. As a demyelinating disease, MS disrupts the nervous system's ability to Action potential, transmit ...

and after-

stroke Stroke is a medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to a part of the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemor ...

conditions.

References

External links

Magyar Életrajzi Lexikon
{{DEFAULTSORT:Peto, Andras 1893 births 1967 deaths Hungarian educators