Helping children to move: What it's like to be an integrative movement and learning specialist

When she was 14, she secured a place at a boarding grammar school that specialised in performing arts. During her third year, Agnes was part of a group of students who staged a show for children with special educational needs.

“There was a beautiful child with Down’s syndrome who chose me to be her friend,” she recalls. “She climbed on stage and sat on my lap. This moment completely changed everything for me. It really touched me.”

From that day forward, Agnes, who now lives in Stone, knew she wanted to dedicate her life to working with children who needed extra support.

In 2003, she graduated from the Peto Andras-Conductive Education Teacher Training College in Budapest and since then has worked with children across the UK as well as in countries including Ireland, USA and Thailand.

“I spent 17 years in special educational settings around the globe. I started in Hungary, where I come from, and then I was invited to the National Institute of Conductive Education in Birmingham in 2003. I had the privilege to support disabled children around the world before I married my husband Matthew who is an English artist in 2008. We have two extraordinary children Abigail, 10, and Samuel, 13, and we love our home in Stone.” explains Agnes.

Over the years Agnes has continued to learn new holistic methods of teaching.

“When I started back in 2003, most of the children in N.I.C.E. Birmingham had physical disabilities or learning difficulties. Once I started working in more general special nurseries, I came across with more children with complex needs in education.” Agnes explains. “I always knew that movements are foundational. The more the child could move the easier they can learn. I needed to learn new methods and strategies to help those with complex needs. I felt as a physical disability specialised teacher leading a classroom, it was my responsibility to find the right strategy to move the children on.

“Presently I have certifications of seven different movement modalities from all around the globe including Special Yoga, Movement Lesson, Swimming for Disabled, M.O.V.E.; Developmental Massage.”

The year 2015 impacted Agnes’ career significantly. She received a devastating phone call that would lead to her travelling to South America to develop her skills further and get her focus back on early intervention.

“My godson James was taken to hospital with meningitis. He was six-months-old and they couldn’t say if he was going to survive.

“It was a very complex case, and as you can imagine, I was the practitioner in the field, everybody turned to me for help. And I had no clue what to do,” she recalls. “Although I had worked with children who had suffered with meningitis, by the time they had arrived in my classroom, this dark period of time was behind them. I think this was the first time I had witnessed what happens when a trauma like this hits a family. It was a difficult time for everybody. I spent night and day researching and trying to find a solution for this baby. “

Agnes discovered that a child she used to work with had benefitted hugely from Cuevas MEDEK Exercises (CME) therapy, which was created by Ramon Cuevas, a kinesiologist and physical therapist in Santiago, Chile. CME aims to activate the genetic blueprint of motor development by provoking missing motor-functions and building new connections between the sensory-motor system and the brain. It is believed that by exposing children to gravity and stimulating the balance system which underpins most of the motor related functions, delayed or missing motor skills develop organically.

Using money from an inheritance, Agnes bought a plane ticket and travelled to Chile to meet and learn from Ramon to help James to get back on his feet. After she returned home, she began using what she had learned to improve her godson’s range of movement. “After two months, he left the hospital and James and his family moved in with me and my family. I worked with him every day. They moved home and continued to visit me. After 13 months, he started walking,” says Agnes.

Being part of his successful rehabilitation inspired her to start Very Special Children in 2019, focusing on improving movement, mobility and everyday functional skills. “I call myself Integrative Movement and Learning Specialist, because I integrate all the knowledge and experience I gained over the last 20 years,” she explains.

Agnes now helps babies and youngsters across the country to move easier and become more independent and plans to work with groups in special schools, nurseries and organisations that support families to raise awareness of the benefits of comprehensive movement modalities.

“I work closely with the families. The results are usually seen outside of the sessions when the child starts showing and using the skills, which is what we want. We wouldn’t want them to do brilliantly in the session and not at home,” she explains. “It’s not about a specific milestone, it’s more about expanding the child’s movement experience as far as we can. Movements are more than just motions. They help children communicate, build relationships, and learn about the world. I give Very Special Children the motto ‘All babies are born to move and move on’ she adds.

Making a difference to children's lives and supporting families makes Agnes' work very rewarding.

"I couldn't do anything else," she says.

"I'm constantly learning and that's wonderful because that gives me the opportunity to meet like-minded people and to accommodate a wider range of children's needs. I am graduating in December from my latest modality : Child'Space by Chava Shelhav who emphasizes the importance of holistic, organic learning by exploring and extending movement variations. It's been a wonderful journey to experience movement development on my own body," she explains.

Visit veryspecialchildren.com or follow Agnes at www.facebook.com/VSChildren or www.instagram.com/very_special_children