Aspects: Sparkling Intelligence Unlocked; Esther Baston Was One of the First Children to Travel to Hungary for Conductive Education. in the Second Part of Her Series on CE, Health Correspondent Jenny Hudson Describes How the 16-Year-Old Who Was Born with Brain Damage Is Now Studying for Her GCSEs

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As a toddler, Esther Baston would lie on her tummy, unable to control her limbs sufficiently to support herself.

The brain damage she had suffered at birth left her so dependent upon others that her future appeared to be terribly limited.

But her parents Brian and Kathy Baston could see the sparkling intelligence locked inside their little girl.

As any parent of a disabled child will understand, they faced the immense responsibility of finding a way to engage that potential. And their choice would have a massive impact on their daughter's life.

They opted for conductive education, after seeing a BBC documentary about an unknown method which had been developed at the Peto Institute in Hungary.

In January 1997, Kathy took Esther out to Budapest with a group of ten other children from Birmingham.

Esther was three years old as she joined the first youngsters to venture behind the Iron Curtain to find out …