Friday, October 31, 2008
Is Your Brain in Gear at Work?
The brain is a wonderful organ. It starts working the moment you get up and does not stop until you get into the office. Robert Frost
How do you get your brain in gear at work?
How do you get your brain in gear at work?
G1 messphone
You still need a Sherlock Holmes for internet service on the phone
Who cares ? It's a fridge.
Not mobile phone but close to something more like console. Has somebody clicked ''ctrl+alt+del'' and erase the mobile internet ?
Let's just say it is an empty fridge :))
Now it is clear to me, we do not have a crisis of mobile hardware or design, but mobile content ;)) Another Google bluff :D
I wanna make special song ( the very first in the World , IMHO ) for G1 phone. Let's sing a song all the way to your retailer.
Who cares ? It's a fridge.
Not mobile phone but close to something more like console. Has somebody clicked ''ctrl+alt+del'' and erase the mobile internet ?
Let's just say it is an empty fridge :))
Now it is clear to me, we do not have a crisis of mobile hardware or design, but mobile content ;)) Another Google bluff :D
I wanna make special song ( the very first in the World , IMHO ) for G1 phone. Let's sing a song all the way to your retailer.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Age of Conversation 2: Jumpstart Your Smarts
As we engage in amazing social media conversations, we can actually improve our intellectual performance, according to Oscar Ybarra, University of Michigan. And now, The Age of Conversation 2 opens a window for us to learn from each other, especially if you "don't get it." 237 authors from around the globe contributed to this edition to help many more folks "get it."You definitely can be a part of this exciting project by purchasing Age of Conversation 2 since all monies from the project go to Variety, the Children's Charity. We're hoping to earn $15 k!
Age of Conversation 2 authors tapped their brains for insights so you can "get" these topics:
Manifestos
Keeping Secrets in the Age of Conversation
Moving from Conversation to Action?
The Accidental Marketer
A New Brand of Creative
My Marketing Tragedy
Business Model Evolution
Life in the Conversation Lane
All Age of Conversation 2 contributors below wrote a one page article chock full of "How To's":
Adrian Ho, Aki Spicer, Alex Henault, Amy Jussel, Andrew Odom, Andy Nulman, Andy Sernovitz, Andy Whitlock, Angela Maiers, Ann Handley, Anna Farmery, Armando Alves, Arun Rajagopal, Asi Sharabi, Becky Carroll, Becky McCray, Bernie Scheffler, Bill Gammell, Bob LeDrew, Brad Shorr, Brandon Murphy, Branislav Peric, Brent Dixon, Brett Macfarlane, Brian Reich, C.C. Chapman, Cam Beck, Casper Willer, Cathleen Rittereiser, Cathryn Hrudicka, Cedric Giorgi, Charles Sipe, Chris Kieff, Chris Cree, Chris Wilson, Christina Kerley (CK), C.B. Whittemore, Chris Brown, Connie Bensen, Connie Reece, Corentin Monot, Craig Wilson, Daniel Honigman, Dan Schawbel, Dan Sitter, Daria Radota Rasmussen, Darren Herman, Dave Davison, David Armano, David Berkowitz, David Koopmans, David Meerman Scott, David Petherick, David Reich, David Weinfeld, David Zinger, Deanna Gernert, Deborah Brown, Dennis Price, Derrick Kwa, Dino Demopoulos, Doug Haslam, Doug Meacham, Doug Mitchell, Douglas Hanna, Douglas Karr, Drew McLellan, Duane Brown, Dustin Jacobsen, Dylan Viner, Ed Brenegar, Ed Cotton, Efrain Mendicuti, Ellen Weber, Eric Peterson, Eric Nehrlich, Ernie Mosteller, Faris Yakob, Fernanda Romano, Francis Anderson, Gareth Kay, Gary Cohen, Gaurav Mishra, Gavin Heaton, Geert Desager, George Jenkins, G. Kofi Annan, G.L. Hoffman, Gianandrea Facchini, Gordon Whitehead, Greg Verdino, Gretel Going & Kathryn Fleming, Hillel Cooperman, Hugh Weber, J. Erik Potter, James Gordon-Macintosh, Jamey Shiels, Jasmin Tragas, Jason Oke, Jay Ehret, Jeanne Dininni, Jeff De Cagna, Jeff Gwynne & Todd Cabral, Jeff Noble, Jeff Wallace, Jennifer Warwick, Jenny Meade, Jeremy Fuksa, Jeremy Heilpern, Jeroen Verkroost, Jessica Hagy, Joanna Young, Joe Pulizzi, John Herrington, John Moore, John Rosen, John Todor, Jon Burg, Jon Swanson, Jonathan Trenn, Jordan Behan, Julie Fleischer, Justin Foster, Karl Turley, Kate Trgovac, Katie Chatfield, Katie Konrath, Kenny Lauer, Keri Willenborg, Kevin Jessop, Kristin Gorski, Lewis Green, Lois Kelly, Lori Magno, Louise Manning, Luc Debaisieux, Mario Vellandi, Mark Blair, Mark Earls, Mark Goren, Mark Hancock, Mark Lewis, Mark McGuinness, Matt Dickman, Matt J. McDonald, Matt Moore, Michael Karnjanaprakorn, Michelle Lamar, Mike Arauz, Mike McAllen, Mike Sansone, Mitch Joel, Neil Perkin, Nettie Hartsock, Nick Rice, Oleksandr Skorokhod, Ozgur Alaz, Paul Chaney, Paul Hebert, Paul Isakson, Paul McEnany, Paul Tedesco, Paul Williams, Pet Campbell, Pete Deutschman, Peter Corbett, Phil Gerbyshak, Phil Lewis, Phil Soden, Piet Wulleman, Rachel Steiner, Sreeraj Menon, Reginald Adkins, Richard Huntington, Rishi Desai, Robert Hruzek, Roberta Rosenberg, Robyn McMaster, Roger von Oech, Rohit Bhargava, Ron Shevlin, Ryan Barrett, Ryan Karpeles, Ryan Rasmussen, Sam Huleatt, Sandy Renshaw and James G. Lindberg, Scott Goodson, Scott Monty, Scott Townsend, Scott White, Sean Howard, Sean Scott, Seni Thomas, Seth Gaffney, Shama Hyder, Sheila Scarborough, Sheryl Steadman, Simon Payn, Sonia Simone, Spike Jones, Stanley Johnson, Stephen Collins, Stephen Landau, Stephen Smith, Steve Bannister, Steve Hardy, Steve Portigal, Steve Roesler, Steven Verbruggen, Steve Woodruff, Sue Edworthy, Susan Bird, Susan Gunelius, Susan Heywood, Tammy Lenski, Terrell Meek, Thomas Clifford, Thomas Knoll, Tim Brunelle, Tim Connor, Tim Jackson, Tim Mannveille, Tim Tyler, Timothy Johnson, Tinu Abayomi-Paul, Toby Bloomberg, Todd Andrlik, Troy Rutter, Troy Worman, Uwe Hook, Valeria Maltoni, Vandana Ahuja, Vanessa DiMauro, Veronique Rabuteau, Wayne Buckhanan, William Azaroff, Yves Van Landeghem
The Second Unit's Next Five Sentences and Questions (Part III)
Today, I will follow up on the introduction to the second unit of language and thoughts on RDI and the association method with the five remaining repetitive sentences and questions. To quickly recap the earlier post, I covered the first sentence (This is a/an/some _____) and question (What is this?) and the steps used to cover them.
The next sentence I taught was (I see a/an/some _____). Because Pamela had already learned the difference between the three articles (a/an/some), we did not spend any extra time on them. I wrote "see" in green to attract her attention to the new syntax. I also took pictures of Pamela pointing to the object to emphasize that she was the subject (I) and she was in the act of seeing the object. We had not worked on eye gaze at that time, and I remember finding it difficult to get her to look at the object and pose for the camera. Notice that the first two sentences I taught were declarative in nature because the speaker states something about an object. (Click the pictures for a better view.)
As before, I taught the question that goes with the sentence next: "What do you see?" and then alternate randomly between the two sentence/questions to make sure Pamela knew which sentence answered which question. We also practiced this playing games and in real life to make sure Pamela understood the context in which to apply them.
The next sentence we covered was similar to the second: I have a/an/some _____. Again, we color code the verb "have" because it is the new word of interest. I purposely had Pamela hold each object when I took these pictures to emphasize the difference between seeing and having. After we taught the question "What do you have?" we went back to alternating between the three sentence-question pairs and being sure to use all three in games and real life.
The fourth sentence we covered was similar to the second and third: I want a/an/some _____. The verb "want" is green, and I had Pamela reach out to the object of desire to emphasize the meaning of the verb. After we taught the question "What do you want?" we went back to review all four pairs and using them beyond therapy time.
Then, I switched gears and focused on names of people and characters instead of nouns "This is _____" to go with "Who is this?" I remember this "little" change threw a few curve balls, which Pamela overcame after a few weeks (yes, weeks): (1) remember when to use articles and (2) when to ask "who" versus "what" questions. Her difficulty with these minor alterations in syntax confirmed my suspicions that she had syntactic aphasia.
Pamela found the next question much easier because there were no articles to trip her up: "_____ has a/an/some _____" and "What does _____ have?" She was so used to using "I" in sentences and "you" in questions, she had no problem substituting these pronouns with the name of a person. However, she struggled a bit with "has" versus "have." To you, it may seem minor, but children with aphasia are extremely poor guessers and they usually guess wrong! So, a little difference in the last sound of a word was huge and took another week or two for her to nail.
Up until this point, all sentences and questions were in the present tense. We finally reached the first past tense one, and, believe it or not, it threw Pamela for a loop: "I saw a/an/some _____" and "What did you see?" I forget how long Pamela needed to nail the sentence and question down, but it took quite some time to remember which words went with which tense!
Last month, something interesting happened. Pamela's skeeter bites were driving her nuts. We were working on expressive imperative and declarative gestures, but she was so distracted that she stimmed up a storm AND fell back on the six repetitive sentences that she learned five years ago! Here is the clip:
The next sentence I taught was (I see a/an/some _____). Because Pamela had already learned the difference between the three articles (a/an/some), we did not spend any extra time on them. I wrote "see" in green to attract her attention to the new syntax. I also took pictures of Pamela pointing to the object to emphasize that she was the subject (I) and she was in the act of seeing the object. We had not worked on eye gaze at that time, and I remember finding it difficult to get her to look at the object and pose for the camera. Notice that the first two sentences I taught were declarative in nature because the speaker states something about an object. (Click the pictures for a better view.)
As before, I taught the question that goes with the sentence next: "What do you see?" and then alternate randomly between the two sentence/questions to make sure Pamela knew which sentence answered which question. We also practiced this playing games and in real life to make sure Pamela understood the context in which to apply them.
The next sentence we covered was similar to the second: I have a/an/some _____. Again, we color code the verb "have" because it is the new word of interest. I purposely had Pamela hold each object when I took these pictures to emphasize the difference between seeing and having. After we taught the question "What do you have?" we went back to alternating between the three sentence-question pairs and being sure to use all three in games and real life.
The fourth sentence we covered was similar to the second and third: I want a/an/some _____. The verb "want" is green, and I had Pamela reach out to the object of desire to emphasize the meaning of the verb. After we taught the question "What do you want?" we went back to review all four pairs and using them beyond therapy time.
Then, I switched gears and focused on names of people and characters instead of nouns "This is _____" to go with "Who is this?" I remember this "little" change threw a few curve balls, which Pamela overcame after a few weeks (yes, weeks): (1) remember when to use articles and (2) when to ask "who" versus "what" questions. Her difficulty with these minor alterations in syntax confirmed my suspicions that she had syntactic aphasia.
Pamela found the next question much easier because there were no articles to trip her up: "_____ has a/an/some _____" and "What does _____ have?" She was so used to using "I" in sentences and "you" in questions, she had no problem substituting these pronouns with the name of a person. However, she struggled a bit with "has" versus "have." To you, it may seem minor, but children with aphasia are extremely poor guessers and they usually guess wrong! So, a little difference in the last sound of a word was huge and took another week or two for her to nail.
Up until this point, all sentences and questions were in the present tense. We finally reached the first past tense one, and, believe it or not, it threw Pamela for a loop: "I saw a/an/some _____" and "What did you see?" I forget how long Pamela needed to nail the sentence and question down, but it took quite some time to remember which words went with which tense!Last month, something interesting happened. Pamela's skeeter bites were driving her nuts. We were working on expressive imperative and declarative gestures, but she was so distracted that she stimmed up a storm AND fell back on the six repetitive sentences that she learned five years ago! Here is the clip:
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Explore Escape Routes from Corporate America
Was your climb to management worth the effort? Many managers work 'round the clock to survive layoffs. Yet they may not be invested in their work, rarely feel any sense of achievement, and spend much time on reports and busywork. Pamela Skillings points to stress at the boiling point.Not surprisingly, managers' stress levels cause mental problems that few people realize ... Have you seen it happen? "Acute stress can have devastating effects on the brain," according to Yale researchers, since "uncontrollable stress is a major contributing factor for major depression and post-traumatic stress disorders linked to cellular changes in the hippocampus." Not only that, stress affects peoples' ability to think clearly.
So what might folks do to turn that around?
Skillings suggests, "you need either a new job or a lobotomy... There's no reason to keep torturing yourself." To motivate leaders to follow their creative dreams, Pam Skillings wrote Escape from Corporate America. She sparks new strategies for "downtrodden office workers to break out of cubicles and create careers out of their dreams." It's as simple as identifying a unique call and then developing plans for a new careerExploring Escape Routes, Part II of the book, provides tips many folks may not take into account. For example, a few corporations develop entrepreneurial cultures which stimulate innovation and draw from employee brainpower. A guide's provided to help leaders recognize corporations that "do not suck."
Skilling asks, why not "take a break?" She shows how a break opens space you need before you "take a leap" or decide on other options.
Care to take stock of your stress level? Want to sort out how you can find a satisfying job of your dreams? Yes, even in this economic slowdown. Then check out Escape from Corporate America: A Practical Guide to Creating the Career of Your Dreams. This book's an exceptional guide to stir your creative juices to your first steps on a new path. In doing so, you'll rejuvenate your brain as you flee from stress and the harmful brain chemicals it stirs...
Thoughts?
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
The Second Unit of Language from an RDI Perspective (Part II)
As promised in my first post on the second unit of language, I want to share some ideas about where I think RDI dovetails with the Association Method. If I could boil RDI down into one over-arching principle, I would say the goal is to redo developmental milestones missed originally. Therefore, I believe the key to figuring when to implement the Association Method ought to flow from the development of typical children. Since many readers may be "lone rangers" (without consultants), I plan to refer to readily available documents found on line (such as Zero to Three handouts), rather than RDI stages. As you read through this post, think about your child and try to assess if the language delay is due to the overall delay or something co-occuring, above and beyond what is seen in typical autistic children. If you are dealing with garden variety autism with no extra-special language delays, maybe the answer is to keep doing RDI and reevaluate language in a few months.
Focus on Typical Development
Babies spend the first year of life becoming masters of nonverbal communication (both receptive and expressive). In the early stages of development, nonverbal trumps verbal. So, before going crazy with fifty nouns and six repetitive sentences, it makes sense to follow the path of babies if your child is nonverbal or low-verbal. Should you follow this exactly? No, every child is unique and the key is to fill in gaps. I am just attempting to give a broad outline to help you figure out where the Association Method might fit:
0-3 months - Build trust between you and your child; be a source of comfort when they are melting down; respect their need to take a break when overwhelmed; encourage times when you are both nonverbal and expressing yourself through sound, facial expressions, and body movements.
3-6 months - Continue the foundation previously built; sounds become more structured (babbles, coos, gurgles). In my opinion, this is a great time to introduce simple phonemes in a playful, unstructured manner.
6-9 months - Continue the foundation previously built; frame situations in which your child has a chance to learn by copying you; spotlight feelings in your sounds; pair common gestures with your words. In my opinion, this is a great time to continue simple phonemes, going back and forth like conversation.
9-12 months - Continue the foundation previously built; frame situations in which your child can (1) follow simple directions and (2) communicate through sounds and body; develop interaction patterns. In my opinion, this is a great time to get serious about phonemes if vocal play seems stalled.
12-15 months - Continue the foundation previously built; frame situations in which your child can (1) communicate what they want through actions, (2) point to common things you name, and (3) imitate what you do; join in and elaborate any pretend play your child starts. In my opinion, this is a great time to continue working on phonemes and make plans for the fifty nouns.
15-18 months - Continue the foundation previously built; frame situations in which your child can (1) respond to simple questions and directions through their actions, (2) react to the emotions of others, and (3) perform simple roles in household chores. In my opinion, this is a great time to get serious about the fifty nouns, if no nouns have emerged.
18-24 months - Continue the foundation previously built; frame, elaborate on, and speak declaratively about pretend play, problem solving, and testing things out; whenever your child uses nouns, add another word in response ("apple" "Want apple?") In my opinion, this is a great time to continue working on the fifty nouns.
24-30 months - Continue the foundation previously built; frame, elaborate on, and speak declaratively about pretend play, problem solving, testing things out, and interactions with another child; whenever your child puts words together, add another word in response ("want apple" "You want apple?") In my opinion, this is a great time to continue working on the fifty nouns and make plans for the six repetitive sentences and questions.
30-36 months - Continue the foundation previously built; spotlight sentences with two ideas. In my opinion, this is a great time to get serious about six repetitive sentences and questions . In time, stories in the second unit will cover developmental milestones listed in the link: personal stories (own name and characteristics of people), past tense stories (what happened yesterday), present progressive stories (acting out own stories), etc.
Focus on Cognition
Another principle to consider is that cognition (thoughts and ideas) precede communication. When Pamela was eighteen months old, she had no clue that crying was a cause producing the effect of getting what you want more quickly. Therefore, she saw so no point in learning the names of things because she saw no connection between using the name to get the object of desire faster. We started suspecting autism at two years of age (Steve's sister helped us zero in that quickly), so I took sign lessons to learn the names of nouns of things I believed Pamela wanted most: grapes, cookies, yogurt, milk, etc. Although my strategy was sound, it still took Pamela a long time to make connection between signing a word and getting what she wanted! We never had a "Helen Keller at the water pump" miracle. Once Pamela did make the connection (around age three), she quickly dropped the signs and started learning nouns at a rate of about one noun a month! We called it the word of the month! I stopped keeping a spreadsheet tracking every noun when she turned four. At that point, nouns and animal sounds came more quickly.
Applying cognition to the developmental profile above, it helps to understand the function of phonemes, nouns, and the six repetitive sentences and questions. Early in development, infants figure out how to make sounds with their mouths. After months and months of play and experimentation, the babbling, cooing, and gooing become predictable phonemes, the building blocks of words. When you are doing interactive patterns with a nonverbal child in the early stages of RDI (tossing a ball back and forth), you might want to try vocal games in which sounds are the object in the pattern. I do not think it needs to be formal and structured at first, but playful, fun, and joyful.
Once vocal play becomes easy, it makes sense to start playing around with putting two or more phonemes together in a playful manner, well before nouns enter the picture if your child is still low-verbal. At this point, you should have more opportunity for lots of variation, sound effects made from phonemes in their pretend play, imitation games with multiple phonemes, even little words when you do things together (uh-oh, oh-no, y-ay, uh-p, w-ee, ow-ch), etc. I still remember Pamela's first two spoken words when she was three years old: coo-coo (cookie) and so-see (music). If your child comes up with her own phonemes for a word, why not repeat it with joyful nonverbals to celebrate their accomplishment? From there, you might even be able to guide coo-coo into coo-kee with more back and forth sound games.
Again, cognition is the key. A child who starts coming up with their own words understands the concept of labeling nouns. A child who points to things she wants or sees is grasping the idea of a noun. A child who follows the simple direction to get her Beanie Baby understands a set of words identifying a particular noun. These are all signs of readiness to begin work with the fifty nouns. I think picking nouns with simple phonemes that are part of every day life or of special interest to the child are great ones to target at first. Meaning and context fuel the need for nouns.
Well before you consider starting the six repetitive sentences and questions, you might need to make sure cognition leads the way. If you have a new object in a group of familiar ones, does your child look curiously at the new one? Does she point with a questioning look? If so, the first question, "What is this?" will help her ask for names. When you are driving to the store, does your child observe the new restaurant that just opened up or point out a truck that made a wrong turn near a ditch. If so, "I see a/an/some _____" will serve that function. If your child requests things, then "I want a/an/some _____" will suffice. Without the desire to ask questions, share observations, or make requests, the new and improved syntax has no meaning or benefit to a child.
Focus on the Unique Child
The hardest thing about autistic children is that they are so scattered in development. Even though our RDI stage reflects the dynamic intelligence of a toddler, Pamela is working on decimals in math, reading sixth grade level books, writing at about a third grade level, and speaking like a preschooler. That is a wide range of ability! The key is to focus on those strengths and scaffold through their weaknesses.
Suppose a child's fine motor delays prevents her from doing all of the writing. Try using magnetic letters for the kinesthetic channel and figure out the reason for the delay. Pamela was very delayed in writing until we did patterning exercises to improve her bilateral coordination, worked on strengthening her fingers and pincer grasp, and figured out that she was left-handed and treated her as such! If a child has dyslexic tendencies, the Association Method may be a solution for that, too, because it falls under the same umbrella as Orton-Gillingham and the Spalding Method. So, even though reading or writing are well above the developmental level you are targetting in RDI, if the child can do these things, by all means, incorporate it into your work with the Association Method!
At first glance, the association method seems very static and drill-like. To be honest, a child with a severe language disorder that goes beyond the scope of autism may very well need some focused, drill-like work on language. It would be no different from a child with autism and cerebral palsy needing some focused, drill-like work on motor skills. However, I have embedded some RDI principles into what we do with the association method. When reading stories, I try to make sure I react in nonverbal ways. We reflect on any emotional highs or problem solving abilities of the characters. We talk about what the story reminds us of (perhaps, something that happened to us). I give Pamela much more time to think and process before she speaks, showing a warm, encouraging smile. Rather than correct syntax errors directly during oral work, I wrinkle my forehead and frown, say "What?" or "Huh?" or repeat the question, using my voice to emphasize the word giving the best syntax clue. Our Association Method work is much more fun since we started RDI as you can see in this video clip I made for the Charlotte Mason Conference in 2007.
Part III of the second unit is here!
Focus on Typical Development
Babies spend the first year of life becoming masters of nonverbal communication (both receptive and expressive). In the early stages of development, nonverbal trumps verbal. So, before going crazy with fifty nouns and six repetitive sentences, it makes sense to follow the path of babies if your child is nonverbal or low-verbal. Should you follow this exactly? No, every child is unique and the key is to fill in gaps. I am just attempting to give a broad outline to help you figure out where the Association Method might fit:
0-3 months - Build trust between you and your child; be a source of comfort when they are melting down; respect their need to take a break when overwhelmed; encourage times when you are both nonverbal and expressing yourself through sound, facial expressions, and body movements.
3-6 months - Continue the foundation previously built; sounds become more structured (babbles, coos, gurgles). In my opinion, this is a great time to introduce simple phonemes in a playful, unstructured manner.
6-9 months - Continue the foundation previously built; frame situations in which your child has a chance to learn by copying you; spotlight feelings in your sounds; pair common gestures with your words. In my opinion, this is a great time to continue simple phonemes, going back and forth like conversation.
9-12 months - Continue the foundation previously built; frame situations in which your child can (1) follow simple directions and (2) communicate through sounds and body; develop interaction patterns. In my opinion, this is a great time to get serious about phonemes if vocal play seems stalled.
12-15 months - Continue the foundation previously built; frame situations in which your child can (1) communicate what they want through actions, (2) point to common things you name, and (3) imitate what you do; join in and elaborate any pretend play your child starts. In my opinion, this is a great time to continue working on phonemes and make plans for the fifty nouns.
15-18 months - Continue the foundation previously built; frame situations in which your child can (1) respond to simple questions and directions through their actions, (2) react to the emotions of others, and (3) perform simple roles in household chores. In my opinion, this is a great time to get serious about the fifty nouns, if no nouns have emerged.
18-24 months - Continue the foundation previously built; frame, elaborate on, and speak declaratively about pretend play, problem solving, and testing things out; whenever your child uses nouns, add another word in response ("apple" "Want apple?") In my opinion, this is a great time to continue working on the fifty nouns.
24-30 months - Continue the foundation previously built; frame, elaborate on, and speak declaratively about pretend play, problem solving, testing things out, and interactions with another child; whenever your child puts words together, add another word in response ("want apple" "You want apple?") In my opinion, this is a great time to continue working on the fifty nouns and make plans for the six repetitive sentences and questions.
30-36 months - Continue the foundation previously built; spotlight sentences with two ideas. In my opinion, this is a great time to get serious about six repetitive sentences and questions . In time, stories in the second unit will cover developmental milestones listed in the link: personal stories (own name and characteristics of people), past tense stories (what happened yesterday), present progressive stories (acting out own stories), etc.
Focus on Cognition
Another principle to consider is that cognition (thoughts and ideas) precede communication. When Pamela was eighteen months old, she had no clue that crying was a cause producing the effect of getting what you want more quickly. Therefore, she saw so no point in learning the names of things because she saw no connection between using the name to get the object of desire faster. We started suspecting autism at two years of age (Steve's sister helped us zero in that quickly), so I took sign lessons to learn the names of nouns of things I believed Pamela wanted most: grapes, cookies, yogurt, milk, etc. Although my strategy was sound, it still took Pamela a long time to make connection between signing a word and getting what she wanted! We never had a "Helen Keller at the water pump" miracle. Once Pamela did make the connection (around age three), she quickly dropped the signs and started learning nouns at a rate of about one noun a month! We called it the word of the month! I stopped keeping a spreadsheet tracking every noun when she turned four. At that point, nouns and animal sounds came more quickly.
Applying cognition to the developmental profile above, it helps to understand the function of phonemes, nouns, and the six repetitive sentences and questions. Early in development, infants figure out how to make sounds with their mouths. After months and months of play and experimentation, the babbling, cooing, and gooing become predictable phonemes, the building blocks of words. When you are doing interactive patterns with a nonverbal child in the early stages of RDI (tossing a ball back and forth), you might want to try vocal games in which sounds are the object in the pattern. I do not think it needs to be formal and structured at first, but playful, fun, and joyful.
Once vocal play becomes easy, it makes sense to start playing around with putting two or more phonemes together in a playful manner, well before nouns enter the picture if your child is still low-verbal. At this point, you should have more opportunity for lots of variation, sound effects made from phonemes in their pretend play, imitation games with multiple phonemes, even little words when you do things together (uh-oh, oh-no, y-ay, uh-p, w-ee, ow-ch), etc. I still remember Pamela's first two spoken words when she was three years old: coo-coo (cookie) and so-see (music). If your child comes up with her own phonemes for a word, why not repeat it with joyful nonverbals to celebrate their accomplishment? From there, you might even be able to guide coo-coo into coo-kee with more back and forth sound games.
Again, cognition is the key. A child who starts coming up with their own words understands the concept of labeling nouns. A child who points to things she wants or sees is grasping the idea of a noun. A child who follows the simple direction to get her Beanie Baby understands a set of words identifying a particular noun. These are all signs of readiness to begin work with the fifty nouns. I think picking nouns with simple phonemes that are part of every day life or of special interest to the child are great ones to target at first. Meaning and context fuel the need for nouns.
Well before you consider starting the six repetitive sentences and questions, you might need to make sure cognition leads the way. If you have a new object in a group of familiar ones, does your child look curiously at the new one? Does she point with a questioning look? If so, the first question, "What is this?" will help her ask for names. When you are driving to the store, does your child observe the new restaurant that just opened up or point out a truck that made a wrong turn near a ditch. If so, "I see a/an/some _____" will serve that function. If your child requests things, then "I want a/an/some _____" will suffice. Without the desire to ask questions, share observations, or make requests, the new and improved syntax has no meaning or benefit to a child.
Focus on the Unique Child
The hardest thing about autistic children is that they are so scattered in development. Even though our RDI stage reflects the dynamic intelligence of a toddler, Pamela is working on decimals in math, reading sixth grade level books, writing at about a third grade level, and speaking like a preschooler. That is a wide range of ability! The key is to focus on those strengths and scaffold through their weaknesses.
Suppose a child's fine motor delays prevents her from doing all of the writing. Try using magnetic letters for the kinesthetic channel and figure out the reason for the delay. Pamela was very delayed in writing until we did patterning exercises to improve her bilateral coordination, worked on strengthening her fingers and pincer grasp, and figured out that she was left-handed and treated her as such! If a child has dyslexic tendencies, the Association Method may be a solution for that, too, because it falls under the same umbrella as Orton-Gillingham and the Spalding Method. So, even though reading or writing are well above the developmental level you are targetting in RDI, if the child can do these things, by all means, incorporate it into your work with the Association Method!
At first glance, the association method seems very static and drill-like. To be honest, a child with a severe language disorder that goes beyond the scope of autism may very well need some focused, drill-like work on language. It would be no different from a child with autism and cerebral palsy needing some focused, drill-like work on motor skills. However, I have embedded some RDI principles into what we do with the association method. When reading stories, I try to make sure I react in nonverbal ways. We reflect on any emotional highs or problem solving abilities of the characters. We talk about what the story reminds us of (perhaps, something that happened to us). I give Pamela much more time to think and process before she speaks, showing a warm, encouraging smile. Rather than correct syntax errors directly during oral work, I wrinkle my forehead and frown, say "What?" or "Huh?" or repeat the question, using my voice to emphasize the word giving the best syntax clue. Our Association Method work is much more fun since we started RDI as you can see in this video clip I made for the Charlotte Mason Conference in 2007.
Part III of the second unit is here!
Monday, October 27, 2008
The Second Unit of Language of the Association Method Part I
Last month, I gave an overview of the association method and a description of the first unit of language. Today, I will follow up with introducing the six repetitive sentences and questions taught at the beginning of the second unit of language. If you find you have no clue about what I am explaining, you might want to read the overview and first unit posts first! If you are dying to know more NOW, this long pdf summarizes and condenses the method. The manual itself is only $52, and, when I reflect back on all of the speech therapy materials and manuals I have bought in the past seventeen years, this book was the best investment I ever made. Without a doubt!
The minimum required vocabulary at the beginning of the second unit is fifty nouns (you will understand why soon). Children do not need to have verbs or adjectives because you cover these parts of speech later in the unit. They need to be able to read and write these nouns, but, for children delayed in fine motor, I would certainly try this method with magnetic letters!
The manual recommends doing "I see a/an/some _____" ("What do you see?") first, but I chose "This is a/an/some _____" ("What is this?") because it seemed simpler. Here is an example of teaching the latter from the manual:
Here are the official seven steps listed in the manual in my words (there are only six because one of the original seven gets dropped when you move to the second unit). I modified these steps with Pamela, but this summarizes what the manual recommends:
Activity 1:
Reading the Child's Book - The educator observes the child read the stories in her individualized book (all pictures in this blog are examples of said stories) and monitors her pace and articulation and ability to read from top to bottom and left to right.
Activity 2:
Syntax Review - The educator writes an appropriate number of sentences with the new syntax on the board (four to six or more). The child reads the sentences in three passes broken down into the reading step, the lip-reading step, and the acoustic step.
a. Reading - The educator points to each word in a sentence and the child reads it aloud. Then, the child turns around and repeats the entire sentence from memory. The child performs this step for each sentence on the board.
b. Lip-Reading - The educator reads a random sentence from the board. The child points to the sentence, reads it aloud, turns around, and repeats it from memory. The child performs this step for each sentence on the board in random order.
c. Acoustic - This is actually done in three phases. In the first phase, the child faces the board, and the educator stands behind the child (preventing any lip-reading hints). The educator points to the first sentence and reads it aloud. The child repeats the sentence. They continue reading all of the sentences in this manner in order. In the second phase, the teacher reads the first sentence without pointing and the child repeats the sentence. They continue reading the story in order. In the final phase, they continue working in a similar manner, except the teacher does not point and reads the sentences in random order.
Activity 3:
Oral Recall - The educator shows a picture of a noun, and the child says a sentence using that noun with the syntax of the week. They work through several pictures in this manner.
Activity 4:
Writing - The educator writes a story in cursive and the child copies it onto lined paper. (The manual has adaptations for children whoare still learning to write.)
Activity 5:
Written Recall - The educator gives the child a picture (or series of pictures), and the child writes her own story, using the syntax already mastered.
Activity 6:
Dictation - The educator slowly says a story, sentence by sentence, as the child writes it on paper.
Other Activities
Games - While playing games, like Go Fish and Concentration, the child and educator can practice new and old syntax. This can even work well with commercially available games, too.
Pretending to Be Teacher - The child and educator switch roles!
Daily Activities - Educators can looks for opportunities throughout the day to apply the new syntax and reinforce the syntax already learned.
I made the following modifications to suit Pamela. Because she already knew phonics, I did not teach the Northampton symbols. Because she could read chapter books, I wrote the nouns as words in the sentences and put the pictures on the question page and began sentences and questions with a capital letter. Here is the very first story we read and seeing it brings back memories for me! I applied the "seven steps" from a Charlotte Mason perspective, so I modified it from the book a bit. We focused on the sentence only at first. I believe I used to spend about a week on this sentence (some new syntax took two weeks, or longer). Notice that the first sentence taught is "This is a" which limited me to singular countable nouns that begin with a consonant. Pay attention to the color coding because you will soon see a pattern that green signals the syntax du jour. (Click the picture for a larger view.)
If you haven't already guessed, I am a principles-oriented thinker which I believe is the common element present in all three ways of thinking. I have tried to coalesce them into one (RDI, Charlotte Mason, and the Association Method). When I was processing the Association Method, I tried linking it with a Charlotte Mason point of view and, after careful reflection, realized that all I needed was a minor translation. Every day, we cycled through these steps, focused on the new syntax. The very first week we focused on "This is a" stories:
Once Pamela mastered "This is a _____" we moved onto the question it answers: "What is this?" I believe we spent a week on the question before moving onto the next piece of syntax, the article an. While we stuck to singular countable nouns, this time we focused on nouns beginning with a vowel. Again, the color green spotlights the most important syntax is an. Because the question for this second sentence structure is the same ("What is this?"), we practiced the sentence and question side by side, both Pamela asking and answering the question.
In the next step, we combined both kinds of sentences, "This is a _____" and "This is an _____" to make sure she had mastered the difference. Because Pamela had an eye for pattern and already knew the difference between consonants and vowels, we only spent a week on this kind of story. I imagine younger or less experienced children might take longer. You have to be absolutely sure the child is able to say the syntax correctly very consistently before moving onto the next level. This looks startling easy to us native speakers, but, for kids like Pamela, still learning English as a first language, it is surprisingly difficult. I found when I pushed Pamela too fast, her syntax fell apart! Seeing that happen several times convinced me that she really did have aphasia.
I believe we spent another week on the question before moving onto the next piece of syntax, the article some which went with mass nouns. Again, the color green spotlights the most important syntax is some. Because the question for this third sentence structure is the same ("What is this?"), we practiced the sentence and question side by side, both Pamela asking and answering the question.
In the final step of teaching the first sentence and question while spotlighting the articles, a, an, and some, we combined all three kinds of sentences, "This is a _____" and "This is an _____" and "This is some _____" to make sure she had mastered the difference.
For her, the cliff notes looked like this (new in green and review in black) but remember some kids may progress more quickly or more slowly than this timeline:
Week One:
This is a _____.
Week Two:
What is this? This is a _____.
Week Three:
This is an _____. What is this?
Week Four:
What is this? This is a ______. This is an _____.
Week Five:
This is some _____. What is this? This is a ______. This is an _____.
If you are impatiently chomping at the bit, wondering if a child could ever get far progressing through syntax at such a slow rate, one structure at a time, take a peek at Pamela's latest unedited nature notebook entry she composed with no input from me and you will see how far a child with severe language issues can go when you find the right method of her!
Because this post is very meaty, I will pause here and let you digest this introduction to the second unit of language. While I have only covered one sentence and one question, the next five will flow much more quickly, now that we have gotten through the methodology of actually teaching one structure. Some of you RDI families may be thinking this is dull and deadly and down-right static. These are very valid points to consider. In Part II of the second unit, I plan to reflect on how one can view this from an RDI perspective!
The minimum required vocabulary at the beginning of the second unit is fifty nouns (you will understand why soon). Children do not need to have verbs or adjectives because you cover these parts of speech later in the unit. They need to be able to read and write these nouns, but, for children delayed in fine motor, I would certainly try this method with magnetic letters!
The manual recommends doing "I see a/an/some _____" ("What do you see?") first, but I chose "This is a/an/some _____" ("What is this?") because it seemed simpler. Here is an example of teaching the latter from the manual:
Here are the official seven steps listed in the manual in my words (there are only six because one of the original seven gets dropped when you move to the second unit). I modified these steps with Pamela, but this summarizes what the manual recommends:
Activity 1:
Reading the Child's Book - The educator observes the child read the stories in her individualized book (all pictures in this blog are examples of said stories) and monitors her pace and articulation and ability to read from top to bottom and left to right.
Activity 2:
Syntax Review - The educator writes an appropriate number of sentences with the new syntax on the board (four to six or more). The child reads the sentences in three passes broken down into the reading step, the lip-reading step, and the acoustic step.
a. Reading - The educator points to each word in a sentence and the child reads it aloud. Then, the child turns around and repeats the entire sentence from memory. The child performs this step for each sentence on the board.
b. Lip-Reading - The educator reads a random sentence from the board. The child points to the sentence, reads it aloud, turns around, and repeats it from memory. The child performs this step for each sentence on the board in random order.
c. Acoustic - This is actually done in three phases. In the first phase, the child faces the board, and the educator stands behind the child (preventing any lip-reading hints). The educator points to the first sentence and reads it aloud. The child repeats the sentence. They continue reading all of the sentences in this manner in order. In the second phase, the teacher reads the first sentence without pointing and the child repeats the sentence. They continue reading the story in order. In the final phase, they continue working in a similar manner, except the teacher does not point and reads the sentences in random order.
Activity 3:
Oral Recall - The educator shows a picture of a noun, and the child says a sentence using that noun with the syntax of the week. They work through several pictures in this manner.
Activity 4:
Writing - The educator writes a story in cursive and the child copies it onto lined paper. (The manual has adaptations for children whoare still learning to write.)
Activity 5:
Written Recall - The educator gives the child a picture (or series of pictures), and the child writes her own story, using the syntax already mastered.
Activity 6:
Dictation - The educator slowly says a story, sentence by sentence, as the child writes it on paper.
Other Activities
Games - While playing games, like Go Fish and Concentration, the child and educator can practice new and old syntax. This can even work well with commercially available games, too.
Pretending to Be Teacher - The child and educator switch roles!
Daily Activities - Educators can looks for opportunities throughout the day to apply the new syntax and reinforce the syntax already learned.
I made the following modifications to suit Pamela. Because she already knew phonics, I did not teach the Northampton symbols. Because she could read chapter books, I wrote the nouns as words in the sentences and put the pictures on the question page and began sentences and questions with a capital letter. Here is the very first story we read and seeing it brings back memories for me! I applied the "seven steps" from a Charlotte Mason perspective, so I modified it from the book a bit. We focused on the sentence only at first. I believe I used to spend about a week on this sentence (some new syntax took two weeks, or longer). Notice that the first sentence taught is "This is a" which limited me to singular countable nouns that begin with a consonant. Pay attention to the color coding because you will soon see a pattern that green signals the syntax du jour. (Click the picture for a larger view.)If you haven't already guessed, I am a principles-oriented thinker which I believe is the common element present in all three ways of thinking. I have tried to coalesce them into one (RDI, Charlotte Mason, and the Association Method). When I was processing the Association Method, I tried linking it with a Charlotte Mason point of view and, after careful reflection, realized that all I needed was a minor translation. Every day, we cycled through these steps, focused on the new syntax. The very first week we focused on "This is a" stories:
- Read aloud (Activity 1) – Pamela reads aloud a typed story (cursive, color-coded) in her therapy book with the new syntax for the week.
- Recitation (Activity 2) – I read a sentence from the story. Pamela repeats it while seeing the page and without seeing the page. We did do all three steps (including the three phases of the last step), but I reduced it to pure recitation after doing the Association Method for a year.
- Oral Narration (Activity 3) – Pamela practices the new syntax during her daily conversations.
- Copywork (Activity 4) – Pamela copies a story I type in cursive.
- Written Narration (Activity 5) – Pamela writes her own story applying the new syntax in print.
- Dictation (Activity 6) – I say a sentence, and Pamela writes it on paper in print.
Once Pamela mastered "This is a _____" we moved onto the question it answers: "What is this?" I believe we spent a week on the question before moving onto the next piece of syntax, the article an. While we stuck to singular countable nouns, this time we focused on nouns beginning with a vowel. Again, the color green spotlights the most important syntax is an. Because the question for this second sentence structure is the same ("What is this?"), we practiced the sentence and question side by side, both Pamela asking and answering the question.
In the next step, we combined both kinds of sentences, "This is a _____" and "This is an _____" to make sure she had mastered the difference. Because Pamela had an eye for pattern and already knew the difference between consonants and vowels, we only spent a week on this kind of story. I imagine younger or less experienced children might take longer. You have to be absolutely sure the child is able to say the syntax correctly very consistently before moving onto the next level. This looks startling easy to us native speakers, but, for kids like Pamela, still learning English as a first language, it is surprisingly difficult. I found when I pushed Pamela too fast, her syntax fell apart! Seeing that happen several times convinced me that she really did have aphasia.
I believe we spent another week on the question before moving onto the next piece of syntax, the article some which went with mass nouns. Again, the color green spotlights the most important syntax is some. Because the question for this third sentence structure is the same ("What is this?"), we practiced the sentence and question side by side, both Pamela asking and answering the question.
In the final step of teaching the first sentence and question while spotlighting the articles, a, an, and some, we combined all three kinds of sentences, "This is a _____" and "This is an _____" and "This is some _____" to make sure she had mastered the difference.For her, the cliff notes looked like this (new in green and review in black) but remember some kids may progress more quickly or more slowly than this timeline:
Week One:
This is a _____.
Week Two:
What is this? This is a _____.
Week Three:
This is an _____. What is this?
Week Four:
What is this? This is a ______. This is an _____.
Week Five:
This is some _____. What is this? This is a ______. This is an _____.
If you are impatiently chomping at the bit, wondering if a child could ever get far progressing through syntax at such a slow rate, one structure at a time, take a peek at Pamela's latest unedited nature notebook entry she composed with no input from me and you will see how far a child with severe language issues can go when you find the right method of her!
Because this post is very meaty, I will pause here and let you digest this introduction to the second unit of language. While I have only covered one sentence and one question, the next five will flow much more quickly, now that we have gotten through the methodology of actually teaching one structure. Some of you RDI families may be thinking this is dull and deadly and down-right static. These are very valid points to consider. In Part II of the second unit, I plan to reflect on how one can view this from an RDI perspective!
Sunday, October 26, 2008
How to Avoid Getting Tied Up in Knots!
Right now, I am working on three RDI objectives: two for Pamela and one for me. Yes, my consultant keeps an objective open for me. I am your garden-variety, neurotypical parent with no major shadow traits of autism, but I still have objectives. Like many parents of autistic children, Steve and I have successfully reared a neurotypical child (our 16-yo son, David). The issue is that, with Pamela, we are having to go back, find holes in her development, and "redo" certain milestones to see if she can learn them now. The good news is that she can (which I blogged earlier in the month). To guide her through that process, I need to be very mindful of how I interact to make sure we are giving her every opportunity in this second chance. The parent objectives are geared toward making sure I am successful at guiding her.
My most recent parent objective was learning about broadband communication. In the autism world, we have become obsessed over speaking, so obsessed that we are overlooking the building blocks that support the words that we speak. Everyone knows that how you say is just as important as what you say. Your facial expression, your voice inflection, pacing, and volume, your gestures, your gaze, your space and touch, etc. can all influence what you really mean when you say what you say. If you do not believe me, go and watch a political debate. I used to believe all children in the autism spectrum could not learn to do this, but now I know some can and Pamela is one of them!
My consultant sat down with Steve and I and taught us the first few objectives. Now, we are watching e-learning modules, multimedia presentations that focus on a particular topic. When finished, we type up our answers to questions and upload them to a computer system that keeps track of all of our objectives and Pamela's objectives. Occasionally, we submit videos that demonstrate our ability to perform certain actions.
In this case, I filmed three clips of Pamela and I tying knots while waiting for the pizza to finish. I love this first one because Pamela reads my broadband communication to figure out what I am thinking! She is slowly growing more adept at reading my mind! YIPPEE!!!
In the second clip, I am trying to play around with how many different ways we can interact while tying knots on the blanket for baby Ines.
In the third clip, we start off with lots of language because we are talking about what color thread we should use for the monogram. After we start tying knots, I work on the next level of knot tying. On the first day, all she had to do was the last step: pulling the fringe after I set up the knot. In this second day of tying knots, I have her hold the set-up knot with her left hand and pull with her right hand. In the future, when we make her next blanket with overhand knots, I plan to transfer more and more steps, working from the last to first, until she can do the whole thing independently.
While I am NOT (adamantly and forcefully repeat NOT) a fan of ABA (applied behavior analysis), I am using an ABA technique called backward chaining to teach Pamela to tie knots. We also back-chain memorizing the lines of a poem, learning the last line first and the first line last. When you watch the video, notice that making a knot (a static skill) is the framework in which we work to spotlight the more important objective: learning to read one another's broadband communication. I do not let learning to tie knots override the joy of our quiet interaction while listening to lovely Lily twitter in the background. That is the quality of life I treasure in our daily interactions. I value the sweet, precious moments when we work together much more than how quickly and efficiently Pamela masters tying knots! In fact, focusing on these intangibles that are not easily measured, boxed, sorted, and analyzed keeps my statistics-oriented brain (yes, I have the degree to prove it) from getting tied up in knots!
My most recent parent objective was learning about broadband communication. In the autism world, we have become obsessed over speaking, so obsessed that we are overlooking the building blocks that support the words that we speak. Everyone knows that how you say is just as important as what you say. Your facial expression, your voice inflection, pacing, and volume, your gestures, your gaze, your space and touch, etc. can all influence what you really mean when you say what you say. If you do not believe me, go and watch a political debate. I used to believe all children in the autism spectrum could not learn to do this, but now I know some can and Pamela is one of them!
My consultant sat down with Steve and I and taught us the first few objectives. Now, we are watching e-learning modules, multimedia presentations that focus on a particular topic. When finished, we type up our answers to questions and upload them to a computer system that keeps track of all of our objectives and Pamela's objectives. Occasionally, we submit videos that demonstrate our ability to perform certain actions.
In this case, I filmed three clips of Pamela and I tying knots while waiting for the pizza to finish. I love this first one because Pamela reads my broadband communication to figure out what I am thinking! She is slowly growing more adept at reading my mind! YIPPEE!!!
In the second clip, I am trying to play around with how many different ways we can interact while tying knots on the blanket for baby Ines.
In the third clip, we start off with lots of language because we are talking about what color thread we should use for the monogram. After we start tying knots, I work on the next level of knot tying. On the first day, all she had to do was the last step: pulling the fringe after I set up the knot. In this second day of tying knots, I have her hold the set-up knot with her left hand and pull with her right hand. In the future, when we make her next blanket with overhand knots, I plan to transfer more and more steps, working from the last to first, until she can do the whole thing independently.
While I am NOT (adamantly and forcefully repeat NOT) a fan of ABA (applied behavior analysis), I am using an ABA technique called backward chaining to teach Pamela to tie knots. We also back-chain memorizing the lines of a poem, learning the last line first and the first line last. When you watch the video, notice that making a knot (a static skill) is the framework in which we work to spotlight the more important objective: learning to read one another's broadband communication. I do not let learning to tie knots override the joy of our quiet interaction while listening to lovely Lily twitter in the background. That is the quality of life I treasure in our daily interactions. I value the sweet, precious moments when we work together much more than how quickly and efficiently Pamela masters tying knots! In fact, focusing on these intangibles that are not easily measured, boxed, sorted, and analyzed keeps my statistics-oriented brain (yes, I have the degree to prove it) from getting tied up in knots!
Friday, October 24, 2008
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Out, Out, Damned Spot!
Didn't my friend Brenda do a GREAT JOB on the monogram for the blanket Pamela made for baby Ines???????
Thanks to my little helpers on the left, the spot is gone! I basically tried one, rinsed the area, tried another, rinsed again, and tried the third. HURRAY! You can bet I was relieved!
Tune Bad Ideas to Innovate
If you're not making mistakes, you're not taking risks, and that means you're not going anywhere. The key is to make mistakes faster than the competition, so you have more chances to learn and win... John W. Holt, Jr.
"You have to plan for creativity," Dr. Ellen Weber notes. "You just can't throw paint at the wall and expect it to look good." So how do some businesses come forward with groundbreaking inventions that change the way we do things?
Consider this... The Google phone just burst through the gates, bringing innovation and magic to handsets! Built on Google's Android system and HTC's inventive magic, the revolutionary phone is user-friendly so you avoid thick user manuals. Google phone features Touch Flo. Just reach out intuitively and touch a web page, a memo or document on the screen to move it around where you want. No up and down buttons that get in your way. Who created Touch Flo anyway?
Interestingly, HTC's innovation emerged from it's Magic Labs. John Wang, who thinks of himself as "Chief Innovation Wizard," purposely created Magic Labs where 60 "magicians," experts in many fields, work through new ideas quickly. Unbelievably, the whole organization is designed to fail. Hmm... failing's not what most people would plan when it comes to invention...
John Wang explains what he means by fail...
Inventors are both born and bred... it's all about gene pool and learning process. The human brain has remarkable plasticity, which opens up new possibilities. The more people practice doing new activities the more neural stimulation and synaptic strenghtening occurs. Would you agree U.S. schools and universities need to foster more inventors? Here's how that can take place...
Students discover workable design through doing... Skills for invention are really no different than learning to throw a touchdown pass or play the trombone, Jeff Schuler, executive director of Lemelson-MIT Invention Box asserts. "It takes practice. Students need the opportunity to get their hands dirty and invent," he said. "Generally speaking, there's not enough 'learning by doing' taking place in today's high schools."
Today's universities help young inventors and entrepreneurs by creating similar kinds of labs. Chris Brown describes an Entrepreneurial Lab at Kent State University. Here young entrepreneurs have access to tools that can make new business happen.
How are you and others finding your fire? "If your products, services and customer experience don’t thrill you, Mike Wagner challenges, "you can be certain they don’t thrill your customers."
How are you planning for creativity so you stand tall in today's competitive market?
"You have to plan for creativity," Dr. Ellen Weber notes. "You just can't throw paint at the wall and expect it to look good." So how do some businesses come forward with groundbreaking inventions that change the way we do things?Consider this... The Google phone just burst through the gates, bringing innovation and magic to handsets! Built on Google's Android system and HTC's inventive magic, the revolutionary phone is user-friendly so you avoid thick user manuals. Google phone features Touch Flo. Just reach out intuitively and touch a web page, a memo or document on the screen to move it around where you want. No up and down buttons that get in your way. Who created Touch Flo anyway?
Interestingly, HTC's innovation emerged from it's Magic Labs. John Wang, who thinks of himself as "Chief Innovation Wizard," purposely created Magic Labs where 60 "magicians," experts in many fields, work through new ideas quickly. Unbelievably, the whole organization is designed to fail. Hmm... failing's not what most people would plan when it comes to invention...
John Wang explains what he means by fail...
The way to get a great idea is to have many ideas. By definition, most of your ideas will fail. You want to be able to generate ideas very fast, very cheaply and fail very often but at very low cost. Magic Labs is optimized for the efficiency of failure. Among the many ideas, there will be great ideas that bubble up and then we will invest R&D efforts to cultivate the great ideas.And, Magic Lab's process...
Magic Lab magicians tackled the problem that phones were getting complicated. They tried rearranging menus, making the screen easier to view, so on and so forth. But, zero results... "One day, inside Magic Labs, Wang shares excitedly, "there was an epiphany -- that was a day I still remember -- and the key can be described in a single word: baby."The magicians applied this principal to Touch Flo and it germinated from there...
We recognized that we had been going about simplicity in the wrong way. This happened in a brainstorming session. The true mission is not to reduce learning, but to eliminate learning. There needs to be zero learning, not very little learning.
The baby is probably the best expression for zero learning because the baby has not learned anything yet. If she wants to see the monkey on the other side of the block, she simply reaches out and turns the cube. I don't think she would read a user menu. There is something that is innate to living beings that you just simply reach out intuitively and turn the object. In HTC Touch, there is a slide out cube and you literally just turn the cube. That design was actually motivated by the recognition that people don't read user manuals, they just want to interact with objects intuitively.
Inventors are both born and bred... it's all about gene pool and learning process. The human brain has remarkable plasticity, which opens up new possibilities. The more people practice doing new activities the more neural stimulation and synaptic strenghtening occurs. Would you agree U.S. schools and universities need to foster more inventors? Here's how that can take place...
Students discover workable design through doing... Skills for invention are really no different than learning to throw a touchdown pass or play the trombone, Jeff Schuler, executive director of Lemelson-MIT Invention Box asserts. "It takes practice. Students need the opportunity to get their hands dirty and invent," he said. "Generally speaking, there's not enough 'learning by doing' taking place in today's high schools."Today's universities help young inventors and entrepreneurs by creating similar kinds of labs. Chris Brown describes an Entrepreneurial Lab at Kent State University. Here young entrepreneurs have access to tools that can make new business happen.
How are you and others finding your fire? "If your products, services and customer experience don’t thrill you, Mike Wagner challenges, "you can be certain they don’t thrill your customers."
How are you planning for creativity so you stand tall in today's competitive market?
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Do You See What I See?
We agree with our RDI consultant that Pamela's expressive imperative and declarative gestures are going to be a long-term project, so we are now working on a new objective in addition to spotlighting gestures during our daily activities. We picked something that I think Pamela can pick up quickly: my consultant always asks me to chose a simple phrase to help me be mindful and mine is Do You See What I See?
Simply put, when Pamela wants to point something out to me like a toy at the store or the truck that went off the side of the road, she needs to make sure that I am looking in the right direction! She needs to stay calm and help me redirect my focus until I am turning my attention to the same thing as her. I will work on this by looking in the right direction some times, but not all of the time. She can redirect me in many ways: pointing, bring something closer, turning it around, telling me which way to look, etc.).
If you have no clue what in the world RDI is, Laurel, a parent and RDI consultant, just launched a new blog explaining what RDI is and how to get started.
Before I update you on the baby blanket bonanza, I have two SWEET stories to share, which show the kind of progress Pamela is making in being flexible and rolling with the punches of life!
Story A - On Monday, Steve was packing for a business trip to Chile. Usually we speak in code because only Knoxville is an acceptable trip in Pamela's mind. So, we say The People's Republic of Knoxville (for trips to China) and Knoxville, SA (for trips to South America). Pamela walked in the room and asked Steve where he was going. He slipped and told her Chile. She did not freak out. It is the first time in ages she did not freak out. Then she sat on the bed and said, "I miss you!" Tissues please!!!!
Story B - Pamela has a thing about watching TV at noon until exactly one o'clock on school days. It's her little routine. Well, we dropped Steve off at the airport yesterday and took the dog to the vet, so she missed her nooner. Normally, she accepts that. But, today, time got away from me and she wanted to go shopping with me. Missing her noon date was completely unplanned on my part and unpredictable. We left the house at 11:53, and Pamela told me very calmly that tomorrow she would watch television at noon. David and I looked at each other in surprise because normally I try to shop at eleven, so we can be home by noon (or rush, rush, rush) to avoid a mini-meltdown.
I should be able to finish my blanket tomorrow. I crocheted it for my grand niece, precious baby Ines, who made her debut ten days ago, one month early, and is doing wonderfully.
I must confess a deep dark secret. I am the anti-Martha-Stewart, and my careless, flippant handling of crafts nearly botched up Pamela's Little Mermaid blanket for baby Ines. I nearly coughed up a hair ball when I noticed the fourth side of the blanket did not line up one bit! Today, I finally faced my mistakes and spent an hour rescuing the blanket, which did survive Tornado Tammy.
Here are my lessons learned:
Simply put, when Pamela wants to point something out to me like a toy at the store or the truck that went off the side of the road, she needs to make sure that I am looking in the right direction! She needs to stay calm and help me redirect my focus until I am turning my attention to the same thing as her. I will work on this by looking in the right direction some times, but not all of the time. She can redirect me in many ways: pointing, bring something closer, turning it around, telling me which way to look, etc.).
If you have no clue what in the world RDI is, Laurel, a parent and RDI consultant, just launched a new blog explaining what RDI is and how to get started.
Before I update you on the baby blanket bonanza, I have two SWEET stories to share, which show the kind of progress Pamela is making in being flexible and rolling with the punches of life!
Story A - On Monday, Steve was packing for a business trip to Chile. Usually we speak in code because only Knoxville is an acceptable trip in Pamela's mind. So, we say The People's Republic of Knoxville (for trips to China) and Knoxville, SA (for trips to South America). Pamela walked in the room and asked Steve where he was going. He slipped and told her Chile. She did not freak out. It is the first time in ages she did not freak out. Then she sat on the bed and said, "I miss you!" Tissues please!!!!
Story B - Pamela has a thing about watching TV at noon until exactly one o'clock on school days. It's her little routine. Well, we dropped Steve off at the airport yesterday and took the dog to the vet, so she missed her nooner. Normally, she accepts that. But, today, time got away from me and she wanted to go shopping with me. Missing her noon date was completely unplanned on my part and unpredictable. We left the house at 11:53, and Pamela told me very calmly that tomorrow she would watch television at noon. David and I looked at each other in surprise because normally I try to shop at eleven, so we can be home by noon (or rush, rush, rush) to avoid a mini-meltdown.
I should be able to finish my blanket tomorrow. I crocheted it for my grand niece, precious baby Ines, who made her debut ten days ago, one month early, and is doing wonderfully.
I must confess a deep dark secret. I am the anti-Martha-Stewart, and my careless, flippant handling of crafts nearly botched up Pamela's Little Mermaid blanket for baby Ines. I nearly coughed up a hair ball when I noticed the fourth side of the blanket did not line up one bit! Today, I finally faced my mistakes and spent an hour rescuing the blanket, which did survive Tornado Tammy. Here are my lessons learned:
- Use the big picnic table outside because the kitchen table is too small, and I wouldn't want to scratch up the dining room table or hardwood floors.
- Do not try to mix one knot tying technique with another. It seems I wanted to tie overhand knots like the former (which require five-inch strips) but only made strips long enough for the latter.
- If there is a video, watch the whole thing! Spending three minutes on the video last week would have saved me an hour of sweat today!
- Try to do all the cutting in one shot. Do not take it apart out of curiosity or leave it laying around all weekend and shoved into a drawer before company comes.
- If the instructions say, "Cut all four corners first," then CUT ALL FOUR CORNERS FIRST YOU KNUCKLEHEAD!
- If you have to go back and recut everything, tie a few knots here and there to keep it all anchored.
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