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I Was Wrong!

Made you look!

No, actually, I was wrong about Pamela's ability to learn non-verbal communication. As a faithful subscriber to ARRI, I had read numerous articles about how difficult it was for autistic people to read and make facial expressions and perceive eye gaze direction due to differences in the amygdala and have trouble interpreting gestures due to a deficit in mirror neurons. (If you do not really know what mirror neurons are, check out this fourteen minute video--my cyber friend Poohder gave me this link and pointed out that Daniel Glaser is a lead researcher, but there's no relation that I know of). I remember listening to Eric Courschene present his findings on the attention-shifting difficulties due to difference in the cerebullum.

Not only that, I saw it with my own eyes. When Pamela took sign language classes at homeschooling co-ops when we lived in Minnesota, I saw clearly how much she struggled with picking up the nonverbal nuances like facial expressions when she signed. So, like most parents, I assumed that, because of the brain anomalies found in autism, she would never be able to learn these things, so why bother!

When I read about the possibility of Pamela learning to read and do nonverbals, I was skeptical. Afterall, she was seventeen years old--way, WAY, WAY beyond the cut-off for neural plasticity according to the experts. Sure, it took Pamela three weeks to learn to follow my eye gaze, but now she doesn't think twice about following mine or directing me with her eye gaze. She uses her eyebrows a lot now and her face no longer requires extreme emotion to register an expression. She has mastered a limited gesture vocabulary of her own, and she can read many more of mine. Our consultant remarked the other day that Pamela is showing signs that her mirror neurons are at work because she watches me so intently and learns from it.

If you want to know more about the kind of nonverbals RDI parents and professionals address, Horizons put out a great article called Nonverbal Communication: What’s it all about?

You may think that having a purely nonverbal conversation is unnatural, but it's not! The other day we were in line at the store, and it was a long line! A cashier at the other end of the checkout aisles caught my attention and, when he noticed my eye gaze was in his direction, he pointed to me and then pointed to his check-out line. Then, I pointed to myself and he nodded, so I started walking. As I got closer, he pointed to the correct aisle more deliberately and I nodded.

Pamela can have conversations like that. Last week at the store, I put a shopping basket on the conveyor belt and Pamela put five items behind it. Suddenly, she handed the cashier one item after another, being careful to match her pace with that of the cashier's. She forgot the fifth item, so the cashier pointed to it and Pamela followed the eye gaze and point, grabbed the item, and handed it to her communication partner. I just stood back and admired the whole thing! Their conversation was beautiful.

Sometimes, it may feel like you are taking a step backwards when focusing on nonverbals, instead of verbals. However, the first thing infants learn is nonverbal communication. It seems backwards to focus exclusively on verbals first with autistic children, when typically nonverbals lead to verbals. The difference is that we have to be more deliberate about teaching them to autistic children, but I am finding with Pamela that the effort is worth it.

My consultant and I agree that Pamela is making progress in using expressive gestures, and we will continue to spotlight it for a long time. As Pamela's teacher and parent, I try to balance working on verbals during school time (at least with the association method and oral narrations) with being overly nonverbal when we are not in school mode. When I can get away with it, I try to be nonverbal during school time, but that is not always feasible. The key is to be mindful of opportunities as they arise.

I have noticed Pamela is using more and more declarative language and is doing some higher level thinking. Here are some examples that may seem little to you, but are big, big advancements:

• We usually do math in the morning but forgot. I did not pull out her math book after lunch, and she said, "You forgot math!"
• Steve drove the radio-less red car to work today. When Pamela realized it, she ran into the house and, "Daddy drove the red car. Go in grey car!" She raised her fists and said, "Hurray!"
• When we were in the car, I made a point to be very nonverbal and expressive. At stop lights and at the drive through, we were reacting to her talking about lions, bears, shots, claws, etc. She loved it and her face lit up. None of these were stims either--it was fresh conversation.
• Pamela usually listens to CDs in the car. At one point, she decided to listen to the radio and told me, "FM!"
• When we reviewed Miracles on Maple Hill, she seemed concerned about Joe being lost. With The Story of the Trapp Family Singers, she talked about how sad they were because they have to go back to Europe. A few days later when she found out they were in jail (immigration glitches at Ellis Island), Pamela was shocked!
• When we were sitting on the rockers doing schoolwork, some birds and squirrels got noisy and Pamela commented about that.
• A paper had flown into the bushes (unbeknownst to me). I had been looking for it while Pamela worked and, when I found it, I told her. She said, "Ew!!!" because she thought it would be dirty. She looked surprised when it was only a little wet, but not dirty.
• One cool morning, Pamela walked in the room and said, "I'm wearing a sweater and socks." Then, we talked about how it is good to pay attention to the weather and wear a sweater and socks if it feels cold.
• I walked out to the back porch, and Pamela was all excited about a wasp she killed with a rock. It was merely stunned so we negotiated back and forth until we decided I better finish the job.
• I bought the complete New Testament of The Illustrated Bible: Complete New Testament from eBay. I showed it to Pamela and told her it was hers. I opened it to the first page of Matthew with the genealogy. She was okay about it--like how much can you do with a bunch of names? Then, when I turned the page and showed her the pictures and text, she loudly gasped. She was very surprised! Then she said, "Gasp!" spotlighting her surprise even more.
• Pamela frequently asks me, "Where's great grandma?" followed by a little sign language stim for "died" and "heaven." The other day, Pamela asked me if great grandma's soul could talk to God. When I answered in the affirmative, she wanted to know what they talk about! I guess she thought, if the body was in the ground, it would be hard for a person to talk to God.
• I was at the computer. Pamela was talking to me so I turned to give her attention. She didn't like me being low verbal so she got a little rude. I looked down and pouted and she said, "I'm sorry," and kissed me on the top of my head!
• Pamela and David were sitting on a bench about Wal-mart while I checked out. They were at the other end of where I checked out, so I headed the cart in their direction. David was listening to his iPod and was not paying attention. Pamela saw me walking toward her and headed in my direction, but David did not. I decided not to say anything to see what she would do. She turned around and noticed David was still sitting. So she went up to him and tapped him to get his attention!

Cutting Up a Storm!

Warning: Read my lessons learned before you attempt this project!

We made it half of the way through cutting the fringe and corners of the first baby blanket! My mother is the most fabulous quilter and now I know why I am not! I decided to scaffold this by cutting the fleece into two pieces: 48 inches long for the newborn great niece and 24 inches for Baby Alive. I am so thankful I did. It took me an hour of sweating and near tears (but no blood) to trim the cloth and cut it into two pieces. Pamela would definitely have picked up on my frustration. My hats off to all you quilters out there--I cannot hack it myself!
These are the templates for scaffolding: the square for corners, the lines for spacing, and the ruler to guide cutting.
This is how I set up cutting a corner. Many websites recommend the square template, so I am not the genius with this idea. I am the beneficiary and the messenger.
The key to any successful RDI is scaffolding, giving enough support to ensure success without smothering on one end or frustrating on the other. I thought templates would make cutting the blanket run more smoothly.
This is the set up we used to guide the rotary cutter and keep us both on track. I thought it worked pretty well. Our lines are not perfectly straight, and it would not be precise enough for quilting. That is why we are doing a no sew blanket! LOL!
Here is how the fringed looked when finished. Below you can watch the video of us in action.

Education - Power to Fight Inner City Poverty - Blog Action Day

School systems disenfranchise youth in the inner city. Without a good education most will be unable to earn a good wage or find a rewarding job field. Students realize when they don't make the grade, they are at the bottom of the heap and soon give up trying. Others are bored and don't see a relationship between themselves and what they're expected to know. The dropout rate in this nation is increasing at an alarming rate. What can each of us do to stem this problem, which leads to a life of poverty for so many?

Dr. Bill Cala, former Superintendent of Fairport Schools and Interim Superintendent of Rochester City Schools, shows poverty's linked to the inner city. The question he asked is, "How can we de-concentrate poverty?"

His answer - create a Metro School so inner city youth can learn outside a poverty ridden environment. "Metro Schools provide both economic and racial integration," Bill asserts. He will establish a lottery system so that all learners obtain equal opportunity to be selected. Special needs and top academic students gain equal access.

How will a Metro School differ from charter or private schools?

Metro Schools provide:

Stimulating quality education for inner city residents alongside suburban youth. Can you envision this culturally rich environment?

School, for Dr. Cala, means humanity for all.

A thinking and problem solving environment.

Random selection of inner city students rather than creaming the top and ignoring problems.

Dr. Cala's Metro School will be built on an Education is Democratic foundation, with 20 key principles:

• Education as knowledge - the organizing system
  
  
• Curriculum as tool to make sense of the big world
  
  
• Internships and shadowing - Learning by real life situations
  
  
• Music for all - all kids will have instruments
  
  
• Teacher "fires" and empowers students and works more as an advisor
  
  
• Parent and community involvement
  
  
• Service to society - Expeditionary learning [Big Picture - Cala]
  
  
• Evaluation by demonstration and exhibition
  
  
• Learning is purposeful - not simulated. Tap individual skills.
  
  
• Teachers and students engaged intellectually, emotionally and physically
  
  
• Self-discovery - many are evaluated only by test scores and that must change
  
  
• Curriculum without borders [MITA]
  
  
• Creating healthy learning environment
  
  
• Student ownership of learning
  
  
• Relationship building - love the children. Intergenerationally
  
  
• Social Justice
  
  
• De-concentrate poverty by including 40% inner city students [tipping point for a stable learning environment] with suburban students
  
  
• Cultural competence and diversity - Schools need to reflect world
  
  
• Brain-based learning [MITA]
  
  
• Understanding motivation [Self Determination Theory]

Bill believes that education should not be about short term memory. Short term memory's at work when students memorize quickly before major tests and within a few weeks can't remember it. When "content is king," many students "learn everything that's required, but don't have a clue who they are"(Cala). Bill's antidote is to make schools "As human as they can be" (Hunter).

Bill Cala's vision is that each of the nineteen colleges in the Rochester, New York area will eventually build a Metro School. He's supported by a board of area school superintendents. Daan Braverman, President of Nazareth College welcomed and supported Bill's vision so has opened the door for Nazareth to host the first school. The Metro School will begin with K-1 and 7th grade classes and each year will add one each in the primary and middle/secondary area until they eventually build a separate Metro School.

What Bill needs now, in spite of a stalling economy, is business and community support behind the school. All who are intersted in stemming the tide of poverty in upstate New York are invited to contribute to this stimulating, culturally-rich learning environment. Hopefully that includes many people in the Rochester area.

This blog is a part of Blog Action Day against Poverty. Over 9,000 bloggers will reach a total of ten million readers in this major effort today, October 15, 2008.

Dr. Ellen Weber and I support Bill Cala's and other leaders' vision for the new Metro School. The Metro School adds a knockout punch to fight against poverty!

Thanks for your leadership, Dr. Bill Cala!

Wordless Wednesday: Chipmunk Chronicles

Your Brain's Lazy - Jolt It!

Ever attempt to create a new marketing plan, and stale ideas stall you? Nothing new surfaces... Interestingly, the human brain reverts to the familiar... Your brain's lazy. Rather than "birth" a brand new "baby," which takes labor, your cranium sticks to past experiences stored in your basal ganglia. You see why "in the box" thinking soon overtakes your "brainstorming sessions. No wonder mediocrity overtakes many organizations.

Neuroscientists tell us the way you perceive goes beyond what your eyes and ears transmit to your brain. Perception, or the "aha," is created in the brain itself! Are you the kind of person who does things that others say "can't be done?" Howard Schultz, Steve Jobs, Larry Page and Sergei Brin and Jeff Besos established some of today's most innovative companies, and brought novelty to the marketplace. Voila, Starbucks, Apple, Google and Amazon.com came to life. These four represent distinctive and distinctively American contributions to capitalism, Washington Post writers, James Ledbetter and Jacob Weisberg, assert.

Good news is that you too, have potential to be an inventor! "In order to think creatively," according to Gregory Berns, who recently published, Iconoclast, "you must develop new neural pathways and break out of the cycle of experience-dependent categorization." He adds, you can jolt your brain to energize new feats by surprising it with new information or an unfamiliar environment.

Try tapping variety of your intelligences as you launch your next project. Be sure to use intelligences that seem unlikely choices... Believe me, revelations emerge as you engage new perspectives, rather than relying on the familiar. Try these pathways to stir new thinking:

Musical - Music Can Move Your Brian Waves to Benefit You

Logical-mathematical - Your Brain on Numbers

Spatial - Color Your Banner - Color Your Brain!

Naturalistic - Nature Nurtures the Mind

Interpersonal - Want to Ratchet Up Your Networking? - tips by Darren Rowse

Verbal-linguistic - Find Oomph in Creative Editing - tips by Joanna Young

Bodily-kinesthetic - Play to Recharge Your Brain

Intrapersonal - Treat Myself - Lyrics to Inspire

Be sure you have a positive mindset as you begin, since positives stir serotonin, a miracle drug at work, to flow in your brain.

Ready to create a novelty in your business?

Please share your strategies to tap your creative mind. I'll highlight these in a follow-up blog.

Blanket Pre-Quel #2

Last Wednesday, we did our first preview of a mission to make a no-sew, reversible fleece blanket for Pamela's cousins' baby, born a month early last Friday, and doing well all things considered. On Friday, I wrote a future story (shown above) using the word will for Pamela's association method tablework (or should I say rocking-chair-work). My goal was to preview the next day's trip to Walmart to select two pieces of fleece (a pattern with a complementary pattern). On Saturday, we bought enough fleece to make a blanket for the newborn and maybe even both blanket and pillow for Baby Alive, and, as you can see below, Ariel and the color purple won. We even found a sample Hannah Montana no sew fleece blanket, already made, and Pamela's eyes lit up when she saw a blanket in real life. I hope to start working on it tomorrow since our deadline is October 24.

Previewing future activities works on episodic memory, which F.A.C.T explains as follows:

Episodic Memory
Allows us to anticipate future possibilities, and learn from past mistakes. Memories of success are stored and used to develop perseverance and resilience. Builds motivation to endure challenges. Allows us to prepare for potential future scenarios and expect future uncertainty.

Why is this important? The Pathways Treatment Center explains that autistic children tend to be very strong in storing procedural memory (details, scripts, formulas for behavior). Often autistic children will lock into static patterns in life, such as the order of aisles you take while shopping or the route you drive to the store, and flip out when you deviate from it. They pick up on verbal scripts whether taught explicitly in the form of therapy or picked up from movies and television. Those with high IQs excel in academics because they memorize facts easily.

Autistic children tend to be weak in storing episodic memory, which focuses on the whole, not the parts; the big picture, not the factual details. In this case, the brain stores information in episodes, including emotions. In RDI, we take great pains to find meaningful experiences we can share and build upon. By previewing a future experience in different ways, I am teaching her to anticipate storing a future episode.