When I learnt to read at about eight or nine, I developed a love of books that I’ve never lost. Books were precious, bundles of excitement that needed to be collected and treasured. This developed into a love of series of books such as the Famous Five that gave me joy in the reading but also joy from the act of collecting the series and my two favourite series of books as a child have stayed with me into adulthood. One was Swallows & Amazons as these were the first books I ever read for myself at my own pace. I still own the old, tattered hardback copies I had as a child. The other books were Herge’s Adventures of Tintin.
My love for Herge’s Tintin was different from that of my other books. Obviously Tintin is a comic rather than prose which meant they were quicker to read but you could spend hours going over each picture, marveling at the details. They also differed in the nature of the stories. Famous Five and Swallows & Amazon were adventures starring children. Tintin is an adult (or at least a teenager) who has guns, fights real enemies, flies planes and has fantastic adventures.
Even as a comic, Tintin stood out from the other comics I was reading. Beano, Dandy and other British children’s comics had a very simple style. Tintin wasn’t like the more intricate pen & ink work of Commado comics either. Herges ligne claire style was bold and above all colourful. Each Tintin album is a careful controlled riot of colour. Strong blocks of colour both compete for attention and balance each other out.
It was this colour (it was years later that I learnt the Tintin books were originally in black & white) plus the excitement that captivated me. I was further hooked by the illustration on the back of the book. In the early UK edition there was an image that used iconic elements from all the books, including ones that weren’t available in the UK. As a kid, this intrigued me. Later, when all the books had been translated into English, they did a montage of all the covers and I could look at each in turn, marveling at the ones I did not own.
Now, years later, as my problems with dyslexia fade to a bad memory and my artistic ability improves I find myself pulled towards Tintin once more as I strive to capture Herge’s clear and bold style. Just like as a child, Tintin captures my imagination and dreams but as a child I wanted to be Tintin, now I want to be his creator, Herge.
A very interesting piece in The Times about how lego therapy helped autistic / Aspergers learn social skills.
For six months, they gathered for an hour a week to play with Lego. The idea behind the therapy, developed initially by Dan LeGoff in Philadelphia, was to encourage high-functioning children with autism or Asperger syndrome to communicate with each other and solve a problem by building in pairs or groups of three, according to set rules.
One child acted as the “engineer” and described the instructions, another as the “supplier” finding the correct pieces, and the “builder” put the pieces together. After a time, they would swap roles. Later, they would play “freestyle” in pairs, designing and building a model space rocket, for example, which allowed them to practise compromise, express their ideas clearly and take others’ ideas into account.
Source: Games that help autistic children
My 6 year old had been on ADDERALL for about 3 years then resently started pulling out of her hair out. I took her off it 2 days ago and she hasn’t pulled out nothing since!!!!!!!!!!!!!
There are two schools of thought on dyslexia: Those that say it is a permanent condition that is with someone through out their life; and those that say the problem is can be fixed by training the brain (e.g. cerebellum training). One of the major sticking points is how adaptable the brain is. If the brain cannot change, then no amount of training will be able to fix the problem. But if the brain is highly plastic and any part of it can be rewired, then the problem can be fixed with a modest amount of training.
Mind Hacks has word on ABC Radio National’s All in the Mind program that examines the issue in depth.
…a two part series on the implications of neuroplasticity - particularly the discovery that the brain can physically ‘rewire’ itself through adulthood, albeit in a more limited way in comparison to the process that occurs during childhood.
Source: Neuroplastic fantastic
Judging by the comments on Caffeine and ADHD some parents are considering using caffeine to treat ADHD instead of medication such as Ritalin. One possible source of caffeine is energy drinks, such as Red Bull, but there are risks with these drinks.
According to a research:
Since Red Bull, the first energy drink to hit the U.S. market, launched in 1997, the market has boomed, Griffiths says, now totaling at least $5.4 billion a year in the U.S. Hundreds of brands are available.
Although the FDA limits the caffeine contents of cola-type soft drinks to 71 milligrams per 12 fluid ounces, no such limit is required on energy drinks, Griffiths tells WebMD.
“Makers of so-called “energy” drinks generally market them as dietary supplements,” says Siobhan DeLancey, an FDA spokesperson. Dietary supplements are regulated differently than food. The FDA does not approve or review the products before they are marketed.
Source: Energy Drinks: Hazardous to Your Health?, Safety issues associated with energy drinks
A while ago I wrote a piece called Nintendo Wii and Autism that asked how well an autistic child would cope with a Nintendo Wii. Would its unique controlling mechanism be too complex or unwieldy for an autistic child or would its movement based approach be more intuitive than a traditional games controller?
In response a variety of parents have commented on it:
Mike wrote:
My son is 8 years old and on the high functioning side of the spectrum.
He loves the sports games. He plays Wii Sports and Mario & Sonic At The Olympics a lot. He is very inexperienced with sports due to typical autism type issues and the Wii has acted as a trainer.
Susan’s experience:
My son is 5.5 years old with a medical and educational diagnosis of autism. At his last school meeting I was told he is “super high-functioning”. His current behavior therapist recommended a website (www.starfall.com) … I decided to bring starfall up on the Wii and see if he could figure out the remote. I was amazed! He had never before taken an interest in Wii Sports or anything else on the Wii that the rest of the family plays. After he figured out how to navigate with the remote, he is now able to play the shooting game on Wii Play, and he loves the photo channel and he uses the doodle and mood features to change the photos we have copied over to the Wii.
Mary said:
I have two children with autism ages 7 and 8 and neither is high functioning (Aspergers). The Wii has been a wonderful asset. It has improved my son’s hand-eye coordination and his large motor skills. He would never want to play a family game with us and preferred to play alone. Now he invites us to play with him.
MT wrote:
We love our Wii, and my 7 year old with autism has done so well with it. We first tried it at friends homes where he loved it but didn’t share it well. Once we got it at home a whole new world opened up. … wrote about it on my blog here.
Do read MT’s blog entry in which she takes her son bowling for real after he has mastered bowling on the Wii.
Because autism covers such a spectrum of problems the Wii will not suit all autistic children but it is clear that for some it opens new doors. This is very heartening for my WyyMi project which aims to help with coordination training in people with developmental issues using the Wii.
Before drug companies were convincing parents that their children needed stimulants, they were trying to persuade Grandma that she need Ritalin. Don’t believe me? Check out Grandma’s Little Helper about the history of Ritalin and its advertising.
Colic, extened but unexplained crying in a new born infant, effects around 20% of western babies. Whilst apparently harmless it does cause a get deal distress to parents and the baby. Despite its prevalence, Doctors do not know what causes it though many explanations have been suggested.
There have been some suggestion that colic babies tend to develop educational problems in later life though there is no direct evidence for this. However an article in the New Yorker may add some weight to this. Professor Barry Lester has been studying colic for most of his professional career suggest that some colicky babies are “hypersensitive to normal stimuli” and over-react to normal stimulus. He has also studied 3 - 8 year-olds who had colic as a child and found the 75% “suffered from behavioral problems, including a limited attention span, tantrums, and irritation after being touched or coming in contact with particular fabrics or tags in their clothing”. Lester speculates that “Colic threatens to cause problems in the child’s ability to form relationships, because the child doesn’t learn behavioral regulation and develops problems with impulse control,”.
Source The Colic Conundrum (with thanks to Mind Hacks)
Dyslexics and autistic children oft exhibit a sensitivity to noise. Background noises can be painful at worst or simply distracting. Some people have found that listening to white noise (static) helps because it masks the background sounds, allowing the child to get on with the task in hand. This is not something that has been scientifically studied or proven but some people find it helps and I include myself in that list. I have a white noise track on my MP3 player and I occasionally tune the radio into static when the noise of others in the house is getting too much.
Now there is a very easy and simple white noise generator available on the web. Simply Noise does exactly what is says. It creates white noise and a simple slide control can adjust its intensity. Give it a try next time you or your child are working at your computer and see if it works for you.
Thanks to LifeHacker who also has information on more advanced White Noise generators.
Over on Wyymi I have an article on how dancing, the cerebellum and language are linked: The Dancing Brain.
Whilst we have found creatures in the animal kingdom than exhibit human like behavior from tool use to waging war, we have never found an animal that makes music and dances to it. Why is this and what part does it play in making us human?
