#he avoids activities that require fine motor skills

[justaz]

after the omega shield incident, lance suffers from sporadic tremors. a lot of the time it’s his arms/hands that shake but sometimes it’s his legs/feet which knock him off his ass for a good portion of the day. on the days it’s less severe he can get around w some stumbling, other times he’ll use a cane. he hates it and tries to power thru it but keith, shiro, and coran all force him to take it easy

[talentforlying]

NINE NIFTY THINGS YOUR MUSE CAN DO.

01. write & read music. not that punk band mucous membrane was churning out grammy-winning material, mind you, but knowing where all the notes go on a sheet of staff paper, which ones sound good together, and a handful of things about tempo and rhythm aren't half-bad skills to have. of course, constantine's process for writing music would make professional composers cry, but these days he most often puts this skill towards creating new spells, since he finds the principles remarkably similar, so the music world is spared his endeavors for now. ( underground single venus of the hardsell excepting. )

02. miniature-scale arts & crafts. he's really gifted with his hands, and with any activity that requires fine motor skills: intricate ritual-carving, cutting his own hair, braiding other people's hair, restringing an instrument, rolling insanely long joints, fixing jewelry, sewing, threading a corset, building a detail-accurate small scale model of a chair out of matchboxes for an ex-girlfriend's miniature house.

03. electrical work. another useful application of his excellent fine motor skills. he's lived in enough shithole apartments and had to hot-wire enough cars for friends to know his way around a wiring issue or two, not to mention the fact that electricity can be a handy supplemental power source in certain spells and it's helpful knowing how to get to it wherever you are. it stands out because he's pretty terrible with most other forms of household maintenance; there's just something uniquely mind-boggling about a guy who can't unclog his sink but can install a circuit breaker like a pro.

04. tie a cherry stem with his tongue. natch.

05. get anywhere in london, and cite almost anything in its history, from memory. a big bloody city with a big, bloody history attracts a lot of unearthly creatures with a lot of different emotional, spiritual, psychic, and physical fancies; it's been useful for him to know where significant events have happened, and when, and why, in case something starts up and the symptoms strike a chord. it's also useful to know where to go when he needs to gather specific kinds of information: the seedier pawn shops, gang territories, high-end clubs where celebrities and politicians go to hide from the press. on top of the strategic reasons, he's also spent a significant amount of time being homeless under a few different circumstances, and keeps his accumulated knowledge of last-ditch shelters, times that the police patrol the sewer tunnels, and safe places for a meal close at heart.

06. gamble with a 100% win rate. two of his best tricks are synchronicity wave traveling and probability manipulation, where he basically feels out the flow of luck in the space around him and shifts the current to go his way. it's incredibly dangerous on a larger scale, since it can cause a butterfly effect — too risky to use on avoiding a hit that would have killed him or sabotaging a villain's scheme, for example — but as long as he sticks to small-scale, short-term events like horse races and poker games, he cleans up easy. it's his primary source of income, since he doesn't have an actual job.

07. melt the face off a vampire. specifically the former king of the vampires, but supposedly any. demon blood is a nasty thing to have in your veins, and incredibly corrosive upon ingestion/absorption, for unknown reasons. if anyone wanted a snack they'd have a bad, bad time.

08. semi-fluently sign in & understand BSL. he credits his reason for learning to a deaf ex-boyfriend he dated in the 90s and has continued to brush up on his skills over time, although his preference to learn languages from the people who use them, lack of consistent lessons, and geographically-wide variety of friends has resulted in a . . . frankly nightmarish hodgepodge of dialects that can make him harder to understand.

09. play electric guitar, bass guitar & harmonica. he was lead vocalist and bassist for mucous membrane, and although they were only together a year before the newcastle incident, he'd been learning both electric and bass for a year or two before. it took him a long, long time to pick it up again, given the circumstances, but he managed to get his hands on a fender 1962 jazz bass a few years back and has been slowly but steadily working on getting the old feel back. the harmonica started as a joke gift from gary after constantine and chas got arrested for a pub fight in '77, so they could play it to pass the time when they inevitably got shafted by the system ( they didn't, constantine talked their way out ) but he became quite genuinely good at it, and now it's his shameful secret.

[phezii]

CLIENT-CENTERED APPROACH

Client-centered care is a service delivery approach that includes respect for and working with clients as active participants in the therapy process. This approach emphasizes clients' knowledge and experience, strengths and capacity for choice, and overall autonomy. Client-centered approach to me as an OT student means allowing the client to tell you his/her story and as a therapist you act as a guide for them by making them evaluate their life and advise them on therapeutic methods pertaining to their lifestyle. “Person-centred therapy allows the client to steer the ship.  There’s no agenda, no rush.” (Adikwu, 2020). Client-centered therapy requires the therapist to concentrate on the client's needs. Rather than providing an in-depth analysis of the client's difficulties or blaming the client's current thoughts and behaviors on past experiences, the person-centered therapist listens to the client and creates an environment where they can make independent decisions. It also implies that the person-centered therapist avoids judging the client for any reason and accepts them completely. This approach allows one to view and understand how the world works from the client’s perspective. Also, this enables the therapist to be empathetic towards the client.

“Rogers’ theories on humanistic psychology gave rise to the client-centered approach to psychotherapy, known as Rogerian therapy. Rogers used “client” rather than “patient” to promote equality in the therapist-client relationship. Traditionally, there was a power imbalance in the therapeutic relationship between the therapist and the patient, but client-centered therapy emphasizes that the client’s experience is just as valid as a professional’s insight, and therefore, in Rogerian therapy, the two parties in the therapeutic relationship should be viewed as equals” (Adikwu, 2020). Treating your client like your equals and giving them the respect they deserve helps them feel more comfortable during the sessions and free to share their feelings.

When I was planning for the intervention I would use for my client, first I needed to understand the relationship that exists between occupations, client factors, performance skills and performance patterns including the context and the environment of the client. I looked at the client’s symptoms as that will help me determine which client factors I want improve since when left untreated could lead to serious negative functional implications. For my client I had to look for activities that are relevant to the client to improve bilateral hand functions, prehensile and non-prehensile hand function thus using occupation as means. Before planning a session, I would first ask the client what goals he has since he started therapy so that we could work together and I would run my idea about an activity, explaining to him how the activity is going to help improve client factors. Discussing my findings with the client made him more motivated to engage in all our sessions as he saw the improvement from our last session as his oedema decreased. The client last time I saw him he had oedema on his right hand, and I educated him about the importance of elevation of the hand and taught him how to do retrograde massages for oedema management. Thus, when planning for the next session it was based on finger dexterity and improving fine-motor skills for the affected hand. “Man, through the use of his hands, as they are energized by mind and will, can influence the state of his own health” said Mary Reilly, OTR, Ed.D.

The day of my demo my client was discharged, and I was not able to do my session with him. Now I had to find a new client at that big hospital, this stressed me so much I mean I had already had something planned for my previous client who had a hand injury. However, my teammates together with the supervisor assured me that I got this and helped me screen for a new client. I got a new client that previously had left CVA, presenting with right residual hemiparesis and was admitted at the hospital for hypoxic pneumonia. The client presented with her right hand in a flexed position, however no contractures have formed as I was able to do limited passive movements of the hand and wrist. When planning for intervention my focus was to correct the transfer of dominance to the left hand when engaging in occupations. Also, get the client incorporate the affected hand when engaging in her daily occupations. The aim was to get the client engage in an ADL activity, dressing and wash her face thus, increasing her functional mobility (since she spends of her time in bed) and activity tolerance through ADLs.

The time I was implementing the session I found out that the client does not have a towel of her own and I decided on the sports that she can wash her hands and come back to lotion the hands on her bed, and I thought I had found a solution for my problem. However, at the beginning of my session the client could not stay at the edge of the bed as she complained of feeling pain around her pelvic which made sitting unbearable. I then tried to do the session with the bed elevated and the client wore her night dress. However, the client was fatigued and hungry to continue with the session and incorporate her affected hand when doing the activity. The client’s physical endurance declined as her focus was not on the activity despite motivating her to do the task.

After the session was over, I felt like a failure as I was not able to achieve my aims for the session. The supervisor gave me some pointers after the session, for instance that the client would really benefit by receiving a functional resting splint since she keeps her hands in a flexed position. Thus, splinting is going to be one of my goals for the next session. Besides me feeling sad about the unsuccessful session, I told myself I should not beat myself up about this but rather take this is a learning opportunity. One of Winston S. Churchill quotes says, “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” My supervisor told me that not all session goes according to the way we plan them however what’s important is how you evaluate the session and see your mistakes and how you are going to better them for next time.

The feedback I got from the supervisor helped me to draft some goals for my next session. Now that my first interaction with my client did not go as planned, for the next one I plan on building a solid rapport with the client and assessing her in a holistic way. Thus, my intervention will address tasks that are typically performed daily and are essential to the client. Getting the client to be part of the planning of her interventions, is a client-centered approach. “In caring for clients with respiratory disorders, energy conservation techniques are commonly embedded into ADL re-training” (THE ROLE of OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY in PULMONARY REHABILITATION CONTINUING EDUCATION for Occupational Therapists Learning Objectives, n.d.). Thus, educating the client on disease management, energy conservation skills, and adaptive equipment she could use (splint). The client-centered approach places so much emphasis on genuineness and being led by the client, thus the intervention I will provide will be client driven.

References

Adikwu, M. (2020, November 12). What Is Person (Client) Centered Therapy? Talkspace. https://www.talkspace.com/blog/therapy-client-centered-approach-definition-what-is/#:~:text=What%20Is%20Client%20Centered%20Therapy

McLeod, S. (2019). Person-centered Therapy - Core Conditions | Simply Psychology. Simplypsychology.org. https://www.simplypsychology.org/client-centred-therapy.html

The Best Occupational Therapy Quotes. (2022, April 8). The OT Toolbox. https://www.theottoolbox.com/occupational-therapy-quotes/

THE ROLE OF OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY IN PULMONARY REHABILITATION CONTINUING EDUCATION for Occupational Therapists Learning Objectives. (n.d.). https://pdhacademy.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/PROOF3_117164_PDHAcademy_OT_ROLE-OF-OT-IN-PULMONARY-REHAB.pdf

[vinnylovell]

How To Overcome Brain Degeneration As You Age group

The unique thing about the actual brain is that it is one of the tissue in the body that does not experience cell division. Your own liver is always rejuvenating, so are your gut, your kidneys, and all your organs. Though the brain, whatever set amount of neurons (lack of feeling cells that send and receive electric signals throughout the body) you were born using is what you have throughout your life. So if the actual brain is incapable of regenerating itself, is degeneration an unavoidable outcome as we age? Fortunately, the answer is, not really. Here is why. Neurological plasticity Neurons connect with the other and develop plasticity. Neural plasticity is the ability associated with neurons and its systems to change itself both structurally and functionally in response to development, new information, sensory stimulation, damage, or disorder. Neural plasticity is, therefore, crucial to development, cognition, recollection, and mobility. It was once believed that neural plasticity merely existed in young individuals and that once neural pathways were formed, they were arranged and could not be transformed. Modern brain research has today revealed that neurons continually rearrange themselves through the entire course of life. In reality, new connections can take shape at any point in life, enabling people to gain knowledge and pick up new skills even at an advanced age. However, as you age, your brain is still likely to degenerate unless you do something to alter the process. Factors behind Brain Degeneration 1. Poor neurodevelopment in certain regions of the brain Each person offers different regions of your brain which have greater connection or plasticity than additional regions. The more plasticity you've in a certain place, the better you are as well particular function manifested by the area. Your less plasticity, the much less capable. For example, once you were a kid so you tried to play sports. You were not coordinated and other kids made enjoyable of you. So you halted playing sports and you avoided sports when you grew up. Then the region that represents your vestibular generator system never got a possiblity to develop. As you get more mature, neurodegneration tends to show up first in areas that have less plasticity. If you are someone who did not have a very created motor coordinated muscular system because you never played out sports, you are very likely to have instability, vertigo, or dizziness as you age. Or maybe you were bad at math when you were in school, so that you avoided all mathematics while growing up. Therefore, the parietal, prefrontal, and substandard temporal regions from the brain will have less plasticity. As you get older, you may find you are no longer as good in remembering things or your grocery list. That is why in terms of the brain, the saying which "if you don't use it, you may lose it" is indeed very true. 2. Brain inflammation Inflammation in the brain is totally different from infection in the rest of the system. In the systemic defense system, there are suppressor cellular material that can shut down the actual immune response to control down the inflammatory course of action, the brain does not. Inside the brain, there are mainly neurons and glial cells. Glial cellular material support, protect, as well as nurture the neurons; they clear away metabolic debris such as the beta-amyloid plaques perfectly located at the brains of Alzheimer's disease patients. They are also the resident immune cellular material in the brain, but they don't have an off swap. Without intervention, when activated, they remain on, become hyper, along with cause chronic swelling in the brain. (Please read on to see ways to decrease brain inflammation.) Factors like upsetting brain and spinal cord injuries, ischemia stroke, infections, poisons, and autoimmunity activate the particular glial cells. This condition is frequently associated with a compromised blood-brain buffer, which is a finely woven mesh of specialized cellular material and blood vessels which keep foreign ingredients out of the brain. When this barrier is damaged, it becomes permeable or perhaps "leaky". This allows toxins and pathogens to enter the particular brain. It also allows swelling that originates elsewhere in the body to get into the brain and start the inflammation reaction there. Chronic brain inflammation reduces neuron plasticity and leads to degeneration. It shuts down wind turbine in the brain cells, resulting in mental fatigue, brain fog, and memory loss. It is also associated with numerous neurological along with psychiatric disorders, which include depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, substance abuse, Alzheimer's, as well as Parkinson's.

Top 5 Ways To Handle Brain Degeneration 1. Blood sugar stability Without doubt, blood sugar dysfunction may be the number one risk factor that devastates the brain. This includes getting prediabetic, diabetic, or hypoglycemic (minimal blood sugar). When a person eats too much carbohydrates, which turn into sweets in the blood, your body puts out more insulin to bring the blood sugar down. Too much blood insulin activates the glial tissues in the brain and causes substantial inflammation and stimulates the neurodegenerative process. Within hypoglycemics, there is an insulin spike too as the entire body attempts to bring down your blood sugar after a large carbohydrate meal. When the blood sugar drops lacking, the brain cannot acquire enough fuel. They become spacey, lightheaded, shaky, along with irritable. Hypoglycemics cannot proceed too long without eating. If you want to determine whether there is a blood sugar issue, basically ask yourself how you feel when you eat. The normal reply would be, I am not eager anymore. There should be no alternation in energy and function. Nonetheless, hypoglycemics will typically say, I feel so much greater, I feel I can perform again. I can feel. I am not hungry any more. That is a sign that they're dealing with a low blood sugar rollercoaster ride. Those who eat a meal and wish to take a rest, crave sugar, or need to have a coffee instantly are insulin proof people. They are for the prediabetic or diabetic facet. Scientists now think that chronic blood sugar instability play a huge role within the development of dementia and Alzheimer's disease, enough to the point that will some researchers are usually calling Alzheimer's "Type 3 diabetes" as a result of inflammatory blood sugar relationship. Hence, blood sugar balance is irrefutably the most important the answer to address when trying to improve brain function. In addition to managing your blood glucose through diet, many studies have shown that irregular fasting has a substantial impact on brain inflammation. This turns on an important course of action called autophagy, in which you get rid of the metabolic debris in the brain and you turn off your glial cells. The most common intermittent fasting schedule could be the 16/8 method which involves fasting for 16 several hours and restricting your day-to-day eating period to eight hours, say midday to 8 pm. 2. Initial of the brain The areas of the brain that you do not use may have less plasticity. Therefore, you will need to challenge your brain to avoid it from degenerating. In case you always have a hard time with math, get a mathematics app and start performing multiplication tables or perform math games which elementary school children do. If you are often questioned with people's faces or shapes, perform games like Tetris that you look at shapes and try to fit them in to different spots. Should you sway or get rid of your balance when you near your eyes while standing up with your feet collectively or on one feet, you get to do much more balance exercises. The secret is to keep all areas of your respective brain active and triggered. Watching TV is inactive and does absolutely nothing to help the brain. Instead, accomplish cognitive things like become familiar with a new language, enjoy Sudoku, or do word puzzles. Be an athlete, be a scholar, that is the way to preserve your own brain. 3. Physical activity Exercise advantages your brain in two techniques. One is biochemistry and yet another is plasticity. The types of exercise that raise your heartbeat change the neurochemistry in the brain. Larger heart rate equals more blood flow, more blood circulation, more growth components, and more brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). Workout also causes neuronal branching, results in an opioid response, along with calms down infection. In short, exercise just keeps your neurons healthy. Physical activities that require more coordination enhance neuronal plasticity in those areas of the brain. For example, in case you ask a patient which has brain injury in the vestibular system (balance center) to do bicep waves while standing on a new BOSU (unstable surface), he/she may well feel totally exhausted prior to muscles get fatigued. The patient may think that he/she is so out of shape, but actually, it is that the main brain that has an issue. As a result, if you are someone who just runs, bikes, as well as swims, adding exercises that involve multiple flatlands will help develop the aspects of the brain that are responsible for dexterity and balance, which can be essential as you get older. 4. Sleep Your brain cannot function in a sleep-deprived express. Your brain cannot part. It  cannot develop plasticity and it cannot get rid of particles when it is in a sleep-deprived point out. Studies clearly show that when people do not get adequate sleep, over time, the particular brain volume decreases in dimensions. So for whatever reason you're not getting enough high quality sleep, be it repeated nighttime urination, too much stimulation from the blue light generated by simply electronic devices, hormonal instability, or low blood glucose levels causing you to wake up, you should address the problem. Normally, without good sleep, there is no chance that your brain could work well. 5. Nutrients along with supplements The number one nutritious for turning lower neuroinflammation is short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs). The 3 primary SCFAs critical to wellness are butyrate, propionate, and acetate. SCFAs are built by gut microorganisms from the digestion as well as fermentation of dietary fibers. SCFAs can modulate neuroinflammation because the gut and the brain are usually intimately connected by the vagus nerve, which is the highway through which signals from hormones, neuropeptides, and microorganisms travel back and forth. Throughout studies, SCFAs have been implicated in several neuropsychiatric disorders, from Parkinson's to autism. These people were found to have a lower abundance of SCFA-producing bacteria in their gut as compared to healthy individuals. Forms of fiber that advertise the production of SCFAs in the intestine Inulin found in green bananas, rye, barley, sprouted wheat, Jerusalem artichoke, don't forget your asparagus, and onions. Pectin present in peaches, apples, grapefruits, grapefruit, apricots, peas, tomatoes, potatoes, and peas. Fructooligosaccharides (FOS) found in Jerusalem artichoke, green apples, garlic, asparagus, leeks, yellow onion, and chicory root. Resilient starch found in natural bananas, plantains, cooked along with cooled rice, carrots, and legumes. Arabinoxylan found in wheat bran. Dealing with Brain Degeneration As You Age Apart from eating foods that are rich in these fibers, you can also make use of fiber supplements. They're called prebiotics or prebiotic materials because the good microorganisms (probiotics) in the gut prey on them to produce SCFAs. Foods that contain SCFAs Butter and ghee. There are also butyrate (or butyr acid) dietary supplements available. Individuals with severe brain inflammation should consider employing both prebiotics and butyrate. Health supplements that reduce brain inflammation Omega-3 fish oil Resveratrol a polyphenol found in the skin of red grapes. It can cross the blood-brain barrier to help reduce brain inflammation. Turmeric/curcumin any spice commonly present in curry powder. It can also mix the blood-brain barrier. Liposomal fluid curcumin has 4-8 times more absorption than the powdered ingredients form, which is tougher to absorb. Pomegranate extract Carol Chuang is a Certified Nutrition Specialist. She has a Experts degree in Diet and is a Certified Gluten Specialist. She specializes in Metabolism Typing and Functional Diagnostic Nutrition. For more information about cach dieu tri benh thoai hoa nao resource: read more.

[sally-mun]

Do the old grumps have any hobbies or interest? Could imagine they gotta, can't just work as Guardians all the time lol

Yeah, there’s plenty of downtime to being a Guardian. To be perfectly honest, most of their actual Guardian duties revolve around monitoring and patrolling more than anything, with training and practice coming in at a close second. They don’t actually face battles and conflict terribly often, it’s just usually VERY intense when they do, so they have to stay prepared.

But in the meantime, yes, there are hobbies.

I believe I’ve mentioned here and there that Spectre likes to do puzzles. Not only does he genuinely enjoy the intellectual exercise, but it’s also something that helped him when he was still living in Moritori’s custody, as it was something he could do very quietly to avoid drawing ‘Tobor’s’ ire. That aside, he just generally enjoys quiet activities, such as reading and jigsaw puzzles. Nowadays in the RP his mobility is extremely limited and he’s REALLY getting up there in age, so he spends a lot of time using a tablet to entertain himself.

Sojourner’s ‘hobbies’ when he was younger mostly revolved around going out and trying to find validation among his peers, since he didn’t believe he was getting it from Spectre. (If you want to be particularly vicious I suppose you could say getting girls pregnant was a hobby–)

OKAY okay that was mean. Anyway, he was a party boy as a young man because he wouldn’t admit how miserable he was, so a lot of his free time was spent playing drinking games with “friends.” Once that phase passes, I can only infer that he likes serial dramas; at the present in the RP he spends a lot of time grumpily watching soap operas.

Thunderhawk, unsurprisingly, likes group activities. He’s the most eager to play games (especially board/card games) or to want to host a family movie night. He’s also the most interested in cooking, although I would say his skill level is average. Thundy in general is the sort of person that will try to make whatever he happens to be doing into something he can enjoy.

Janelle was definitely the most sports-y of the group. Since she had to work twice as hard as anyone else to be taken seriously, it required her to stay VERY fit to stay on top of her game, plus she had a lot of siblings to play with, so athletic hobbies came very naturally to her. It’s worth noting also that she was competitive and ALWAYS kept score, because she and her siblings constantly wanted to one-up each other and would shit talk each other if they were doing even marginally better than one another.

Athair, like Spectre, also enjoys puzzles, but he doesn’t get as invested in them; if he’s having trouble solving one, he just kind of shrugs and moves on, whereas Spectre will get stuck on it and can’t leave it alone until he figures it out. Honestly, Athair half-asses most things if it’s not important for him to follow through. There’s probably an endless list of hobbies he picked up and quickly abandoned; he’s tried artsy things, like painting and pottery, he’s tried practical things, like woodworking and whittling… Like I said, it’s a pretty long list. If he loses interest, he just drops it.

Sabre, as we all know, took to blogging really well, but I don’t know if we could necessarily call that a hobby since he only did it to accomplish a goal he already had. He definitely reads a lot, and he likes keeping up with news and politics. At the present in the RP he’s actually taken up a lot of gardening; at the home the Brotherhood currently lives in Sojourner had started a small vegetable garden, but he kind of abandoned it following an incident, and Sabre’s been keeping up said garden ever since.

Much like Athair, Locke in his youth would try anything and everything, and this only intensified after he and Lara started living together since she was experiencing so much for the first time. As we all know, this unfortunately ebbed away over time as his illnesses gradually consumed him. At present in The Brotherhood, Locke really only has one hobby: Obsessing over Knuckles.

Speaking of Knuckles, he does have hobbies presently in the RP, but at this point in time in The Brotherhood he doesn’t (largely because Locke doesn’t leave him any time TO have hobbies). As an adult, though, Knuckles really likes making origami and other papercraft, as it helps keep his fine motor skills fine-tuned and helps him control his strength. He’s also got a strong love for retro video games, as he enjoys the simpler goals and graphics.

[woodcarl797-blog]

The Advantages and Importance of Pediatric Therapy for Kiddies

The early years of your child's life are very important since in those years the social, cognitive, and physiological improvement and growth of your kid takes place. The few years are critical like a kid's brain evolves.Regrettably, not many children successfully pass these developmental obligations. Some children do not mature and develop as they should and, hence, have delayed or restricted advancement and progression. If your child faces these issues and requires support to build and advancement optimally, pediatric occupational therapy are of great assistance.With suitable occupational therapy, kids may benefit from enhanced development, improved communication and cognitive skills, with minimal to no developmental delay. This therapy is done depending on your child's illness or disability.Pediatric occupational therapy has several benefits. speech therapy for kids

It is used for a wide array of ailments and disorders and prepares your child to create a healthful and normal life. A few of those benefits include these Occupational therapy helps young individuals who face difficulties in various activities like brushing their teeth, toileting, dressing, drawing and writing, etc.. Occupational therapy aims to develop these skills and daily living abilities in the kids. Improves Sensory Processing It is frequently pointed out that kids who have sensory processing problems aren't able to satisfactorily encode information with their basic five senses like sight, touch, and smell, etc.The majority of these kids can experience under-sensitivity, over-sensitivity and both at places such at home, school, or park.A child with sensory processing problems can be readily deflected by adults or other kids working talking or nearby at a normal level. They can feel pain or distress from going on a swing, even playing a jungle gym, and even walking and draining against their bare skin.They can avoid recess, gym , and even riding a bicycle as movement leaves them very uncomfortable. Occupational therapy is ideal for these ones as it can help them boost their ability to modulate sensory input so that they can engage in activities that children really like to perform.Fine motor skills are small movements created using fingers, toes, wrists, lips, and tonguelike carrying a small thing or picking up a spoon. They Might Have problems with one or more of these, if a child is struggling with good motor skills Manipulating Manipulating Manipulating antiques and toys Holding a pencil Utilizing silverware or straws at an age-appropriate time Using scissors Using Zippers, buttons, shoelaces Coloring, drawing, tracing, prewriting shapes Maybe not developing a hand dominance at an age-appropriate Moment Avoiding games and tasks which require fine motor skills Gross motor skills help us move and coordinate our arms, legs, as well as other body parts. They demand larger muscles that help us get a grip on the entire body. Might seem awkward or uncoordinated. They may also suffer from one or more of the following:Rising and downstairs at a age acceptable time Coordinating both sides of the entire human anatomy Recognizing the Principle of right and left Poor equilibrium Visual processing helps us make sense of what we see. It is. She or He may have difficulties with a number of these if a child is struggling with processing skills:Difficulty with dimension and sizing of letters Issue recognizing letters Difficulty copying contours Difficulty with visual monitoring and crossing midline Difficulty discovering items among additional objects Difficulty copying from close and far points Issue with the Idea of right and left Play skills will help a child make sense of the world round them. https://www.carolinapeds.com/

A young child learn problem solving can obtain self confidence, and develop skills with. Your child may be developmentally delayed when they show more or one of the following:Needs adult guidance to initiate drama Difficulty with imitative drama Moves fast from one action to another Does not explore toys suitably Doesn't join in using peers/siblings when enjoying Doesn't know theories of sharing and turn taking Recall that all children are different and develop these skill sets at their own pace. But if you think your child might be struggling with adopting a number of the skill are as above, you can speak to an occupational therapist.

[johntmorse-blog]

The Advantages and Importance of Pediatric Therapy for Kiddies

The early years of your kid's lifestyle are very important since in such years that the social, cognitive, and physicalimprovement and development of your child takes place. The few years are very critical being a child's brain evolves during this period.Unfortunately, not all kids successfully pass through these vital developmental landmarks.pediatric therapy Some kids grow and don't grow as they should and, hence, have delayed or restricted development and progress. If these issues are faced by your child and requires support progress and to develop brilliantly, pediatric occupational therapy are of amazing assistance.With proper occupational therapy, kids can benefit from improved growth, improved cognitive and communication skills, together with minimal to no developmental delay. This therapy is performed depending on your child's illness or disability.Pediatric occupational therapy features quite a few benefits. It is employed for a wide range of disorders and diseases and enables your child to lead a normal and healthy life. A few of those advantages include the following:Occupational therapy helps young ones who face difficulties in many different daily activities like cleaning their teeth, toileting, dressing, writing and drawing, etc.. Occupational therapy aims to develop these significant self skills and daily living abilities .Interrupts Sensory ProcessingIt is usually realized that kids who have sensory processing issues are not able to satisfactorily encode information with their basic five senses including sight, touch, smell, etc.. The majority of these children can experience under-sensitivity, over-sensitivity or both in places such as home, school, or playground.A child with sensory processing problems can be readily deflected by adults or other kids working speaking or nearby at a normal level. They can feel pain or distress from going on a swing, even playing on a jungle gym, and even walking and accidentally brushing against their bare skin.They can avoid recess, gym class, and perhaps riding a bike as movement leaves them very uneasy. Occupational therapy is great for all those ones as it can help them enhance their own ability. Improves Motor DevelopmentFine motor skills include small movements made with palms, feet, wrists, lips, and tonguelike holding a small thing or selecting a spoon. They Might Have problems with a few of these, In case a child is struggling with good motor skills:Manipulating toys and puzzlesHolding a pencilUsing silverware or straws at an age-appropriate MomentUsing scissorsColoring, drawing, tracing, Pre Writing shapesNot creating a hand dominance for an age-appropriate MomentAvoiding tasks and games which require fine motor skillsGross motor skills help us coordinate our arms, arms, as well as other parts of the body. They involve larger muscles which help us get a grip on our body. Might appear clumsy or uncoordinated. They may also have difficulties with a few of the following:Rising and downstairs at a age appropriate timeCo-ordinating both sides of the entire human anatomy Understanding the concept of left and rightPoor balance It is a process inside our brain that interprets visual info. In case a child is currently struggling with communication skills, he/she could suffer from a number of these:Difficulty with dimension and spacing of lettersIssue understanding lettersDifficulty copying shapesDifficulty with visual monitoring and crossing mid Line Difficulty discovering items among additional thingsIssue copying from close and far pointsDifficulty with the Idea of left and right A young child learn problem solving can acquire self-confidence, and develop social skills . Your child Might Be developmentally delayed if they reveal more or one of these:Needs adult advice to commence playDifficulty with imitative playMoves quickly from 1 action to anotherDoesn't explore toys appropriatelyParticipates in repetitive play All Day (e.g., lining up toys) Does not combine in with peers/siblings when playingDoesn't know notions of sharing and turn takingUnderstand that most children are different and develop these skill sets at their own pace. If you believe your child might be struggling with embracing some of these art are as above, you can speak to an occupational therapist. https://www.carolinapeds.com/

[parentingtheoryandpractice]

One week of Maya

Maya has been outside my body for an entire week! I know these early days go so fast, and I really want to remember how it all is, so I’m going to attempt to write weekly summaries with my old categories. I don’t know how consistent I’ll be, but it seems worth trying anyway.

Sleeping

Mats is still very much a sleepy newborn. The first few days, before my milk was in, she wasn’t sleeping very long stretches, presumably because she needed to fill up her tiny stomach with colostrum very frequently.

Now, she is often sleeping for hours at a time! And often she’ll get up to potty, nurse some mostly while sleeping and then settle right back in for another long sleep. It feels pretty special when she’s awake for a while, and I try to either let the kids play with her or FaceTime family members.

Oh, and sometimes she’ll stay asleep for a while even without someone touching her if she’s in the right phase of sleep, but she’s been doing almost all her sleeping snuggled up to me or in the wrap. She’s much more stable that way.

Nights haven’t been bad. I assume she has barely any circadian rhythm at this age, but so far she hasn’t had any long stretches of wakefulness at night that I can remember, which is very convenient!

All of my nighttime impressions are a little vague, since my policy is to mostly avoid looking at the clock much.

She nurses lots at night, which barely feels like an imposition at all, since I don’t have to move much to it, and I can usually sleep while she nurses it I’m tired enough. She still pees a bunch at night, which is a little trickier. If I’m feeling awake or she seems to be grunting insistently, I’ll take her to potty in the sink. That happens maybe twice a night? But she’s been peeing in her diaper at least a few times a night too, and then I just reach over and change it. I do have to move for that, but I don’t have to get out of bed, so it’s not so bad.

Maybe the first night or two I’ve asked Will for help at night—I already forgot—but since then I’ve been fine managing her in my own, which is good for the family system, since Will is the one who has been staying up later with the other kids.

Probably the big thing here is that I’m pretty well-rested :-). I’ve napped with Maya at least a little most days, but I think I’m sleeping a little better with a newborn than I did for a lot of pregnancy. Once things get back to normal and I can’t lie around with Maya all day, it will probably get harder to stay rested, but so far so good.

Oh, and Maya and I are still in the bed in the other room. I do want us to move back in with everyone else before too long, but I’m not sure when we should do that. One issue is that the kids move around and end up taking up all the bed space. Another issue is that I don’t want to wake them up when I get up in the middle of the night. Something to figure out...

Eating

Maya is a great nurser! She even nursed a little before I delivered the placenta. I assume this is notable because I remember a nurse being skeptical about me trying to get her to latch at that point.

Her weight gain has been good, her early poops were more transitional than fully meconium, my milk came in pretty fast, and she kept up with it enough that I basically didn’t get engorged. There was briefly some tenderness around two ducts on the left side for a day or so, but I tried to angle her to drain them and it seems to have resolved.

She nurses a lot, as I would expect, and it wouldn’t make much sense to me to talk about it happening any particular number of times a day because it happens so much—sometimes briefly and sometimes for a very long stretch.

Early on, I found myself pulling her lower lip down a little to adjust her latch, but now she’s mostly getting there on her own.

Oh, and we had side-lying nursing down from the very first night, which has been sooooo good. I remember taking a little while to figure that one out with Lydia.

Oh, and she spits up a little sometimes. But pretty tiny amounts. Typically maybe about a teaspoon or so?

EC

EC is going pretty well! Everything was pretty hit or miss (mostly miss) the first couple of days, and I lost track of my top hat potty somehow, which was one of my plans for the early part, which didn’t help. Also, things are just changing so fast before the milk is in.

But then the past few days we’ve had a ton of success with poops and a little success with pee. With poop, Maya seems to get it! The current situation is that she will grunt a bunch before she has to poop in a way that’s really obvious. And we have some lead time before we get her to the sink. And then once she is there and in position she grunts a bunch in ways that make it obvious that she is purposefully trying to poop. Sometimes it comes out all at once, and sometimes it comes out in stages.

Having a handle on poop is very nice because it means I barely have to do any of the thing where I clean her off when she is truly messy—no one’s favorite activity.

Currently Maya seems more clueless about pee. Part of the issue is that she is still peeing a bunch while she is asleep. She will squirm around first in a way that I can often recognize, but there isn’t a ton of lead time, and she doesn’t usually fully wake up before it happens. Sometimes when I see her signaling in her sleep I’ll take her, and sometimes I just wait until she has peed and change her right away. And sometimes when I take her she doesn’t pee. It hasn’t yet clicked with her to pee on purpose when I potty her. So I have to time it just right. Or sometimes she pees when she is pooping. When she is having a wakeful stretch I’ve had better luck noticing her signals and getting her there in time.

I do sometimes take her after a miss, but not usually if she pees in her sleep and then goes back to sleep. And when I do take her after a miss, there isn’t usually more, so it’s not very motivating.

I tend to assume that if I keep doing exactly the same thing I’m doing, the pee thing will click for her pretty soon. I just reread an early Lydia EC update and I report the same thing, where poop clicked very early and pee followed sometime after in the first month.

Babywearing

This was one of my categories with the other kids, so I’m sticking with it for now, but it feels almost silly to have it as a separate thing. Babywearing is so central to my parenting and has been so very useful!

I got out the Wrapsody hybrid for the newborn days, and that’s been great—Will and I have both used it a lot. Will asked if we had any ring slings around, since he likes then when the babies are stilllight, so I got one of those out too. Neither of has used it yet, but I expect to.

So far I’ve liked my Didymos purple facette wrap because it is thin, and a size 3 Pavo I have for kangaroo carry. I’m pleasantly surprised that I’m better and faster at kangaroo than I had remembered!

I haven’t done any back carries yet. I think it would feel safe, but I haven’t felt like I needed them. Plus, I don’t love it when my babies fall asleep on my back, since then it’s harder for me to sit down while still wearing them, and Maya goes to sleep fairly often at this point.

I expect to do a ton more babywearing as I transition more to taking care of all the kids at once.

Motor Skills

As I said above, Maya is excellent at side-lying nursing, which is her most useful motor skill for now.

I’ve been giving her some tummy time when she’s in a good mood for the past few days, and she seems to like that well enough. She does the thing I think of as “practicing crawling”, and is quite good at it! She gets her bottom up in the air by pushing her feet, but doesn’t lift up her arms much at all. She moves much better without her diaper and on a harder surface (bath mat or towel on the ground instead of on a mattress).

Head control is definitely progressing.

She doesn’t seem super inclined to stand when I put her on her feet, and mostly just bends her knees instead. Sometimes she will push up though.

Personality

Maya seems like a pretty chill baby! She squawks when something is wrong—not a slow ramp up—but so far she doesn’t really work herself up in a way that then requires much effort to soothe.

She furrows her brow a fair amount, though not as much as I remember Lydia doing!

She also doesn’t strike me as super active. Sometimes when I put her on the bath mat to have tummy time she just lies there for a while before trying to move.

Siblings

Maya is pretty tolerant of Lydia and Zeke touching and trying to hold her <3. Lydia definitely wishes there were more hours in the day for her to interact with Maya, and soon there will be! This week I’ve been mostly holed up with just the baby, but now that I’ve substantially physically recovered I’ll be spending more time with the older kids too.

Dogs

The dogs are very interested in Maya, Argos more than Krypto. In addition to sniffing her a lot, he seems to want to lick her and clean her off, as dogs do with their puppies. Argos has also expressed a lot of interest in my (comparatively) empty belly. I assume he’s trying to figure out what happened to it!

Me

The first few days were hard because of afterpains, pain from stitches, overall soreness, and probably some latent exhaustion.

But physically I feel pretty great now! And emotionally I’ve felt pretty great ever since I pushed Maya out. Definitely tender and extra emotional sometimes, but not in a way that I have minded.

I really love having a newborn, I feel like I know how to take good care of her, and it’s much more visceral now that I’m on my third just how short the newborn stage really is. I like older babies too! But I’m currently in no rush to get to any future stages.

It felt quite luxurious to lie around in bed for a week, but I was also definitely starting to get antsy, so it feels right to be doing more now.

[plutushealthinc]

ABA Therapy Billing Solution Provider In Texas

If your child has been diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), then you must adopt Applied Behavior Analysis Therapy. Connect with the best ABA therapy billing solution provider in Texas and reduce the risk of denials. ABA therapy is a method that is used to improve or change specific behavior. This approach is often used to help children improve their social skills, fine motor skills, grooming, and academic skills.

 What is ABA?

 Applied Behavior Analysis is the practice of applying the psychological principles of learning theory in a systematic way to modify behavior. The method is extensively used in special education and the treatment of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but also in healthcare and business. 

 How does ABA Works?

 Discrete trial training is widely used for ABA therapy. A discrete trial consists of a therapist asking a child to perform specific behavior such as picking up a spoon, taking a chair, etc.

 If the child performs the activity, he is given recognition. If the child does not do, he does not receive any award, and the trial is repeated. 

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 Plutus Health Inc. is a leading ABA therapy billing solution provider in Texas. We adopt the latest best practices in the therapy billing field to safeguard your coding and billing procedures and  perform them without any risk of errors or rejection. We specialize in offering quality medical coding and billing services to ABA therapy. RCM services for ABA are demanding as they include many complex rules and conformities. We have a team of certified medical coders in Dallas who have been providing quality services for over 15 years. Our services can lower your AR days and reduce the risk of medical claim rejections.

 What Is the Goal of ABA Therapy?

 With Applied Behavior Analysis techniques, your child will learn to achieve goals consisting of Improved language and communication skills.

Decreased behavioural challenges     such as aggression, self-injury, tantrums, and property destruction.

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Our Therapy Billing Services Include:

ABA Therapy     Billing Denial Management Services

Attending denied claims is time-consuming and requires your therapist to handle administrative duties. This is less productive and can influence revenue generation. Plutus Health Inc. helps you ensure all documents are complete before resubmission, thus reducing the possibility of denied claims.

AR Follow-up for     ABA Therapy Billing

Payment delays can disrupt the cash flow and negatively impact the Revenue Cycle Management. We need to send reminders to defaulters to pay their dues to prevent late payment fees. 

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ABA Therapy     Eligibility Verification

Incomplete and incorrect documentation can lead to delays and denial of claims. We verify the complete coverage information provided by your patients for completeaccuracy to ensure that your claims are accepted at the first attempt.

[purkinje-effect]

The Anatomy of Melancholy, 64: Ice Cream Scoops

Table of Contents. Second Instar, Chapter 31. Go to previous. Go to next. That was the way it was. TWs: Disrespectful behaviors toward disability, joint trauma.

__________________

Click, click, click-click.

In a bathrobe and little else, Melancholy sat at the opened secretary desk in the chill upstairs room of Glenn Johnny’s, opening and closing the lid of a Mentats tin. He supposed the rich dirt-like smell wasn’t coffee, after all, when he saw Angel through the glassless window at the balcony, busied with laundry.

He wondered what sort of water arrangement the place must have, since he had noticed a space where a bathtub must have been when he went to the bathroom upon first waking. The toilet worked fine, but he didn’t try the sink. He’d washed his hands and face, and knocked the dirt and blood from the hair that could directly touch his face, with the tin of water Angel had left for him alongside a bottle of Melancholia. The bathroom only had an extending shaving mirror in tact. For some reason, relying on it for general maintenance elicited the specific grudge at the unlikelihood that he’d ever use one for its intended purpose. He wondered if as a ghoul Sticks even needed to shave anymore, or if it simply came down to the fact Sticks might use mirrors so little that he’d never bothered to replace the larger one.

So much of the ice cream parlor had stayed so well kept, and it didn’t surprise him a bit. Sticks had worked at Concord’s Hardware Town before the war, after all. Despite a general disconnect from technological savvy, the ghoul absolutely knew his way around plumbing and electrical alike. The ghoul had truly taken the time to edit the space for function and comfort.

'Choly’s companions had both risen before him, likely long before. He didn’t want to bother Angel or Sticks, but did hope one crossed paths with him soon without his having to call after either. He disliked the thought his clinginess might echo his chem exposure and activities from the day before, and shoved the thought away. The next he looked down, he realized he wasn’t clicking the tin anymore. It was hard to say at what point he’d set it down and begun clicking his finger joints back and forth to similar effect.

He popped off the cap with the Nuka World bottle-letter opener from one of the drawers, and worked at his tart, cherry-flavored breakfast. Brushing out his hair and pinning it up took tremendous effort because his hands wouldn’t behave. Sooner than fuss with the unwashed mess, he tucked up a half-managed bun into the ushanka. He couldn’t tell whether he directed his bitterness more toward the source of his constitution or to the previous owner of the hat. He’d promised Angel not a week ago that he’d try to go as clean as he could, to divorce his condition from his withdrawals. But, the aching remained constant, and it was evident his motor skills and energy levels had only worsened.

It didn’t even matter whether he’d got the recipe right. Could this stuff be considered Melancholia proper, without opiates? Sticks had already provided him access to Med-X, of which 'Choly wasn’t a fan. But the Melancholy’s salts, that was a hubeine mix, not a codeine mix...

It should’ve distressed him, that such digital mistreatment didn’t hurt significantly more than the arthritis to which the cryogenesis had inured him.

Every part of him knew only aches.

He drew the Merrick Index from its pigeonhole and fingered through the Addenda, to reference the hubeine dosage he’d calculated before. He hadn’t exactly tested his calculations, though, because his one trial had been intended to be lethal. Hubeine had no easy, safe tests to confirm it posited more than a poison, either, no matter the dose. The few Lexington raiders left standing half a day after dosing them were dead on their feet. He struggled to locate the page he’d scrawled leading up to the Berserk Syringe demonstration, to cross-reference his initial collected thoughts against the frenetic vapor of going to town on a faction that had collectively abused him far too long.

Even with the Mentats he’d found in the desk, he could hardly think straight.

Oh, how he wanted little more than a cup of coffee.

He massaged at the fur lining of an ear flap of the cap, spaced out again a ways.

The MKEXCEED Papers weren’t on the desk with the Merrick and history textbook. He assumed Angel just hadn’t had the time to organize such effects just yet. Or maybe, for all he knew, it was acting the part of the DIA Handy as always, and protecting once confidential documents.

It dawned on him, that he still had his transcript of The Unfolding in a draft on his Pip-Boy’s holotape. He fidgeted with the device, still nursing his meal replacement. First he noticed the radio stations that the thing could pick up: The one he’d listened to on his way to Lowell had changed its branding, but retained its frequency. He tuned to WXXX. A mellow ambient orchestral piece smoothed out the morning air in the room. Then he flipped tabs over to what started as an unexpectedly coherent account of events.

A few paragraphs into reading over his rough notes, he flinched. He’d drafted directly onto his decryption holotape. He twisted about from his seat, to confirm Sticks didn’t possess a working terminal. It’d have to live where it lay until he could find one, in order to copy it to a different holotape.

He let himself unclench, admiring the view of the river bend and falls out the East windows. The thought of becoming a reclusive writer had some appeal. Maybe if they were to live here together, he could get Sticks to help him locate a terminal and set it up upstairs. He hadn’t really needed one before. A typewriter had suited him fine. The terminal at 103 Old North Lane belonged to Sticks. But now, viable paper stock seemed a very rare commodity. Reusable media felt more reliable and easier to manage, though they required on hand equipment...

Accurate, embellished, or entirely fictional, any narrative seemed a bit beyond him still. With a sigh, he resumed skimming the Merrick. He could hear the ghoul downstairs, and the robot humming softly to itself outside. Maybe the two of them would hear the radio and know he was awake, and come investigate...

His soul was too tired to summon any rightful frustration with the entrepreneur.

Clarimentin. He flipped back to the page containing pharmaceutical data on the antibiotic. Nothing in its entry indicated encouraged use alongside high doses of Rad-X. Cross-referencing Rad-X yielded the same nothing, not so much as mention of any antibiotics. He leafed through the book both ways for some time, with mounting exasperation to blame the Mentats for not helping enough with even rudimentary research comprehension.

He sat up with a start when something was set beside him on the desk, then wilted in nuisance with himself when he recognized a hot mug of black coffee.

“I haven’t got any cream, and I figure you’d rather have sugar than sugar.” Sticks leaned down to peck his forehead, and rub at his back. He smiled, pronouncing the split in the side of his upper lip. “Going to assume I’m not the only one with sticky digits. That’s a Deenwood percolator down there.”

“I did smell coffee! Ohhh, thank you.” He soothed his hands wrapping them around the mug for a minute. Then, he turned to give the shying ghoul a good morning kiss to his cheek, then a thank you kiss to his lips. “I take my coffee black. I’m lactose intolerant, anyway.”

“Mm. Oh. Sorry for not waiting up on you to eat. I figured you’d make your breakfast order when you got up. You looked like you could really use the rest, and I was starving. I don’t mind cooking twice. Let me get something whipped up for you. What’ll it be? Tato hash? A nice big ‘Lurk omelette? Maybe some of my channel rat sausages--better than it sounds, I swear.” He leaned in to whisper. “Believe it or not, I’ve got a working waffle maker.”

“Oh, Mister Sticks.” ‘Choly wheezed, picking up on the husky playfulness. He picked up the mug to blow on it and sip as much as he could manage. “Really, don’t trouble yourself if you’ve already eaten. I’ve got my Melancholia.”

The ghoul shoved down making a weird face.

“What, that mouthwash stuff again? ...If that’s all you think you can stomach right now, suit yourself. Far be it for me to force fresh grub on you. Just let me know when you really do get hungry, and I’ll gladly oblige.” He tugged at the ushanka. “You really like that thing, huh.”

Having noticed the two had awoken, Angel came in to strip the now vacant bedding to wash next.

“Mister Carey has subsisted on that meal replacement for years at a time. If he were malnourished, the Pip-Boy’s health diagnostics would say so!”

‘Choly glanced to the Pip-Boy, and checked the vitals tab despite having avoided it all morning up until that point. He grunted as he glazed over the enumeration of what ailed him.

“Of all the things wrong with me, malnourishment is not one of them.” After downing half the coffee, he softened. “...And yes. Yes, I do. It’s... a comfort.”

“It’s yours, then. You’ll need it in a few weeks, that’s for sure. But for now...”

Sticks pulled off the ushanka and set it on the desk, to admire ‘Choly’s mess of hair. He leaned in, to see if ‘Choly would permit another kiss.

“I am most impressed with the craftsmanship Miss Bones put into your coat, Sir!” the Mister Handy continued through the open balcony door. “All the blood and grime just wipes right off, even after it’s dried overnight!”

“She must have had DWR on hand,” Sticks surmised, his posture squaring as he bristled. “They occasionally scav military materials like that. There’s a lot in Historic, and not just in Boott Mills.”

“Oh, do I ever commend her on that degree of attention! You’ll find I’ve got the blood out of all your effects. I always say, I know my way around a blood stain, laundry machines or no! Ha-Hah! But to have others looking out for your appearances as well! I’m not the only one keeping you looking Sharp, Sir.”

“Yes, well.” Sticks went out onto the balcony to pluck ‘Choly’s orthotics from the clothes line. He tossed them down on the bare mattress, and patted at the end of the bed with enthusiastic impatience. “Here, your braces and stuff are dry. Allow me to help you get nicely laced up for the day. Slumping over the desk like that can’t be good for your... anything.”

‘Choly shouldered off the robe into the chair as he stood, and permitted Sticks to help him into the orthotic corset. The ghoul was wearing the faded yellow longshoreman’s garb again, and he assumed Sticks typically favored it. He stiffened at the ghoul’s grazing touches, only to force himself to relax. He had to remind himself Bones wasn’t the one helping him dress. He expected Sticks to feel him up all the while, but beyond scrutinizing the evenness of lacing tension, such sensuality didn’t bubble up. Then Sticks knelt to help him with his wrists and ankles as well, with the gentleness of changing third degree dressings, and the chemist couldn’t help but wonder if he were just in the moment victim to wishful perverse thoughts.

Everyone seemed to have gained so much from the Battle of Lowell, except him. His efforts entitled him to a reward, right? The value of things didn’t feel like they measured up to what Sticks had achieved. Small and decrepit. For it all, he could only show some fancy garments, a book printing not even a full day old yet, and a repairman ghoul who couldn’t see people as anything but tools. Maybe a repairman could fix him.

“I do wish I had a wheelchair here.” His eyes remained on the open Merrick. “I’ll admit the stairs have been an obstacle.”

Sticks didn’t look up from putting socks on 'Choly’s feet.

“The only local place that might have one is underwater in crab country, unfortunately. Having one wouldn’t help you with the stairs, anyway.”

“I’m all right, being upstairs-bound, I suppose.” ‘Choly couldn’t help but frown somehow. He let the ghoul lace his ankle braces for him while he put his Pip-Boy back on. “There’s a bathroom on this floor, a balcony, and a bed... And you and Angel are both here to bring me anything I might need.”

All these things... but no chem setup.

“Angel...” ‘Choly gave it an uncertain wave. “Angel, bring over the binders Olivia gave you. I want to confirm they’re genuine.”

“...Of course, Sir,” it finally replied after a pause. When it complied, he got to skimming. Pensive, Angel’s tendrils curled up to its chassis. “A bit heavy for reading material so early, though, isn’t it?”

He leafed through the continuous stock and squirmed back into his robe, not bothering to unfurl the accordion-like mess. He nodded softly to himself stopping intermittently from resultant goosepimples, noting what details added up in his mind to legitimate federal-grade documentation. He straight up shivered understanding that this printout disclosed both MKEXCEL and MKEXCEED, seemingly in full.

Sticks yanked the chair back from the desk, with ‘Choly in it. He gave the dizzied chemist an intense glare.

“You can mess with all that later. Stop focusing on all the serious stuff for a minute. Nobody’s making you work. Relax already. I can’t handle all this moping. Let me... sweep you off your feet!”

Unexpected and unsolicited, Sticks scooped him up. 'Choly let out a tense bubbling laugh when the ghoul teetered slightly, seeming to sway a bit in the string instrumental on the Pip-Boy. He worried less that Sticks might drop him, and more that he hadn’t had any say in being picked up. He curled his face into the small of Sticks’s neck, and decided to pay little mind to where the ghoul might carry him. But then, the ghoul tossed his gun harness in his lap and took him downstairs, and he questioned whether it had been a fumbled attempt at romance at all.

Sticks set him down at a booth near the front door, to grab both their shoes. He handed ‘Choly his oxfords with a grin, then finished putting on his own boots.

“Let’s get out of Angel’s hair, huh?” Sticks swatted ‘Choly’s hands away from his shoes when he struggled longer than it took Sticks to put his own shoes on. “Just outside for a bit. Some fresh air.”

“I suppose if you can trust Angel to keep your house.” ‘Choly tied the robe tighter. “Shouldn’t I... get dressed, though?”

“Nonsense! It’s just you and me for at least a mile, in every direction. And it’s a nice, brisk day. You don’t need to worry your pretty little mess of a head, 'Choly. Here!” He handed ‘Choly his cane from the umbrella stand, and held up a wood from the golf bag ‘Choly had brought. “A little protection, between this and your... whatever-it-is gun.”

He frowned, then laughed.

“A wedge might serve you better, if you’re intending to hit things that aren’t golf balls.”

“Which one’s the--” ‘Choly got up and took the wood from him to put it back, then gave him another. “Ah, yes. The wedge.”

“Really doesn’t make all that much difference, since loft isn’t a factor,” he admitted, fastening his holster with a sneering grin. “I just don’t want you fucking up a perfectly good driver.”

“I’m hurt!” Sticks grabbed ‘Choly around the middle with his free hand, to dip him back a bit. “You think I’d damage an antique such as this?”

“Take it outside, Romeo.”

“Outside it is, then.”

Sticks held the door with a chivalrous bow. Once it shut, he trailed after ‘Choly and swept him into dancing in swirling tune with the radio across the balding green that was once the southernmost tail of the Heritage State Park. He slung the cane and club both to his back, so he could use both hands to guide ‘Choly. The two devolved into fumbling giggling in the crisp, clear autumn day. Sticks hoisted him up onto the concrete amphitheater stage, and joined him, swaying into a slow dance. ‘Choly melted into Sticks’s chest, listening to his heavy heartbeat. Eventually, he fell back into his worries as usual.

“Jacob,” he asked, cheek firmly against Sticks, “what happened this week was a good thing, right? Things are safe and stable now?”

As if on cue, the radio shifted over to play ‘Nearer, My God, to Thee.’ Sticks recoiled, but he insisted it was fine to leave it when ‘Choly went to just turn off a song the ghoul disliked. The ghoul pulled them both right back into dancing.

“Laverne used to run that broadcast,” Sticks said, distantly. “She loved songs that kept the apocalypse burning strong. They fed her Eyebot surveillance or something. But maybe she really is signing off once and for all.”

‘Choly had no idea what he was on about, but didn’t want to press him. All he could think of, in mentioning the Rust Devils’ leader, was Olivia, and how she’d produced decades upon decades of confidential military pharmacological research just like that. He hadn’t even gotten to any of it yet, but he had read the phrase ‘Defense Intelligence Agency’ too many times in skimming for him not to expect to find those files too, if he just looked. The DIA could no longer argue over its own existence, or concern itself with the grey area where civilian, military, and federal life overlapped.

What does it even mean, to be a war criminal these days, if there’s no one to try you?

“Of course it was a good thing,” Sticks finally barked with zeal. “It was a great thing! You can’t possibly assume total accountability for something as overarching as yesterday, C.O. or not. You can’t blame yourself for the whole shit show any more than I can blame myself. Your lot’s just you and me now. Now come on.” He shook him a bit and smiled down at him insistently. “Get out of your head already and cut loose. You can be present. I know you can.”

‘Choly surrendered with resistance. He wanted to start into Sticks for costing him Deenwood’s luxuries, but it struck him dumb to recognize that the ghoul had saved them both from the incomprehensible inhumanity of General Olivia Francis of the Deenwood Pharm Corps.

“I don’t need all those prewar amenities on base for my happily ever after. I’m slow dancing with the only important prewar relic I could ever need.”

Sticks’s grin grew dopey and squinted, and he stroked at the small of ‘Choly’s back.

“Makes two of us. We might’ve lost pretty much everything, but I’ve still got you. If that’s all right with you, anyway.”

“Only if it’s okay that I’ve got you.”

“I’m grateful, in a way, that you never told me you were into me before everything fell apart. All things considered, I would’ve spent two hundred years lacking you, and hurting even worse than I already have for it.”

‘Choly glanced up shyly before pressing his cheek back against him with a small grin.

“So we really are partners in crime, then.”

‘Choly murmured, comforted by the prospect of stability. He barely kept himself from reminding Sticks that he couldn’t remember whether he’d made ‘Choly’s heart flutter then, like it did now.

“For real, this time.”

They got lost in the music, in the euphoria of each other. Having Sticks to lean on, ‘Choly didn’t have to worry about his balance, or his constitution. Before ‘Choly could make sense of it, Sticks had already scooped him up and sprinted for the front door. A flurry of Merrilurks shrieked fast toward them. Sticks flung ‘Choly down on top of a booth table to free his hands to board up the door with a series of pulley mechanisms. Heaving, the ghoul took him up the stairs to the bed. He slammed the stairwell door shut and latched it, then watched from the East-facing windows in intent dread.

Go to Next »»»

[angelyndisguise-blog]

CHESS : BATTLE OF THE  BRAINS

                     Chess is a game that isn’t  quite popular and less played nowadays because of its complicated rules and is difficult to learn , Some people also said that it is boring and is a waste of time because from the time you start to learn it gets even complicated, like knowing every single pieces moves , the mechanics, how you end the game, how long it could end , castling, the scoring  and many more compared to badminton or tennis  where in you just need to make the ball fall on the opponents side . I want you all to know how mind blowing and fun it is to learn informations about  Chess and how it changed my life by telling you my personal experience.  

                I learned how to play Chess by observing how my parents played it . I can say that I was a fast learner that time and that I am destined to play that amazing sport. My mother was a teacher and was also the coach of the chess team in my Grade School during my Elementary days , My mother was strict ,perfectionist and is very hard to please so when she entered me into the Barangay Meet I had no other choice but then I  have won and it made her proud and that was the time my mother started noticing me and it helped improve my relationship with her .  I have had a life changing moment because of Chess. It helped me overcome my shyness, my communication skills, My logical thinking, my self-esteem and most especially gave me passion for wanting to be a Chess Master someday. Can you see how big its impact on me?

  Well, Here are some helpful benefits it can give you.

 ·        Promotes brain growth: Games like chess that challenge the brain actually stimulate the growth of dendrites, the bodies that send out signals from the brain’s neuron cells. With more dendrites, neural communication within the brain improves and becomes faster. Think of your brain like a computer processor. Interaction with people in challenging activities also fuels dendrite growth, and chess is a perfect example.

·        It exercises both sides of the brain: A German study indicated that when chess players were asked to identify chess positions and geometric shapes, both the left and right hemispheres of the brain became highly active. Their reaction times to the simple shapes were the same, but the experts were using both sides of their brains to more quickly respond to the chess position questions.

·        Raises your IQ: Do smart people play chess, or does chess make people smart? At least one scientific study has shown that playing the game can actually raise a person’s IQ.

·        Helps prevent Alzheimer’s: As we age, it becomes increasingly important to give the brain a workout, just as you would every other major muscle group, in order to keep it healthy and fit.

·        Sparks your creativity: Playing chess helps unleash your originality, since it activates the right side of the brain, the side responsible for creativity

·        Increases problem-solving skills: A chess match requires fast thinking and problem-solving on the fly because your opponent is constantly changing the parameters.

·        Teaches planning and foresight: Because playing chess requires strategic and critical thinking, it helps promote prefrontal cortex development and helps teenagers make better decisions in all areas of life, perhaps keeping them from making an irresponsible, risky choice.

·        Improves reading skills: In an oft-cited 1991 study, Dr. Stuart Margulies studied the reading performance of 53 elementary school students who participated in a chess program and evaluated them compared to non-chess-playing students in the district and around the country. He found definitive results that playing chess caused increased performance in reading. In a district where the average students tested below the national average, kids from the district who played the game tested above it.

·        Optimizes memory improvement: Chess players know that playing chess improves your memory, mainly because of the complex rules you have to remember, as well as the memory recall needed when trying to avoid previous mistakes or remembering a certain opponent’s playing style. Good chess players have exceptional memory performance and recall.

·        Improves recovery from stroke or disability: Chess develops fine motor skills in individuals who have disability or have suffered a stroke or other physically debilitating accident. This form of rehabilitation requires the motion of chess pieces in different directions (forward, backward, diagonally forward motion, diagonally backward motion), which can help develop and fine tune a patient’s motor skills, while the mental effort required to play the game can improve cognitive and communication skills. Playing can also stimulate deep concentration and calm, helping to center and relax patients who are experiencing different degrees of anxiety.

  Here are some facts about the game of chess  

1. The number of possible unique chess games is much greater than the number of electrons in the universe. The number of electrons is estimated to be about 10^79, while the number of unique chess games is 10^120.

2. The longest chess game theoretically possible is 5,949 moves.

3. The word “Checkmate” in Chess comes from the Persian phrase “Shah Mat,” which means “the King is dead.”

4. The Police raided a Chess Tournament in Cleveland in 1973, arrested the Tournament director and confiscated the Chess sets on charges of allowing gambling (cash prizes to winners) and possession of gambling devices (the Chess sets).

5. The longest official chess game lasted 269 moves (I. Nikolic – Arsovic, Belgrade 1989) and ended in a draw.

6. The new Pawn move, advancing two squares on its first move instead of one, was first introduced in Spain in 1280.

7. Dr. Emanuel Lasker from Germany retained the World Chess Champion title for more time than any other player ever: 26 years and 337 days.

8. The first Chessboard with alternating light and dark squares appears in Europe in 1090.

9. During World War II, some of the top Chess players were also code breakers. British masters Harry Golombek, Stuart Milner-Barry and H. O’D. Alexander was on the team which broke the Nazi Enigma code.

10. The folding Chess board was originally invented in 1125 by a Chess-playing priest. Since the Church forbids priests to play Chess, he hid his Chess board by making one that looked simply like two books lying together.

11. The worst performance by a player was Macleod of Canada who lost 31 games in the New York double-round robin of 1889.

12. In 1985, Eric Knoppert played 500 games of 10-minute Chess in 68 hours.

13. Albert Einstein was a good friend of World Chess Champion Emanuel Lasker. In an interview with the New York Times in 1936 Albert said, “I do not play any games. There is no time for it. When I get through work I don’t want anything which requires the working of the mind.” He did take up Chess in his later life.

14. There were 72 consecutive Queen moves in the Mason-Mackenzie game at London in 1882.

15. The record of moves without capture is of 100 moves during the Match between Thorton and M. Walker in 1992.

16. Rookies or, players in their first year, are named after the Rook in Chess. Rooks generally are the last pieces to be moved into action, and the same goes for Rookies.

17. Blindfold chess is an impressive skill that many stronger chess players possess. It certainly requires a keen ability to see the board clearly, which can get difficult after many moves. The record was set in 1960 in Budapest by Hungarian Janos Flesch, who played 52 opponents simultaneously while blindfolded – he won 31 of those games.

18. There are well over 1,000 different openings, including variations within larger openings/defenses that one can learn.

19. Chess is often cited by psychologists as an effective way to improve memory function. Also allowing the mind to solve complex problems and work through ideas, it is no wonder that chess is recommended in the fight against Alzheimer’s. Some contend that it can increase one’s intelligence, though that is a more complex topic. The effects of chess on young individuals had led to chess being introduced in school districts and various countries. It has been shown to improve children’s grades and other positive effects as well.

20. FIDE stands for Fédération Internationale des Échecs, which literally translates into World Chess Federation.

21. The second book ever printed in the English language was about chess

22. The first computer program for playing chess was developed in 1951, by Alan Turing. However, no computer was powerful enough to process it, so Turing tested it by doing the calculations himself and playing according to the results, taking several minutes per move.

23. The oldest recorded chess game in history is from the 900s, between a historian from Baghdad and his student.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATIONS

Origins of chess

Many countries claim to have invented the chess game in some incipient form. The most commonly held belief is that chess originated in India, where it was called Chaturanga, which appears to have been invented in the 6th century AD. Although this is commonly believed, it is thought that Persians created a more modern version of the game after the Indians. In fact, the oldest known chess pieces have been found in excavations of ancient Persian territories.

Another theory exists that chess arose from the similar game of Chinese chess, or at least a predecessor thereof, existing in China since the 2nd century BC. Joseph Needham and David Li are two of many scholars who have favored this theory.

Chess eventually spread westward to Europe and eastward as far as Japan, spawning variants as it went. One theory suggests that it migrated from India to Persia, where its terminology was translated into Persian, and its name changed to chatrang. The entrance of chess into Europe, notably, is marked by a massive improvement in the powers of the queen. The oldest known texts describing chess seem to indicate a bi-directional spread from the Persian empire. In fact, the oldest known reference points to Shah Ardashir as being a master of the game, his rule was from 224 - 241 AD. This would indicate that chess was invented some time before his rule.

From Persia it entered the Islamic world, where the names of its pieces largely remained in their Persian forms in early Islamic times. Its name became shatranj, which continued in Spanish as ajedrez and in Greek as zatrikion, but in most of Europe was replaced by versions of the Persian word shah = "king".

There is a theory that this name replacement happened because, before the game of chess came to Europe, merchants coming to Europe brought ornamental chess kings as curiosities and with them their name shah, which Europeans mispronounced in various ways.

* Checkmate: This is the English rendition of shah mat, which is Persian for "the king is finished". * Rook: From the Persian rukh, which means "chariot", but also means "cheek" (part of the face). The piece resembles a siege tower. It is also believed that it was named after the mythical Persian bird of great power called the roc. In India, the piece is more popularly called haathi, which means "elephant". * Bishop. From the Persian pil means "the elephant", but in Europe and the western part of the Islamic world people knew little or nothing about elephants, and the name of the chessman entered Western Europe as Latin alfinus and similar, a word with no other meaning (in Spanish, for example, it evolved to the name "alfil"). This word "alfil" is actually the Arabic for "elephant" hence the Spanish word would most certainly have been taken from the Islamic provinces of Spain. The English name "bishop" is a rename inspired by the conventional shape of the piece. In Russia, the piece is, however, known as "elephant". In the Indian lingo however, the piece is more popularly known as oont = "camel". * Queen. Persian farzin = "vizier" became Arabic firzan, which entered western European languages as forms such as alfferza, fers, etc but was later replaced by "queen". Incidentally, the Indian equivalent of "queen", rani is used for the piece by Indians.

The game spread throughout the Islamic world after the Muslim conquest of Persia. Chess eventually reached Russia via Mongolia, where it was played at the beginning of the 7th century. It was introduced into Spain by the Moors in the 10th century, and described in a famous 13th century manuscript covering chess, backgammon, and dice named the Libro de los juegos. Chess also found its way across Siberia into Alaska.

THE PIECES AND THEIR MOVES

·        The king moves one square in any direction. The king also has a special move called castling that involves also moving a rook.

·        The rook can move any number of squares in horizontal and vertical lines only. Along with the king, a rook is involved during the king's castling move.

·        The bishop can move any number of squares diagonally, but cannot leap over other pieces.

·        The queen combines the power of a rook and bishop and can move any number of squares but cannot leap over other pieces.

·        The knight  move forms an "L"-shape: two squares vertically and one square horizontally, or two squares horizontally and one square vertically. The knight is the only piece that can leap over other pieces.

The pawn can move forward to the unoccupied square immediately in front of it on the same file, or on its first move it can advance two squares along the same file.

           Chess has helped me gain knowledge and improved me as a whole person. As I play I can relate to every move as if Chess and my life are as one .  I wrote this to inspire others to nurture and let your talents grow for a better understanding of yourself and make their dreams be a reality . I myself will continue joining competitions and will master Chess.

Reference :

www.onlinecollegecourses.com/2012/03/25/10-big-brain-benefits-of-playing-chess/

https://thechessworld.com/articles/.../40-facts-about-chess-most-people-dont-know/

ancientchess.com/page/01.htm

[autismineducation]

Specialists with my special ones

Now I know what you are thinking, what are specialists? This is what we call our classes that are not apart of the formal curriculum, these include music, physical education, Japanese and art. While I have mentioned art in numerous posts, I haven’t touched on working with a student with autism in the aforementioned classes. 

While I haven’t had the opportunity to work with any of my students in music, I will feature both Japanese and PE in this blog post. Let’s start with Japanese:

こんにちは (Kon'nichiwa)

This is a difficult one with my little James*, as it can be quite hard to even teach foreign languages to children without intellectual disabilities. There are a variety of benefits to include LOTE in your school curriculum such as “learning both their native and foreign tongues at the same time, students can draw clear links between cross-lingual phonetic and semantic patterns to develop a deep understanding of language conventions...and it also learns the historical and social contexts of the language, which enriches their cultural intelligence.” (The Good School’s Guide, 2020). While I believe this should be a significant part of each child’s education this is not always the case for autistic children. 

From my experience, James is able to memorise certain phrases that are used frequently within the class. These include:

‘Good Morning’ -  OHAYOUGOZAIMASU

‘Thank you’ -  ARIGATOU

‘Excuse me’ -  SUMIMASEN

But I believe that due to his lack of interaction in each class he is unable to recognise what they mean in English, instead, he is following along with the other students. While this might seem like a negative, it goes to show his cognitive function is quite high and he will do great in a job that requires memorising tasks and performing them. 

GOOOOAAAALLLLL!

There has been significant research into the effects of physical exercise on people with autism and many have concluded: “that in terms of motor performance and social skills children and adults with ASD benefit most from individual exercise interventions.” (Sowa, 2012, pg. 56). In my experience, this is one of the best ways to release some of the built-up emotions and frustration caused by classroom learning. James* while small and nimble, loves to run and play on the playground at lunchtime and it is no different when it comes to PE.

There was a older occurrence where James was only wanting to go home after Japanese, I had very little understanding as to what brought this meltdown on but I knew that if I were to get him into PE he would forget the whole thing. After a couple of laps of walking around the oval, which included falling on the ground crying, stamping his feet and hitting his head, I was able to get him into enough of a state of calm to bring him to the gym. 

And it was like a light switch had turned on. He was mesmerised by the hula hoops and small bean bag, we were required to do some throwing on the bags in the air and catching without moving out of the hoops on the floor. This simple tasked completely distracted him from the meltdown and he was more than happy to have me join in and throw the bags for him to catch. 

After this occurred I included simple physical education activities as part of my strategies to avoiding meltdowns, and since then I can say that he becomes distracted easily and this also helps fine-tune his ever-growing motor skills. 

Everything mentioned above points us to believe that some autistic children will be more attuned to hands-on learning that requires more than a pencil and paper. I believe James does embody this and I do know he will go on to do great things that involve using his hands and memory, and I can’t wait to see what he can do later in life.

The Good School’s Guide, (2020). ‘Learning a second language in primary school’. The Good School’s Guide. https://www.goodschools.com.au/insights/education-updates/learning-a-second-language-in-primary-school

Sowa, Michelle, (2012). ‘Effects of physical exercise on Autism Spectrum Disorder: A meta-analysis’.  Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands

[fragilexsyndrome-blog]

Strategies for Learning and Teaching

Structure the environment to reduce excessive sensory stimulation to a level that the student can cope with. The student with fragile X will respond positively to a calm, quiet classroom environment.

Provide the student with some freedom to move about the room and have times off-task when necessary.

Avoid, if possible, placement in a class of students with behaviour difficulties or emotional disturbance and/or behavioural problems.

Seat the student away from others in his/her own personal space.

Establish and maintain a consistent routine and ensure that the student knows what to expect and what is required during the day.

Appropriate coping and self-regulation strategies may be directly taught for the student to use when he/she feels himself/herself becoming over-aroused.

Be aware of the particular antecedent events that trigger inappropriate behaviours and plan to avoid them or to offer special help to cope if upsets are unavoidable.

The student may need a high level of individual assistance to complete tasks. The adult assisting should be quiet, calm and as unobtrusive as possible, avoiding touch and eye contact to decrease distraction levels for the student.

Avoid direct pressures (e.g. time limits, questions in front of others, eye contact or insistence on collaboration) on the student as these can be counterproductive.

Utilise the student’s preference for practical tasks, physical activity and visual learning within the learning situation.

The student may find writing difficult, so alternative recording methods may need to be explored (e.g. computer/specifically differentiated worksheets where less writing is required).

Modelling and imitation should be utilised for both behavioural and communication skills.

Mathematics can be presented in a visual and tactile manner with manipulatives, and experiential learning contexts can be used that are related to real-life experiences.

Board games and computers may be utilised for turn taking, communication, social interaction and the development of fine-motor skills.

Where possible verbal instructions should be accompanied by visuals or a practical demonstration

https://www.sess.ie/categories/assessed-syndromes/fragile-x/tips-learning-and-teaching

[alwaysabeautifullife]

(Abuse, ableism tw) Yesterday I visited a preschool Portia's therapists and the public education system want to put her in. Portia receives services because of her developmental disabilities. It's a program that's a part of public education and even infants can qualify. Before yesterday, it seemed her therapists only concern was making sure she was developmentally up to date physically, and educationally (think fine and gross motor skills, speech etc). The preschool was-my realization. The preschool was full of kids that had various disabilities all on the "socially disabled" spectrum. Children were given directions in a "fun" manner around a circle and were literally forced to participle. Even if you didn't want to. Physical redirection was used. That means children not looking at the teacher would had their heads physically turned towards them. Children who weren't doing the arm movements for the dance correctly had their wrists grabbed and were forced to do the movements. Forced high fives. Forced everything. Absolutely no child had a choice for participation. It was do it or someone will grab your body and do it for you. One child, a nonverbal autistic child, at the table where they were given instructions to glue hearts on a valentines box, had a stick of glue held in front of him by a therapist. She had a hold of his wrists as he kept reaching for it. "What is it. No. What is it." She repeated over and over as he whimpered and reached for the glue to participate. This went on for about 15 minutes. He also endured one on one ABA from the teacher using a reward only method (praise) for following instructions and making eye contact. A child had a tantrum and was held down. I asked how a child having a melt down was usually handled. They said that it depended on the child. She seemed to avoid my question but told me that she had "lotion" that she would have them rub on their hands in front of the class and called it "calming lotion." I saw a child being held tightly in a therapists legs for not crossing his legs and bouncing them. I asked what the purpose of the class was, my therapist explained this class was meant for "social therapy", by forced participation. This program is paid for and supported by the education district. Never mind that restraining a child, forcing a child to do something, allowing an adult access to a children's body with no choice for the child, and forced socialization and physical contact (forced high fives as an example) are all inappropriate and I would personally define that as abuse. But what's important is all of this therapy is not scientifically to be successful. It's...non effective, it does nothing but create children who believe they must follow orders (for participation, social activity etc) by an adult, allow anyone to touch their body with no ability to say no, and allow to be physically redirected by that adult for not meeting the demand. In what way is this educating children socially? How come in a regular classroom this is abuse but in a class with a bunch of disabled kids it's therapeutic? I'm just...I'm really irritated and disappointed that stuff like this is funded by the education system. Im not sure if I should even mention this. But when you are an abused child initially you fight back. Sometimes that fighting back lasts a week, sometimes months, sometimes years. Eventually you reach this point where you stop fighting and your brain shuts down and you go blank, almost like you separate from your body and don't reject it. Sometimes something twitches inside from time to time to fight back, but you actually end up fighting the urge to defend yourself rather than stopping the abuse. That's the look I saw on the kids faces. They were made to hold up dolls with happy faces "I'm happy today" because they are being conditioned to just ACCEPT what is happening to them. I am planning on pulling Portia completely from the entire program. She's never been to that classroom and never will, but the moment they believe she isn't socially "fit" and needs to be in some sort of conditioning class to make her appear normal, is the moment it doesn't benefit her. Let's be real for a minute: the autistic brain cannot be hard wired, it cannot be cured. This is because we still don't fully understand what autism is. You can certainly force and autistic person to look and seem like an autistic person, and autistic adults who have experienced this sort of "conditioning" all have PTSD and more. I literally do not ever care if Portia doesn't act "normal" socially. I don't care if she doesn't look people in the eyes and I DEFINITELY do not care that she doesn't want to touch anyone or let anyone touch her. I don't care if she doesn't want friends or if she likes people. I don't care if she lines up her toys when she plays with them. I don't expect a man without legs to run a marathon and I don't expect Portia to be this social butterfly or become a politician or something. She's content with who she is and society has the obligation to accept her the way they except a deaf person and sign language. I'm just feeling very irritated. It's 2017 and there was a whole room full of children enduring therapy that doesn't actually work and scientifically has absolutely ZERO grounds to be used in an education system. I feel like it's 1940 and they want to treat some house wife's depression with electroshock therapy or some gay mans sexual attraction by giving him female hormones. If I don't speak out against it then 10, 20, 30 years later it will still be there. It will still happen. Can you just pray for me, the work that's required to pull her out...it isn't going to be easy. I'm going to look like the crazy paranoid mother. In a lot of ways because of her disability she's basically forced to be state educated. As crazy as this sounds I'm so scared of her being forced to go to public school I've thought about leaving the country. Ive personally witnessed so so much abuse in the schools towards autistic children...I just can't accept it.

[frogsandfries]

Ohhhhhhh mgawd

I mentioned that to my dad again last night, something--

Oh right, I wanted to get some energy drinks and chicken nuggets before work last night (I, one day, need to order like, another fifty piece chicken nugget or something--BKs are cheaper, I only went to McDs because my dad’s driver side window didn’t work and the lobby was closed), and the WalMart in town just got “remodeled” which, I mean, basically, they moved everything around, making it harder to find, and they moved the shelves closer together so now it’s even harder to avoid those assholes who have to stop in the friggin middle of the aisle to gossip with Kevin from Work or Barb Down the Street. UGGGHHH!!!!

Oh, and then they added these fuckawful automated belts, in addition to the self-checkouts.

And I mentioned that the more automated these places become, because now McDs in town has this stupid computer that you can place your order with, the more I appreciate human service. Humans know what I want when I say I don’t want tomato on my burger, or I couldn’t find that really obscure thing they should have here because I saw it once, but it might’ve been in another store? Computers can only offer me what they’ve been told is available. Plus, with a human, I can be like, that thing that looks like this and it’s about this big but for the life of me, I don’t know what it’s called.

Well, I’ve mentioned before that jobs simply go extinct--one day humans won’t have to do drudge work like stock store shelves and....pull hundred-degree hot pieces of plastic out of a machine. He basically responded, “And then what?”

My response was, “What about elevator attendants? What about telephone operators?” What about all these jobs that are simply redundant as technology evolves and fewer people can do more work? Jobs that existed for mere years, jobs that were never widespread, always highly specialized? They simply are going to go out of existence.

Of course, then I actually got to work, and the machine I was working on, I have to load a couple dozen of these nail/rivet things by hand, and then the machine doesn’t calibrate, so it freezes and I have to wrench on it to reset it. Let’s not even talk about the fact that to do anything but cancel a cycle, I need to (de?)activate TWO sensors. *sigh* THEN I need to hit two more buttons and use fine motor skills for the second part of the job. Mentally exhausting. And I’m standing there wondering, I guess if these machines cost such incredible sums, and it’s not like millions of these machines are being produced the way cars are, because while more people than not need a vehicle, the opposite could not be more true for plastic injection manufacture. And as long as flaws are one part per dozen/s or hundreds and not every other or every three out of four, the machine is doing well enough to not require total replacement, so might as well keep the decades old machine you know works than purchase a brand new one and take that gamble. Let’s face it, I don’t know what it takes to run or own a factory. I really couldn’t care less. I couldn’t be less curious or interested in these consumerism machines. Let’s face it; do, say, tractor companies, need to produce millions of tractors annually? Let’s talk about all those utterly untouched autos that get sent away to die in utter silence, never having seen the light of day in a dealership lot, never having driven further than the factory line.

This is consumerism.

It is unnecessary. It is horrifically wasteful--it’s a waste of people’s whole entire lives just so they can keep their babies in a warm bed. And let’s face it, so, so many people, for living in “one of the greatest nations in the world” can’t even do that. I get paid nine dollars an hour at my current job. It’s not a difficult job, and a lot of the stuff gets done for me--someone tells me where to go and what to do and how to do it and when to go to lunch and someone fixes my machine for me. All I have to do is see to it that that machine produces those parts. I’m not getting paid to think on the bigger picture, but let’s face it, if I’m going to try to be more of a responsible consumer and conscientious denizen of this planet, this is something I’ve been faced with. I was told today to just throw away these metal parts that were extra. As in, throw them in the literal garbage that goes to the literal dump. It doesn’t just bother me that someone took the time to produce those parts, it bothers me that that time and the resource that is that metal is now going to rot in a landfill, instead of being reused like metal is endlessly capable of.

In the face of the things I do as a consumer, as an artist, and just for a paycheck that I hope sooner than later will bring me to a place where I can earn money doing something I care about, something that has personal meaning to me, is it any wonder that I feel such a monstrous responsibility? I mean, the parts I’ve produced these last two shifts? The end goal of the plastic in those parts is literally just to get the metal from point A to point B--it’s not like the plastic is integrated into the part; it’s not like this plastic is part of something that’s going to last for years, or decades; it’s not like this plastic is part of something that someone is going to invest time and energy to care for. They’ll use the piece and throw it right away. I can only hope that even most of that plastic gets recycled, but honestly, I doubt.

This is not something I can, in good conscience, continue to participate in.

I cannot continue to consume things that are not going to last me. I cannot continue to not care, or at least wonder, where my garbage goes. I must become part of a movement to care. It is now my responsibility to maximize the life span of everything that I touch, to the best of my ability. It is now my responsibility to make the most of what I have in my possession. I know I can’t control what happens to the things that I make after I have sold them; I can’t guarantee that instead of the garbage when they are done being fashionable and in season, or at the very least, loved and cherished, that my beads will be passed along to someone else to be repurposed and repurposed until they’ve disintegrated. I can hope. I can make it my wish. But it’s not like I can follow these beads through their lives. All I can do is make all of my art reflect my purpose. To make art that is meant to be cherished and shared and valued, instead of thrown away.

My dad is of an age that was steady in its change until well past the middle of his life.

For me, change was monthly. Every month, my peers had another new phone, courtesy of their insanely expensive contract; every year or so, there was another way to share your life via the internet, and soon enough, the internet was right there in your pocket. Technology was doing new and wilder things than ever. For me, job stability was one of those old-timey myths when I was still in high school. I know that even if a job has been around for decades, even if by some magic, I have a job myself for decades, that any day could be the day I become redundant.

For me, it simply is a truth that I must be valuable beyond the traditional, show up to work, work hard, be valuable to the company. In my world, you are a dime a dozen, and no number of unique, valuable qualifications will make you any more valuable. You must, one way or another, have a backup plan and know how to support yourself in case the world falls in on you.

Certainly there are those who have and are awakening to this truth, the truth that wealth may be unlimited, but those who have it want to keep it for them and theirs, and they want more and more and more. The truth that these people do not want to pay you fairly. They do not care if your children have a home, over-priced or reasonably priced; under-sized or reasonably sized. These people do not care. They have forgotten their humanity for the rush of greed.

These people will be their own downfall.

Capitalism must fail. It is unsustainable, and I know that I can see its downfall. I cannot tell you when or where, but I know how; I know that it must. We’ve all seen the “trickle down” graphics, and those tiny glasses will eventually be crushed by the enormous glasses that are supported by them. What will happen when the wealth is released--if it evaporates like alcohol, or sticks like dried juice--remains to be seen, and how our society will start over remains to be seen.

I have a twisted desire to see it for myself, but I can’t imagine it will be any good for a person like who I am today.

And I don’t think a degree, or ten or fifty, will help those like me.

[badlydrawngioruno-blog]

Here we go~ My OC Lia and her stand Runaway for the OC Swap event. I hope you like her!

Send in some asks for her!

Name: Lia Salmoni (plural of the Italian word salmone -> salmon in engl.) Gender: Female Age: 19 // 04.02.1987 (bc VA takes place in 2001) Height: 166cm Weight: 55kg Home: Naples, Italy Occupation: Passione member // responsible for the observation of public places Appearance: her shirt is parted at the sides up to her hips, so she can reach the belts around her hips where she keeps a lot of climbing equipment (carabiner, a bit of rope, a knife etc. though she doesn’t use that often). She also keeps a lot of hair ties and bobby pins on her, so her hair doesn’t get in the way when she’s climbing. Stand: Runaway; incapable of active fighting; wearable stand Personality: a quiet and smart young woman with a passion for climbing. She climbs everywhere and everything, though her favorite places are houses and buildings. She’s pretty reckless while doing it since she just starts climbing without taking any safety precautions (ended with a lot of bruises and broken bones over the years). She works better and more efficient independently as she has difficulties working in a team. Although she deeply cares about (eventual) teammates, she never finds a way to arrange her work and skills with them, which usually results in her being send alone on missions. She isn’t very talkative which is more a side effect of her being alone most of the time(on the roofs of buildings) rather then her being introverted. She spends her time mostly completely outside and usually on the roof of buildings from which she can oversee the city. Because of all the climbing she does, she also has the bad habit of walking on her tip toes a lot. I put her backstory and her stand’s stats/abilities under the cut~

Bio: Born in Naples in 1987 to a lower middle-class family, she grew up relatively poor but in a normal family. Even as a small child she already started climbing trees (which worried her parents immensly since she ended up being hurt a lot of times). When she was 8 years old her parents died in a car accident and she was brought to a foster family which adopted her a year later. Her ‘normal’ life slowly changed then because her adoptive family didn’t care about her instead they only wanted the money they got from her orphan’s pension. So she had to take care of herself for most of her life and didn’t care about them in return either. This also ended up in her adoptive parents not caring about her climbing activities, which got more frequent and more reckless from there on. She started climbing random houses and buildings, which led to her ending up on balconies of random people who, naturally, thought she was a burglar. She was arrested more than once by the police and when she was 14 she was even send to jail for a short while for attempted burglary. Not that her adoptive parents cared about that… After she got out she continued climbing, although she tried to avoid balconies and such from there on, which required a lot of training due to the lack of places to hold/pull herself up. During this time she also discovered her stand (although she wasn’t aware of it back then) which made climbing a lot easier and gave her new possibilities. Then in 2003, when she was 16 and two years after Vento Aureo, she spent her time on a roof of a hotel and observed absentmindedly the backyard of it. There she noticed a small group of people entering the backyard. They were finely dressed but that didn’t even strike her attention much. What struck her attention were the people themselves. She couldn’t put her finger on it but something was so off about them. Their postures, their actions… just something. She didn’t have much time to think about it though, because before she could even think about doing something there were people behind her on the roof and she was roughly grabbed and dragged down it. She didn’t know what was happening, but before her mind processed the happenings around her or she had the chance to scream for help she was suddenly pushed on her knees right in front of these people. She heard the men, who found her, throwing accusations around like that she was a spy and such but one of the men eventually approached her and talked to her. He asked about her being a spy (which she full of panic denied, she was just climbing), then mentioned something about ‘stands’, that users are drawn to each other somehow and said something about joining them, that her skills in climbing up the roofs like that was an interesting ability. But the truth was that she was too terrified that she was caught and handled like that, that she didn’t understand half of what the man said. So he said he would seek her out in a few days to get her answer before she was escorted (nicer than before) away from them. Ultimately she said yes, because in the end she didn’t have a place to go to anyway and it kinda gave her purpose in climbing and her daily life because before that she just kinda lived for the moment without a goal in mind. Aside from that her adoptive parents didn’t care, she didn’t care either and that man promised her to teach her about these ‘stands’ and support her in her passion for climbing in exchange for her loyalty and observation skills. And the payment was nice as well… In the following years she learned a lot more about who that man was, what he and his ‘organization’ was actually doing aside from the tasks she’s assigned to, but that never made her regret her decision. I have an actual story for her, which it’s called the “Nacosto-Incident”, which happens when she is 19 years old. I won’t write about it right now, but of course you can ask about it!

Her stand ‘Runaway’

Destructive Power: D Speed: A Range: C Durability: A Precision: D Development Potential: B Appearance: It basically looks like a puddle of motor oil only lighter in colors. It only has eyes when it’s in one part and not moving. It can communicate with it’s eyes a bit but otherwise it’s unable to communicate. Abilities: - alternate form: it can take on the form of a ball. In this form it bounces around like a basketball. It can also gain a lot of speed while doing so but since it can’t see in this form it’s movements are totally unpredictable and more a risk for the user, civilians and the environment rather than an attack to use while in combat. - Enhanced jumping: it divides itself into two parts and attaches itself to her feet. By evenly releasing energy then it allows the user to jump higher and farther. - Air dashing: it divides itself into four parts this time and attaches itself to her feet and hands. It releases short but powerful bursts of energy to allow the user to dash trough the air for a short distance. -> It has an other ability which Lia hasn’t discovered yet (though you can ask about that!)