When I made an announcement at home that I was planning to start another blog and this time about food, the least I expected is for the family to be supportive of my decision. Instead all I got was a grunt from my husband that was supposed to convey his approval and a snide remark from Akank who said " only fat people write about  food " However, when I told Akank that I may not remember the ingredients of her favourite recipes when I am older and she may want to cook the same later when she is older, she changed her mind about the blog idea.

I told her that someday she will click on some links of my food blog and look at the recipes of all her favourite food and thank me, when I am not around. Akank muttered something about " leaving it for future generations" and I presume she likes the idea of the blog.

Sometimes an infinite access to almost everything with infinitesimal delay all the time, is DETRIMENTAL.

I recently saw a video about a new invention out there at the Media Lab of MIT, where a wearable device becomes your sixth-sense piping the Internet right into your day-to-day sensations.


If that were to catch up, it wouldn't be long before our children come up with new versions of classic stories, like this.
Totally shorn of emotion, thoroughly laced with information, almost like the demon of distraction took over the mind!
Take a look!

Slagsmålsklubben - Sponsored by destiny from Tomas Nilsson on Vimeo.

And, draw your own conclusions!

Rajendran.

Discipline versus punishment, respect versus resentment ... The dilemma of how best to handle problematic students is compounded by conflicting views on cause and effect.

   Trust a good wife to confuse the living daylights out of you!

Niyati had appeared for her yellow belt assessment on 28^th Mar and was promoted to Yellow belt yesterday. She was thrilled and so were we.

 

We are all set to move to Bangalore and she is going through severe separation pangs. She will be missing her friends at Taekwondo, Kathak, and most of all her friends from school! Hmmm…well nothing can be done about that, except that I will try and keep in touch with her friends for her.

 

Gotta rush now as we are ready to leave for our Taekwondo class. I’m so proud of you Niyati.  God Bless!

 

Hi

 

Adithya is learning everyday new things..good ones and naughty ones.  He does not cry now to go to school. But in another two weeks his school closes for summer vacation 2 months. He is missing his father. Anand has gone to ahmedabad on a project for 3-4 months.

He says dad has gone to meet manager uncle and will come on saturday. (poor little guy does not know which saturday...) He talks to his dad on phone. Over last 3 months he was close to his dad. Loved to play with dad and was excited whenever he took him out.  At the same time dad used to scold him and get wild at him also...unlike mom.

He goes to the bathroom when requried unlike before. He still wakes up saying no bath and no brush. Still cries during night time sometimes. At times he is uncontrollable during night times when he cries.... he has always troubled me during night times... lot of sleepless nights in the last 2.5 years.

The other day he said K for cake. He is learning and his brain is absorbing everything we tell or teach or he watches. He likes disney house channel now.

He wears his pant by himself and shoes by himself. Imitates his teacher.  At times he is adamant and irritating. Keeps me busy every minute.

He loves his little cars - has 7 of them now. He knows the colours and even if one is missing he keeps asking for it.

Troubles me to drink milk.. I think most kids hate milk... dont know why? He hardly takes half a glass of milk per day. Loves all junk crispy stuff...loves fruits  and eates most vegetables... which is a good thing for now.

Feels good to write about my son...

Good job jambav team......

 

 

 

 

 

If you have a child with autism, particularly one who cannot have a conversation yet, you probably hear concerned friends and relatives asking you, "Does he talk yet?". In that situation, I often dont know if I have to give a long answer or a short one. My son is not non-verbal, so he does talk. My son does not have the imagination and cognition of a typical peer, so he may not be able to ask a question like: "Where do you come from? Where is Denver?" but that does not have to do with talking alone. His ability to absorb information from his environment is limited by many bottlenecks: his auditory processing difficulties, and above all, his vision processing deficits. Even if he reads, he cannot mentally transform the words to images and conjure up the scene in his mind. Further, he could have problems with sequencing and motor planning which could interfere with his ability to sequence thoughts and words and make sentences, and actually produce them.

Long story short, it doesn't seem to take much to diagnose a deficiency in speech and/or language. Vision processing problems however seem to be hard to detect unless you are looking for it. This is because the vision processing system does not produce any output directly. We receive speech and language input and reproduce speech and language through our oral/motor/speech processing system, so deficits in this pathway are more obvious. Our kids are not expected to produce visual output or movies of what they see with their eyes. They test fine on normal vision tests, it is the processing that is deficient. However, deficits in the visual processing system show up in everything they do in school and at home. Writing, drawing, discriminating, finding differences between pictures, playing games, hitting a ball with a bat, rotating and scaling images in the brain, reading text, reading the face of the clock, etc. Most of the time, the visual system guides the motor planning system to produce these outcomes, which appear problematic in some of our kids.

My son could draw complex figures both by looking at still objects, and by re-producing from imagination. He could write all 26 letters by preschool, so I had no reason to suspect any deficit.

Sometime after starting kindergarten, things started to head south. That is when he received all his shots: second MMR, DTaP and Polio, I believe, all in one visit. I noticed that he could not put pencil on paper and draw a straight line to do a matching exercise: matching shapes! which was a trivial exercise for him. He could not ride his tricycle that he was so fond of or make circles around our backyard. I had never heard of a kid who actually lost skills. So I thought he was just sick, or not in the mood, so I gave him a break. Two months later, he still could not draw a straight line, He was unteachable. He could not retain anything he learnt from his picture books. He did not know left from right, long from short. He could not watch TV and follow anything. He could not ride his bike...a host of other skills were lost. He started resenting learning. Of any kind. Along with him, I think I lost my mind and capacity to think, too.

A long year later, after I started up on some of the basic biomedical treatments, and started seeing progress, things began to look up again. We were still battling hyperactivity, giggling etc, and simultaneoulsy started working on educational interventions. I think that what my son lost the most in his regression, was his vision processing. This was bad because it interfered greatly with learning. I didnt know enough then, so I did the usual behavioral techniques that are common with kids with autism: teaching using flashcards, teaching using picture schedules etc.  For some one with a huge problem with detailed vision and eye tracking, it is hugely difficult to make picture based schemes work. The schools grossly overestimated his visual capabilities. So did his therapists. As a result he made almost no progress on any front until I started focussing on visual deficits.

My first look into visual processing issues came from reading the book "Seeing Through New Eyes" by Melvin Kaplan. I could identify several problems my son had: he could not track his eyes smoothly, he could not perceive depth properly. He could not rotate images in his mind. His perception of left and right were not complete. He could not reproduce a simple drawing keeping the ratios and proportions.

I had been into a variety of biomedical treatments already, including some nutrients, supplements, and detoxification. We went up to see Dr Kaplan, who quickly confirmed most of my suspicions. I started doing the exercises and saw some clear improvements. He started tracking better, he was capable now of hitting a ball hanging from a ceiling, he could aim and throw a bean bag into a bin, etc.

At some point I also started going up to mexico to do Dr Aguilar's treatments with growth factors. I mention that because I suspect that it had to do with the following impovement. I started working with art books. There are many beginning art books that teach kids to draw simple objects, animals etc using step by step instructions. I started having my son do those everyday (a drawing a day). I saw real improvement in his ability to discriminate left and right, and reproduce drawings in a spatially correct orientation. He still has some trouble with pressure on his pencil, but that may not be related to vision.  Another improvement that came along with this was his ability to copy a sentence with the right spacing between words. At this point I worked on (still do) using his body to improve his spatial awareness. move left, right on command. understand prepositions, following instructions involving spatial orientation etc. (Typical gym programs: Mygym, LittleGym etc could be useful at this point). I have found it important to identify an emerging skill and totally capitalize on it!
(Mitochondrial supplements helped with simultaneous improvement in endurance and physical exercises and movement exercises).

My ultimate goal here is this: my son should become capable of learning from his visual input. Just surviving is not enough. Most of our typical kids seem to learn so much form TV and books, at this age. Both these channels are problematic for my son, yet.

Memory and retention problems aside, my son still has problems with detailed vision and cannot learn much from flash cards or other visual input.  For example, he cannot do visual puzzles such as "Find 6 differences between these two drawings". He still uses peripheral vision more than I would like.

I have read about the Vit A processing issue. I do give Cod liver oil. He cannot tolerate the high dose Vit A protocol. At this point monthly IVIG infusions started helping. His bowel movements became normal, and his hyperactivity reduced dramatically and he can attend much better to instruction.

His reading was still a challenge and I traced it to multiple problems: his eyes do not track, he substitutes vowel sounds when he blends even though in isolation he knows the sounds of letters. I read the book "Overcoming Dyslexia" which was an eye opener. There are two approaches to work on here: the decoding problem, and the whole visualization and connecting the words to the imaging and visualization engines in his brain. The approach in the book, "Teach your child to read in 100 lessons" has been the most useful tool to help with the decoding problem. In all these educational interventions, intensity is important. Every day the lessons need to be done with committment.
Simultaneously using a set of sight words and going though a list of about 20 most frequent words every week, also helps. If the child has problems with detailed vision, the letters have to be big.

Back to the goal of helping him learn from his visual input. Somewhere along the way, I learnt about NACD, and have found them extremely perceptive about visual processing problems. They have many tools to help develop detailed vision. Pleoptics is one tool. In addition I started working on using the television.  I switch off the lights, and have him watch TV on a smaller screen at a distance to help develop detailed vision. He watches material that he can relate to. Video modelling DVDs, videos of cars (green honda civic to be exact!) on youtube (BTW youtube is a great resource to show videos of various things: snow, cars, firetrucks, volcanoes, ....). The videos are usually slow to match his processing speed, and I prompt him to tell me what he is watching, every now and then. I try to avoid asking questions, but he needs to know that he watches TV to process the information. When he watches kids clapping to doing rhythms he should be able to move his body to imitate. The goal here is that he should be able to watch videos beyond his level of personal exerience, and actually integrate that into the knowledge base in his mind.  Similarly for reading, picture books, auditory information etc. The goal is to be able to obtain new information from these channels and be able to integrate it, manupulate it, and process it, in his mind.s engines.

For my son, the auditory channel will probably be last. My aim is videos right now. Its easier than 2-D pictures since it incorporates motion and is closer to "being there and experiencing".  Flash cards and pictures will come next, the written word is a close third.

For about the past year, he has been doing one session of neurofeedback every week. This particular system advances a video in response to the "right brain waves". So it also trains him to "watch videos". I think that neurofeedback works synergistically with all these interventions to help attend to and process visual input.

For the past 4 months, we are doing high dose IVIG that has catapulted him in some ways. His face lights up at the mention of another kid's name (evidence of episodic memory of past positive play experience). He runs around giggling and likes to be tackled and tickled by other boys. He has made a huge gain in visual spatial processing: playing ball. He can catch and return a ball, he can return a ball with a tennis bat. He can run with the ball between his legs, and can bounce and dribble. He can stand with a crowd of kids in a soccer field and generally run in the right direction (he still cant track the ball and take it to the goal). But playing ball facilitates a big jump in socialization for boys. When he sees a peer, he says, "Here catch!" and starts playing ball back and forth. And this has come spontaneously. I have not done any facilitated play dates or any such interventions.

Working on learning through watching videos seem to me to be the first step (since it comes closest to experience it in real life). Remember that we have a lot of documentaries and online information on a variety of subjects. Enacting out the same information using props seems to be another option if the child is getting the whole concept of pretend play. Perhaps doing both simultaneously is a good idea. Watch something on TV, then act it out. The concept of using pretend play to extend cognition, problem solving and emotional development are explored in depth in the Floortime/DIR approach: "The child with special needs" by Stanley Greenspan.

The next or simultaneous goal is to work on the interpretation of visual information in words. (Reading comprehension!). The bottleneck here appears to be the same: the written word, after being read, does not seem to stir up all the images and existing knowledge the kid has on the topic, and does not trigger imagination and analysis.  The web based site: readinga-z.com has graded reading materials on a variety of subjects. One could pick the topics that the child has experienced and remembers, or has a positive association with. The goal here is to read it, and have the child retell it, or use his body/props to act it out. This forces him to "process" it, not just read and sound out.

Once the child can decode, it opens up more teaching opportunities. There is one topic that, if he reads, he can understand: Food! My goal is to expand his acquisition of knowledge to topics beyond food! One source I have found useful to help visual information retention is "Steps to Stories" by Marion Blank. Right now, he is travelling for his infusion. I have him take pictures of the trip in the airplane (all the key steps), his trip to his infusion center etc. The goal is to use the pictures to do sequencing activities, and make a picture book. He will write a sentence for every picture, and I will write mine, and he will read both back. I will show him videos of the same topic and have him match with the pictures. The goal is to help him see the "whole" from the "parts". The goal is also to see if he can generate his own thoughts and actions from these prompts, if he can incorporate these ideas into his pretend play, if he can ask questions etc. Once he does that, he is ready to tackle more topics.

Helping our kids learn to process and manipulate images, ideas and thoughts is a multi-pronged approach, and the hardest part is to mix and combine the various educational and biomedical approaches effectively! Hope you have learnt some useful tips from this blog!

More resources for working with vision:
Castle Logix block pattern puzzles
Thinkfun game: Rush Hour
Several language related cards from Superduperinc.com help with visualization of language

It has been quite sometime since I wrote about my kids.  The duo are growing very fast and while running along with them, I am not able to write much about them.  Vignesh, who is currently in his Std. IV has been learning keyboard for the past two years.  He gave a small performance during the annual day celebrations of the Music School.  You can watch the same at video.google.com/videoplay

Karthik, is currently in First standard and has been learning Mridangam, since his nursery school.  He played along with his batchmates at Swaralaya's Annual day celebrations.  His piece of music is at video.google.com/videoplay

It was thoroughly an enjoyable event to watch.

The kids were too good, that day.

S1 (the six-year-old) has been going to an art class for the past few weeks. This is a picture he drew with oil pastels when learning how to draw a face:
A couple of folks have, unprompted, asked if it was me. So, he now claims it is a picture of me, mustache, glasses and all. Even the green hair could be arranged, I suppose.

This one is one of my favorites. S1 says it's a picture of some monsters fighting: His pictures all have monsters in them. I have the sneaking suspicion that he must have started out his portrait aiming to draw a monster, only it turned out to look like me!

Here is a narration, which explains why one should never give up and how transformations can happen.

One day I decided to quit...
 
"Look around", He said. "Do you see the fern and the bamboo?"
"Yes", I replied.
"When I planted the fern and the bamboo seeds, I took very good care of them.
I gave them light. I gave them water.
The fern quickly grew from the earth. Its brilliant green covered the floor.
Yet nothing came from the bamboo seed.
But I did not quit on the bamboo. In the second year the Fern grew more vibrant and plentiful.
And again, nothing came from the bamboo seed. But I did not quit on the bamboo. He said.
"In year three there was still nothing from the bamboo seed. But I would not quit.
In year four, again, there was nothing from the bamboo see.
I would not quit." He said.
"Then in the fifth year a tiny sprout emerged from the earth.
Compared to the fern it was seemingly small and insignificant...But  just 6 months later the bamboo rose to over 100 feet tall.
It had spent the five years growing roots. Those roots made it strong
and gave it what it needed to survive.
I would not give any of my creations a challenge it could not handle."
He said to me. "Did you know, my child, that all this time you have been struggling, you have actually been growing roots"
"I would not quit on the bamboo. I will never quit on you."
"Don't compare yourself to others." He said. "The bamboo had a different purpose than the fern. Yet they both make the forest beautiful."
"Your time will come", God said to me. "You will rise high"
"How high should I rise" I asked.
"How high will the bamboo rise" He asked in return.
"As high as it can" I questioned.
"Yes." He said, "Give me glory by rising as high as you can."
I left the forest and bring back this story.
I hope these words can help you see that God will never give up on you.
Never give up.