Doc Meek

Posts Tagged ‘learning problems’

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Images from: http://www.ataglance.com/ ………………………………………………………….

Your own personal paper brain–any size  you like 😮

For years, professionals of all types have been using appointment books, pocket diaries, or day-books to help them keep track of busy days. Mothers of all types have been using home bulletin boards, daily diaries, or refrigerator calendars to help them keep track of busy days for themselves and children and husbands, a complex task indeed.

These paper brains are invaluable. I always encouraged the students whom I was helping to overcome learning problems to carry a paper brain.  I always told them that a paper brain was probably the best friend their brain could have.

Some professionals, mothers, and students have now turned to electronic “keeper-trackers” to help them through their often over-scheduled days. These have been dubbed “PDAs.”

What’s a PDA?

Some of the earlier PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants) were simply electronic versions of paper brains, except that the available “writing space” or “memory space” was much larger. These earlier PDAs had no connection to the internet. Wireless functions are not required for a simple paper brain equivalent.

According to Wikipedia, a PDA is “a personal digital assistant (PDA), also known as a palmtop computer . . . a mobile device which functions as a personal information manager and has the ability to connect to the internet. The PDA has an electronic visual display enabling it to include a web browser, but some newer models also have audio capabilities, enabling them to be used as mobile phones or portable media players . . . . Many PDAs employ touch screen technology.”

A mobile handheld device

Image from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_device ………………………………………………………………………………

Can we keep up with our paper brain (or electronic equivalent)?

Even though our busy schedule may not overtax the paper brain or the electronic brain, our busy schedule may overtax us, personally. Our brain may be running on overload. And over-loaded brains, sooner or later, bring with them possible anxiety, burnout or depression.

What’s one answer?

Scheduled time for ourselves.

For ourselves alone, private time.

Of course we have to put this appointment with ourselves faithfully into our paper brain or our electronic brain, or it won’t happen.

Book it, and keep it. Then we’ll reap the rewards of a busy day with a real plus:

Time for us.

Of course, you have to consult the paper brain 😮

Sometimes someone may upbraid me for missing an appointment: “You should book your appointments in your paper brain; that’s what others do; that’s what you teach your students.”

My reply?

“I did book it.”

“Then why did you miss this appointment.”

“I did not remember to look in my book.” 😮

Hey, even the best of well-intended systems can break down occasionally, eh? 😮

Summary and Conclusion

In our modern world, anxiety, burnout and depression can be kept at bay by keeping solid appointments with ourselves for scheduled quiet time. The brain loves it. It absolutely needs the respite, and more than that, the brain needs the time to attend to different, vital and important tasks not normally addressed.

Way to go, paper brain (or PDA), for looking after me!

Doc Meek, Saturday, June 5, 2010

At Calgary and Cochrane, Alberta, CANADA; not at South Jordan, Utah

Photo of statue at Carmen B. Pingree Center for Children with Autism: http://www.carmenbpingree.com/

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Toxic Exposure Disguised as Autism

Many people believe that autism is a “genetic” malady that is permanent and incurable.

This may not be so for all autistic children.

I am familiar with cases where the child labeled autistic was given, not a thorough psychological assessment, rather a thorough physical, biological and chemical screening utilizing non-routine highly specialized testing. The result of such testing revealed the presence of toxic chemicals dangerous to brain health. These chemicals were not detectable by normal blood and urine testing and so were missed in the ordinary course of events.

The reason for this is that some toxic materials are sequestered in tissues, fats, bones, organs and muscles throughout the body and are not circulating in the bloodstream (unless there has been immediately recent exposure). Since they are not detectable by the regular blood and urine tests, everyone is fooled into thinking there are no toxins that would hurt the child’s brain.

Instead of immediately “detoxifying” the child, which can hurt the child even worse as the toxic materials come out of sequestration and into the bloodstream again, there needs to be a very careful pathway to healing followed.

Careful steps that can lead to better brain health

First the child needs to be drenched with nutrients and micro-nutrients that are essential for body and brain health. This provides the ammunition necessary for the coming battle of detoxification.

Simultaneously, if there are current toxic exposures that were originally being allowed out of lack of knowledge, these must be rigorously identified, and further exposures stopped or minimized as much as is humanly possible.

Finally, with the above two vital steps accomplished, can begin very careful and very slow and safe detoxification. Safe means finding a means to remove the toxins without using methods that further damage the child, and further impair brain health. It is not always easy to find such safe methods, as this is a relatively new field and great care must be exercised.

As the above steps are brought into play, the body’s incredible intrinsic power to heal begins to engage, slowly at first. Then with increasing strength, the miracle of returning health is slowly brought into play.

We are not talking about just mitigation here. We are talking about the body’s ability to return to normality when conditions are right for it to do so. Having a child return from the seeming prison of autism is amazing and astounding. Any mother who has witnessed this would say that “miraculous” is not too strong a word.

Even though the mother and the professionals involved know that the best of the best science has been the tool for the miracle, it still seems miraculous for a child to return from a world of disconnection to the world of here and now.

Autism can be a multi-factor problem

I am not saying that every child labeled autistic will return to normal if that child is given vital micro-nutrients, is screened in specialized ways for toxins, is detoxified safely, and is kept from future toxic exposures as much as is humanly possible.

I am saying that all children, autistic or otherwise, must be afforded this window of tremendous opportunity, and must not be denied this great gift simply because of  parental or professional disbelief, lack of knowledge or prejudice.

I am saying that all children, autistic or not, greatly benefit when they are given needed nutrients and micro-nutrients, are allowed to have brain-damaging toxins safely removed, and are protected from future toxic exposures.

Even if the child does not return to perfect normality, the child is much better off when given needed nutrients, and is not burdened with the toxic residues of our chemicalized world.

There are other supportive therapies, adjunctive to the above, that also help restore children to better functionality. Of which, more later.

To the greater health of our children!

Doc Meek, May 7, 2010; at Sherwood Park, Alberta, CANADA

P.S. One relatively recent study of “healthy” newborns revealed that more than 200 industrial toxins were resident in them at birth. This is shocking to say the least. And this was counting only the chemicals being tested. There were doubtless more chemicals for which there was no testing done.

Even though I have advanced degrees, I have continued on the pathway of active learning all my life. This not only provides me with an endless supply of new learning and new knowledge which I can apply to help children and adults overcome learning problems, it keeps my brain active and my thinking sharp.

Isn’t that what we all want?

I am constantly reading new material and engaging new ideas. I just completed reading a book by Dr. R. Douglas Fields (2009), The Other Brain: From Dementia to Schizophrenia, How New Discoveries About the Brain are Revolutionizing Medicine and Science. Engaging! Exciting! New frontiers!

Look to my future posts for more on this entrancing new brain science.

Reading, Thinking and Walking

I am also trying to remember to walk every day. If I take different pathways on my walks, I not only am increasing my blood flow and oxygen uptake throughout my body and brain, I am engaging new learning as I encounter new scenery and different people on each of these excursions. Some days, I walk the same way and still encounter new things to engage my brain, if I remember to stay attentive to my surroundings.

Photo from The New York Times, December 20, 2007, “Walking May Lower Dementia Risk,” By TARA PARKER-POPE

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/12/20/walking-may-lower-dementia-risk/

Of course, some days, I just walk along oblivious to my surroundings! I am running my brain internally only, grinding on, or playing with, some problem or new idea. It’s probably better to use the brain in a new and different way, than to grind on the same old problem, eh? 😮

Your best refresher from problems pounding you down is DSD.

DSD? Do Something Different

Many of my clients told me it saved the day for them, whether as a student, or as a mother, or as an employee, or as a private person.

The more different ways you can engage your brain in new learning, the better the brain works, and the sharper your thinking remains (or becomes).

I really should take up something  completely different from my “routine” reading and walking and driving and flying. If I could carry a tune, I could take up singing, eh? How about painting, the artistic kind? Winston Churchill did that to keep his brain refreshed.

How about learning to play an instrument? Music engages the brain in novel and inspiring ways, and creates and enhances learning channels in superior ways we don’t fully understand. Even just playing gentle music (say, Baroque, or any music with about 60 beats per minutes) in the background when you are reading or studying helps the brain to learn.

Music lubricates learning, so to speak.

So does learning a second language. Even when we are older. 😮

Square dancing anyone?

I used to go square dancing every week. It was different from my usual desk-work and research habits, and I loved it! Challenging! We had to listen to the caller’s dance instructions while we were in motion. So we were getting a brain triple-play: music, physical motion and rhythm, and and auditory workout to boot.

Photo from “History and Heritage of Modern American Square Dancing”: http://www.eaasdc.de/history/sheindex.htm

It always seemed such an odd thing to me that whenever it came time to go square dancing, I was too  mentally tired and unmotivated to go, even though I knew it would be good for me. So I devised a simple “personal policy”:

“Go anyway.”

The amazing thing was that I would come home from square dancing, exhausted physically, yet I was less tired and more motivated to do whatever showed up, than I was before I plodded to the dance in the first place. Amazing. Talk about seemingly “backwards logic,” eh?

Doc Meek, Active Learning Strategies Specialist

Sherwood Park, Alberta, CANADA