Verbalosity

I have become drawn to the blog of a dad whose daughter has a really unusual disability that prevents her from speaking. Her dad started blogging, then turned the blog into a fascinating book, "Schuyler's Monster". The blog is at:
http://www.schuylersmonsterblog.com/
I'm probably not supposed to just post that, but really, does anyone care?
Anyway, reading the book and following this blog have made me wonder about that mystery of speech. Again, since I spent a lot of time teaching ESL, getting a masters in that field which included a fair chunk of linguistics, and now working with and studying about people with all kinds of disabilities, which often include speech, I wonder. I wonder a lot actually. I wonder about my nephew, who hears everything and comprehends almost everything, yet struggles to speak, and given the choice, usually won't. Yet I have also seen him deliver multi sentence, multi thought speeches when moved to do so, that appear to be extemporaneous. I wonder about a kid I work with, a sophomore, with demonstrably above average intelligence, who struggles to communicate with his teachers or his support staff, particularly when upset or stressed. Which is often. With him I often fall into a sort of guessing game, where I throw out diferent scenarios of what might be bothering him and wait to see which one he reacts to. But that is a crutch, and I have to pull back from it because it's not going to help him out in Real World. I know for me speaking IS how I process experience. I'm trying to write more too, but speaking, bouncing my observations off others, helps me understand my world.
It's more than that. Part of my work day is spent in a classroom of students in Japanese I. Watching these kids interact with a new language at its most basic level is really amazing. They are taught very structured sentences and given a few variations to substitute in certain places. But the urge to be creative with language is strong, and although learning to speak in Japanese is not the same as learning to speak English-in Japanese that distinction is sometimes forgotten. Taught to say the word for "cool" specific for air temperature, it's just too tempting to use "cool" in the American way. We want to use language to express who we are. Sometimes it's a tool that doesn't work very well.

Random Friday

We had a chili cook-off in foods class. My group decided to cater to the extremely picky habits of one member, and made chili with no vegetables, beans or tomato anything. It was sort of an exercise in chili deconstruction. Really, what makes chili chili?
We didn't win but we got full points for originality. It had chicken, ham, pineapple and mango. Not much else, but when topped with some cilantro, onion, lime and Tabasco it kind of had a kick.
It was interesting how neither of the other two group members made any attempt to confront the picky guy. He spends much of class trying to get a rise out of me by telling me sort of shocking stories. (Suffice to say I won't be in a hurry to eat where he works as a cook.)

We also had a math test today and I actually lost my temper with a kid because he forgot one step in a problem we have done one thousand times. It was a (x+2)^2 (squared) problem where the answer ought to have 3 parts, but many kids just square the two terms and leave out the middle. I don't know why I reacted so strongly. I slammed the table and said "NO!" He was startled, I apologized, he let it go (which is not how this would have ended six months ago, I'm sure.) We went on. Kind of bugged me all day I guess. I don't like losing it, really sets that bad example.

Goose bumps

I went to the science museum with my son yesterday. They had a special day for inventors to display their work and answer questions so I was trying to focus on that and steered David away from the exhibits, saying we would get back to them later. I had noticed that there was a new exhibit, called Goose Bumps. Not knowing anything about it, I had thought it had something to with a children's book series and would be kind of like the grossology show I skipped last year.

David and I finally entered late in the day, and it turned out to be about fear and anxiety. In fact, a good of the show deals with social anxiety, mixed in with really cool features about the fear response in humans. David spent a lot of time in a room where you practice hiding your shaow from a predatory leopard. I spent a lot of time watching video loops of adults talking about their experiences with a variety of social anxiety disorders. There were booths where you could test your reactions to common sources of fear, and a lot of explanations about how the brain processes fear. There seemed to be a lot of information and advice to help parents understand how children process fear. There was a film about the history of fear, and how society shapes and relects our common fears.
I really want to come back with some of the kids I work with, if possible. I am hoping they could get something from interacting with the various features. From my observations there were more than a few Aspies there yesterday (especially given that it was inventor's day.) The show has a website, for the curious:
http://www.fearexhibit.org/
Go if you can!

This is the news story that is spending the weekend inside my brain. I posted the link but since it probably won't work after a couple of weeks I'll try to summarize it.

http://www.startribune.com/local/south/40399472.html?page=1&c=y

Basically a 20 year old man with Asperger's created a phony Craigslist ad for a babysitter to lure a young woman to a home where he shot her in the back, killing her. He hid the body but was discovered. Now his attorneys want to present evidence of his disability to explain his lack of remorse and unusual comments to the police at the time he was arrested.

I shared the story with a few of the kids I work with, along with other staff members. We were all horrified by this idea. I can understand why attorneys try stuff like this, after all it is their job to find any sort of mitigating circumstance and attempt to present it. But the result is people who already thoughtlessly discriminate against others they perceive as "different" will have more reason to do so. People who are already socially isolated become more so. Just all around not good.

Reach out

My horoscope today says "Social conveniences abound. You will capture the interest of people whom you will also find interesting and it all happens without a commute." so it seemed an appropriate day to begin.
I read a lot of blogs, mostly about autism, about half written by adult autists, others by parents of kids on the spectrum. I am neither, (not officially anyway) but I am connected in many ways to the amazing world of autism. I work in a public high school ASD resource room and am in graduate school working on a teaching license for special education. I wanted to be able to share my experiences and thoughts with the world, especially with fellow readers of blogs I value and benefit from.