TherExtras

A Natural Response

Do you sometimes 'blank' on a word?

We were gathering for dinner in a restaurant with other parents from Younger Teen’s high school while our children attended the homecoming dance. A tall attorney father asked this question when he arrived at the table: “what is that word for what happens when a baby bird attaches to the first thing it sees after hatching?”

 

 
(Image from here.)

Momentary low murmur among most of us just before my awardwinningscienceteacher Studly Hubby correctly answered “imprint”. (From the Encarta online dictionary: establish social attachments -zoology intransitive verb to learn an attraction to members of the same species or substitutes very early in life.)

‘Tis the Season!

One of those recommended parenting techniques is: separate the behavior from the child. [Helped me a lot.] That is, instead of calling the child lazy a name for not keeping his room clean [I would never do that!] the parent would do better with statements like:

“Darling Child to whom I gave birth, a messy room is unacceptable in our home.” (Unless DC is three-years- old because that is too many words for a three-year-old.)

Or

“Your bed must be made before you play on the computer. [Might as well throw a little behavior modification in there, too, eh?]

Or

“I don’t like your messy room.” [If you still have sufficient perceived power and several inches height over your child, uhm, if your child cares what you think. Often not a sucessful method for teenagers.]

Or

“A messy room is very bad.” (The simplest but most indirect of directions for telling the child what to do. Still. Preferred or recommended over calling the child lazy.)

Who do you see in costume?

 (Image from here.)

The multiple lens glasses from the movie National Treasure nicely represent the idea I want to convey.

 

I see through the lens of life as a developmental process.

 

An-other lens on my particular pair of multiple lens glasses is that of a therapist – seeing how people move and function.

 

Trick or treat? Who would you pick to win?

I did the begforcandyfromneighbors when I was a kid.  In memory our shouts of "Trick or treat?"  were more declarative than a question.  Some of blogging is like 'trick or treat' - both a question and a statement. 

Hoping you consider your reading here more treat than trick. 

Gathered today for your review are all the entries in my Halloween Contest Giveaway. 

Matt set the standard with:  Halloween. It’s more important than you think.   Matt pulled-out all the stops to score big for this contest. 

Stephanie reminded us to have Fun with pretend.  Her Ralph is extremely cute.  For real!

I love another therapist's perspective ~ thank you, Margaret!  Her entry at Your Therapy Resource included my favorite word that begins with the letter 'f'. 

Bethany's advantage was a stock of photos of her former students.  Aptly titled:  Imagnination:  Try It On, her entry has a competitive visual component.   

There's an edge of advocacy in Mrs. Mac's entry:  Imagination at Play...The Great Pumpkin Train Run.   I couldn't help but envy the train ride. 

Sweet Carla entered the day before deadline ~ trying to appeal to my Texan-heart, no doubt.  On Halloween.... reminds us that while there are lots of choices but letting your child choose the costume is  good  practice in self-direction.

And in just under the wire is David with a post titled:   Developmental Benefits of Costuming.    David's perspective is rare and thought-provoking. 

  Come back tomorrow for the announcement of the winner!

WHILE YOU WAIT!!!

Notice the new box at the top of the middle column.     >>>>>>>

Goodies will be added to the Seasonal Aisle box througout the next two months. 

Time is up!

 

Halloween Contest Giveaway

Tomorrow I will re-post links to all entries.  Come back on Halloween to find out who wins the prize!

WHILE YOU WAIT!!!

Notice the new box at the top of the middle column.     >>>>>>>

Goodies will be added to the Seasonal Aisle box througout the next two months. 

Buddy Walk Mardi Gras - Style in Texas!

 

Last year in October I committed (to myself) that I would attend a Buddy Walk this year. 

In case you are not familiar with the Buddy Walk concept, it is the annual fundraiser format promoted by Down Syndrome Associations all over America. 

I read about others' online with envy ~ starrlife's at Life Decanted and Stephanie's at Ralph and the Crew. 

 

Finally. 

 

Yesterday. 

 

I was privileged to attend the DSACT Buddy Walk with Sydney's Saints! 

Sydney's Mom, Jeanette blogs at DownRightFaith. 

She and Fran are my closest (in miles) blog friends.  [I think of them as being in Austin, but drove well past Austin to see them yesterday.  Not keeping score or anything, Jeanette and Fran.  Nope. Not me.]

 

 

 

 

Down to the Wire

I've had plenty of experience with manipulating numbers games.

During the several too many painful six years I was a faculty member teaching future physical therapists I got lots of practice setting-up grading formulas for courses.  The key was to offer a distribution of grades that would help the most students perform well AND prepare them for supervised clinical work and the overwhelming big licensure test AFTER graduation.  So some of the grade had to come from multiple-choice tests (based some from the book and some from my lectures), some from written work, and some, if appropriate to the course, from a group project or practical skill performance [aka doing PT]. 

Occasionally too often I would have to explain to a frantic worried student how to calculate make their best grade.   

I had these memories in mind when I formulated the requirements for my

~Halloween Contest Giveaway.~

Fortunately, I think everyone 'gets it' how to win this contest. 

I know Mrs. Mac does.  She left her entry just today.  Go read her post and find out what is both scary and meaningful about the laughter of others. 

With a sigh of relief I am confident each of the blogger-entrants have figured-out - leaving comments is the key to winning.  After the small 6-point range for judging assigning scores, the final winning number could be determined by the total comments left here on my blog.  It's a fair deal. 

There is still time to enter but this is finals week will be your last opportunity to enter. 

Just a reminder of the reward for a winning grade score~

Come back on the 30th to read a list of all the entries

and on the 31st to read the winner. 

Transitions Transfers and In-between

~The deadline is looming for entering my

Halloween Contest Giveaway.~ 

There’s an old Peter Sellers movie called Being There.

The plot is kind of like an early Forrest Gump. For all his lack of intent, just by being there the main character moves into an enviable position.

With that movie in mind I once wrote an essay called Getting There – which was about walking and the importance of PT. (The local newspaper rejected the piece when I submitted it for the ‘readers write’ column.) [Now I can blog. phffthtt!! dying newspaper!]

(Image from here.)

 

But today I will cover a very short distance ~ getting there. Like between two chairs. Or a chair and a toilet seat. Or a bath chair and a wheelchair. Or a wheelchair and a bed. Therapists most often call this movement a transfer.