So whatever craziness is happening, I can't stop it. Blogger has been doing some upkeep and it's affecting all the blogs.
I apologize right now for any weirdness. I know it sent out posts from several different days in last month as if they were all new. Sorry guys. I hope they work it out soon.
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Biomed book: Food Diary
I have a new page for you to add into your biomed book! Woot woot!
Okay, so maybe it's not that exciting.
I was asked how to handle food, not just supplements. So here it is:
You can find it here.
Keep in mind that you can modify this easily. All of my pages were created in Word or Excel because, well, I had no idea I'd be sharing them when I made them. If I had, I would have made them in Adobe InDesign and they'd be hot pieces of graphic design genius. Okay, so maybe not genius but they'd definitely be hot.
Since I now don't have the time or the inclination to create such genius, utilitarian will have to do.
For the technically challenged, if you need more room, just change the page size to legal and then pull the square on the bottom right of the table box and enlarge the table to fit. Voila, more room.
Autism doesn't exist
I had a question from a friend with no spawn of his own today. That question was: what do you mean your child is recovered? I thought it was lifelong?
Well, not really. Some do. But hopefully this can help people understand what it means to have autism. It's a great way to get a good overview of why biomedical interventions exist and why/how they help.
Well, not really. Some do. But hopefully this can help people understand what it means to have autism. It's a great way to get a good overview of why biomedical interventions exist and why/how they help.
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Sample page for the biomed book
I was asked to post an example of how I used the Adding/Removing page. Here it is:
I said it in red but I think it's worth saying again - use it in a way that will work for you. Make changes if you need to.
A Review of Compensated Cases of Vaccine-Induced Brain Injury
You have no idea how bad I want to just post the whole thing here. Seriously. Just like I did when I first started this blog and contributed to the ruination of the internet with my lack of netiquette. But since I'm not ruining the internet anymore, I can only say: must read!
AoA has the Executive Summary here.
Check it out. Good stuff.
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Another new look
You might have noticed the new clothes. I know, it seems like I just got new clothes and yet here we are, changed again.
I really don't plan to change it up often and I'm sorry if it has been jolting. You see, this time I had to do it. Blogger has updated their interface and the old template, which I very much liked, wasn't working with the new blogger. I'm saddened by it but I must move on if I want my blog to be readable. That whole "everything in Georgia italics" thing was a bit hard on the eyes.
Anyway, hope you like the new look!
I really don't plan to change it up often and I'm sorry if it has been jolting. You see, this time I had to do it. Blogger has updated their interface and the old template, which I very much liked, wasn't working with the new blogger. I'm saddened by it but I must move on if I want my blog to be readable. That whole "everything in Georgia italics" thing was a bit hard on the eyes.
Anyway, hope you like the new look!
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
I'm sorry. Excuse me. Pardon me. My apologies.
I know some people believe that forced apologies are insincere. I've heard it over and over again and while I understand the fundamentals of the belief, it doesn't change the fact that we should apologize when our children can't.
Some of you are probably wondering what I've been smoking to say something like that. The truth is, if parents didn't care about what others thought of their child, they wouldn't have behavioral therapy. They wouldn't care about social skills and focus on life skills, educational skills, and vocational skills. But that's not true for most. We want our kids to have friends in school. We want them to make friends as adults. We want them to have girlfriends and boyfriends, husbands and wives. We want them to have children. We don't want them to be social pariahs.
Honestly, how many apologies do people make that are sincere? Not many. Every person we bump into with a rushed, "excuse me" or "I'm sorry" isn't steeped in genuine remorse and guilt. And rarely are people as emphatically remorseful as they sometimes make it sound.
Yes, there are some things we do that keep us up at night because we feel so badly about them. But not many. Most things are forgotten about within five minutes.
Does that mean we shouldn't apologize? No.
Apologies are a social construct. It's a display of politeness. It's a social skill. We can't teach our children social skills by excluding the apology unless they mean it, especially when they are likely to be even less remorseful than a typical child because logically, why should they apologize for something they didn't know? They should do it for the same reason you get a ticket for speeding in a residential area when there is no posted speed limit. Not knowing doesn't excuse the behavior. Everyone knows it's twenty-five mph in a residential area, posted or not.
It's not about whether or not they have autism. Austism might be why they don't understand that biting is inappropriate, but that still doesn't excuse the behavior. The majority are able to learn. Having a consequence for biting is something I'm sure most parents have, but they don't always make their kids apologize or apologize for them. This is a mistake. If the child were typical, the likelihood of a forced apology is much greater. Don't let autism be an excuse. It's not. The whole point of behavioral therapy is to teach them what is acceptable behavior and what isn't.
Apologies aren't meant to always be sincere. Remember - it's a social construct. It's about being polite. Acknowledging that something occurred. Having a consequence to hitting a child isn't the same as having a consequence and making the hitter acknowledge that hitting is wrong. Apologizing makes a person internalize what happened as being offensive as opposed to just suffering through a time-out because mom's pissed. This occurs even on a subconscious level. This is how we learn expected behavior.
One could say that apologizing is only meant to shame the offender and well, yes. That's true. Get ready for the obvious...because it's meant to teach social skills and right from wrong. But a person can only feel as much shame as they allow. Through good and bad acts, rewards, punishments and apologies and praise, we learn to put that "price tag" on our acts.
How much shame does one feel when they apologize for bumping into someone? None. How much shame does a person feel when they steal someone's husband? Probably a whole lot. Because doing bad things in the past have taught us the degrees to which we should feel shame and apologies are a part of that.
I'm sorry (see, another insincere apology but socially it's expected because I'm expressing an alternate view than others and hopefully doing so in an inoffensive way - that's always debatable with me but I digress), but apologies are a part of life. They are a part of learning appropriate social behavior. If typical behavior is what a parent wants their child to learn, teach that child to apologize because more people expect it than don't. By not teaching them to apologize whether they mean it or not, parents are setting their kids up to be ridiculed and hated for being a rude and pompous ass by their peers in the future. I don't think that's what parents want for their kids.
Whether or not a personal belief is to like or dislike the insincere apology, until insincere apologies are passe in society as a whole, give your child all the tools they need to succeed in the society as it is today. They are already starting behind the eight ball, why make it harder?
Some of you are probably wondering what I've been smoking to say something like that. The truth is, if parents didn't care about what others thought of their child, they wouldn't have behavioral therapy. They wouldn't care about social skills and focus on life skills, educational skills, and vocational skills. But that's not true for most. We want our kids to have friends in school. We want them to make friends as adults. We want them to have girlfriends and boyfriends, husbands and wives. We want them to have children. We don't want them to be social pariahs.
Honestly, how many apologies do people make that are sincere? Not many. Every person we bump into with a rushed, "excuse me" or "I'm sorry" isn't steeped in genuine remorse and guilt. And rarely are people as emphatically remorseful as they sometimes make it sound.
Yes, there are some things we do that keep us up at night because we feel so badly about them. But not many. Most things are forgotten about within five minutes.
Does that mean we shouldn't apologize? No.
Apologies are a social construct. It's a display of politeness. It's a social skill. We can't teach our children social skills by excluding the apology unless they mean it, especially when they are likely to be even less remorseful than a typical child because logically, why should they apologize for something they didn't know? They should do it for the same reason you get a ticket for speeding in a residential area when there is no posted speed limit. Not knowing doesn't excuse the behavior. Everyone knows it's twenty-five mph in a residential area, posted or not.
It's not about whether or not they have autism. Austism might be why they don't understand that biting is inappropriate, but that still doesn't excuse the behavior. The majority are able to learn. Having a consequence for biting is something I'm sure most parents have, but they don't always make their kids apologize or apologize for them. This is a mistake. If the child were typical, the likelihood of a forced apology is much greater. Don't let autism be an excuse. It's not. The whole point of behavioral therapy is to teach them what is acceptable behavior and what isn't.
Apologies aren't meant to always be sincere. Remember - it's a social construct. It's about being polite. Acknowledging that something occurred. Having a consequence to hitting a child isn't the same as having a consequence and making the hitter acknowledge that hitting is wrong. Apologizing makes a person internalize what happened as being offensive as opposed to just suffering through a time-out because mom's pissed. This occurs even on a subconscious level. This is how we learn expected behavior.
One could say that apologizing is only meant to shame the offender and well, yes. That's true. Get ready for the obvious...because it's meant to teach social skills and right from wrong. But a person can only feel as much shame as they allow. Through good and bad acts, rewards, punishments and apologies and praise, we learn to put that "price tag" on our acts.
How much shame does one feel when they apologize for bumping into someone? None. How much shame does a person feel when they steal someone's husband? Probably a whole lot. Because doing bad things in the past have taught us the degrees to which we should feel shame and apologies are a part of that.
I'm sorry (see, another insincere apology but socially it's expected because I'm expressing an alternate view than others and hopefully doing so in an inoffensive way - that's always debatable with me but I digress), but apologies are a part of life. They are a part of learning appropriate social behavior. If typical behavior is what a parent wants their child to learn, teach that child to apologize because more people expect it than don't. By not teaching them to apologize whether they mean it or not, parents are setting their kids up to be ridiculed and hated for being a rude and pompous ass by their peers in the future. I don't think that's what parents want for their kids.
Whether or not a personal belief is to like or dislike the insincere apology, until insincere apologies are passe in society as a whole, give your child all the tools they need to succeed in the society as it is today. They are already starting behind the eight ball, why make it harder?
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