Tech4Autism

My friend Simon Hammer asked my opinion:

The prison system is the largest mental health facility in the U.S. The number of special needs citizens, especially Aspergians, in the prison population is nearly 3 times their representation in the population. Are these people "badder" then the rest of us?

Absolutely not. These are our sons and daughters. Many run afoul of the law because they do not understand the implications of behavior considered to be criminal or antisocial. Perhaps we should teach them better. Others run into trouble simply because their actions are easily misconstrued by police. In addition to sensitizing our First Responders about special needs, we need to educate special needs people about how to behave in such situations. 

By definition, special needs people have special needs - medication, physical handling, intellectual and emotional consideration - that must be addressed by those entrusted with protecting the Public. Of course, during an emergency or danger safety procedures must trump civil rights. But afterwards, we must ensure that all people are treated equally as citizens.... which should not be construed to mean "the same." 

Defending special needs citizens is complicated and frustrating, requiring information dissemination, constant communication and cooperation between attorneys, parole officers, mental health and medical providers, advocates, family and the inmat himself. Now there's a new job for a Public Advocate.

Although public officials are attempting to address these issues, it will be a long time before our legal system becomes a true system of Justice. Currently some municipalities are providing sensitivity training. This form of continung education benefits both the first responder and those with special needs.  Funding is available for local governements to explore the use of mental health professionals to reduce the need for legal intervention when police are called in. Johnson County Kansas is completing a promising 2-year pilot program that has significantly reduced the number of arrests of special needs people. 

What we need in the long run is to fund a services that REDUCE the necessity for legal intervention in the first place. These services currently exist but are woefully underfunded. This is "pennywise but pound foolish" since the cost of these services is pennies on each dollar we spend on building and staffing prisons.

References:

CSG JUSTICE CENTER RELEASES "DEVELOPING A MENTAL HEALTH COURT: AN INTERDISCIPLINARY CURRICULUM"

Premise Alert Programs Help Emergency Responders and People with Disabilities and Special Need  By Bill Voit

STATEWIDE LAW ENFORCEMENT/MENTAL HEALTH EFFORTS: STRATEGIES TO SUPPORT AND SUSTAIN LOCAL INITIATIVES

Mental Health Intercept Project

HOW JOHNSON COUNTY, KANSAS, USED DATA TO PLAN AND MAP A SYSTEMWIDE RESPONSE

Intercept Project. Project Briefing. February 17, 2011. ▫ United Community Services

It is difficult but important to keep up with all the innovations in technology for autism.  But it is equally important that we understand how to use new technology correctly.

In school, technology provided new ways for my students to understand and interact.   It enabled those students who had "given up"  new opportunity to exercise poersonal choice.  Learning to operate technology enables students to explore, experience and learn according to their own style, rate and level of sophistication. In essence, it empowers them to manage their own education

Technology also provided me as a teacher with an unexpected window into my student's thinking.  Over a three year period, I learned enough about individual preferences, learning styles, obstacles to customize my instruction in ways that better engage students.  I found that technology could capture and maintain student attention for extended periods.  And that is a big plus when working with students who are AHDH, pre-verbal, bored or frustrated.

But the value of technology does not stop at the classroom door.  This series is dedicated to exploring the many intersections of tchnology and autism.  I hope this will help readers to develop an appreciation that will help them to be better consumers.

VIDEO:   My perspective on Technology and Autism Advocacy  

Next Pinky and I meet Stephen diFilio and Minna Levine to take a look at technology for eduation

Technology for education includes that which supports personal growth and independence.  This would include, but is not limited to anything that supports:

• • self-actualization
  • emotional growth
  • social integration
  • communication
  • personal satisfaction

Pinky and I begin our look at technology for education with Stephen diFillipo, Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Cecile College who tells us about EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONING and LiveScribe© recording technology. 

Then we meet with Minna Levine, President of Symtrend to discuss a web-based, electronic prompt and diary enabling parents, teachers and individuals on the spectrum to monitor, measure and modify behaviorporting students in higher education.  

A LOOK AT EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONING

THE WIKIPEDIA DEFINES EXECUTIVE FUNCTION AS AN UMBRELLA TERM FOR COGNITIVE PROCESSESTHAT REGULATE, CONTROL, AND MANAGE OTHER COGNITIVE PROCESSES SUCH AS PLANNING, WORKING, MEMORY, ATTENTION, PROBLEM SOLVING, VERBAL REASONING, INHIBITION, MENTAL FLEXIBILITY, MULTI-TASKING, AND INITIATION AND MONITORING OF ACTIONS.

(THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION COURTESY OF THE National Center For Learning Disabilities)

         Why is Executive Function important?

• It is responsible for the ability to plan, organize, strategize, pay attention to and remember details, and manage time
• Difficulty with executive functionmakes it more difficult to perform these functions well. You may also show a weakness with working memory, an important tool in guiding your actions.
• As with other learning disabilities, problems with executive function can run in families. It can be seen at any age, but it tends to become more apparent as children move through the early elementary grades. This is when the demands of completing schoolwork independently can trigger signs of a problem with executive function.
• The brain continues to mature and develop connections well into adulthood. A person's executive function abilities are shaped by both physical changes in the brain and by life experiences, in the classroom and in the world at large. Early attention to developing efficient skills in this area can be very helpful. As a rule, it helps to give direct instruction, frequent reassurance, and explicit feedback
  

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How Does It Affect Learning?
Executive function allows us to:

• Plan
• Keep track of time and finish work on time
• Keep track of more than one thing at once
• Meaningfully include past knowledge in discussions
• Evaluate ideas and reflect on our work
• Change our minds and make mid-course corrections while thinking, reading, and writing
• Ask for help or seek more information when we need it
• Engage in group dynamics
• Wait to speak until we're called on
  

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     What Are Some Strategies to Help?
       There are many effective strategies to help with executive function challenges. 

A LOOK AT TECHNOLOGY SUPPORTING EXECUTIVE FUNCTION

• Stephen diFillipo, Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Cecile College is a strong advocate for the use of technology to support students in higher education.  Although not on the autism spectrum, his daughter Nicole has a loss of executive function. Her experiences using the Live Scribe pen to compensate for her lossis informative.  In this interview, we discuss the need for technology supporting students in higher education.  

  VIDEO:  interview with Stephen diFilipo 

  USEFUL VIDEOS: 
   Live Scribe Pen  
   Youtube

• Next, Pinky and I interview Minna Levine, psychologist, occupational therapist and President of Symtrend
  a web-based electronic prompt and diary enabling parents, teachers and individuals on the spectrum to monitor, measure and modify behavior.  

Minna’s research with teens and children on the autism spectrum has been funded by the NIMH since 2005, including her work with Gary Mesibov at Division TEACCH at UNC/Chapel Hill, Julie Kientz at University of Washington and Ron Calvanio of Harvard Medical School, which resulted in the development of the Symtrend software we'll be discussing today.

We discuss tracking trends and how cell phone technology can prompt and track contextual useful clues in assessing educational settings, therapeutic regimes and personal growth 

 WATCH INTERVIEW WITH MINNA LEVINE

 INTERVIEW SYNOPSIS:

• • You describe the SymTrend technology as an electronic personal support and electronic diary system for individuals and professionals. 
  • What we mean by that it is an app to record about and monitor events, behaviors, feelings, physical symptoms, and the context in which these things occur and to get guidance about what to do. The system is used for recording, charting, evaluating the impact of treatments, and receiving guidance or learning about strategies to improve skills.

• • What is the value of maintaining a personal electronic support or diary?
  • If a parent wants to figure out why their child can’t sleep or won’t eat some foods, or if a job coach wants the person on the job to follow particular steps to complete a job and double check his work, or if an anxious person wants to understand what makes him anxious, each can use one of our apps to record the information, upload the information to our website, view tables and graphs that show progress mastering a skill, progress reducing anxiety, and/or show what events or environments are likely to trigger problems.

• • So your system helps with personal management?
  • (tracking emotional regulation and behaviors and getting guidance for life skills) or skill monitoring and intervention evaluation by parents and professionals.  In addition, the SymTrend website includes explanations for professionals about how to use self-monitoring as part of care.

• • What are some of the issues people would want this system to help them with?
  • The system has a library of applications for many types of challenges: autism, Aspergers, ADHD, developmental delays, anxiety, depression, pain, sleeping problems, challenging behaviors, job coaching and neurological issues. But the system allows the SymTrend help staff or professionals to create customized apps for any issues.

• • Is this technology restricted to use with specific interventions?
  • No. We have applications that can be used by practitioners of many types of interventions. We have special applications to be used as part of Applied Behavior Analysis interventions to record responses to trials that are part of discrete trial training and for interval recording, and task analyses. We have multiple applications for occupational therapists to record about sensory sensitivities or sensory seeking and motor and activities of daily living skills. We have a diary that has been used by a professional who recorded about FloorTime skill levels. We have applications that have been used as part of cognitive behavior therapy and dialectical behavior therapy for anxiety, depression, and self-injury.

• • I have always objected to the exclusive use of static assessment tools because they don’t provide a meaningful picture of student progress. However, I have always been a strong proponent for the use of video portfolios because they provide objective evidence of achievement in the context of real-life situations as well as longitudinal tracking of growth.

• • Was that the rationale behind development of your product?
  • We heard many families saying that they wished they could figure out why their children behaved as they did – what triggered their meltdowns and why limited their ability to succeed. They complained that teachers came to IEP meetings with charts and data to disprove what parents were reporting and parents wanted to have charts to demonstrate that what they were experiencing at home was valid. Governments, insurance companies, schools and families want data about the effectiveness of strategies and treatments. All of these issues point to the need of easy-to-collect data. Families have tried paper data entry, but the papers get lost and it is hard to do. In this age of apps on your phone, when you always have your phone with you, something that makes it easy to answer a couple of questions in-the-moment makes that data collection easier.

• • I can see the value of tracking behavior. But how does it function as a personal management aid for teens and adults?
  • A professional working with the teen or adult would develop a plan for self-monitoring and presenting timely reminders, strategies. They would decide when each of these parts of the system would be done – how frequently the person will pause and think about how they are feeling in terms of mood, stress, and energy, what they’ve done so far that day, and what is left to do. They will decide if and when a text message or an alarm on their phone should be programmed to remind them of what to do. Then the professional, with a special professional account on our system, will customize the SymTrend application for that student. It takes as little time as about a half hour with an average number of prompts, checklists, and questions and up to a couple of hours for extensive customization of guidance material. [I can show the same application I showed you with the guidance in response to anxiety] The individual user then would use the custom app one or more times/day and weekly would print out a report that displays all the responses. The professional and individual would review the entries together and come up with ideas for changing a routine, something in the environment, or would set up some education of new strategies. We also sometimes have the professional and personal users record at the same time and plot both perspectives together. The two can then talk about why the two perspectives are different if they are.

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PLEASE RETURN FOR FURTHER INSTALLMENTS EXPLORING

THE IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGY ON EDUCATION AND OTHER ASPECTS OF THE AUTISM COMMUNITY

And so the story begins .....  

CLICK TO READ MORE:  The Wonderful World Of Pinky And The Professor

The Department of Pediatric Gastroenterology (GI) & Nutrition at MassGeneral Hospital for Children (MGHfC) is conducting A study to assess the role of a gluten free-casein free diet in the dietary management of autism associated gastrointestinal disorders. This is a study approved by the Partners IRB that may be of interest to families of children with ASD who also have GI issues and who may have interest in trying the GFCF diet, but have not yet done so. The objective of this study is to determine if this diet can be of significant benefit to individuals with ASD and GI issues.

This study may be of particular interest to those who feel they need a little extra support to get started with going GFCF. There is a dietitian on staff to teach individuals about the GFCF diet and to assist in finding GFCF food options that may help when trying to comply with the GFCF diet, but are missing their favorite gluten & casein containing foods.

This 14-week study period involves visits with a pediatric gastroenterologist who specializes in evaluating and treating individuals with ASD who also have GI issues.

Please consider participating in this study If you live in the Boston area (MA, NH, RI, etc.) and can travel to 5 study visits over a 14 week period.

CLICK HERE TO READ STUDY FLYER

1500 People Have Taken the National Survey on Abuse  of People with Disabilities.  Have You?The National Survey on Abuse of People with Disabilities was released on May 1, 2012.  

Take the Survey here   

Read this article from the Huffington Post.  Although it is referring specifically to communities for Health, I believe it also describes what we are attempting to accomplish on the social level here at autismBrainstorm

 The Power Of Social Networking, Game Mechanics And Personalization

For Autism Support

"What caregivers really need are personalized information, a secure and anonymous place to interact with others in the same boat, and an easier way to engage with and manage their health. New digital health tools that apply proven consumer engagement technologies to health management provide just that, and are the way forward when it comes to driving healthier behaviors, one engagement at a time."

The computer is a tool enabling educators to help reach children in a meaningful manner.  When used properly, the computer helps dissolve barriers to comprehension and engagement.  Computers have a powerful impact on pre-verbal and 'non-responsive" students, especially when used in conjunction with video.   

This 22 minute course is an introduction to the use of a Portaportal, a personal online rolodex that makes it easy  to collect, sort and update your online resources.  We examine a portaportal I assembled for use in direct classroom instruction with individuals and small groups.  I also offer advice to caregivers about how to use it to engage children constructively.  

It contains websites have been used successfully in educational activities designed to promote:

• Language development
• Communication
• Decision-making
• Interaction with you
• Self-awareness
• Metacognition
• Technology skills that lead to greater independence and self-directed education

http://tinyurl.com/Using-Internet-In-Instruction

Labels are icons, a universal shorthand enabling complicated thoughts to be communicated quickly.  When our assumptions change, so do our icons. The old ones become anachronisms... faded snapshots of simpler eras on pages from the Human Spectrum Family album. I don’t question the need to use labels. I do question the labels we need to use.

In my 26 years as a special educator, I rarely used Diagnostic labels. While they determine legal class size, they do not mandate student placement.  I find they have limited value in day-to-day planning. At my school PS177Q, a separate, self-contained school for 550 special needs students, younger autistic students are contained in homogeneous 6:1:1 ratio classes.  But older, more academic students are scattered in classrooms  mixed with Mentally Retarded, Emotionally Disturbed, and Learning Disabled.   Every school year, a teacher’s first order of business is to learn each of their students’ needs. Functional labels are preferable for planning differentiated instruction. Their use enables teachers to craft instruction for all students in an educationally mixed-bag classroom. Functional labels are intended to lead to measurable results as measured by performance standards Most special education students are exempt from taking standardized assessment.  To judge their performance, we must rely on non-standardized tools such as: report cards, IEPs, Brigance Assessments, Functional Behavior Assessments, Behavior Modification Plans, ABA assessments and daily correspondence logs with parents.

Unfortuntely, each of these tools only measure discrete student metrics. Individually, none provide a broad picture of the student. Taken together, they offer us a clinical list of descriptors unsuitable for drawing conclusions. Their inherent subjectivity dilutes their significance. Instead of documenting achievement, they focus on student limitations. Valuable when identifying remedial goals, they contribute little to our understanding of a student’s attitude, learning rate or potential for growth.  The absence of key metrics undermines the effectiveness of the work/study experience and performs a disservice to the caring businesspeople who volunteer jobs and expect the opportunities they provide will be used wisely.   

Alternate Assessment  was conceived as a means to consolidate and standardize testing as well as the process of collecting data on non-testable students. New York and other states require a portfolio of student work samples accompanied by multiple photographs documented the student as the author.  Unfortunately, this process is mechanical, tedious, and demanding.  In the past, it has been criticized as being more a measure of teacher performance following the assembly guidelines than of student achievement.  

Student portfolios could be extremely effective if we redefine the types of data we wish to collect and revise our collection methods. In 2004, New York State teachers were offered the option of submitting video evidence in lieu of photos.  I was the only teacher to do so. I was asked to present on my use of video documentation at a meeting of Special Education principals and to develop guidelines for instructing other teachers how to do the same.  In order to avoid confusion with portfolios assembled on behalf of the student, I used the term “Video Resumes”  which I believed implied that they only represented student performance.

Simply put, a Video Resume is a collection of brief recordings (60-90 seconds) of student performance under real life circumstances.  Unlike photographs, which capture performance of a single task at a specific time, video provides a dynamic accounting of a student mustering and applying multiple skills under real-life conditions.  Inadvertently, it also captures layers of valuable information not available by other means. Viewing places us in the classroom alongside the student enabling firsthand observation and reducing our need for detailed descriptions and numerical scoring results.
What can a trained observer glean from a video clip? We can observe intellectual functioning, social skills, rate and style of learning.  This provides insight into how the student applies learned skills and academics to problem-solve.  We learn how independent the student is. We see the impact of sensory issues. Because the settings are real, we can observe which distractions and stressors might be antecedents to negative behavior.  A number of schools use video to identify behavioral antecedents.  Its’ use is being studied by Ilene Schwartz at the Haring Center, University Of Washington.  Video does not lie or conceal. The use of video helps to draws attention to information often overlooked during the writing or reading of dense reports.

What can we gain from viewing multiple video clips?  A full resume helps to paint a fuller picture of the student as a person. It enables teachers to create more functional class groupings, to target appropriate texts and resources and to identify adaptations that enhance instruction.  Because resumes are maintained over time, they document the type, degree and rate of progress a student makes. A resume provides related service providers with a fuller view of the student and does so in less time than written reports. Video information is invaluable for parent-teacher conferences and for developing IEP goals.  Video resumes provides prospective employers with information that is meaningful and advises decision-making for post-graduation placement.

Video evidence is objective. It is available for review and validation. Once digitized, it is easily to update, store and share. It captures more meaningful information than pictures or work samples alone. Since it is makes review easier and quicker, video reduces professional work load and can enabling educational/remedial services to be initiated sooner.  
Resumes also provides students with important feedback.  Why would students want to participate in developing their own Video Resumes? Why would students want to self-review?  Because being videotaped and seeing one’s self on the big screen is a strong motivation for nearly everyone especially students who are always being instructed what to do and how to act. This is a wonderful opportunity for them to “strut their stuff”.  I believe that students are capable of identifying accomplishments, talents, abilities, weakness and issues of their own and their peers. Allowing students to decide what is included in their resume promotes self-reflection and engagement in the learning process. When student “on-demand” performance is lacking, we incorrectly assume that they have failed. Encouraging them to “be all that they can be”, may prove more surprising to educators than to the students themselves.

Labels aren’t perfect. Nor are they sacrosanct. When they no longer serve our purpose, we trade-up to new ones. I don’t question our need to use labels. I do question the labels we need to use.
And sometimes the best label is to use no label at all.

Over the past fifty years we have witnessed the development of technology. Today, we are in the era of understanding its educational implications. Technology is not only capable of communicating concepts. It enable children to overcome barriers that prevent them from understanding the world and exercising control over it.

Instead of being passive recipients of instruction, children who understand what technology can do and learn how to use it as a tool will become active participants in their own education. While simple devices that augment communication enable children to make their needs known and indicate choice, interactive technology enhances the sense of self and opens up a world of opportunity that children can explore independently. Children must be helped to understand and then to master technology. Parents can aid in this process by serving to guide, then tutor and finally mentor children as they slowly master the tools. The easiest place for a parent to start the process is by using video to engage attention.

For years, I would videotape my students engaging in special activities such as school trips as well as mundane activities such as class lessons. Watching our videos together stimulated lots of interest, fun and discussion. But "home" videos weren't suitable for teaching new material. So I collected YouTube videos that focused on discrete steps in complex skills such as personal hygiene. Searching for proper clips was tedious but the results were well-worth the effort. I introduced tooth brushing with a clip that captured student attention. I would show the clip to the class while monitoring their response. Some children were hooked immediately. Pre-verbal students would indicate they wanted to see it again. Regardless of student “level”, showing this brief clip was enough to get students to consider me to be the agent controlling something they liked. My hope was to get them to understand that they could acquire the knowledge and power to control the technology themselves. I

I added clips focusing on the steps in the complex skill: the proper way to brush, how to rinse and the importance of brushing. Next, I compiled a folder containing clips related to sneezing: a woman sneezing for a full minute, clips on germ transmission, hand washing and a humorous clip from an episode of Everybody Loves Raymond. At first, selecting clips was a hit-or-miss proposition that was not always successful. Some were box office flops. I began to see that children responded differently and to different aspects of the experience. Some were attracted by the sound. Others were indifferent to sound. Some were drawn by motion. Others by content. But I was beginning to discriminate individual learning preferences, rates of learning and to better understand the nature and degree of prompting each child required to progress. I got better at the selection process.

Regardless of whether your child has any computer skills or not, viewing YouTube videos together is a great opportunity for bonding, social interaction, stimulating language and sharing a FUN experience. When you are ready to give it a whirl, choose a simple task you want to teach. Then research clips that you feel would appeal to your child. Watch your child closely for signs of interest. It’s not difficult to find gems like this:

Click here to  Review other sample clips.  

Who should pay for autism?   

I’m not referring to the emotional toll.  I’m talking about the bills.  

Someone must be responsible and they should fork over the money.   If you think the cause of Dr. Niehouse’s son’s autism is genetic, MAYBE you believe it’s the parents’ fault….. or the grandparents… or even the milkman (no insult intended to the Niehouse family but I think you get my drift).

On the other hand, if you think it’s environmental…. then MAYBE it’s the fault of the petrochemical industry… oops… scratch that…. The Niehouses are from California so it cant be the fault of car emissions…. more than likely it’s the result of noxious gases seeping up from the San Andreas Fault.  In which case its the fault of the land developers who built houses where they shouldn’t have.   No, that’s too far fetched.

OK so forget finding fault.   Let’s marinate on who should be financially responsible.   Ok . Ok… I got it.  The little Canadian children (who require milk) forced their parents to purchase milk produced by dairy  farmers …which was sold in supermarkets catering to Canadians ….who approved the Alaskan Pipe Line which transported oil to the United States …..where it was used to produce jet fuel which we know is regularly jettisoned prior to landings (safety first!) …. over California where it saturated the soil that supported the grass that fed the cows that produced the “organic” milk sold in local supermarkets  that this child consumed.  The parents even bought organic milk for their child!  They did the right thing.

So who should get stuck with the medical bills?

I did a little homework.:

• “… in the fourteenth century the Norse colony from Greenland was wiped out, and the very memory of the Norse discovery of America died. For practical purposes, the discoverer of the mainland of North America was John Cabot…”

A-ha.  Now were are getting somewhere.

• “CABOT (Caboto), JOHN (Giovanni), Italian explorer, leader of voyages of discovery from Bristol to North America in 1497 and 1498; d. 1498? Neither the place nor the date of birth of Giovanni (or Zuan) Caboto, commonly called John Cabot, is known. The earliest historical document which refers to him records his naturalization as a Venetian citizen in 1476, under a procedure by which this privilege was granted to aliens who had resided continuously in Venice for 15 years or more.”

On the basis of my research, I can now place blame squarely on the 15th century Venetians who approved John Cabots’s naturalization.

It was their fault and they naturalized him.  So why won’t the Canadian government do the same for Dr. Niehouse?

Over the past five years, I have pursued the use of a grass-root effort to promote the integration of technology with autism.  Despite assistance from so many wonderful, caring people, my progress has been slow.  Three years ago, while still a social network "Newbie", I was asked to join a group connecting scientists at the MIT Media Lab with individuals who could spread word of new, promising technology being developed there.  I believed it was important to get scientists and parents talking to each other.  While important, it proved far too difficult a task for this social "Newbie".  I tried blogging about technology.  I ran polls and started discussions on Linkedin.  Soon I was spreading myself too thinly.  I concluded that no single site or mechanism was equipped to carry on all the functions necessary to do the job right.  Solving the equation led me to many good people, including Kathleen Tehrani, Marc Brenner and Tom Schiff, three others sharing the dream and collaborating to forge the reality of an inclusive community fostering consensus and collaboration.

 youtu.be/410mytHL2Dc[/video]

October 25, 2011

Logically, if light and sound have the power to stimulate, calm or regularize us, we should be able to tap into this same energy for therapeutic purposes. But, what is this "normal" state we are attempting to "return to"?  

Consciousness .. that continuous, internal dialogue combining "prize-fight announcer" patter about our body and our surroundings ... and our silent self-talk as the mind leaps from thought to thought.  

Are my senses confirming:

• danger?   If so,fight or flee.
• continuity of perceived context?  Am I still the same person I was a micro-second ago? Is the world different than I expect it to be at this moment?
• that I am safe for the time being?.  If so, I can let my guard down and reflect upon my thinking.

What happens to Consciousness when our senses are no longer or reliable?  We understand that certain chemicals, or lack thereof, can alter our state of consciousness.  So can overstimulation and sensory deprivation. How are we effected by exposure to aggravating stimuli or a dysfunction in our sensory processing system?  

I don't presume to have any answers.  However, the work of the people listed below is both fascinating and informative:

Sacks' investigation into unusual sensory cases, which fills eleven volumes, are summarized here along with quotes lifted directly from the Wikipedia:

 Dr. Sacks interview  at the Harvard Book Store  from NPR Radio

Migraine (1970)  Sacks describes the nature of and treatments for migraine particularly examining the visual aura feature that is common to many sufferers, along with the premonitorys, a type of extrasensory perception that would involve the acquisition or effect of future information that cannot be deduced from presently available and normally acquired sense-based information or laws of physics and/or nature.^[5

Awakenings (1973)   Recounts the life histories of victims of the 1920s encephalitis lethargica epidemic and Sacks’ the amazing events that followed 40 years later when he administered L-DOPA, a new drug, to help these patients.

A Leg to Stand On (1984)   Sacks's own experience, after an accident, of losing the awareness of one of his legs

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat (1985)   The title of the book comes from the case study of a man with visual agnosia.^[1] , the inability to recognize familiar objects or faces. Twenty-four essays dealing with brain deficits and excesses as well as to spontaneous reminiscences, altered perceptions, and extraordinary qualities of mind

 Seeing Voices: A Journey Into the World of the Deaf (1989)  Explores the past and present events that shape the world of deaf people in the United States and contemplates a Sign language and it’s striking concomitant enhancements of perception implying the resourcefulness of the human species.  Sign is not only a language but the very medium of deaf culture.

An Anthropologist on Mars (1995)  Case histories of autism and Tourette's Syndrome.  Essays explore historical case studies of patients both in and oput  outside the hospital, often traveling considerable distances to interact with his subjects in their own environments. Sacks concludes that "defects, disorders, [and] diseases... can play a paradoxical role, by bringing out latent powers, developments, evolutions, forms of life that might never be seen, or even be imaginable, in their absence.

The Island of the Colorblind (1997)   Exploration of a society where congenital colorblindness is the norm and home to a strange neurologic malady resembling Parkinsonism and Alzheimer’s

Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood (2001)  A memoir

Oaxaca Journal (2002)  A trip to see ferns in Mexico turns into a meditation on Mesoamerican civilization, chocolate, agriculture, mescal, amateur naturalists and more.

Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain (2007)   "... Sacks turns to the intersection of music and neurology -- music as affliction and music as treatment... Sacks, in short, is the ideal exponent of the view that responsiveness to music is intrinsic to our makeup. He is also the ideal guide to the territory he covers"  Peter KramerThe Washington Post

The Mind's Eye (2010)   The complex workings of the brain and its astounding ability to adapt and overcome disability".    ”…my 'shyness', my 'reclusiveness', my 'social ineptitude', my 'eccentricity', even my 'Asperger's syndrome'", can, he thinks, be put down to lifelong face blindness. A rare consequence of brain injury, it is now understood to be quite common in the general population.” The Mind's Eye by Oliver Sacks - A Review, Nov 6, 2010

PEOPLE DEVELOPING METHODS TO HELP BALANCE/ RE-TUNE THE SENSORY SYSTEM:

Dr. Nelsen Mane, a strong proponent of hemispheric integration training  And here, boiling 60 minutes down into 151 seconds.

 Alex Doman works  with sound.  Watch his recent presentation in the World Cafe` here onautismBrainstorm.   Alex helped develop the sensory-friendly criteria for Sensory Star Hotels and Resorts . 

The National Light & Sound Therapy Centre offers desensitization exercises

THE POWER OF MUSIC IS SEEN IN 2 BRIEF VIDEOS:

Dr. Laz, "Touching Lives Through Music & Education"   music therapy program for students with profound special needs

Adam Goldberg, "Hands On Music: An iPad Band for Students with Disabilities".  Using touch technology to help students use their musical gifts rather than battle the barriers thrown up by their constraints. 

WHAT TO CONSIDER:

• What is the underlying science and documentation
• For whom this treatment is recommended; what is it's relevance to your need
• What are its' strengths and weaknesses
• What are realistic timetables for achievable goals.
• The professional standing of the therapist

Does anyone have their own good story about how music/light may have played an important role in some school activity?

Perhaps you would like to suggest one.  

I have recently joined HOPE For Exceptional Needs, a Facebook page for parents and staff of The Hope Center, a model special needs facility in Saudi Arabia.   The Hope Center is unique in that it accepts students regardless of race, religion, gender, national origin, or the number of disabilities a student has.   In 2003, only four years after start of operation,  the Ministry of Social Affairs named HOPE as one of the top 14 “standardized” schools for the disabled in the Kingdom.

HOPE serves children with many different special needs.  Recently I was asked by teachers for information on how to handle learning & writing problems related to Cerebellar Ataxia.  I am not familiar with this condition.  So I did some homework.

• Young children are most commonly diagnosed with acute cerebellar ataxia following a viral infection while current and chronic cerebellar ataxia may occur from stroke, migraines, multiple sclerosis, brain tumors, seizures and other genetic, acute or autoimmune diseases.

• Symptoms of cerebellar ataxia may include uncoordinated movements in the limbs, clumsiness, unsteadiness, abnormal eye movements and visual complaints.

Obviously, this is a debilitating condition for young learners.  The good news is that it is treatable and correctable.  But teachers and therapists will need guidance in how to apply our knowledge therapeutically.  Therefore, I am contemplating the creating a HELP BLOG specifically to address such questions.   While I wish the blog could be a source for definitive resources, it will more likely be a simple, starting point for serious research, serving to point readers in the right direction.

This blog post will be a test of this idea.  I hope you find this information to be helpful.

Michael

LINK:       Cerebellar Signs; a Patient Plus article.

PatientPlus articles are written for doctors and so the language can be technical, however some people find that they add depth to the patient information leaflets. You may find the abbreviations record helpful.

LINK:       Treating ataxia

Ataxia UK is the UK’s leading charity for people living with ataxia and provides information about specific ataxia services. It is also a useful resource for people who have just received a diagnosis of ataxia.

LINK:     Physiotherapeutic Exercises For Cerebellar Ataxia 

The cerebellum controls balance and coordination. It does not function properly during cerebellar ataxia. Young children are most commonly diagnosed with acute cerebellar ataxia following a viral infection. Current and chronic cerebellar ataxia may occur from stroke, migraines, multiple sclerosis, brain tumors, seizures and other genetic, acute or autoimmune diseases.

Courtesy | LiveStrong.com

LINK:         A Case-Study In Re-Teaching A Traumatically Brain Injured Child Handwriting Skills

Richard M. Kubina Jr., Diane Aho, Michael P. Mozzoni, and Paul Malanga

Abstract: The case study details the efforts to re-teach handwriting skills to a child with traumatic brain injury. The intervention focused on practicing handwriting tool, or foundational, skills. The case study took place during occupational therapy while the child attended out-patient sessions at a post acute rehabilitation center.  Positive results accompanied the intervention and are discussed. After the intervention, it was clear that the form of Byron’s writing vastly improved. In effect, the practice of tools skills of handwriting was accompanied by a doubling in the total amount of words in the see/copy channel, as well as improved legibility in everyday handwriting, a skill not directly addressed. Another positive effect occurred with Byron’s pencil grasp…… After the study, Byron hadnormal grasp prehension, thumb opposing two remaining digits.

Journal Of Precisions Teaching and Celeration 1998.XV. 32-40 NUMBER 2

LINK:     Vestibuar Rehabilitation Therapy (VRT)

“VRT can also improve impairments in executive, visual-spatial, and linguistic abilities, as well as spatial cognition, language and emotional regulation of behaviour, emotional control, as well as reading and writing skills.

….. and are based on Cawthorne-Cooksey Exercises and a combination of adaptation, substitution, and habituation exercises.

(VRT) has been shown to be effective for both adults and children, with vestibular disorders, both peripheral  and central.”

LINK:      Watch Holly’s Story 

With all the hoopla lately about how the iPad and iPhone are helping autistic students, we’ve neglected to appreciate how technology benefits teachers.   

As tech coordinator for PS177 in NYC, I had difficulty convincing staff to incorporate computers with their daily lessons.   Six years ago, there weren’t many apps available for working with autism.  There were some primitive educational “games” and a handful of websites.   And we had Where In The World Is Carmine Sandiego.   But none of this stuff provided the appropriate content and delivery options we take for granted today.  Besides, applying this stuff to lessons required new learning curves, something harried special education teachers have little time for.   I was fighting an uphill battle.

I concluded it would be easier to gain IT converts if I focused on how technology could addressthe teacher’s needs.  Focusing its application in class projects instead of individual lessons would make it easier for teachers to understand the “why” and “how” and  make them more receptive to expending the effort required to learn its’ use.   I needed to promote pet projects.

Adam Goldberg, a music teacher, was one of the first staff members to give it a shot.  We had discussed how Apple’s GarageBand might be used in his music classes.  The app proved a bit clumsy for his purposes.  But, as Adam applied himself to understanding how tech might be applied to his music program, he discovered a renewed sense of optimism and enthusiasm that something pretty amazing might be around the corner.   

We understand that Technology is helping students.  

But,  IN THIS VIDEO  shot by Susan Abdulezer of the NYC       Department of Education, we get a picture of how technology  is helping teachers experience renewed enthusiasm in their           role as educators.

Technology: Good for kids. Good for teachers. 

It’s a win-win situation.