Wednesday, November 29, 2023

 Wednesday, November 29, 2023

  I read an article about the role of sleep in our lives. Wow! It's essential for our physical and mental health. Good sleep staves off Alzheimer's. Dozing off like a narcoleptic during the day doesn't count. You have to pass through deep sleep to have the desired effect.

    I  run my garbage disposal infrequently. I ran it yesterday. It ran and ran, but the sound of the machine didn't change. I turned it off and stuck my hand in to find papaya seeds four inches deep. Papaya seeds are edible but not very tasty, a combination of spicy and bitter. You scoop the seeds out of the middle of the fruit. I washed them down the garbage disposal, postponing running it until the water stopped flowing. The seeds didn't block water flow. Apparently, they are immune to the charm of the blades. I dug the seeds out a handful at a time. There were still a few left I couldn't get my fingers around. They shouldn't be a problem.

   I met with the Ulu Wini kids today. Most of the first through sixth graders have memory problems. These kids don't appear to have neurological problems. I say that because they are easy to fix. A few five to ten-minute sessions solve the initial problems. They don't know how to use their brains to memorize. The kids may have memory problems because academics are not emphasized in the Marshallese culture. People learn what everyone has to learn to function in the culture- nothing more. Everything has been known by daily repetition since infancy. By the time they enter kindergarten, they have learned everything they will ever need.

    The kids I work with are mostly Marshallese, a strongly bonded community. The Marshal Islands are thirty small islands in the Pacific. Each one has its own culture. Because of the isolation, the culture is stable. The community center where I volunteer is in the middle of a low-income housing development inhabited mostly by the Marshallese. It is a joy watching the kids of all ages play together. It reminds me of my childhood, only better. I got to play in a local playground, but I didn't know every kid there. The Marshallese community is close-knit. However, they are at the bottom of the social ladder here- or is it the Mexicans. While it is the aloha state, not everyone is as alohaish as you would like.

   I heard a TED talk on brain synchronization for the second time. 

When people listen to the same story, their brain patterns are the same. The speakers didn't say so, but I bet there are some variations. Each person's pattern is somewhat different, as the human hand is universally recognized. Still, each hand is unique at the same time. 

We all crave both synchronization with others and being completely ourselves.

  We all crave both types of harmony: harmony (synchronization) with others and harmony (synchronization) within ourselves. I wonder if anyone achieves either one perfectly. Maybe someone like the Dalai Lama, who seems to be at peace with his own negative voices. He knows to love them for what they are, knowing they are there to protect him, however misguided their efforts might be.

   I was taught to see synchronization with a group as something negative. My parents' example of that synchronization was the Hitler rallies in Berlin. I sat, panic-stricken, in a Sarah Coventry sellers meeting when they started singing company songs. I would never go to a rock concert. Classic music concerts can be a challenge. I see the potential for the negative side of strong group synchronization. While I dread large group synchronization, I love it with individuals, small family groups.  

  Writing about synchronization led me to wonder: is that what the autistic lack, the ability to synchronize with others? I read recently the assumption that the autistic lack a 'theory of mind' is no longer is favor. Could poor social synchronization skills be a better diagnosis?

   I have fifteen-minute sessions with Adolescent D daily or as often as we can make it. His automatic reading continues to improve. I can't imagine he will test on the 10th-grade level, as he did last spring when he cheated by having everything read for him by the computer. The teachers never figured it out. They were thrilled with his five-grade improvement from the previous spring when he tested, honestly, on a fifth-grade level. Can we make enough improvement before next spring so he is not outed? He still struggles to consciously process sounds. They still reverse. I tell him each time he encounters a problem, his efforts are not just to wrestle the one word to the mat but, more importantly, to modify his brain. He struggles to take words apart and then blend the sounds back together. It's hard work, even with words he knows well and can read. We start each session with an exercise doing just that. He gives me a word, any word; it doesn't make any difference what it is. All words are represented by letters; all words are comprised of phonemes. You can use any word to practice the exercise. He reverts to old habits. He doesn't read one syllable at a time. He prefers to get the first syllable and guess the rest. He no longer fights crossbody blending, although it is difficult for him even with words he reads easily.