• 2 Posts
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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: July 9th, 2023

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  • It was a university degree in the UK , and then I worked for the NHS for a number of years (until I moved to France and a much more relaxing job teaching at a university). I mostly specialised in pediatrics, particularly ASD and other developmental conditions. If I’d stayed with adults I would have focused on Aphasia and acquired language disorders. I found neurology very fun, and the way that damage could reveal the maaany faculties required for effective communication was super intresting to me.

    LSVT is certainly well-evidenced and I’ve seen it be very effective. But it’s quite repetitive, so colleagues who did a lot of it sometimes complained of not getting a chance to be creative in their approaches, just having to stick to the protocol.

    Dysphagia is a bit scary, but it makes such an incredible difference. Even many years after working with stroke survivors, every time I’m incredibly thirsty I think about the poor folks who were ‘nil by mouth’ and so desperately wanted a mouthful of water. Having a nurse swab your mouth is really not the same. Doing a swallowing check with them and giving the nurses permission to give them some fluids (even if they had to be weird and thick) completely transformed their day.

    Good luck with your studies! It’s a very rewarding career!


  • Social stories can be really helpful for all sorts of things. But it really depends the individual and what their strengths and needs are. I’ve worked with children with ASD and they’ve been great readers, but struggled with verbal communication and understanding social expectations. For them having a short focused ‘story’ that explained how to ask a question in class, or how to share with a friend, can be really helpful.

    I’ve also seen them be effective with adults with learning difficulties. But often that’s more because it trains the carers and family members around them. Not only does it fix the language so that the same thing is explained the same way everytime, and in appropriate language, but the process of writing the story and trying to articulate a piece of advice into concrete simple language can help ‘normal’ people realise how complex the ‘simple rule’ they want to communicate actually is. “don’t talk to strangers” is the sort of advice people give, but what’s a stranger, how does someone become ‘known’, what about a police officer? Or even a waiter?











  • Not to justify littering in the slightest (it’s gross and I don’t do it) but I think I can give you an insight in some of the thinking. Because in my own home, I frequently and unthinkingly ‘litter’ even though it annoys me! I open an envelope and read the letter, unconsciously dropping the envelope on the floor. I constantly find empty food packaging in weird places because as soon as I’m done with it I just drop it.

    Fortunately I don’t do this in public because I’m always more aware of my actions when I’m out of my own space. But within my home, if I’m doing something while focusing on something else I’m prone to abandoning things carelessly, and when I find them latter I’ll be mad at having to tidy up after myself. So, maybe some folks are like that in public? Also, some folks consciously and shamelessly litter, and there’s really no excuse.