Be Different

Just finished reading John Elder Robinson's latest book, Be Different: Adventures of a Free-Range Aspergian with Practical Advice for Aspergians, Misfits, Families & Teachers . Loved it, loved his advice for people with Asperger's. He discusses everything from emotions to sensory issues to friendships to being different - which is the point of the book: it's okay to be different. He says that being Aspergian (his term) is a gift to be utilized. He tells others to channel their narrow interests into their life's work - as he has very successfully done.

He says that there are simple solutions to many of the issues that Aspergian's have. For example, he is a business owner and deals with people a lot, so he decided to beef up his social skills by reading Emily Post's Guide to Manners and Dale Carnegie's How to wn Friends and Influence People. Makes sense. So does the book.

Drumming as Timing Therapy

I've discussed the importance of timing therapy in other posts. It can improved executive functioning, coordination, sensory processing, social skills and increases IQ. What better way is there to do it than drumming? The important thing is that the movements need to be done with precision - otherwise there is little gain other than rudimentory timing skills.

Here is a fabulous YouTube of kids with special needs drumming. It comes from TamboRhythms.

EFT - The Emotional Freedom Technique

The Emotional Freedom Technique is an easy way to deprogram the brain of emotional garbage. The basic idea is that you tap on accupresure merideans while bringing up difficult emotions or memories followed by saying positive things (affirmations) about yourself. They claim that the emotions disappear and the memories become neutral. The evidence says that it is effective and my own quick experimentation with it sold me on it. Bad memories were indeed neutralized. It felt a bit like magic.

There are a number of YouTubes that demonstrate the method, including how to do this with a child. You will want to read The EFT Manual by Gary Craig before you try it. And by all means, don't do it on others if you are not professionally capable of handling the situations you could get into. There are lots of workshops out there that can give you a hands-on approach to learning it.

Gary Craig's web site is EFTUniverse.com.