The more i read and learn abt Autism, the more fascinated i am with these individuals. Its just amazing how differently they function! To some extent, i think people with ASD has made us aware of the many daily functions that we use in interacting with people (e.g. eye contact) which we've always taken forgranted for and probably would not have been researched if not for ASD indvs.

Here's some videos from a documentary on Temple Grandin, a highfunctioning lady with ASD. She speaks about how she copes with her conditions, and how she processes and views the world from the point of view of an indv with ASD. The Documentary is titled The Woman Who thinks like a Cow because of her fascination with studying animal behaviour and her amazing ability to connect with animals on a level that is uncommon in normal functioning people.

awww this video is so sweet! i wish they showed the baby's reaction to sound before the implant too! But its awesome how technology is improving lives! Its amazing how this baby is going to grow up without labels or cognitive impairments...

A three year old conductor

This kid is really cute! He even knows how to hold a conducting stick in the right way, and has all his dynamics and beats right. ive always loved animated conductors, they always help you feel the song so much more. and this kid is just the epitome of cuteness and an awesommmeee conductor! loves how he gets so excited at the end that his stick flies out of his hand. hahaha

Ever felt frustrated cos you start to realise that your distinctively sharp memory with learning information is significantly declining? I have.
Ever thought, "Shit i studied this last night, but i cant remember a single thing"? I have
Ever felt like killing yourself for staying all night to cram for your paper the next day only to arrive at the exam with a blank mind?
Ever felt like this pie chart below is so bloody true? haha

Perhaps maybe all that isnt because of a poor memory nor because of a lack of studying hard enough but because of our study methods! I am reading an article: Increasing Retention without Increasing Study Time (Rohrer and Pashler, 2007) for my Journal Critique paper and I thought that the findings were really interesting to share!

Despite the pains;

This picture just cracks me up. cos ive been the exact lazy student who read books under the table and blatantly fell asleep under the teacher's nose. and now that the roles have reversed, i now realise that as much as it was hard to keep awake in class, the teacher's job wasnt easy; If you have such students from hell, its just as hard for a teacher to continue his/her passion for teaching without suffering a detrimental fall in his/her self-esteem. i really appreciate the teachers who never gave up on us and always adapted themselves to suit our class dynamics.

This is an extract that i read in a book which i thought was really inspiring and served as a reminder that in this competitive singaporean education system, i should not give up on my kids no matter how low functioning and slow and no matter their behaviour problems and how they make me wish i didnt have to teach them:

He was in the first third grade class I taught at Saint Mary's School in Morris, Minnesota. All thirty-four of my students were dear to me, but Mark Eklund was one in a million. Very neat in appearance, he had that happy-to-be-alive attitude that made even his occasional mischievousness delightful.