Comments on: The Fireworks Are Interesting

By: momo

momo — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 23:15:29 +0000

Hi, there! I just found out that I’m technically on the autism spectrum (I have NLD), and am watching two boys, one with Asperger’s and one with Autism. The boy with Autism has this tick or something that he does when his medicine is running out (he has ADD, and is on medicine for it) or when he’s upset. He’ll change words and letters… for instance, a “y” or the word “why” has to become a “z”, whether written or verbal. B is converted into P. Too,two, and to are “three.” And sounds like “no” and “now” MUST be “new.” It concerns me that it’s kinda growing to a bigger body of sounds. It *totally* bothers me when he changes the sounds in his name. I wonder if anyone has insights about his motivation for this. I’m starting to discipline him for it, because it seems like something that is inhibiting his communication greater and greater. I just hope it doesn’t get really bad. He’s still a kid, and by “discipline,” I mean putting him in time-out. I’m also trying to help him out with relaxing techniques, so he has other ways to relieve his stress.

By: Disrespect or disability? Take two « Urocyon's Meanderings

Disrespect or disability? Take two « Urocyon's Meanderings — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 19:16:27 +0000

[…] I’ve been very aware all my life that trying to wrap words around concepts is a tricky, and necessarily approximate business (as described much better by Amanda–and we seem to have similar relationships to […]

By: Ballastexistenz » Post Topic » Distance Underthought

Ballastexistenz » Post Topic » Distance Underthought — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 03:37:51 +0000

[…] what’s meant by “under” thought, or more specifically idea-thought.) The Fireworks Are Interesting Up in the clouds and Down in the Valley: My Richness and Yours With Sideways Mind: On Listening to […]

By: ballastexistenz

ballastexistenz — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 06:11:11 +0000

mom — actually the thing about “I see what you mean,” etc. turns out to be mostly false. I just repeated what I’d heard somewhere, and later on learned it wasn’t too meaningful after all. (Which is good because I am pretty indiscriminate what sense I refer to.)

By: Ballastexistenz » Post Topic » I write like… a bunch of sci-fi authors?

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 06:09:17 +0000

[…] who he is, which isn’t much better. This is the one I got for things like my DSQ article, and The Fireworks Are Interesting, among many others. It’s by far the most common of my results. Some other results I […]

By: mom

mom — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 15:47:23 +0000

To Justthisguy,

It took years before I realized I am a visual learner. I just felt slow at many types of learning and fast at others but I hadn’t sorted it out. Amanda once wrote about being a spatial learner and it was the first time it gelled in my mind that I am a visual learner and what that meant for me. She talked about how to recognize by words what type of learner one is…as in I will say “I see what you mean” while an auditory learner might say “I hear what you mean”. Recognizing it as a fact of life has freed me in a way as I will ask readily now for a visual drawing of a concept if I need it. I look at it as a cognitive map of sorts. I also recognize that my visual learning is very positive in some circumstances while in other situations it might be a handicap. Putting me into a immersion type foreign language class would be a disaster. On the other hand I learn quite well when things are visually presented. Spatially I am a disaster. I can get lost coming out a different store door then the one I get in and I can’t find my car. Thank goodness my husband and children just accepted this deficit and stepped in to help me.
Using what I call stick maps drawn by others over the years I have actually, I believe, put down a few more neural pathways and have actually gained an increment in this spatial area. Acceptance is everything. We all have different abilities and deficits. Thanks to my children I never got truly lost over the years and always made my way home. :)

I wish all schools would analyze each student and identify their type of learning and give them helpful hints on how to navigate the system with that style. It would be nice too if the system allowed more then one choice in learning…like spatially taught math…or lets say visual history…One should not have to struggle.

By: Justthisguy

Justthisguy — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 04:05:44 +0000

I want to ask Cap’n Lex, over at http://www.neptunuslex.com, what kind of thinking he was doing when doing his job as a Naval Aviator. If you read his blog, you’ll see that he’s very good with words, but he made his living for a long time flying jet fighters, and was an instructor at Top Gun for a while.

I cannot believe that one can think in words, or even visually, when engaging in aerial combat and live to tell about it. That would definitely seem to require some kind of global spacially-aware thinking, at a non-verbal level.

By: Justthisguy

Justthisguy — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 19:03:46 +0000

Wow! I seem to think very much like Mrs. (not Miss) Baggs. I even learned most of my music visually, at least to start. (see that mark, press this key) I’m the guy in church taking notes and making diagrams during the sermon. I think I’ve bought exactly one audio book in my life, but literally several tons of printed books.

By: Abilities, and burnout « Urocyon's Meanderings

Abilities, and burnout « Urocyon's Meanderings — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 14:56:20 +0000

[…] The Fireworks Are Interesting describes something very similar to what I have meant by trying to wrap words around ideas. Trying […]

By: sanabituranima

sanabituranima — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 09:05:23 +0000

I do not know how to think without words. I don’t deny that people can and do think without words. I just can’t imagine how it is done, let alone do it.

“Have their be” is a beautiful phrase.