Dyspraxia

Why don’t you get lost!

15/04/2013 by brain-e

Getting lost and disorientated, is something that happens to many people recognised with neurological differences such as: Dyslexia, Dyspraxia, Aspergers and ADHD; but is that such a bad thing?

Being dyslexic and ADHD, getting lost can be a regular occurrence, this doesn’t always bode well when time is not on your side and you have a meeting to get to. So, if I get disorientated, the numerous applications on my iPhone help me get from place to place, whether travelling on foot, public transport or by car. As of yet, I haven’t learned how to fly a helicopter or aeroplane, but “I’m sure there is an app for that”. However, the thing I’m waiting for the most is the Teleportation app. I imagine that I would be able get my surfboard and gear together (already have a water proof iphone case), find Waikiki beach in Honolulu on my maps app and press the red “Teleport button”. I’m not sure what the EE network charge would be for a human body email attachment.

A consideration must be given to how getting lost, at times, can have its pluses: if you take the route that everyone takes, you will be seeing what everyone has seen; getting lost may allow you to discover something that may have been overlooked. I’m sure Christopher Columbus would have agreed, had he not got lost, one could postulate that we may not have Big Macs or Cadillacs (which in my eyes is not a bad thing!).

Just a thought! The next time you get lost, try not to get anxious, allow yourself to become aware of the environment around you, concentrate on your breath to help you relax. You will be seeing something new, from seeing something new and being aware of these new surroundings your brain is making new connections…. and who knows what you might find?

Here is an of interesting article about orientation and the brain.

Spatial orientation and the brain the effects of map reading and navigation

MyBunjee Strap-on for the accident prone and adrenaline junky phones

04/12/2012 by brain-e

The other week my wife and I were discussing iPhone insurance, having hers stolen on the London Underground (mothers of small children, looking flustered due to pushchairs and baby accessories are targets for predatory gadget hunters with no scruples or courage).

When the iPhone 5 came out, along with the new iPod Touch, a feature the iPod touch came with was the… iHook, iTag or was it iStrapOn… let me check… the iPod touch loop… (hmmnn, there already is a product called iLoop). This is great if your an iTouch user, especially since there has been recognition and recommendations for the use of iTouches as a PDA (Portable Digital Assistant) for recipients of the Disabled Student Allowance (DSA). Unfortunately the iPhone 5 didn’t have “the thing that sticks out” that allows for the iLoop attachment. I was looking into alternatives, as I liked the idea of it being attached to me. Some may think that this is a little obsessive, however use of a PDA is essential to help anyone with executive function difficulties to fit into contemporary society.

Whilst watching Dragons Den last month, I saw something that I thought would help with the not getting it stolen and more. MyBunjee was a product pitched by duo Emma Jones and Mark Ferguson, which got the interest of the dyslexic dragon Duncan Banotyne and the essential winning bid from dragon Peter Jones (a Telecommunications Business expert). The MyBunjee product is essentially something that stops your expensive and delicate smartphone hitting the deck accidentally. With regard to my own smartphone, I had dropped my iPhone 3GS numerous times on wooden floors, pavements and even face planting the phone as it fell out of my pocket, onto the road whilst putting my kids in the car. The amazing thing is, it has never had crack… good luck I think, as luck is a state of mind.

The product solves the problems of it getting lost, misplaced and even as a theft deterrent. With an ADHD diagnosis, an explanation to working memory difficulties is provided; the constant loss of things like keys, pens and the all essential smartphone, can cause a lot of unnecessary stress and anxiety. With dyspraxia the same can apply about losing things, but you also have the higher risk of accidentally dropping these delicate devices, due to motor difficulties. With the above risk factors and their frequent occurrence, insurance can be a costly, unfortunate yet necessary thing to have.

The MyBunjee isn’t a new concept. There are of course those springy key-rings that can be attached to a bunch of keys so that:

They are less likely to get lost or misplaced
They can be lifted to a height that allows them to be used.

It’s the patent-pending rubber band and link to the spring attachment that allows the MyBungee to be adaptable to any PDA type device. They retail around £6 from most websites including postage and packing. I think they are well worth the price as they give you an extra peace of mind, and you can also watch your smartphone do death defying adrenaline junky bunjee jumps, while also looking like an 80s break-dancer or tennis player wearing a head sweatband.

UNiFORMity: dyslexia and filling in forms

17/07/2012 by brain-e

The image above can resonate with some of us, how filling in forms can infuriate and take a lot of energy out us, leaving us tired and frustrated and sometimes not even wanting to bother. Well that’s how society can exclude many of us with neurological differences. A big sigh when we see them and a bigger sigh when they are complete when it comes to dyslexia and filling in forms.

Whether you are applying for a job, college, university, passport or bank account; we all have to complete forms of one kind or another.

Paper forms are unreliable for various reasons:

they get lost in the snail mail
lost by the person filling the form (if you have a working memory difficulty, thats probably something that happens often)
(the most annoying, especially when it takes you so long to complete with copious amounts of stress) the organisations that sent you the forms that require you to send them, lose the forms you eventually send (Phew!)

Many dyslexic (non dyslexic) people get frustrated due to ongoing problems filling in a form. So we thought we would create a post about it.

Advice with form filling for dyslexics, dyspraxics and ADDers.

1. Before completing the form, contact the organisation and ask if they have a electronic copy of the form

For many PDF and Word document versions of a form are easier to compete. If this is the case for you there is no harm in asking.

2. Read instructions with a highlighter pen and highlight all requirements

This includes highlighting all the documents that have to be sent with the form.

This helps with remembering to include them and acts as a Todo list when completed, you will be able to see at a glance what is required.

3. Always write it all in pencil first

We advise that you should pester a is non-dyslexic/dyspraxic/ADDer friend/partner etc to read the form through.

4. Correct it while still in pencil, including double-checking all numbers, names etc.

Proofreading our own work is a (majority of the time) not a dyslexic, dyspraxic or ADDers strong point especially with their own work.

5. Get a friend to check it before you go over in pen

6. Use a black pen to write over the pencil

This is generally what is required for completing a form any way. Forms are dull and so is the colour black, with that in mind it could help you to remember that.

7. Only rub out the pencil once you are sure that it is correct and it has been completely filled out in pen

If you still make a mistake do not whiteout. Instead just cross out and then initial mistake.

8. Always make a copy the form before sending off

Use a photocopier, scanner or even your smartphone (if you have one). With a smartphone you can email it to yourself or you can upload it to Evernote. This is in case it gets lost or someone wants more info.

9. Go through all the instructions you highlighted before sending off the form

Frequently organisations that request you to complete a form, will also ask for other documents to be sent with the completed form.

Thou Art – A film about outsiders, creativity & mental health?

11/04/2012 by brain-e

Back in October I attended a showing of a film called Thou Art. The film was part of a project of the same name which was a collaboration between South London & Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and University of the Arts London, funded by the Arts Council England and the South London and Maudsley Charitable Trust. Individuals who have a mental health history made the film itself and the art within it, this included the direction of the film, the music and the artists who are interviewed in the film.

The film explores how each artist makes their work and the barriers they encounter as individuals with mental health issues and as individuals who have this innate need to create. Through interview and being able to view their artwork as the film progresses, you obtain an idea of how important this urge to create art is to these individuals as artists, as human beings and as therapeutic practice and the need to survive through the creativity and its process, as well as the need to survive in the world we live today.

Thinking differently

Before the film screening the director, Jake Stratton explained the background of film and a bit about himself. He explained that he had had a Bi-polar diagnosis (his personal connection to the film’s subject), furthermore, he also saw himself as a creative person, working professionally as an editor in television following studies at London College of Communication, part of the University of the Arts London. He explained that he left school with no academic qualifications eventually finding work in a car maintenance garage.

Fatma

One artist we encounter in the film is named Fatma. She has a diagnosis of Schizophrenia and dyslexia (a co-morbidity from a medical perspective) and explains: “sometimes being dyslexic interferes with learning, being Schizophrenic also interferes with learning”. Another artist expresses how he makes art to express things that he finds difficult to put into word. I ask, ‘is it because what he is trying to express is too abstract for words or is it because he has always had a difficulty with words?’

Deviating from the norm

“Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible” Frank Zappa

1 in 3 students at the University of the Art’s London are dyslexic . Dyslexia is defined and characterised by a difficulty with working memory, sequential processing and gets its name from difficulties associated with the development of the ability to process language-based information in the way that is expected by conventional schooling and education. In the early years of education the official recognition of an individual as having these difficulties would probably be down to a number of varying factors including financial background and severity of difficulties. However, there are those with an unintentional mask; an underlying ability leading to the development of coping strategies. Recognised by teachers, this underlying ability masked by difficulties can be perceived as laziness, clumsiness, lack of interest or a number of other derogatory labels. This can lead to these individuals having low self-esteem, becoming withdrawn, becoming depressed or angry and frustration expressed through bad behaviour. These metaphors misread by teachers can lead to ridicule or punishment and rejection from their peers. Those who get recognised late in life as adults have probably just struggled to get by; with their underlying ability being ignored and can label themselves with the same derogatory labels they were told as a child; becoming adept at negative self-talk that only decreases their idea of self-worth, in turn affecting emotional aspects of how they understand themselves and how they associate to the world around them. There are similar sequential difficulties that are less obviously detected from poor spelling and poor reading; those who are dyspraxic, with dyscalculia, Aspergers, ADHD or ADD. Many people whose behaviours and difficulties fit the spectrum of difficulties can go undiagnosed until adulthood or their entire life. These adults, like the children above could have the low self-esteem, depression and anxiety which are in themselves considered mental health conditions, this sense of being excluded would obviously affect your mental health. There are of course also those that don’t get recognised at all.

Paul

The need to create

So why the need to create? It’s an esoteric question, repeated it seems in every essay within the book Art and Theory. The same applies to the question that mankind has always asked – Why are we here?

As far as history and anthropology shows us, creating stuff is an intrinsic part of being human. Whether through the need to solve a problem, or just trying to make sense of the human condition and existence, these combinations of neurological processes, emotions, senses and thought are innate. Furthermore, without any of these there is nothing to express: no expression = no creativity.

Creativity has been associated with divergent thinking by psychologists and academics. Sir Ken Robinson has published books and talks about this. A test of using this ability would be to ask someone what can be done with a paper clip and record how many things that person can come up with. It has been said that divergent thinking is a thought process or method used to generate creative ideas by exploring many possible solutions, if you have a problem with sequencing its is possible that your ideas, conversations etc, can go off on tangents in a different direction. This can either get you lost or on an adventure where you find something new, or linking things that usually don’t get linked, or through calculation or chance create new idea or a new thing. This in essence is creativity. People with the above labels and other mental health conditions often have a difficulty with the their working memory. The working memory affects executive function in the brain allowing it to process information in a linear sequential way. If an individual has difficulties with working memory, processing information sequentially presents problems.

Outing the insiders

A person who creates art not having an art school education and indoctrination, may identify themselves as an artist,yet the art establishment is likely to have them labelled as an outsider artist. The term outsider artist has been used to pigeonhole art by the clinically insane. Ironically, there is are a majority of art school school students who have come from white upper or middle-class backgrounds (an elite majority of insiders) who strive to be the cliched art school student: to rebel, to be bohemian. However, the meaning of the word bohemian can be explained as ‘one who has informal and unconventional social habits’. If you look at the synonyms relating to the word bohemian, they can all be related to how society expects people not to be. Being an individual who is neurologically different with or without a diagnosis can make you feel like an outsider, especially as you are more likely to do, smell, taste, see, hear, think, process and feel things differently.

Defining and finding your own personal genius

With a diagnosis of ADHD and dyslexia is the person co-morbid because of who they are and how they are supposed to be, or is it because they are a particular way that doesn’t “fit-in” with what is considered to be the norm. They are in a minority that thinks differently, creatively, holistically, non-sequentially/disorganised, tangentially, divergently.

The above mental states can easily be related to, or attributed to mental health issues and in some respects are on a list of mental health symptoms. This could be a result of how the education system and society expects us to be. If you are predestined genetically to think differently, are you predestined to be an outsider? Relating to Cooper’s Bagatelle Model of Neurodiversity to mental health, the way one thinks will affect the way one feels. If you think like you do not belong, you will more than likely feel like you do not belong. These are thoughts of exclusion, negative thoughts that will have a negative affect on the way the person who is thinking them, chemically and biologically.

It seems that creativity and excellence in any field is admired by most as genius and madness seems to be a common occurrence and almost a cliche. Van Gogh presumed bi-polar is probably the most renowned. It seems that part of being human is mental health and its instability. The other ways of thinking and viewing the world are what lead to new horizons and new ideas. It is the general consensus in contemporary society the we accept people of different cultures and colour of skin, but these are easily noticed through sight and sound. There are hidden subtleties that still seem taboo that are stigmatised and still not accepted as part of the human condition.

I thought I would end this post with some quotes related to the topic…

“For me, insanity is super sanity. The normal is psychotic. Normal means lack of imagination, lack of creativity.” -Jean Dubuffet

“It seems to me madness to wake up in the morning and something other than paint, considering that one may not wake up the following morning” Frank Aurbach

“No excellent soul is exempt from a mixture of madness.” Aristotle

“No great genius has ever existed without some touch of madness” Seneca

Neurodiversity Non-linear thought how School kills creativity

02/03/2012 by brain-e

I thought I would start this blog by talking about where a lot of the difficulties start, looking at the education system. My PG cert thesis 6 years ago, was on dyslexia and creativity; explaining that dyslexic individuals are more likely to be creative, whether in the arts or sciences. To many dyslexia specialists use the term lateral thinking to describe the thought process of people with these different styles: ADDers, dyspraxics, Aspies etc that fall into the Neurodiversity spectrum. Essentially, an individual with executive functioning difficulties would lean away from convergent sequential thought processes and more towards divergent/tangental/holistic thought. The term lateral thinking was coined by Edward DeBono as mentioned I believe in this video (I havent seen it in a while). Lateral Thinking is a process that DeBeno devised to promote creativity amongst convergent/linear thinkers, it is a way to allow a conventional thinker to think out of the box or to think out of the linear way into a new direction… Divergent thinking just happens… like a eureka moment, non-sequential and unpredictable.

The Lateral Thinking process probably works well for sheep who go the same way and can be herded. The education system and society expects everyone to be a sheep, to fit in to the pen or box… but some of us are goats that jump around and is difficult to herd (using Will Self’s analogy for Why prison’s fail), which is why schools fail and why essentially why society fails to be able to deal with people thinking differently. Why just eat grass… when you can eat loads of other stuff. Its funny how the education system and society has to put people into boxes, whether you black, white, brown, dyslexic, ADHD etc…. Then there are those that say… To progress there is the need to think out of the box then why is it then those who think out of the box are the one who are always the first to be excluded in education and society, by failing the education system, being institutionalized and undermined.

Mary Colley Rest in Peace

27/11/2011 by brain-e

Mary Colley was an educator, a humanitarian and visionary; who believed that the holistic acceptance of all kinds of people was a mission and a passion. Mary Colley who founded the Charity DANDA (the Developmental Adult Neuro-Diversity Association) died on the 22nd September 2010. This was an extremely sad day for those who had discovered who they were from meeting Mary, and found a place for simultaneous solace and celebration.

Mary will be greatly missed as she was a hard worker, a source of inspiration, energy and knowledge. If it was not for Mary I may have not found out that I was ADHD. With her empathy and being able to recognize me “Scanning” (Looking around the room) and swinging on my chair, and flicking bits of paper at my peers during one of her lectures; my life now may be very different.

I believe that I am not the only person who she has had a profound affect upon in their lives, but I thought I should share it. When I thought a life long friend had walked into my life, those footsteps became echos, and knowledge to all of us who work and live with the ideology that is the acceptance of Neurodiversity.