Welcome to my Brainy Lady blog! This is where I get to take off the doctor’s coat (it's not mine--yet), tie it around my waist and share autism tips, surprising brain science, funny personal stories and painful doctorate program homework complaints… okay, maybe I'll avoid that last one. Regardless, I hope to offer insights and invite the same while enjoying a cup of coffee with the autism, neuroscience, psycophysiology, parenting, spiritual, thinking, comedic, curious community! If that leaves you out, I'm sorry and suggest you try on one of the many hats. One is bound to fit!
This Mother’s Day grab a hold of it and be true to your wants.
My son takes great pleasure in music. He is asking everyone to play music for their moms or, better yet, buy her her favorite musical and watch as a family. (We watched Grease, though my favorite is actually Moulin Rouge.)
So far my son hasn’t managed to understand that his autism may create different interests than the autism in another. Even more he is challenged to consider any possibility that a person may not dig music at all or see why we all work so hard and don’t just chillax with the tunes a blaring.
He doesn’t mind a dirty house or even living in a tent as we had to do on occasion when he and his siblings were young. Though he does like lots of food, he is okay if it’s only one or two staples delivered in gargantuan amounts. In fact, he doesn’t mind most of what most people mind.
He minds working hard at things he isn’t interested in though. I mind that to.
In this way we are the same.
Do what you love and smell the flower that causes your soul to salivate today.
I am smelling the coffee.
Welcome to my Brainy Lady blog! This is where I get to take off the doctor’s coat (it's not mine--yet), tie it around my waist and share autism tips, surprising brain science, funny personal stories and painful doctorate program homework complaints… okay, maybe I'll avoid that last one. Regardless, I hope to offer insights and invite the same while enjoying a cup of coffee with the autism, neuroscience, psycophysiology, parenting, spiritual, thinking, comedic, curious community! If that leaves you out, I'm sorry and suggest you try on one of the many hats. One is bound to fit!
A friend of mine asked a question which led to an answer that I have refined for this post. I hope it helps someone.
Love alone isn’t enough to heal brains and bodies.
Love alone isn’t enough because some people’s idea of a loving act is incorrect for the circumstance and is actually going to further the problem or condition. That is how we end up with co-dependencies between people, etc.- It is love with direction, and not just any direction but an “independence building self love and appreciation” type of direction, that heals.
Love in the direction of healing.
Most people don’t know how to love this way. So, someone has to direct them to give the correct direction. And so it is that we become a society of health or ill-health promoting beliefs. The leaders in media religion and politics propagate… the state of things.
Unless we choose for ourselves.
This statement also applies to therapies and medicines.
In the end, its not the therapy or the concept of love that heals but the knowledge and intention of the leader, the therapist, the lover and the client culminating in chaos or coalescing into health.
Many medicines and therapies are just there to keep us alive and hopeful until we figure this out.
~Dr. Lynette Louise
The Brain Broad
Welcome to my Brainy Lady blog! This is where I get to take off the doctor’s coat (it's not mine--yet), tie it around my waist and share autism tips, surprising brain science, funny personal stories and painful doctorate program homework complaints… okay, maybe I'll avoid that last one. Regardless, I hope to offer insights and invite the same while enjoying a cup of coffee with the autism, neuroscience, psycophysiology, parenting, spiritual, thinking, comedic, curious community! If that leaves you out, I'm sorry and suggest you try on one of the many hats. One is bound to fit!
Music entrains the brain and, as such, can make a huge difference during a much needed moment, easing the ups and downs of life by reinforcing and then shifting the person’s emotional state. So let it roll!
And while rolling, note that…
If your child plays the same song repeatedly it may be a great indicator of whether they need stimulation or calming.
So let your child choose the song, but don’t then walk away. Instead, seek alternative means of creating a similar effect in order that they might have more opportunity to grow instead become music dependent.
Example: seekers of music with slow, low, bass-like sounds, chants and oms, could find the ocean beach comforting but not enjoy the lake. Pay attention, discover similar song sounds together, help them help themselves while using music to shift states. The music of songs and the music of your environment.
Additionally, music can be used to modify monotone speech. Which, in turn, can help modify moods.
When I am helping a child who has no vocal control, especially if they speak loudly more ‘at’ than ‘with’ me, I suggest they put music in their voice.
I then model speaking in a singing voice, and we practice different types of ‘mood’ speaking.
Then whenever they are speaking ‘at’ someone I simply prompt them with: “Remember to put music in your voice.”
I have many adorable, wonderful, hilarious, tender memories of many adorable, wonderful, hilarious, tender children with monotone speech as they put a song in their voice in uniquely varied ways!
Please, instead of speaking loudly back, join me in the creation of this wonderful choir of souls!
That’s the music I choose.
Dr. Lynette Louise (“The Brain Broad”)
Welcome to my Brainy Lady blog! This is where I get to take off the doctor’s coat (it's not mine--yet), tie it around my waist and share autism tips, surprising brain science, funny personal stories and painful doctorate program homework complaints… okay, maybe I'll avoid that last one. Regardless, I hope to offer insights and invite the same while enjoying a cup of coffee with the autism, neuroscience, psycophysiology, parenting, spiritual, thinking, comedic, curious community! If that leaves you out, I'm sorry and suggest you try on one of the many hats. One is bound to fit!
The problem with speech therapy and autism is speech therapy is generally aimed at teaching sound production to the muscles and building one sound upon another in a predetermined pattern of progression. However, autism and speech is more about communication than word formation.
Teaching communication, as opposed to speech, requires a greater level of sophistication from the teacher.
Unfortunately, too often the child is taught in a fashion that, when mirrored, looks like scripted talking and planned responses. This is not usually because the child can’t learn to speak in a more fluid way. (Made obvious by the fact that most ASD individuals do speak with great fluidity and a huge variance in tone when speaking within their perseverative self-talk.) The difficulty for these folks in learning to communicate often has to do with turn taking and the brain’s ability to transition between the processing of receptive to expressive, then back again, at a user friendly speed.
Thus the fluid self-talker should be encouraged to maintain their beautiful flowing dissertation of ideas while responding to our similarly shaped suggestions. Once they get used to ‘communicating’ then we ask them to show an interest in our things.
This works very well.
Unfortunately, what is usually done is the child is asked to STOP TALKING LIKE THAT (in his or her fluid way) and start repeating according to our robotic requests. A real-life example: Say “CAR” not ‘hello Steve …a clue a clue that’s hysterical!’
TEACH WHAT YOU WANT THEM TO LEARN AND IF WHAT YOU ARE WANTING IS SENTENCES THEN RESPOND TO AND ENCOURAGE SENTENCES!
If what you are wanting is communication, that is done by responding.
Practice the skill of responding to, and encouraging, sentences.
Welcome to my Brainy Lady blog! This is where I get to take off the doctor’s coat (it's not mine--yet), tie it around my waist and share autism tips, surprising brain science, funny personal stories and painful doctorate program homework complaints… okay, maybe I'll avoid that last one. Regardless, I hope to offer insights and invite the same while enjoying a cup of coffee with the autism, neuroscience, psycophysiology, parenting, spiritual, thinking, comedic, curious community! If that leaves you out, I'm sorry and suggest you try on one of the many hats. One is bound to fit!
Q: How can parents model patience to children while we wait out this pandemic?
I am often posed this question, by parents and reporters, with phrasing that is some version of “while we wait this out.”
Here’s the thing: The solution, the answer to this question, is buried in the question itself. Children of all ages are very grounded in the present, so implying to them that they are “waiting it out” also implies to them (and the parents) they are missing out; that now is not as good as then or later. The question itself tells us that staying home is difficult.
But, is it?
By seeing everything as a phase opportunity you shift the focus back into the present and the stress automatically lessens.
Dr. Lynette Louise with playing on a blanket in the grass with one of her toddler granddaughters.
While you’re in this phase, tell jokes and laugh about not having to hug people with bad breath or scratchy beards. Talk about it at the child’s level, make it relatable, make it a gift. Remote schooling means sleeping till the last minute and eating breakfast while you work. YAHOO! Wearing masks hides pimples and stained teeth, makes you look mysterious and is easier to play ‘guess who’ when you meet up with old friends. Teach about understanding people using body language and eye expressions.
Most of all, make it a special year or two with opportunities like learning social media etiquette and focusing on the benefits of the moment. These are skills you and your child need. They will benefit you for life.
Bonus: There’s no better time than the present to put home economics and shop class back into the curriculum. No better time to teach what you know (and learn what they know) rather than abdicating to academics.
Let’s model patience during this pandemic. We can help ourselves do so by recognizing this as an opportunity to be explored and exploited rather than waited out.
