An exploration of human thought, cognitive biases, neuroscience, quirks of the human brain, science, and skepticism
I had an important family member pass away recently. Needless to say it was heart breaking. Death has a way of forcing me to think about life. To me death is what gives life meaning and helps me focus on the value of each living and breathing moment. But when someone close to me dies …
Read more “Choosing Heaven in My Mind’s Reckoning by Being Life-Force Positive”
It seems to me that many people have a general understanding of introversion and extroversion and thus have some sense of whether they fall toward one end of the spectrum or the other. There are lots of people that do strongly lean one way or another, but it is also clear that most people fall …
For most of my life I thought that there was something wrong with me. It has seemed to me that most people appear to look forward to, and thoroughly enjoy social gatherings. For me, dread has been, and generally remains the predominant feeling associated with having to go to a party. And although I often …
Read more “The Cost of Being an Introvert in a Culture That Glorifies Extroversion”
Awe for me is a spiritual event – sometimes surprising me with an intense emotional reaction. I’ve never really thought about it much. When I experience the deeply moving type of awe, it has always seemed like a super special bonus, and frankly it is generally unanticipated. Never before have I had an explicit …
Read more “I am an Awe Junky: Why this might be a good thing”
Fake news is an abundant commodity in public discourse these days. The reality of the situation is that all of us are hurt by it. By acknowledging the existence of untenable facts, it gives permission to everyone to ignore hard and fast evidence, and thus justification to hunker down in the echo chambers of their …
Undesirable behaviors occur for many reasons. In order to reduce problematic (negative) behaviors we first must come to an understanding of why they are occurring. I can’t emphasize this enough – UNDERSTANDING WHY IS THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT THING. The WHY guides WHAT WE DO. As we always tell our staff “In order to reduce …
Read more “Figuring out Why Children Misbehave – SO you can actually do something about it.”
The use of Video Conferencing to teach young children is a new challenge for everyone involved. In order for it to work, YOU and the teacher or therapist (instructor) MUST FIRST TEACH YOUR CHILD HOW TO LEARN IN THIS NEW WAY. Teaching this new skill will likely be the first thing the instructor will want …
The use of Video Conferencing to teach young children, particularly those with disabilities, is fraught with many NEW challenges. In order for it to work, the instructor MUST FIRST TEACH THE CHILD HOW TO PARTICIPATE ADAPTIVELY. It is essential to prioritize gaining the instructional control of the student over implementing other IEP objectives. Consider instructional …
Very little is normal today and it can be very hard, even for the youngest among us. Perhaps the hardest thing for your children is the departure from the regular routine of going to school and being with their friends and teachers. Even harder still may be the pressure on you to provide for your …
There are numerous barriers to the provision of tele-therapy for educational purposes. Among the most challenging issues are Technological Problems and the level of Student Cooperation. This Trouble Shooting Guide addresses these barriers. Technological Problems There are many technological challenges that may be a product of the platform used (e.g., Zoom, Microsoft Teams, …
Read more “Trouble Shooting Tele-Therapy”
My wife (Kimberly) and I decided to make and share a top ten list of our favorite TV Shows from the last 5 years (some reaching back further in time). The task of consolidating them down to merely ten shows proved more challenging than we anticipated – so we employed a multi-tiered ranking system …
Read more “Binge Worthy TV: Anytime – but especially now #COVID-19”