Since Blogger wouldn't let me add pictures to the last post, here is the Versailles
palace.
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Versailles, part 2
Since Blogger wouldn't let me add pictures to the last post, here is the Versailles
palace.
Versailles
Since I have developed a fascination with seeing UNESCO World Heritage sites, I really wanted to go to Versailles. Well, that and the people that I know who have been there have said it was amazing. So, on Sunday, we meant to get up early but didn't and eventually made our way on the train out there. As with everything else, there were lines, lines, lines. There was a line to buy tickets. There was a line to get in once you had your ticket. There was even a (long) line to go to the bathroom. There was a line for everything!
However, the palace was quite impressive. I liked that it had audio guide so that you could go at your own pace and learn a bit as you went (not that I remember it). I really enjoy seeing old buildings and learning the history behind them. It is quite impressive that the palace is getting close to 400 years old. It was hard to imagine the opulence that the royalty lived in but not difficult to think why the people wanted them beheaded since the people were starving. I must say that the throne was not nearly as impressive as some others we've seen, though.
However, the palace was quite impressive. I liked that it had audio guide so that you could go at your own pace and learn a bit as you went (not that I remember it). I really enjoy seeing old buildings and learning the history behind them. It is quite impressive that the palace is getting close to 400 years old. It was hard to imagine the opulence that the royalty lived in but not difficult to think why the people wanted them beheaded since the people were starving. I must say that the throne was not nearly as impressive as some others we've seen, though.
Notre Dame
After the
Rodin museum,
we went over to Notre Dame. It was quite busy and as with most things in Paris, we waited in line to see the church. However, it was definately worth the wait and is quite impressive. It also had interesting light. After visiting the church, we went to a sidewalk cafe and paid 18 Euro for a liter of beer!! It was about 35 Euro for a crepe, glass of house wine and the beer. We paid the same amount for a 3-course meal in a different part of town. I guess it is all about location, location, location.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
The Rodin
On our first day in Paris, we went to the Rodin museum. We both quite liked it because it was fascinating. I quite like 3-D art and especially sculptures. The museum is set in a beautiful garden so it feels more like a sculpture garden than a museum. There is more art in the building as well. As our new usual, we got the audio guide and learned some interesting things. I learned how the sculptures were made and that there are multiples of them. We also learned that Rodin liked Dante's "Inferno" and sculpted many scenes from it. We're going to have to read it now.
The pictures begin!
As I have mentioned, Paris was overwhelming but fun. Sorting through and looking at the massive number of pictures we took and figuring out how to put them in blog posts is also ovewhelming. There are so many different ways to present them, and yes there will be LOADS posted. So, I decided to start with some of my favorites while I ponder how to organize others. :)
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Paris
Last weekend, we went to Paris. We left early early Saturday morning and came back very late Tuesday night. It was a good, but overwhelming break. First, in that time, we almost filled my 2 gig memory card!! That is right, we took a bit over 1,300 pictures on my camera alone! I think that is more than we took the 9 days we were in Italy. Since the museums and churches allowed pictures, we took a lot there. I will start posting pictures in the next couple days since I am still rotating them and haven't downloaded John's camera yet.
Paris was overwhelming as a city. It felt very metropolitan to me even though it is clearly a very old city. It has wide streets that were often busy. Car traffic was heavy, as was pedestrian traffic. Yet, there were places that had narrow paths that you could wander and had very few people. The scale of the city was also overwhelming. It doesn't look that big on a map but the buildings are massive and it does take a while to walk places. The Louvre. The Arc De Triumph, Notre Dame, Versailles. All massive places.
For being a huge tourist destination, it often didn't feel like it. That I liked. A few people approached us and spoke French to us, expecting us to understand. We didn't. They seemed annoyed when I said, "No Francois." Menus also often weren't in English. This I really liked. We were generally able to figure out what things where and it added to the adventure of travelling to a new place.
Another thing happened that that is overwhelming but exciting, but I'll post more on that later.
Paris was overwhelming as a city. It felt very metropolitan to me even though it is clearly a very old city. It has wide streets that were often busy. Car traffic was heavy, as was pedestrian traffic. Yet, there were places that had narrow paths that you could wander and had very few people. The scale of the city was also overwhelming. It doesn't look that big on a map but the buildings are massive and it does take a while to walk places. The Louvre. The Arc De Triumph, Notre Dame, Versailles. All massive places.
For being a huge tourist destination, it often didn't feel like it. That I liked. A few people approached us and spoke French to us, expecting us to understand. We didn't. They seemed annoyed when I said, "No Francois." Menus also often weren't in English. This I really liked. We were generally able to figure out what things where and it added to the adventure of travelling to a new place.
Another thing happened that that is overwhelming but exciting, but I'll post more on that later.
Friday, May 11, 2007
Symbols
Recently, I have been pondering about symbols and how humans create them and give them meaning. Language is symbolic and arbitrary. How did someone decide that a chair is a chair and not a lala? It is all arbitrary. Well, except onomatopoeia.
For most of us, the symbols of language come naturally. We hear the sounds in our language and from a few months old, we start to respond differently to speech than other sounds. As infants, we also respon differently to sounds in the native tongue than those of a foreign language. We then tune in even more and say our first words usually about 12 months. From that age, language development sky rockets until about 6 when most of language has been acquired. So, in 6 short years, people have a pretty good command of their language. Their abstract, arbitrary symbol set.
But then there are other symbols. These are also arbitrary as well, I think that is part of the meaning of it being a symbol. These, like language, are often cultural and vary in different places in the world. However, they still exist. What is it about humanity that we need these symbols? How did people decide that a ring symbolizes commitment between two people? The way to wear the ring may change in different cultures but the symbolism is still there. How did people decide that marriage is important? Why do humans create these extra meanings and ceremonies?
The other piece of this is how much people with communication difficulties miss. They may learn basics, but they often don't learn the subtlies of interactions. The delicate balance that is inate for most of us has to be taught and it is very difficult to teach all these unwritten rules for interactions and symbol sets.
For most of us, the symbols of language come naturally. We hear the sounds in our language and from a few months old, we start to respond differently to speech than other sounds. As infants, we also respon differently to sounds in the native tongue than those of a foreign language. We then tune in even more and say our first words usually about 12 months. From that age, language development sky rockets until about 6 when most of language has been acquired. So, in 6 short years, people have a pretty good command of their language. Their abstract, arbitrary symbol set.
But then there are other symbols. These are also arbitrary as well, I think that is part of the meaning of it being a symbol. These, like language, are often cultural and vary in different places in the world. However, they still exist. What is it about humanity that we need these symbols? How did people decide that a ring symbolizes commitment between two people? The way to wear the ring may change in different cultures but the symbolism is still there. How did people decide that marriage is important? Why do humans create these extra meanings and ceremonies?
The other piece of this is how much people with communication difficulties miss. They may learn basics, but they often don't learn the subtlies of interactions. The delicate balance that is inate for most of us has to be taught and it is very difficult to teach all these unwritten rules for interactions and symbol sets.
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
Blogging against disabilism
Today is blogging against disabilism. I found by checking Dream Mom and the family voyage blogs. The family voyage linked to Diary of a Goldfish who started the day with another blogger last year.
So, in honor of the day, I will write today what I was planning on writing another day. I had a professional development day. It is actually the second recently which is quite nice. Anyway, today was a road show sponsored by Communication Matters which is the UK chapter of the International Society for Alternative Augmentative Communication (ISAAC). It is always nice to go to these presentations because you can hear from the vendors, play with devices and get ideas for therapy. Today, the vendors each did 20 minute presentations and you could pick which one you wanted to go to. It was interesting to hear about a couple devices that I had not heard of before and learned some stuff about some new features on devices/software I already know well. And I was able to hear the questions other people asked.
I also quite like these days because I really enjoy talking to vendors. It is interesting to me to see which ones "get it" and which ones don't. Many of the vendors are not speech therapists. A couple are and a couple used to be teachers but you can tell which ones have a language background and which ones don't. I think this may actually be part of the difficulty with AAC.
I have been working as a "speechie" for 8 years now and I feel like I am finally "getting" AAC. I have had many failures where the clients abandoned the system. It is frustrating because it is usually the communication partners and the vocabulary programmed that makes it fail. It is not the people using the devices. AAC takes a lot of time and effort on the part of the communication partners and you need people (or at least one person) who has an idea as to how to set up devices. When I took my AAC class in graduate school, I learned some theories but I didn't learn the practical stuff. I didn't really think about what language we speaking people use. I now think about that. I listen to the peers in the classroom. I listen to the teacher and that vocabulary. I have also done A LOT of continuing education in the area since it is a fast-changing area in the field.
Today at the road show, every single vendor demonstrated ultra polite speech such as "I would like ice cream." Who talks like that? Certainly not me. I say, "I want ice cream" or "I fancy an ice cream" or "hey, let's eat some ice cream" or some other way. I never use the ultra polite grammar. And yet, that is what people typically put on their clients/students AAC devices. Why should they be more polite than the rest of us?
When at a conference, I went to a discussion group on swearing led by a person who uses AAC. She was advocating for her right to have foul language put onto her device. Many people in the room were against having actual swearing on devices. We also discussed the need to put milder "bad" language on younger children's devices. Kids call each other "potty face" or things like it. Why shouldn't an AAC user?
The answer is usually that the communication partners aren't comfortable with that idea. People see someone who can't talk differently. They aren't exposed to the same social situations so they don't learn the social skills such as who you can call a "potty face" and who you can't. Also, people aren't comfortable reprimanding an AAC user the same way as a speaking child. They take the device away instead. I have had teachers erase the "I'm bored" button on their students devices. And yet, it is exactly this type of vocabulary that the children need. They need to be able to explore language and learn the social rules of conversation and interaction. Keeping them ultra-polite does not prepare them for the insensitive speakers they are going to encounter. It doesn't prepare them to interact with people who have no idea how to interact with an AAC user. It just keeps them socially inexperienced.
So, in honor of the day, I will write today what I was planning on writing another day. I had a professional development day. It is actually the second recently which is quite nice. Anyway, today was a road show sponsored by Communication Matters which is the UK chapter of the International Society for Alternative Augmentative Communication (ISAAC). It is always nice to go to these presentations because you can hear from the vendors, play with devices and get ideas for therapy. Today, the vendors each did 20 minute presentations and you could pick which one you wanted to go to. It was interesting to hear about a couple devices that I had not heard of before and learned some stuff about some new features on devices/software I already know well. And I was able to hear the questions other people asked.
I also quite like these days because I really enjoy talking to vendors. It is interesting to me to see which ones "get it" and which ones don't. Many of the vendors are not speech therapists. A couple are and a couple used to be teachers but you can tell which ones have a language background and which ones don't. I think this may actually be part of the difficulty with AAC.
I have been working as a "speechie" for 8 years now and I feel like I am finally "getting" AAC. I have had many failures where the clients abandoned the system. It is frustrating because it is usually the communication partners and the vocabulary programmed that makes it fail. It is not the people using the devices. AAC takes a lot of time and effort on the part of the communication partners and you need people (or at least one person) who has an idea as to how to set up devices. When I took my AAC class in graduate school, I learned some theories but I didn't learn the practical stuff. I didn't really think about what language we speaking people use. I now think about that. I listen to the peers in the classroom. I listen to the teacher and that vocabulary. I have also done A LOT of continuing education in the area since it is a fast-changing area in the field.
Today at the road show, every single vendor demonstrated ultra polite speech such as "I would like ice cream." Who talks like that? Certainly not me. I say, "I want ice cream" or "I fancy an ice cream" or "hey, let's eat some ice cream" or some other way. I never use the ultra polite grammar. And yet, that is what people typically put on their clients/students AAC devices. Why should they be more polite than the rest of us?
When at a conference, I went to a discussion group on swearing led by a person who uses AAC. She was advocating for her right to have foul language put onto her device. Many people in the room were against having actual swearing on devices. We also discussed the need to put milder "bad" language on younger children's devices. Kids call each other "potty face" or things like it. Why shouldn't an AAC user?
The answer is usually that the communication partners aren't comfortable with that idea. People see someone who can't talk differently. They aren't exposed to the same social situations so they don't learn the social skills such as who you can call a "potty face" and who you can't. Also, people aren't comfortable reprimanding an AAC user the same way as a speaking child. They take the device away instead. I have had teachers erase the "I'm bored" button on their students devices. And yet, it is exactly this type of vocabulary that the children need. They need to be able to explore language and learn the social rules of conversation and interaction. Keeping them ultra-polite does not prepare them for the insensitive speakers they are going to encounter. It doesn't prepare them to interact with people who have no idea how to interact with an AAC user. It just keeps them socially inexperienced.
More finished objects
Since I can't knit right now because I hurt my wrist from typing 15 reports within 24 hours I thought that I would post pictures of my latest finished objects. Well, other than the hairbands I make. They are great quick projects and functional as well.
Anyway, the finished objects. They are two purses for one of my nieces. They were done on time for her birthday present but I didn't get to mail them so now they are late. :(
The larger one was adapted from a book by Sasha Kagan but made in Louisa Harding yarn with two strands knit together instead of one for added strength since the yarn was quite delicate.
For the smaller purse, which is for an 18-inch doll, I also modified the pattern from Sasha Kagan but here is the actual pattern. The width
was 3 1/8 inches and the rectangle was 6 1/4 before I made the flap
Yarn: Louisa harding varigated (not sure of the name of the color)
Needles: 3.5 mm straights
gauge: 1"x1": 8x8
I made the strap first:
Cast On 118 stitches
Knit 3 rows
Cast off 96 stitches (so you still have 22 on the needle)
Then I just knit the bag:
Knit every row until it measures 6 1/4 inches (or desired size when you fold the rectangle in half)
When you have the bag the length you want it when you fold it in half, decrease by 4 stitches per row until 3 stitches are left.
Cast off.
If you want a button hole, when I had one stitch left, I then cast back on enough stitches to make a button hole loop, knit 2 rows and cast off. I didn't put a button hole
You could also make an i-cord for the strap and button holes but I don't know how (and didn't feel like learning that day) and I like the frilly/delicate strap.
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