Learning About Asperger Syndrome - Could illness turn you into a savant?

A review of Daniel Tammet's book "Born On a Blue Day" by Surfer Chris Garrah

Born On a Blue Day -  A Memoir of Aspergerès and an Extraordinary Mind by Daniel Tammet 2006

 

 

 

 

Why should you read Daniel Tammet's Memoir book?

So I was flipping through the Book "Born on a Blue Day" written by Daniel Savant.   He has Asperger syndrome but he also has an amazing ability with numbers and learning languages.   One condition he  has is synaesthesia which allows him to sees numbers much differently than the average person.  Synaesthesia could be described as a very rich multi-sensory and emotional experience of numbers.  In the book Daniel is able to describe the enriched awareness and uniqueness of different numbers.  He is able to describe how richly he sees the numbers and how different numbers affect his emotions differently.  He experiences each number in a variety of modes as if his sensory channels have been combined when experiencing numbers.

How amazing are Daniel's abilities?

His rich experience of numbers in mind allowed him to recite the number "pi" to 22,514 digits.  The sequence of numbers has a significance and multi-channel experience for him. Which explains how it is even possible to explain such an amaing feat of memorizing an amazingly long sequence of numbers. Daniel's gift of numbers allowed him to  raise funds to support epilepsy awareness.
It was after an epileptic bout that Daniel Tammett acquired his amazing abilities.

Also in the book

Daniel also describes his experience and ability counting cards in blackjack in Las Vegas and also his gift to quickly learn languages.

Daniel Tammet's full book title is:  Born on a Blue Day      A memoir of Asperger's and an Extraordinary Mind  published 2006

How to be a Publicist - one of the keys - a book review of writing effective News Releases

How to Get free publicity for yourself, Your Business , or Your Organization
A Book Review by Chris Garrah of Catherine V McIntyre's Book  - reviewed April 3, 2013

About the Book

The book was first published in 1992 and then a 2nd publishing in 2008.   It's title is "Writing Effective News Releases ...  How to get free publicity for yourself, your business or your organization. 

Why read the Book

It may not even be necessary to read the book to get useful information - just flipping through it - you will gain information.   The important thing is that by writing one or two pages - a news release - you can forward it to a television station or a newspaper .  News sources are looking for interesting releases to fill out their programming.   

The book covers essential information on what to include in the release and the format.  It shows many examples .  Chapter 10 is especially useful   Developing Newsworthy Ideas.

Summary

Many organizations or businesses cannot afford to pay for advertising - this book points out a way to promote your organization FREE.  By thinking about the ideas in the book - and reading some of the news releases you can not only learn about writing news releases you will have learned how to be a publicist for you, your interests and businesses or organizations.

All about teaching - a key book review for new teachers

A book review for student teachers and new teachers

"The Naked Teacher - How To Survive Your First Five Years in Teaching"  a review of the book authored by Louisa Leaman published 2006 - reviewed by Chris Garrah on March 24, 2013

The Naked Teacher - How to Survive your First Five Years In Teaching - authored by Leaman, Louisa

 

Why Student Teachers and New Teachers Need this book

When I attempted to be a teacher in the early 1980's I was sent on a practicum to teach high school students.   My teaching adviser merely said I needed to have more energy after watching me give a demonstration in a lesson.  But what the adviser did not see are several common fears - how to keep going when the lesson plan dies, or the fear that the student teacher has not received training on how to  maintain control of a class in any situation,  This book allays all of those types of fears by explaining that the teacher is a performer and their are techniques to manage the classroom that the teacher should become aware and intimate with in order to give one's confidence a giant boost in the classroom.
This manual will surely give you a secret weapon to boost your confidence and allay your fears of interacting with a group of students where you are the performer and where as the teacher you are the center of attention..   This really is a manual of how empower a new teacher or student teacher.  Sometimes training programs do not give you this type of training - it is better to be trained with a manual of how to do basic things like survive and thrive - especially if you, the teacher-to-be has unadressed fears of how to teach or control students.  This book delivers on its promise to show you the ropes of how to things and how to prepare.  Louisa Leaman really talks to you as a trusted friend in the book.  Its a comforting book to have for new teachers - even if you are a veteran teacher that is getting stressed - this book should help you get on the top of your game. 

Behavior management in the Classroom

If you spend going time reading  this book over and over your resourcefulness will be many times those who have never received training in depth classroom behavior management .  There are many things a teacher can do to put a firm hand on classroom development through reporting, contacting teachers.  But very importantly, there is an incredible listing of  a large variety of "easy" type lessons such as having students lead the course, exams, taking questions that could be created while the student teacher gets the feel of teaching.

The Politics of Teaching

The book covers every aspect of interacting with principals, fellow teachers, school staff, parents and students.  An emphasis is placed on developing  personality traits and teaching skills to allow you to survive and excel as a teacher.

Use It as A Reference

The book is available on www.amazon.com as well as other books by Louisa Leaman such as "Managing Very Challenging Behaviour " and "Classroom Confidential (Practical Teaching Guides)"   Check these books out and improve your odds of being a successful teacher. 

Learned Optimism - Why aren't people talking about this?

A review of a book that will help you achieve much, much more in life-  "Learned Optimism" by Martin Seligman Phd published in 1990  - A Book Review by Chris "Crispy" Garrah   March 24, 2013 

 

How the book changes you into an optimist

I really thought I was an optimist and a realist until I took the quiz in the book "Learned Optimism" by Martin E.P. Seligman.  But the book showed me that my "realistic" view was actually "pessimistic" in some ways. The quiz literally changed my life.  After reading the book people started to ask why I was smiling - apparently for no reason.. It was all about the author explaining how to re-wire your thinking to achieve incredibly more by being optimistic.  Because the author explains why and how to change your thinking this explains the title.  "Learned Optimism"  ....... the book is all about optimism you can learn. 

Why change into an optimist instead of a realist?

The author and his team pursued original research on dogs and humans - investigating why dogs and humans learned "helplessness" - where they gave up or in human's cases achieved far less than they were capable of. Optimists don't give up - on the other hand how many people have given up on achieving more because they have had a number of failures.

The golden nugget exposed in the book on how to become an optimist

It may sound crazy or irresponsible but the key is to attribute good qualities to YOURSELF when good thing happen to yourself and BLAME others or circumstances when BAD things have happened to you.  If you take the quiz in the book first it  will allow you to bounce around in the book and explore chapters in the book.   In this way if the quiz indicates pessimistic tendencies in some area you can rewire your self talk to more optimistic self-talk. It's all about promoting good self-talk so you don;t give up for example if you have had a string of failures. 

Isn't it irresponsible to blame others for your misfortunes?

The book explains that this is about SELF-talk.   Obviously, if you shared this outlook with an interviewer it wouldn't come across very well.. Ha. Ha.  It is also explained in the book where safety of people is involved a different approach would be warranted .   Are you thinking like me - " I think I can jump between those two buildings - well I guess that didn't work.  I  am feeling a lot of pain now" 

Avoiding depression and being Bummed Out

To sum up, people talk to themselves all day - "self- talk"  and the book is stressing the importance of attributing good qualities to yourself.  If you are having success at your company you should not be saying it's because of a good economy - it's really because you are a great manager or salesperson.  Remember, this is what you tell yourself.  You don't need to share your self-talk with other people. 

As I interpret the book it is better to blame other people or events for those things that you consider your major life screw ups as long as you don't share your self talk with others.  In this way you avoid learned helplessness - where you give up on life or achieving because you are remembering past failures that are not etched in life to repeat..  Instead you have followed the book and have learned to be an optimist.    

Read the book.  

 Personally,  I enjoyed taking  the quiz in the book -  48 questions long but if you review your answers and then take a look at how a very optimistic person would answer you will gain a lot of insight into how to become more optimistic and achieve more in life.  Why is it necessary to become an optimist?     Because optimists know they have many talents and skills and want to put them to work. You can and should become an optimist.  Remember - you don't need to be an optimist before you read the book You will have "learned optimism" after you read Dr. Seligman's book "Learned Optimism?