Friday, 27 January 2023

Just 11 weeks of piano lessons can improve audio-visual processing

After weekly hour-long piano lessons, participants were better at detecting whether an image and sound were in sync.

25 January 2023

By Emma Young


Musical training has been linked to all kinds of benefits, including being better at recognising emotions and improved cognitive functioning even decades later. However, most of these studies have involved comparing musicians with non-musicians — and it can be hard to know whether musical training itself caused improvements, or whether perhaps the two groups were different to start with.

Now Yuqing Che at the University of Bath and colleagues report the results of a randomised controlled trial. Their paper in Scientific Reports reveals that just 11 weeks of weekly hour-long piano lessons boosts the ability to detect whether an image and sound are in sync. This is, they claim, the first evidence that musical training causes an improvement in audio-visual processing outside the realm of music-related perception.

The team ran a lab-based study on 31 healthy adults, none of whom reported formal musical training beyond school music lessons. One group received the weekly individual piano lessons while a second group spent an hour a week listening to the simple pieces of music that the others were learning. A control group read or studied quietly during these periods.

Every two weeks, the participants were tested on their sensitivity to ‘audio-visual synchrony’. They were presented with a series of circle images accompanied by beeps, and also video clips in which a man was making an ‘o’ sound. The team slightly varied the timings of the images and the sounds, so that some were presented in synchrony while others were out to some degree.

The results showed that after 11 weeks, the participants who’d had the piano lessons had got better at judging whether an image and a sound were synchronous, or not. The other two groups did not show this improvement, which was still evident two weeks after the final piano lesson.

Every two weeks, the team had also tested the participants’ ability to recognise various emotions from brief videos of faces. But at the end of the study period, those who’d had piano lessons were no better than the others at this. This supports results from earlier studies of musicians and non-musicians that have suggested that although musical training can improve emotion perception too, these benefits are restricted to recognising emotions in people’s voices but not facial expressions.

There are some limitations to the study, not least the small number of participants. Also, the researchers report some additional findings that should be considered very preliminary. For instance, they find that people who’d initially scored higher on autistic traits might have gained a greater synchrony-sensitivity benefit from the piano lessons — at least when it came to the flashes and beeps. This could be important, as autistic people tend to be poorer at audio-visual processing, which can affect speech comprehension, among other things. But as the team notes, a similar study involving autistic people would be needed to explore whether music lessons could help them in this way.

It’s also worth pointing out, though, that the musical training in this study was very limited. Perhaps more frequent lessons and/or practice, for longer, would lead to additional, or bigger benefits.

For now: “Our results show, for the first time, how 11 weeks of musical training can significantly enhance audio-visual perception,” the team writes. Importantly, “our results show that it was the music training that delivered this advantage, rather than other factors or predispositions that cannot be excluded in cross-sectional studies.”


SOURCE:



Monday, 23 January 2023

How film editing influences our perception of time


Clips feel longer if editing is used to maintain a sense of continuity rather than break up the action.

17 January 2023

By Emma Young


Filmmakers have long used editing techniques to influence the viewing experience. The ‘Kuleshov effect’ is a classic example. In the 1920s, Russian filmmaker Lev Kuleshov found that by varying the content of an image that followed one of a character’s face, he could alter viewers’ inferences about what was going on in that character’s mind. Now a team led by Klara Kovarski at the Hôpital Fondation Rothschild in France argues that editing techniques can also influence viewers’ perceptions of the passage of time.

In work published in Scientific Reports, the team considered two types of editing: continuity editing and action discontinuity editing. The first type aims to maintain a sense of flow in the narrative. For example, a shot of a man standing at a window might cut to an exterior shot of the same window. In the second, the content of the two scenes is completely different. A shot of a man standing a window might cut to a dog running on a beach, for instance; this tells the viewer that the action has shifted.

Kovarski’s team ran an initial online study on 90 participants. They each watched 45 brief excerpts, which varied slightly in length, from the movie La Ballon Rouge. One third of these excerpts contained a single cut designed to maintain continuity, one third featured a single discontinuous cut, and the rest did not contain any cuts. After viewing each video, the participant used a sliding scale to estimate its duration.

In a subsequent lab-based study, 60 participants watched the same sequences. But in this study, after each video, a black square appeared on the screen. When the participant decided that the square had been present for the same length of time as the video, they hit a key.

Overall, the results from the two studies showed that excerpts that featured either type of cut were judged to be longer than those without cuts, but sequences with cuts that maintained continuity were judged to be the longest of all.

On the surface, this might seem surprising. Discontinuity cuts tend to signal a transition between scenes or events, and you might expect that clips with more events would be perceived as longer.

But this wasn’t the case. Instead, the researchers argue that because discontinuity cuts clearly signal a change in scene, they require less cognitive processing than continuity cuts. With a continuity cut, the viewer’s brain has to work out that although the viewing angle or setting has changed, the same narrative is continuing. If additional processing makes time seem to pass more slowly, this might explain the results.

Earlier work has hinted that continuity cuts might undergo greater processing: one study found that this kind of edit goes unnoticed on a conscious level by viewers between a quarter and a third of the time, a phenomenon known as ‘edit blindness’. A discontinuity cut, though, signals a clear end to one event and the start of another.

Clearly, more work is needed to explore the factors that influence our perceptions of the passage of time not just in films , but in life too. Indeed, the researchers write: “This study contributes to the emerging field of psycho-cinematics which could ultimately develop the dialog between arts and science.”


SOURCE:

Monday, 16 January 2023

Τι να τρώμε για να ζήσουμε περισσότερο – Τι έδειξε νέα μελέτη διάρκειας 36 ετών




Μία νέα μελέτη που συνδέει τη μείωση του κινδύνου πρόωρου θανάτου με τις διατροφικές συνήθειες δημοσιεύτηκε στο επιστημονικό περιοδικό JAMA.


Η μελέτη επισημαίνει πως μπορούμε να μειώσουμε τον κίνδυνο πρόωρου θανάτου από αποιαδήποτε αιτία κατά σχεδόν 20%, απλώς τρώγοντας περισσότερα τρόφιμα από τις τέσσερις διατροφικές ομάδες που έχουμε επιλέξει.
Δημητριακά, φρούτα/ λαχανικά, ξηροί καρποί και όσπρια

Ειδικότερα οι άνθρωποι που ακολούθησαν πιο προσεκτικά οποιοδήποτε από τα πρότυπα υγιεινής διατροφής – τα οποία εστιάζουν στην κατανάλωση περισσότερων δημητριακών, φρούτων, λαχανικών, ξηρών καρπών και οσπρίων – είχαν ουσιαστικά λιγότερες πιθανότητες να πεθάνουν από καρκίνο, καρδιαγγειακές παθήσεις και αναπνευστικές και νευροεκφυλιστικές ασθένειες.

Τα αποτελέσματα της μελέτης, που δημοσιεύθηκαν τη Δευτέρα στο περιοδικό JAMA Internal Medicine, δείχνουν ότι «υπάρχουν περισσότεροι από ένας τρόποι για να τρώμε καλά και να αντλούμε τα συνακόλουθα οφέλη για την υγεία», σύμφωνα με τον Δρα Ντέιβιντ Κατς, ειδικό στον τρόπο ζωής – ο οποίος δε συμμετείχε στην έρευνα.


Οι άνθρωποι συχνά βαριούνται με έναν τρόπο διατροφής, ανέφερε ο συν-συγγραφέας της μελέτης δρ. Φρανκ Χου, «άρα (αυτά) είναι καλά νέα. Σημαίνει ότι έχουμε μεγάλη ευελιξία όσον αφορά τη δημιουργία των δικών μας υγιεινών διατροφικών προτύπων που μπορούν να προσαρμοστούν στις ατομικές διατροφικές προτιμήσεις, τις συνθήκες υγείας και τους πολιτισμούς», επισήμανε.



Για παράδειγμα, εάν ακολουθούμε μεσογειακή διατροφή και μετά από μερικούς μήνες θέλουμε να δοκιμάσουμε κάτι διαφορετικό, μπορούμε να μεταβούμε σε μια δίαιτα DASH (Διατροφικές προσεγγίσεις για να σταματήσουμε την υπέρταση) ή μπορούμε να μεταβούμε σε μια ημι-χορτοφαγική διατροφή», λέει ο καθηγητής διατροφής και επιδημιολογίας, Χου, και πρόεδρος του τμήματος διατροφής στη Σχολή Δημόσιας Υγείας Chan του Harvard T.H. «Ή μπορούμε να ακολουθήσουμε τις διατροφικές οδηγίες των ΗΠΑ και να δημιουργήσουμε το δικό μας πιάτο υγιεινής διατροφής».
Μια μακροχρόνια μελέτη στην ιστορία

Η μελέτη ακολούθησε τις διατροφικές συνήθειες 75.000 γυναικών που συμμετείχαν στο Nurses’ Health Study (μελέτη για την υγεία των νοσοκόμων) και περισσότερων από 44.000 ανδρών στο Health Professionals Follow-Up Study (μελέτη παρακολούθησης επαγγελματιών υγείας) για 36 χρόνια. Κανένας από τους άνδρες και τις γυναίκες δεν είχε καρδιαγγειακή νόσο στην αρχή της μελέτης και λίγοι ήταν καπνιστές. Όλοι συμπλήρωναν ερωτηματολόγια διατροφής κάθε τέσσερα χρόνια.


«Πρόκειται για μία από τις μεγαλύτερες και μακροβιότερες ομαδικές μελέτες για την εξέταση των διατροφικών προτύπων και του μακροπρόθεσμου κινδύνου πρόωρων θανάτων και θανάτων από σημαντικές ασθένειες», αναφέρει ο Χου.

Ο ίδιος και η ομάδα του βαθμολόγησαν τους συμμετέχοντες σχετικά με το πόσο πιστά ακολούθησαν μοτίβα υγιεινής διατροφής που συγχρονίζονται με τις τρέχουσες διατροφικές οδηγίες των ΗΠΑ.
Η μεσογειακή διατροφή

Το ένα είναι η Μεσογειακή διατροφή, η οποία δίνει έμφαση στην κατανάλωση φρούτων, λαχανικών, δημητριακών ολικής αλέσεως, ξηρών καρπών, οσπρίων, ψαριών και μεγάλης ποσότητας ελαιολάδου, ανέφερε ο ίδιος. «Αυτό το διατροφικό πρότυπο δίνει έμφαση στα υγιή λίπη, ειδικά στα μονοακόρεστα λιπαρά, εκτός από τα φυτικά τρόφιμα και το μέτριο αλκοόλ», συμπλήρωσε.

Η επόμενη είναι η υγιεινή διατροφή με βάση τα φυτικά προϊόντα, η οποία εστιάζει επίσης στην κατανάλωση περισσότερων φυτικών προϊόντων, αλλά δεν προτιμά τα ζωικά προϊόντα.

Όπως αναφέρει ο Χου, το συγκεκριμένο διατροφικό πρόγραμμα αποδοκιμάζει τα ανθυγιεινά φυτικά τρόφιμα, όπως η πατάτα και τα υποπροϊόντα της.

«Μπορούμε λοιπόν να φανταστούμε ότι οι χορτοφάγοι βρίσκονται πιθανώς στην κορυφή αυτής της δίαιτας», λέει, «και οι άνθρωποι που καταναλώνουν πολλά ζωικά προϊόντα ή τροφές με υψηλή περιεκτικότητα σε υδατάνθρακες θα βρίσκονται χαμηλά σ′ αυτή τη βαθμολογική κλίμακα».


Σωστή διατροφή και μακροζωία

Η μεγάλη διάρκεια ζωής προέρχεται από τη σωστή διατροφή, λένε οι μελέτες. Ας δούμε πώς να ξεκινήσουμε:

Ο Δείκτης Υγιεινής Διατροφής παρακολουθεί εάν οι άνθρωποι ακολουθούν τις βασικές διατροφικές κατευθυντήριες γραμμές των ΗΠΑ, οι οποίες δίνουν έμφαση στα υγιεινά τρόφιμα φυτικής προέλευσης, αποδοκιμάζουν την κατανάλωση κόκκινου και επεξεργασμένου κρέατος και αποθαρρύνουν την κατανάλωση πρόσθετης ζάχαρης, ανθυγιεινών λιπαρών και αλκοόλ, λέει ο Χου.

Ο Δείκτης Εναλλακτικής Υγιεινής Διατροφής εξελίχθηκε στο Χάρβαρντ, λέει ο Χου, και χρησιμοποιεί τα «καλύτερα διαθέσιμα στοιχεία» για να συμπεριλάβει τρόφιμα και θρεπτικά συστατικά που συνδέονται πιο έντονα με χαμηλότερο κίνδυνο χρόνιας νόσου.

«Συμπεριλάβαμε ξηρούς καρπούς, σπόρους, δημητριακά ολικής αλέσεως και χαμηλότερη κατανάλωση κόκκινων και επεξεργασμένων κρεάτων και ποτών με ζάχαρη», προσθέτει, λέγοντας πως επιτρέπεται η μέτρια κατανάλωση αλκόολ.

Αφού βαθμολογήθηκε το διατροφικό μοτίβο κάθε ατόμου, οι συμμετέχοντες χωρίστηκαν σε πέντε ομάδες, από την υψηλότερη έως τη χαμηλότερη προσκόλληση σε ένα ή περισσότερα από τα πρότυπα διατροφής.

«Η ομάδα με την υψηλότερη ποιότητα διατροφής σε σύγκριση με τη χαμηλότεροη συσχετίστηκε με περίπου 20% μείωση της θνησιμότητας από κάθε αιτία», δηλώνει ο Κατζ, πρόεδρος και ιδρυτής της μη κερδοσκοπικής True Health Initiative, ενός παγκόσμιου συνασπισμού εμπειρογνωμόνων που είναι αφοσιωμένοι στην τεκμηριωμένη ιατρική του τρόπου ζωής.
Ποτέ δεν είναι αργά

Η μελέτη βρήκε επίσης ότι μειώνεται ο κίνδυνος θανάτου από ορισμένες χρόνιες ασθένειες εάν οι άνθρωποι βελτίωναν τη διατροφή τους με την πάροδο του χρόνου, σύμφωνα με τα όσα αναφέρει ο Χου.

Οι συμμετέχοντες που βελτίωσαν την υγεία της διατροφής τους κατά 25% μπορούσαν να μειώσουν τον κίνδυνο θανάτου από καρδιαγγειακή νόσο από 6% έως 13% και τον κίνδυνο θανάτου από καρκίνο από 7% έως 18%, αναφέρει. Υπήρξε μείωση έως και 7% στον κίνδυνο θανάτου από νευροεκφυλιστική νόσο, όπως η άνοια.

«Η μείωση της θνησιμότητας από αναπνευστικές ασθένειες ήταν στην πραγματικότητα πολύ μεγαλύτερη, μειώνοντας τον κίνδυνο κατά 35% έως 46%», συμπληρώνει ακόμα ο ίδιος.
Συμπέρασμα

«Ποτέ δεν είναι αργά για την υιοθέτηση προτύπων υγιεινής διατροφής και τα οφέλη από την υγιεινή διατροφή μπορεί να είναι σημαντικά όσον αφορά τη μείωση των συνολικών πρόωρων θανάτων και των διαφορετικών αιτιών πρόωρου θανάτου», αναφέρει ο Χου.

«Οι άνθρωποι έχουν επίσης μεγάλη ευελιξία όσον αφορά τη δημιουργία του δικού τους υγιεινού διατροφικού προτύπου. Αλλά οι κοινές αρχές – η κατανάλωση περισσότερων φυτικών τροφίμων και λιγότερων μερίδων κόκκινου κρέατος, επεξεργασμένων κρεάτων, πρόσθετης ζάχαρης και νατρίου – θα πρέπει να υπάρχουν, ανεξάρτητα από το είδος της διατροφής που θέλουμε να δημιουργήσουμε».



ΠΗΓΗ:

Thursday, 12 January 2023

Tackling food neophobia could encourage people to eat more insects


Fear of new foods, but not feelings of disgust or hunger, predicted whether US participants would try a roasted cricket.



By Emma Young


It might be too much to expect people to swap a Christmas turkey for Christmas crickets. But getting people in the West to eat insects is, on paper, a brilliant idea. Insects are sustainable to farm, and they’re healthy. Many are a rich source of not just cholesterol-free protein but also fats, calcium and zinc. The problem, of course, is that while billions of people in the world do eat insects, many Westerners — including those who would happily peel and munch on a prawn — find the idea of it disgusting.

Various teams have sought to better understand why we feel this way, and how to address it. Now Kaitlyn P. White at the University of Colorado and colleagues identify one possible solution in a paper in Personality and Individual Differences: encourage people to become more adventurous eaters.

The team looked at how a willingness to eat insects might vary according to individual differences in three things: disgust sensitivity (some people are much more readily disgusted than others), a reluctance to eat novel foods (‘food neophobia’) and also their current state of hunger.

In their first study, 241 US-based students completed online assessments of each of these three variables. Then they indicated how willing they would be to eat insects, in the form of roasted crickets, fried worms and insect-based protein bars. Both higher scores on the food neophobia and disgust sensitivity scales — but not the hunger measure — were linked to reduced willingness to consume these items. But would this translate into being less likely to actually eat them?

To investigate this, the team recruited a fresh group of 103 students. After completing those same scales in the lab, they were told that roasted crickets are not only safe to eat but that some people readily consume them. Then they were presented with a roasted cricket. The team noted who ate it, and who didn’t, and their analysis showed that only food neophobia (not disgust sensitivity or hunger) was linked to actual consumption. In fact, food neophobia scores were a pretty good predictor of who would eat the cricket.

So, looking at data across the two studies, while people who scored lower on disgust sensitivity said they would be more willing to eat insects, when it came to it, they weren’t. And in both studies, variations in hunger made no difference.

There are some limitations to the work, and one relates to the hunger findings. The participants had not been asked to fast before taking part in the studies, so it was unlikely that they were very, or even moderately, hungry. Even if mild hunger doesn’t influence a willingness to eat insects, stronger hunger might.

Also, as the researchers note, their participants were WEIRD. While WEIRD people may constitute a good chunk of the global population that doesn’t currently consume insects routinely, these new results may not apply to other cultures.

Still, the work does suggest that tackling food neophobia could be the most important route to encouraging Western populations to consider insects as food. This would mean finding ways to give people positive experiences of actually eating them. The team suggests incorporating insects or insect protein into popular foods, such as pasta or snacks. These products might then act as gateway foods to more hard-core insect meals — even a Christmas cricket dinner.

“Because of the ecological, ethical and health benefits of eating insects compared to traditional meat sources, understanding the various factors involved in people’s willingness to eat insects may become increasingly important for the health of humans, the wellbeing of other sentient creatures, and the environment,” the team concludes.

It would be remiss, however, not to note that there are, of course, alternative routes to achieving these benefits, and they’re hardly radical — becoming not an insect-eater, but vegetarian or vegan.


SOURCE:


Wednesday, 11 January 2023

Neurodiversity-affirmative education: why and how?



Dinah Aitken and Sue Fletcher-Watson.

15 December 2022


Think of a child in school experiencing sensory overload – maybe bright strip lighting, or the school bell, or a scratchy school jumper. It’s like a shake of the coke bottle. Then the timetable changes unexpectedly, and the child feels anxious and all at sea – another shake of the bottle. The child wants to be alone but they get paired up in an activity and they have to mask how they are feeling – the bottle shakes again. By the time the child gets home, the bottle erupts and the lid flies off.

Parents faced with this experience report their concerns to school, but are met with a stock response – ‘we don't see that behaviour here’. If the school’s understanding was shaped by a neurodiversity model, they might hear the parent in a different way, and start to think about what classroom adjustments could be made to relieve the child of the burden of coping. This burden may explain the higher rates of mental ill-health experienced by neurodivergent young people at school (Ford et al., 2021). Meanwhile, those who don’t ‘cope’ in this way – i.e. suppress and mask their experiences – may find themselves subject to bullying by peers (Fink et al., 2015), and exclusion by school staff (Aitken & Wang, 2021).

Despite being absolutely central to the delivery of inclusion in schools, neurodiversity as a term is widely misunderstood and misapplied. For example, many use the word ‘neurodiversity’ as a synonym for additional support needs (or equivalent) when actually neurodiversity includes everyone in a school. In fact, one of the powerful facets of neurodiversity is this inclusiveness, and resilience to the othering effects of terminology that separates us, like ‘special needs’.

One of the biggest risks, at a time when neurodiversity is becoming increasingly a part of the discourse around education (and employment too) is that it is perceived to be just the latest acceptable terminology: another burden for over-stretched teaching staff to wrestle with. Can we switch the narrative so that schools see the positive and practical benefits of embracing neurodiversity, not just for the pupils but for the whole school community? What does it really mean to foster, accept and support neurodiversity in a school?
What is neurodiversity?

Before we start, it is worth defining a few terms. Neurodiversity is a basic scientific truth: people vary in the way that their brains take in, process, and respond to information. This diversity of information processing gives rise to a diversity of experiences in the world (see Chapman, 2020). The presence of neurodiversity in the human race explains why it is that we are not all the same, and gives rise to the types of variation that are often labelled with a diagnosis – neurodiversity begets autism, ADHD, developmental language disorder, Down syndrome, dyslexia, dyspraxia, fragile x syndrome, and Tourette syndrome.

Using the terminology of neurodiversity, we can describe the biggest group of people as neurotypical. They tend to flourish fairly easily in our education system and beyond – because they are in the majority, these systems were often built by people like them, for people like them. Neurodivergent people (also referred to as neuro-atypical, or neuro-minorities) can struggle in these systems because of the mismatch between the way their brains process information and the way the system implicitly expects them to operate.

The single most common mistake made when writing or talking about neurodiversity is to describe an individual as neurodiverse. This is grammatically incorrect (diversity is a property of groups, not individuals), but also can be inadvertently discriminatory. As Nick Walker (2021) writes: ‘To describe an Autistic, dyslexic, or otherwise neurodivergent person as a “neurodiverse individual” … serves to reinforce an ableist mindset in which neurotypical people are seen as intrinsically separate from the rest of humanity, rather than as just another part of the spectrum of human neurodiversity.’

That said, it is essential to recognise and adopt the language preferences of individuals talking about themselves. While we refer to non-neurotypical people in this article as ‘neurodivergent’, many individuals might describe themselves as neurodiverse, or using other language altogether, and these preferences should always take precedent when referring to a specific person.
The neurodiversity paradigm and movement

Beyond these basic facts, neurodiversity has socio-political implications for education. These implications have largely been described by autistic scholars but are now embraced far more widely. The neurodiversity paradigm has three main components – all consequences of the basic fact of neurodiversity as applied to society.

First, variability between people in how they learn is natural, and indeed this variability is a collective strength for the human race. Second, there is no one better or correct way to be, and all neurotypes are equally valued. In the words of autistic scholar Jim Sinclair: ‘Grant me the dignity of meeting me on my own terms – recognize that we are all equally alien to each other and that my ways of being are not merely damaged versions of yours.’ Third, neurodiversity, just like other dimensions of diversity such as ethnicity, gender or sexuality, is something that needs to be understood in the context of social and interpersonal dynamics. In other words, the lives of neurodivergent people are heavily dictated by the reactions of others; by stigma, prejudice, discrimination and ignorance. The neurodiversity movement is a catch-all term that refers to any efforts to apply these ideas in policy and practice, just as the feminist movement aims to apply and realise the concept of gender equality.
Becoming neurodiversity-affirmative

As we can see, neurodiversity starts as a simple idea but immediately poses some radical shifts in thinking. What would this look like when applied in a school context?

Successful, inclusive education needs to cater to the naturally occurring variability that is an inevitable part of humanity. An expectation of varying needs and resources to accommodate those should be baked in to our school systems, rather than overlaid as optional extras. A simple example of this is for every classroom to have a cupboard of accessories freely available to help cater to varying needs: wobble cushions for hyperkinetic children to sit on and wiggle; noise-cancelling headphones for sound-sensitivity; stim toys to help induce focus; egg-timers to help structure independent learning time. Universal design can also help to create a neurodiversity informed environment. Classrooms should be fitted with dimmer switches as standard, and visual timetables should be posted up for the whole class, rather than being doled out to individuals with identified needs. Flexible seating arrangements – the option to stand or sit on a beanbag or yoga ball – are another example of the application of universal design.

A considerable added bonus of taking a universal design approach to classroom supports is that undiagnosed pupils can also benefit – a range of techniques and practical supports are suggested in Johnson and Rutherford (2019). For example:Schools that have provided tablets and laptops to the whole school benefit those children who struggle to spell and write, without singling them out.
Relaxing or scrapping school uniform policies supports pupils with sensory issues who cannot tolerate wearing the uniform.
Lots of schools no longer sound a bell between classes, which generates a calmer atmosphere for all.


Efforts to correct atypical development onto a more neurotypical pathway, or to encourage children to blend in, cannot be considered neurodiversity-informed. For example, many schools require a child to sign a 'behaviour contract' after a period of exclusion as a pre-condition for returning to school. This is an unacceptable approach for a neurodivergent child who isn't 'behaving' but is simply 'being'. Another common example of this in practice involves the teaching of “social skills” based on neurotypical norms to autistic children. Most egregiously, this is sometimes recommended as a solution when an autistic child is being bullied at school – a devastating neglect of duty of care to the autistic child, when the focus should clearly be on changing the behaviour of the bully. In moving away from a normative model of education support, it is important to permit variability in outcome as well as process. Children are not just following their own paths, they are headed to different destinations too. A child who is struggling with handwriting may not need more time to get it right – give them the option to get really good at typing instead.

Finally, the neurodiversity paradigm shows us that neurodivergent experiences cannot be fully understood by people from another neurotype, and thus we need to centre individual experiences and promote self-advocacy (see Pellicano & den Houting, 2022). Neurodivergent teachers and pupils themselves should be at the centre of any school’s inclusion process. Of course, this does not deny the crucial role that can be played by experts and allies who happen to be neurotypical. Especially for children, it may be hard to articulate what are the barriers they are experiencing, let alone identify possible solutions. Experienced professionals can support an individual to analyse their own needs and propose solutions that might be effective. Moreover, a large part of the experience of neurodivergent people consists of the environment created by the attitudes and actions of neurotypical people around them. Inclusion at school is everyone’s business. For example, in a scoping study (Friskney et al., 2019), it was found that schools’ ability to offer a positive learning experience for neurodivergent pupils was linked to ‘the schools’ abilities to respond to a diverse population in general’. The LEANS Programme, Learning About Neurodiversity at School, is one way we have tried to address the attitudes and actions that shape neurodivergent pupils’ experiences.
Myths and risks

When the neurodiversity paradigm is not well understood, it can be mis-applied, resulting in a number of possible negative outcomes. One myth is that neurodiversity denies the disabling impacts of being neurodivergent. You may hear people say something like ‘neurodiversity means that autism is just a difference, not a disorder’. However, when we argue that something is a difference it can still also be a disability – especially within the social model of disability which focuses the cause of the disability in the environment, or the (lack of) environment-person fit. Applying the concept of neurodiversity in this way allows us to simultaneously reject ‘disorder’ labels, while allowing for the fact that those differences may indeed have disabling effects. Ultimately, the word difference should point us to acceptance of needs without judgement, rather than denial of needs without support.

Closely related to this mis-application of the concept of neurodiversity is the idea that we should be celebrating the talents of neurodivergent people. Now, you won’t find us arguing against identifying and lifting up people’s strengths. Working out what you are good at and using that to build skills and self-esteem is an amazing thing for a young person to experience, and a fantastic outcome for a teacher. The difficulty arises when the entire neurodiversity idea is boiled down to a focus on celebrating talents. Where does this leave children who don’t feel they have any talents? And who gets to define what counts as a talent? Is lining up all your coloured pencils perfectly, or never running out of energy, really going to be celebrated in the same way as ace-ing your maths test?

Instead, the focus on strengths is more healthy – and more aligned with the natural variability that is central to neurodiversity – when considered at a group level. Neurodiversity brings collective strength to the table, drawn from variability in experience, helping to drive innovation and empathy – two cardinal features of the evolution of humanity. In the classroom, a focus on collective strengths is apparent when the class celebrate their ability to get along together and their willingness to accommodate each other. As a teacher, one might celebrate the variety of ways in which pupils have approached a creative writing task – ‘look at all these amazing poems – everyone has approached the assignment in their own way!’ – rather than selecting the ‘best’ examples based on a set of metrics which not all will meet.

If the neurodiversity paradigm is not well understood, there is a risk that this transformative idea not only fails to meet its full potential, but that active harm ensues. Mis-appropriating the acceptance agenda of the neurodiversity movement could mean denial of support to those who need it – in a similar way that insistence on a ‘colourblind’ approach prevents anti-racist actions. Tokenistic adoption of neurodiversity language without follow-through in terms of ideas neuters the paradigm and prevents real change.

It is also worth noting that neurodiversity does mean different things to different people – not all readers will agree with the formulations we have adopted here. For example, attempts have been made to position learning disability outside the concept of neurodiversity. The question, we think, to ask yourself is ‘Does my idea of neurodiversity operate to combat stigma and enable flourishing for everyone?’ – if it doesn’t, maybe the simplest solution is to expand and update your idea of neurodiversity.
A neurodiversity-affirmative framework

When neurodiversity is used to include everyone, and to drive a radical agenda of acceptance, the benefits can be substantial. One problem in our current model of classroom support, which all too often relies on a diagnosis before support is offered, is that children may sit on clinical waiting lists for months before receiving a diagnosis. If their needs are not being met in this time, serious outcomes can ensue, including exclusion and mental ill-health. Neurodiversity reminds us of the variability that exists in every school, in every classroom. A neurodiversity-affirmative school provides a platform for teachers to analyse and act upon the apparent needs of the children in their class without waiting for external (often clinical) validation to do so. Such practice is truly child-centred, and permits a rapid response to the changing needs of pupils, while waiting for the insights that can come from a clinical evaluation.

Another benefit of adoption of a neurodiversity-affirmative approach is the shift in focus away from modification of a person against a norm, and towards cultivation of that individual on their own terms. The potential for damage to wellbeing that comes from approaches which focus on correction is clear. In worst case scenarios – and all too often in our experience – this can lead to mental health crises, exclusion or anxiety-related school non-attendance. In contrast, a focus on combating stigma associated with neurodivergence, and on flourishing, nurtures positive self-regard. This can only support engagement with education and maximise learning potential.
The challenge for teachers and schools

Hopefully, we have painted a picture of a neurodiversity-affirmative model for education. A neurodiverse class isn't a bunch of problems to be solved – instead, it's a rich community, brimming with individual and collective potential.

However, it would be unfair and perhaps enraging to suggest this is an easy utopia to create. It’s easy to worry that permitting – or rather, encouraging – children to self-advocate and offering support on a universal-design basis without clinical diagnosis would make your classroom into a free-for-all. Crucially though, we just don’t know much about what a classroom that really delivered on the principles of the neurodiversity paradigm would look like. How much of the difficult behaviour teachers struggle with in class right now is motivated by children trying to hide their difficulties, or push adults away because they don’t feel they can be trusted?

As well as for individual teachers, there is a challenge here for schools. A school is a complex community, and by its very nature it is systemic. The neurodiversity paradigm requires systemic change – we can't continually ask individuals to change themselves to fit in. Instead, we need to meet individuals nearer to where they are. This raises the crucial question of funding. While staff are underpaid and resources in short-supply, it will always be impossible to fully realise the vision of the neurodiversity-affirmative education for everyone. A key way to deliver on the promise of neurodiversity is to campaign for change and investment.

If you want to learn more about neurodiversity, how it applies in schools but also in your workplace or community, we encourage you to check out the It Takes All Kinds Of Minds conference, known as ITAKOM. This large, international, neurodiversity-focused event is happening in Edinburgh on 13-14 March 2023, though you can also attend as an online delegate wherever you are. There’s a huge amount of content to choose from, with five parallel streams, and about a quarter of the programme specifically addressing the education context. See the programme, speaker and registration info.
A pathway to ambitions

A neurodiversity literate school can create an environment that affirms both the existence of neurodiversity and the tenets of the neurodiversity paradigm, to the benefit of pupils and staff. School staff who confidently understand neurodiversity can be empowered to respect their own expertise as educators in recognising the support needs of pupils in their class. Neurodiversity-affirmative classrooms will be characterised by universal design features and flexibility, with teachers adopting and iterating small changes with the potential to benefit everyone. Those same teachers will find ways to focus on the complementary contributions made by the range of people in the class, and shift away from a constant focus on individual achievement, measured against narrow standards. Pupils in such schools will become accomplished self-advocates, who understand their needs, and feel no shame in asking for help. These benefits will radiate out to family networks, as the constant battle for support for their child dissipates. Engagement with the neurodiversity paradigm thus provides a pathway to realise the long-held ambitions of inclusive education, fostering an environment where each pupil can thrive on their own terms.

Professor Sue Fletcher-Watson is Chair of Developmental Psychology and Director of the Salvesen Mindroom Research Centre, The University of Edinburgh. Sue.Fletcher-Watson@ed.ac.uk

Dr Dinah Aitken is Head of Outreach at the Salvesen Mindroom Centre.
Further reading

Walker, N. (2021). Neuroqueer Heresies: Notes on the neurodiversity paradigm, Autistic empowerment, and postnormal possibilities. Autonomous Press

GTCS (2020). Understanding neurodiversity in the context of equality and inclusive practice. A professional guide for teachers.

Hall, A., Meyer, A. and Rose, D. (2012). Universal Design for Learning in the Classroom NY. The Guildford Press.
References

Aitken, D. & Wang, L. (2021). Learning Difficulties and Exclusion from School. Salvesen Mindroom Research Briefing,number1.

Chapman, R. (2020). Defining neurodiversity for research and practice. In Neurodiversity Studies (pp. 218-220). Routledge.

Fink, E., Deighton, J., Humphrey, N., & Wolpert, M. (2015). Assessing the bullying and victimisation experiences of children with special educational needs in mainstream schools: Development and validation of the Bullying Behaviour and Experience Scale. Research in developmental disabilities, 36, 611-619.

Ford, T., John, A., & Gunnell, D. (2021). Mental health of children and young people during pandemic. British Medical Journal, 372.

Friskney, R., Tisdall, E.K.M. & Aitken, D. (2019). Communication matters: Three scoping studies about the experiences of children with learning difficulties, and their families, in Scotland. Salvesen Mindroom Centre and University of Edinburgh. Edinburgh.

Johnson, M. and Rutherford, L. (2019). An Autism Evidence Based Practice Toolkit for use with the SCERTS™ Assessment and Planning Framework.

Pellicano, E., & den Houting, J. (2022). Annual Research Review: Shifting from ‘normal science’to neurodiversity in autism science. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 63(4), 381-396.

Sinclair, J. (2010). Being autistic together. Disability Studies Quarterly, 30(1).

Walker, N. (2021). Neuroqueer heresies: Notes on the neurodiversity paradigm, autistic empowerment, and postnormal possibilities. Autonomous Press.


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Thursday, 5 January 2023

Celebrating the Women and Girls Initiative



A new film made by Leeds Animation Workshop with WGI projects

“Where she was to where she is now: Celebrating the Women and Girls Initiative” is a new animation film produced as part of the Women and Girls Initiative (WGI) Learning and Impact Services and funded by The National Lottery Community Fund. Made by Leeds Animation Workshop, the film shares words and drawings from women and girls supported by, and working for, WGI projects. Projects were funded to offer flexible, holistic support and the film illustrates the difference that specialist services for women and girls can make. It gives a moving insight into how important the Initiative has been in helping projects support women and girls to grow.

The film was created with the following seventeen WGI projects: The Angelou Centre, Aspire, A Way Out, Birmingham and Solihull Women’s Aid, Chayah Development Project, Leeway, The Nelson Trust, North Devon against Domestic Abuse, RISE, Saheli, SERICC, Sheffield Women & Girls Recovery & Empowerment Partnership, Southall Black Sisters, Women at the Well, Women’s Community Matters, Wild Young Parents Project and Young Women’s Outreach Project.

“Where she was, to where she is now” would be of interest to:organisations working with women and girls;
policy-makers and commissioners, as it shares insights on how women and girls can best be supported; and
anyone else considering supporting or finding out more about specialist work with women and girls.

Information in the film is drawn from the Women and Girls Initiative, funded by The National Lottery Community Fund (The Fund). It is supporting 62 projects with funds raised from The National Lottery. For more information about the WGI, see the project page.

The WGI Learning and Impact Services is being delivered on behalf of The Fund by the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations (TIHR), DMSS Research (DMSS) and the Child and Woman Abuse Studies Unit (CWASU) – the partners. The partners are delivering a programme of support to projects with the aim of capturing and sharing learning and creating a stronger community of services that has greater influence on decision-making structures across the country.


Watch at:

Τι είναι οι διαταραχές κατάποσης – δυσφαγία σε ενήλικες ασθενείς και ποιος ο ρόλος του εξειδικευμένου λογοθεραπευτή



Η δυσφαγία είναι η διαταραχή της φυσιολογικής διαδικασίας της κατάποσης, δηλαδή της μεταφοράς της τροφής και των υγρών από τη στοματική κοιλότητα έως το στομάχι


nevronas.gr – Χριστίνα Γκ. Πολίτη, Λογοθεραπεύτρια, MSc. Rehab. Sci., Πρόεδρος Επιστημονικής Επιτροπής ΣΕΛΛΕ


Η δυσφαγία είναι η διαταραχή της φυσιολογικής διαδικασίας της κατάποσης, δηλαδή της μεταφοράς της τροφής και των υγρών από τη στοματική κοιλότητα έως το στομάχι.

Όταν προσβάλλονται μέρη του εγκεφάλου μας (για παράδειγμα μετά από ένα εγκεφαλικό επεισόδιο ή ένα τραύμα) ή τα κρανιακά νεύρα που είναι υπεύθυνα για την κατάποση, τότε η κατάποση διαταράσσεται.

Το εκάστοτε άτομο μπορεί να παρουσιάζει ήπια έως σοβαρά προβλήματα κατάποσης.


Οι αιτίες της δυσφαγίας μπορεί να είναι δομικής, νευρολογικής ή ψυχογενούς αιτιολογίας. Είναι αποτέλεσμα διάφορων παθήσεων, όπως βλάβη του κεντρικού νευρικού συστήματος, σύνδρομα ή προβλήματα που επηρεάζουν την κεφαλή και τον τράχηλο (π.χ.: καρκίνος του στόματος ή του φάρυγγα), κ.λπ.

Τα προειδοποιητικά σημάδια ενός ατόμου που έχει κάποια δυσκολία κατάποσης – δυσφαγία ποικίλουν και αυτά είναι:

Βήχας κατά τη διάρκεια κατάποσης ή μετά, πνιγμός, υγρή/γαργαριστή ποιότητα φωνής μετά την κατάποση, δυσκολία, κούραση ή παρατεταμένος χρόνος επεξεργασίας τροφών, επαναλαμβανόμενες καταπόσεις, αίσθημα κολλήματος φαγητού στο λαιμό, άρνηση λήψης τροφής (συχνό φαινόμενο σε άτομα με ανοϊκά σύνδρομα), απώλεια σωματικού βάρους, επαναλαμβανόμενες λοιμώξεις του αναπνευστικού, κ.λπ.

Η αξιολόγηση ασθενούς που παρουσιάζει διαταραχή κατάποσης ακολουθεί κάποια βασικά βήματα:
Κλινική εξέταση με λήψη ιατρικού ιστορικού και ιστορικού κατάποσης από εξειδικευμένο στη δυσφαγία λογοθεραπευτή καθώς και στοματοπροσωπικό έλεγχο.
Σε αυτή τη φάση ο θεραπευτής θα συλλέγει τις πληροφορίες σχετικά με την ιατρική διάγνωση και ένα ιστορικό προβλημάτων κατάποσης.
Θα εκτιμήσει επίσης την αναπνευστική λειτουργία του ατόμου και την λειτουργική και δομική επάρκεια όλων των οργάνων που συμμετέχουν στην κατάποση: γλώσσα, χείλη, δόντια, λάρυγγα,κ.λπ.
Παρατήρηση του ασθενούς κατά τη διάρκεια γεύματος και δοκιμές κατάποσης με τροφές και υγρά διαφορετικών πυκνοτήτων.
Αξιολόγηση κατάποσης με κάποια αντικειμενική εξέταση κατάποσης όπως η βιντεοακτινοσκόπηση (VFSS -Videofluoroscopic Swallow Study) ή η Ενδοσκοπική εξέταση κατάποσης (FEES – fiber optic endoscopic evaluation of swallowing) σε συνεργασία με ιατρικές ειδικότητες όπως Ω.Ρ.Λ. και ακτινολόγος.
Δημιουργία θεραπευτικού πλάνου.

Σημείωση: θα πρέπει να αναφερθεί ότι στην αντιμετώπιση ασθενών με διαταραχές κατάποσης, ο ειδικός στη δυσφαγία λογοθεραπευτής θα πρέπει να συνεργάζεται στενά με πολλές ιατρικές και παραϊατρικές ειδικότητες, να κατέχει τις απαραίτητες γνώσεις της ανατομίας, φυσιολογίας και παθοφυσιολογίας της κατάποσης αλλά και ακαδημαϊκή επάρκεια και κλινική εμπειρία σε αυτόν τον τομέα.


ΠΗΓΗ:

Wednesday, 4 January 2023

Music can help people recover from stroke


Compared to the patients who listened to audiobooks and the control patients, the patients who listened to music daily showed superior performance when tested three months and six months later.

By Christian Jarrett


Given its power to move us, perhaps it’s no surprise that a great deal of research has focused on whether or not music can help people with depression or anxiety. Now researchers in Finland have asked whether music can benefit people recovering from a stroke. Their study is notable for its sound methodological quality, and the results are promising: music does indeed appear to make a difference in patients’ cognitive recovery.

Soon after their hospitalisation, 60 stroke patients were allocated randomly to one of three groups. Those in the music group were provided with a portable CD player and asked to listen to their favourite music for at least an hour a day for two months. Patients in the audiobook group spent at least an hour a day for two months listening to audiobooks of their choosing. A final control group were not given a listening task.

Compared to the patients who listened to audiobooks and the control patients, the patients who listened to music daily showed superior performance when tested three months and six months later on measures of verbal memory and focused attention. Crucially, the psychologists who performed these neuropsychological assessments were unaware of which groups the patients had been in – making this a single-blind, randomised, controlled trial. The music and audiobook patients also showed reduced depression and confusion compared with the control patients.

Teppo Sarkamo and colleagues who conducted the research said that music may exert these benefits by virtue of its wide-ranging impact on brain activity. Neuroimaging studies have shown that listening to music “naturally recruits bilateral temporal, frontal and parietal neural circuits underlying multiple forms of attention, working memory, semantic and syntactic processing, and imagery,” the researchers said. By contrast, the brain activity triggered by speech without music is less extensive and more focused on the language-dominant hemisphere (usually the left).

The new finding is consistent with research on animals showing that a stimulating environment can speed recovery after stroke. Yet the researchers noted with regret that many stroke patients are left in their rooms without much stimulation or interaction. “We suggest that everyday music listening during early stroke recovery offers a valuable addition to the patients’ care,” they concluded.
Further reading


Sarkamo, T., Tervaniemi, M., Laitinen, S., Forsblom, A., Soinila, S., Mikkonen, M., Autti, T., Silvennoinen, H.M., Erkkila, J., Laine, M., Peretz, I., Hietanen, M. (2008). Music listening enhances cognitive recovery and mood after middle cerebral artery stroke. Brain, 131(3), 866-876. DOI: 10.1093/brain/awn013


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