Countdown timer

I suddenly remembered this product that my colleague shared about when we were discussing about how to teach some of our students the notion of "how much time left". We have students who do not have the notion of time. They can't tell time from the analogue clock (which I find to be more and more common in the digitised world), they also have no idea what is yesterday, tomorrow, or 15 more minutes. And so, in her previous work place, they used a product like the countdown timer shown here (image obtained from here)to help her students know how much more time is left for them.

I guess the benefit of having this countdown timer is that it gives a spatial view of the remaining time, because the red indicator moves as time passes. The beep that sounds when time is up also gives them an auditory indication. I think it might be quite helpful to teach children the passing of time as well as the concepts of "15 minutes more", or "5 minutes left". :)

Changes

Made another change to the template to make it look sunnier! That matches the title of my blog more aptly doesn't it? :p Or perhaps I just can't stay committed to one look! :p I've been wanting to post some blogs on some new concepts I've learnt recently, but have not found the time to! weekends are gonna be even busier now with renovations round the corner!

Autism

This season is the season for understanding Autism and the disorders in its spectrum. My job for the week is to look at the assessment and diagnosis of autism, and I found a book that I really enjoyed reading. I've just gotten past the first chapter or so of this book, Autism and Asperger Syndrome, by Simon Baron-Cohen, and found it helpful in understanding more about the learning difficulty.

In particular, I liked that the book started off with two case studies describing classic autism and Asperger syndrome, which brought to life the difficulties that children with these two different (yet similar) conditions had. Towards the end, it also identified the two similarities and differences of the two difficulties that summed up the details succiently. This I'm going to put here for better understanding

Two similar key features between classic autism and Asperger syndrome
1. Social communication difficulties
2. Narrow interests and repetitive actions

Two key differences
1. In Asperger syndrome, IQ is at least average and there was no language delay
2. In classic autism, IQ can be anywhere on the scale, and there was language delay

Can't wait to read and find out more! :)

New Template

Blogger has got some new templates for me to choose from, and I decided to give this blog a new look. Browsed through some of their choices, and decided on this look. It felt like the rain pitter-pattering on the window pane. I love to look at the rain from inside the house. I love to hear the pitter-pattering of rain on the window pane. I love dreaming about snuggling on a cosy couch with a cup of hot chocolate and a lovely book when it rains. What do you dream of when it rains? :)

been away

Been away from this blog for sometime. Been away for a really relaxed and recharging retreat, where I (for once) was not involved in any form of service. It really helped me to be refreshed in God and to be recharged physically.

Coming back meant having to catch up with work undone and I am still struggling with that now. Been wanting to go back to my very interesting book on reading, but had been hardly able to do that.

Of course, World Cup matches kept me up some nights! :)