birthday week: day 1
Yes, Birthday Week has commenced! The Birthday Party Date has been set for 05 March 2006 (one day past my actual birthday*), and there are many people who I would love to invite but you are all silly and live in crazy places like OTTAWA or PRINCE GEORGE or BROCKVILLE or WEST CHESTER or CHICAGO or ESPECIALLY MONTREAL or other such nonsense. Sometime you'll come to your senses. (Right?)
*Because somebody's moving on my actual birthday! But I want her to be able to be there. :)
I wrote a midterm/exam today, again in 1/3rd of the time allotted (1 hour of 3 given). It went pretty well. This week I know more about the brain and language-specific regions than I ever will again. Anyone have a question about aphasia? Now's the time to ask.
Reading week last week really made me realise that I need a break from school. People keep saying that that's what the summer is for, but I'm not sure that that's going to cut it. I'm thinking at least a year. Metachatters assure me that they are eternally grateful for having gone to grad school despite not using it at all in their jobs, and I will have to keep that in mind. I do tend to think extremely long-term and to discard ideas that don't seem to lead towards solid employment (current degree excluded), and perhaps that's not always the best idea. For now, I just might have to take a few months off and then begin applying to every bookstore in sight. For some reason that seems like the ideal job right now. Go to work and think about books and talk to people who read, and come home and think about whatever I want to. Yep, sounds like a huge relaxing change.
posted by Heather Ann @ 12:19 AM
4 Comments:
Awww, thank you! I appreciate it! I will try to come for as much as I can!
Yes, I have a question about aphasia. When my grandmother had it she would get frustrated not getting the words out, and could let out a short burst of cursing with perfect diction! She was always embarrassed about it. I also have heard that people with the problem can be taught to chant their words, because both chanting/singing and cursing use a slightly different area of the brain than regular speech. Which is why bad stammerers and stutterers can sing beautifully - like Mel Tillis.
Is this true? Has any more work been done with it to help people suffering from aphasia?
clemens: Yep, that's true. We store individual words differently than we store expressions or memorized speech. People with Broca's aphasia like your grandmother probably had can't compose a sentence spontaneously, but they could recite things that were memorized, like The Lord's Prayer. Stuttering and stammering is slightly different, but I suppose that could be true there too.
People are constantly doing research on different types of aphasia. The stuff I'm learning about it is theoretical, so I don't learn much about rehabilitative techniques, but I imagine that that side of it is advancing just as fast.
Perhaps next year I will be able to make the journey north. In the meantime, enjoy your birthday week, and e-mail me your mailing address. :)
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home