Catalogue of Posts

Friday, November 21, 2014

Behind the Scenes - The Office Area #2

Here you can see that I've become a little more organised with my office space  :)

This is made up of -

  -  2 cabinets
  -  computer
  -  printer

This is working quite well, so far.
The two cabinets are enough at the moment
to house all my -
  -  files
  -  stationery supplies
  -  equipment (pens, rulers etc)
  -  business documentation
  -  accounting journals
  -  business and creative in-boxes
  -  materials and equipment for current projects
  -  information (from previous educational courses
       and the internet)

Here is a better look at the computer
and printer set-up.


The main things are that -
  - everything is in the one area
  - items can be physically placed
      in an order of importance
  -  items can be moved in and out
       easily


What more can be said ?  :)



(c) Katherine Stuart 2014

Monday, November 17, 2014

JIAS music therapy

JIAS music therapy is the -

    Johansen Individualised Auditory Perception program

This is a music therapy program that I've been doing over the last 2 years,
as I have Dyslexia and Autism Spectrum Disorder (without accompanying
intellectual and language impairment - Level 1).

I have always had problems hearing certain
sounds.

When I went to the Kenny Rogers concert
here in Darwin (Northern Territory, Australia)
a while back, I was in the taxi, having arrived
back at the place where I was staying for the
night. It was dark, and my brain couldn't
compute how to open the door. I was getting
a bit worried that I wasn't going to be able to
get out of the taxi !
I mentioned this to one of my Dyslexia
psychologists. So my hearing was tested and it was
found that I couldn't hear some sounds, especially
in the high range. It also became apparent that I
wasn't able to hear what people were saying
correctly. There were gaps in the conversation. So,
I couldn't understand what they were saying, and
hence, couldn't respond with an intelligent answer.
This explained a lot !

This system has involved,
- being tested to find out what sounds that I couldn't hear
- the psychologist (or person trained in delivering this system)
  sent this information to those who produce the special music CD
  which is tailored to a person's specific needs
- the special music CD was produced and was sent to me (at cost)
- I have to listen to each track,
   one a night, as specified on the sheet provided (pictured)
   for a number of weeks.

As I mentioned, I've been doing this for 2 years now, and am on the 4th CD,
as a person has to be re-assessed every so many months, to make changes in the CD
if there are improvements. But, now this is the last one and the therapy is tailing off
over the next 4 1/2 months.

One striking change which occured in my hearing was this -
The 3rd CD had a special sound wave incorporated into the music tracks.
Previously, the sound that my brain was hearing was "flat", or you could say,
two dimensional. But, as I listened to the 4th CD, it triggered some things to work
in my brain that weren't previously, namely in the back part of my head and my temples,
after which the sound that my brain was hearing was 3 dimensional, or you could say,
stereo, but much better !! I can now have a wonderful sound experience when I listen to a
music CD, if it is produced properly, that is !!

So, thankyou to the JIAS system and inventor, and to my psychologists, Maria De Ionno and Anthony Franklin of "Dyslexia and Reading Solutions" (South Australia - Australia) for making this and other things possible.


(c) Katherine Stuart 2014