Thursday, June 30, 2011

Angela's Rest Technique, or, The ART of Sleeping


This is rather simple. I and a few others have done it with success, but it is yet to be studied. If it does or does not work for you please contact me or leave a comment here.
 
Everyone sleeps. Sleep on the side that doesn't move. That's simple enough. I recommend  alternating nights  so a preference doesn't form.
 
Here's the reasoning: constant information (input) is presented to that side and the brain deals with it by re-wiring. Constant information comes from body weight and gravity. The force of gravity puts constant pressure on the body. Sleeping on a particular side concentrates that force. As a result of the person receiving constant information on the affected side, the brain grows new neural pathways. These pathways not only deal with  the information, but are responsible for movement.

This would not work for Spinal Cord Injury, or anything that would interfere with movement.
 
Once there is movement, even the smallest, do it again and again.

Saturday, June 11, 2011

It's A Critical Time

I remember long ago something about a critical time for learning. I looked some and found http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_Age_Hypothesis. This is in speech. "The hypothesis claims that there is an ideal 'window' of time to acquire language in a linguistically rich environment, after which further language acquisition becomes much more difficult and effortful."

I propose something similar. There is an ideal window of time to acquire any skill that has accompanying neuronal development. As a neuropathway is made, the skill is acquired and becomes refined.

To illustrate, the following pictures are of me performing "Pucker" and "Smile",  exercises 2,3, and 4 of  http://braininjuryknow.blogspot.com/2010/11/oral-motor-exercises.html. This my Pucker at first:



I had stopped doing the Oral-Motor Exercises after talking. I had "acquired" the skill, but not refined it. It had already taken a long time to acquire, and much more (refinement) didn't appear to be happening. Recently, I felt I may be in a "critical window" by the results of other skill development. I performed those exercises (20 reps. a day) for a week. If I wasn't in a "window", then nothing. I was amazed with the following:


This is a picture of me performing "Pucker" after a week of exercise There is more muscle tone in the area around my mouth. You can specifically see a crease starting that goes from my nose to my mouth on the left side of the picture.

I only suspected I would get this result as other areas have been doing the same. I remembered a little bit of that theory and looked. I found it only covered speech, but I see it in other areas. I see it in a cognitive test I perform regularly. I'd venture to say it is responsible for the gross motor jump  from pushing up to standing http://www.flickr.com/photos/angelar70/sets/72157626815593901/

This shows that there is a critical window of time to acquire any skill that has accompanying neuronal development.


*I don't want this confused with Speeh, so
I'm pushing up, to


seeing how long I can stay standing.  Standing is definitely not speech.