Job Polarization and Structural Change (with Zsofia Barany)

forthcoming American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, 2017
We document that job polarization -- contrary to the consensus -- has started as early as the 1950s in the US: middle-wage workers have been losing both in terms of employment and average wage growth compared to low- and high-wage workers. Given that polarization is a long-run phenomenon and closely linked to the shift from manufacturing to services, we propose a structural change driven explanation, where we explicitly model the sectoral choice of workers. Our simple model does remarkably well not only in matching the evolution of sectoral employment, but also of relative wages over the past fifty years.
AEJ:Macro, manuscript version

Female Relative Wages, Household Specialization and Fertility

Falling fertility rates have often been linked to rising female wages. However, over the last 40 years the US total fertility rate has been rather stable while female wages have continued to grow. Over the same period, women's hours spent on housework have declined, but men's have increased. I propose a model in which households are not perfectly specialized, but both men and women contribute to home production. As the gender wage gap narrows, the time allocations of men and women converge, and while fertility falls at first, the decline stops when female wages are close to male's. Rising relative wages increase women's labor supply and due to higher opportunity cost lower fertility at first, but they also lead to a reallocation of home production and child care from women to men, and a marketization. I find that both are important in understanding why fertility did not decline further. In a further quantitative exercise I show that the model performs well in matching fertility over the entire 20th century, including the overall decline, the baby boom, and the recent stabilization.
Open Access at RED, manuscript version, online appendix

We study the impact of capital and labor taxation in an economy where couples bargain over the intrahousehold allocation under limited commitment. In this framework more wealth improves commitment and gives rise to insurance gains within the household. Our theory motivates these gains by the empirical observation that wealth, in contrast to labor income, is a commonly held resource within households. Based on this observation we study whether eliminating capital taxes from the economy, and raising labor taxes to balance the government's budget, may generate welfare gains to married households. We illustrate that the quantitative effects from this reform are rather small. We attribute the small effects to the life cycle pattern of wealth accumulation and to the impact of labor income taxes on household risk sharing: In particular, we show that higher labor taxes may make the limited commitment friction more severe, even though they may make the distribution of labor income more equitable within the household.
manuscript version

Working Papers

We propose a model in which rising supply of experience reduces experienced workers' relative wages and also lowers their relative labor market participation. We then quasi-experimentally investigate these effects, using variation across U.S. local labor markets (LLMs) over the last decades and instrumenting experience supply by the LLMs' age structures a decade earlier. We find that aging substantially reduces experienced workers' relative wages and employment rates, and also their labor market participation rates. Our results imply that the effect of demographic change on the labor market might be substantially more severe than previously recognized, as it reaches beyond wages.
August 2017

Disentangling occupation- and sector-specific technological change (with Zsofia Barany)

Occupational and sectoral labor market patterns display a significant overlap. This implies that economic models can explain these patterns to a large degree through either sector- or occupation-specific technological change, but stay silent about the level of specificity. We propose a model where technologies evolve at the sector-occupation level, allowing us to extract sector-only and occupation-only components and to quantify their importance. We find that most of productivity changes are occupation-specific, but that there is also a sizable sector component. We contrast the data and our baseline model against implications of models where technological change is restricted to be either at the sector or at the occupation level, or both. All three restricted models can replicate both sectoral and occupational outcomes very well, but occupation-specific changes are crucial for within-sector changes of occupational employment and income shares.
July 2017 version

Work in Progress

Domestic Market Size, Inward Orientation, and Industrialization (with Francesco Caselli and John Coleman)


Below is a list of the employment laws broken down by the number of employees employed by an organization. Each law has a brief definition plus the option to link to a website with more details.

labor_lawsNOTE: Our easy-to-follow desktop reference gives you quick access to descriptions of the Federal Labor Laws organized by number of employees. At a glance, you’ll know what labor laws your company needs to be complying with and what they mean, which will be an excellent starting point for discussions with your attorney. A laminated hard copy of this tool is:  $5.95 Includes tax and shipping

Federal Labor Laws by Number of Employees*

Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Provides protections for participants and beneficiaries in group health plans, including limiting exclusions for preexisting conditions and general health conditions. Also establishes privacy protections for employees against unauthorized disclosure of health related information.
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) (1938) Regulates the status of employees (exempt versus non-exempt) versus independent contractors and provides for a minimum wage and overtime unless the employee meets an exempt classification.
Employee Polygraph Protection Act (1988) Prohibits employers from requiring pre-employment polygraph examinations.
Uniformed Services Employment & Re-employment Rights Act (1994) Prohibits discrimination against military service members because of past, current, or future military service. Protects military service workers’ employment rights and benefits of employment.
National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) (Wagner Act) (1935) Prohibits employers from certain unfair labor practices. Primary responsibility for enforcement rests on the National Labor Relations Board.
Labor-Management Relations Act (Taft Hartley)(1947) Protects management rights by prohibiting certain unfair labor practices by unions.
Uniform Guidelines of Employee Selection Procedures (1978) Prohibits selection policies and practices from having an adverse impact on the employment opportunities for any race, sex, or ethnic group unless it is a business necessity.
Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) Prohibits health insurers from discriminating based upon genetic information. Also prohibits employers from requesting or requiring employees or family members to provide genetic information.
Title I, Americans with Disabilities Act (1990) and Amendments Act (2008) Protects qualified individuals with disabilities from unlawful discrimination in employment. Discrimination is prohibited if the individual can do the essential job functions. An employer must make reasonable accommodations for such individuals unless doing so would place an undue hardship on the employer.  The Amendments Act of 2008 emphasizes a broad definition of disability to make it easier for an employee seeking protection under the act to establish that he/she has a disability.
 50 – 99 EMPLOYEES – ADD
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (2010) Requires employers to provide affordable insurance coverage that amounts to at least 60% of covered health expenses for a typical population.  Employers who fail to offer coverage or to offer affordable coverage are subject to penalties per employee based upon the total number they employ. Also allows for “reasonable break time” for nursing mothers.
(Federal Contractors)
(Federal Contractors)
EEO-1 Report filed annually with EEOC
Requires federal contractors, with more than 50 employees and contracts valued at >$50,000, to submit a list of the number of employees by race and sex for each EEO job category.
(Federal Contractors)
Vocational Rehabilitation Act (1971)
(Federal Contractors)
Drug Free Workplace Act (1988)
Requires some federal contractors to have a written drug-use policy and follow certain requirements to certify that they maintain a drug-free workplace.
(Federal Contractors)
Davis Bacon Act (1931)
(Federal Contractors)
Copeland Act (1934)
(Federal Contractors)Walsh-Healy Act (1936) Requires federal contractors, with contracts valued at > $10,000, to pay wages equal to the area including minimum wage and overtime.

*This is a summary of some of the federal labor legislation which growing businesses should be aware of. It is by no means meant to be exhaustive of all legislation, nor is it meant to be interpreted as detailing the exact requirements of each law.  Compliance mandates for legislation specific to a particular state should be consulted in addition to federal legislation.  Specific questions and actions should be directed to a consultant or employment attorney.


• Music Instruments

    Comments Off on Music Instruments
    July 28, 2017 /  Composer & Instrument

    Archaeology of Musical Instruments Music has been important in civilization for thousands of years. Some of the greatest archaeological finds have been instruments from ancient time. Some of the oldest instruments included drums, small wind pipes made from reeds and wood, and wooden wind chimes. From these instruments we can learn that music has been an important part of the world for a very long time.

    History of Musical Instruments Music instruments have a long and varied history. From the first instruments of drums, wind instruments, and small hand shakers and cymbals, instruments quickly changed into the lyres, harps, and more sophisticated versions of drum and wind instruments. In the middle ages the first string instruments were created as we know them today. At the turn of the 20th century, music changed again with the blending of cultures into the rock instruments that are most common today. Now we have evolved into creating instruments from almost anything from police sirens to trash cans. www.ramblax.com is a good site to visit for more instrument information.

    Primitive and prehistoric The most primitive music instruments were usually drums made from tightened skins, wood sticks hit together, or wooden flutes carved from reeds and other materials. These instruments were in use for thousands of years before any other instruments were created.

    Ancient systems Ancient musical systems were different type of music created all over the world in ancient times. Some of the most well-known music is that of ancient Chinese and Indian music. The sitar was a popular instrument. The Chinese are credited with creating the first instrument played with a bow.

    Antiquity Music during the Greek and Roman heyday was characterized by the lute, lyre, harps, and other string instruments that were plucked. Cymbals were also a popular form of instrument during this time. The flute continued to be used as well.

    Middle Ages The middle ages brought a change to music instruments. The Roman church did not like instruments and so the musical styling of that period are largely characterized by blended singing groups without instrumental accompaniment. However, some instruments did remain popular such as the lute which was popular with traveling bards.

    Renaissance The renaissance period saw a change in the music instruments of the day. For the first time a string instrument was created that was played by pulling a bow across the strings. This opened up a whole new world of musical sounds in Europe.

    Baroque The biggest music instruments change that came during the Baroque period was the invention of the harpsichord. This predecessor to the modern piano changed the way music was played forever.

    Modern Musical Instruments Modern music instruments are not so different from ancient ones. The most popular instruments of today include drums, the piano, wind instruments, brass instruments, guitars, and stringed instruments. There are also many experiments with instruments such as using common household items. For more instruments visit www.ramblax.com.

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War of Conquest

Southern Higashi

Rasyvias victory, destruction of Lake People

Lake People

Casualties and losses

The War of Conquest was a military conflict around the formation of Rasyvias, between the exiles of Ivicharros and the Lake People who currently inhabited the area. It last just under a year and a half, culminating in the Siege of Rosemar, the only instance in which Rosemar has been conquered.

Arriving in Higashi, the exiles of Ivicharros, led by P'hensor, found that the settlements around the Camel's Bay had been struggling not to be conquered by their nearby enemies, who wished to exterminate them, and were glad of protectors, easily subjugated. After fortifying the Bay, they advanced further into the mainland, claiming the open land between the Bay and the Eye of the Marsh as their own without much resistance from the few inhabitants, and beginning the War of Conquest. While P'hensor has planned strike the less civilized enemy before they could organize themselves, he had not realized that, uncivilized though they were, they were militaristic and as such had a well-organized army. The Lake People, as P'hensor and his men termed them, were highly offended by the taking of the lands that they had formerly held, and struck with force before P'hensor could move further inland. When the invaders discovered that the advance force they had sent to force the Lake People back and gain the resources of the Eye of the Marsh had been defeated, they sent a second force, made primarily of Rhyioji magic-users, to win a presumably easy victory. While the Lake People's force had only a single magic user, far inferior to those of the Rhyioji, the Lake People carried with them a secret weapon that forced the invaders to retreat back towards the Bay. This weapon was the strange creatures of the Lake People, their war-beasts since time out of mind, which were quite unlike the other creatures found in Higashi. Strange beasts like bears but with reptilian builds, and tough, lizard-like skin, as well as beings like leopards with the buils of lizards, and copper-colored scales in place of fur, and great wingless birds with hair and vicious beaks. The most fearsome trait of these creatures was not their appearance, nor was it their not-insignificant value in combat. It was the fact that they were resistant, to varying degrees, to magic. The invading army was forced to send warriors with extreme skill to kill the beasts, as well as some few powerful magic users who could affect them. They were able to break through and conquer the Eye, where most of the creatures which the Lake People had domesticated were corralled, making the further conquest easier. The war was far from finished, however, and raged on with many valiant battles, and losses for both sides, until the invaders gained the upper hand, and the Lake People marshaled all of their forces into a vast army at their greatest castle and new capital. The invaders marched upon it, and the culmination of the war took place at the Siege of Rosemar.

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White Dwarf Star In Closest Orbit Ever Seen With Black Hole

white dwarf star orbiting black hole

This is an artist’s impression of a star found in the closest orbit known around a black hole. Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/University of Alberta/A.Bahramian et al.; Illustration: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss

In the binary system known as 47 Tucanae X9, located about 14,800 light years from Earth, a white dwarf star speeds around a black hole about twice an hour, according to NASA.

A team of scientists made this discovery using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory together with NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) and CSIRO’s Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA). The Royal Astronomical Society will publish the research in an upcoming issue of Monthly Notices.

Chandra’s latest data of this binary system shows that its X-ray brightness changes every 28 minutes. This likely indicates the length of time the companion star completes an orbit around the black hole. Since there is evidence of the system containing large amounts of oxygen, the companion star could be a white dwarf.

47 Tucanae X9 in cluster of stars

With the star so close to the black hole, the latter’s gravitation pulls material away from the star, said Arash Bahramian of the University of Alberta. The matter then joins a disk of matter before falling into the black hole, Bahramian added. “Luckily for this star, we don’t think it will follow this path into oblivion, but instead will stay in orbit.”

White Dwarf’s Fate Uncertain

However, the white dwarf’s fate remains uncertain. Co-author Craig Heinke, also from the University of Alberta, said the black hole could pull away so much matter from the star. It could end up with having the mass of a planet or even worse.

“If it keeps losing mass, the white dwarf may completely evaporate,” Heinke added.

The paper’s authors believe the binary system formed after the black hole crashed into a red giant star. After the collision, the star expelled the gas from its outer regions. Then, the remaining core formed into a white dwarf and became the black hole’s companion.

On the other hand, scientists presented another explanation for the binary system. They said the white dwarf might have partnered with a neutron star, not a black hole. A neutron star results from the gravitational collapse of a massive star. A neutron stars attributes include strong gravity, powerful magnetic and electric fields, and high velocities.

Under this scenario, they said, the neutron star spins faster, pulling materials from a companion star via a disk. This process could “lead the neutron star spinning around its axis thousands of times every second.” Scientists have observed similar objects, called transitional millisecond pulsars. These pulsars have extremely variable X-ray and radio wavelengths.

The authors do not favour this possibility since the X9 binary system does not share these properties. However, they could not disprove this scenario.

By | 2017-03-15T23:18:14+00:00 March 15th, 2017|


If each house were more isolated and the view was a waterfront or blue sky, that would be awesome.

I love the glass windows on all three sides that lets the sun shine in. There are many signs of sophistication to this part of the attic: floor pillow mats, painting stand, sculpture, etc.

The elevation of the part of the attic definitely makes a big difference. It makes the attic have a whole other dimension because of this part is slightly elevated.


Toward a Greener Road Pricing System in Europe

Toward a Greener Road Pricing System in Europe

Damien Grangeon, Pascaline Cousin, SETRA, FR

The proposal of "Eurovignette Directive" will allow to charge to the heavy good vehicles the external costs they are responsible for. The paper compares current prices on French road network and prices expected with the proposal of directive.

The review of the ""Eurovignette Directive"" is a recommendation of the ""Greening transport package"", presented in July 2008 to promote an eco-friendly and sustainable transport. As the current road charging schemes for Heavy Good Vehicles (HGV) in Europe do not take into account the negative externalities of road transport, the European Commission proposes to internalize the costs linked to those effects in order to reflect the real costs they have for society and environment. It integrates three types of externalities in the charging system of HGV: air pollution, noise pollution, congestion. The cost of those externalities can vary with the environmental performances of HGV (EURO emission classes), the location (suburban and interurban roads) and the period of HGV use (off-peak, peak and night) in order to internalize the amount of costs they are responsible for. By applying this ""polluter pays"" principle, it forces users to choose between a higher price of road transport and a changing of behaviour (use of less polluting vehicles, driving during less congested periods,?), what should be a good incentive to reduce polluting emissions and delays due to congestion.

Common rules of calculation to value external costs are indicated in the annexes of the new directive proposal, which also imposes a maximum chargeable cost for each externality. If a Member State does not want to use the methodologies presented in the directive proposal, it can calculate the external costs with its own methods provided that its results do not exceed the maximum chargeable costs imposed.

Aims of the study:
The paper focuses on an evaluation of the methodologies advised by the directive proposal (calculations and maximum chargeable cost) lead by the SETRA, which is the technical department of the French Ministry in charge of infrastructures, ecology and sustainable development. It presents a study lead on a French motorway. Each externality is calculated in accordance with the recommendations of the directive and an alternative approach both derived from the French methods to internalize costs:
- Weight classes are introduced for the calculation of the cost of air pollution in order to charge more representative costs to HGV.
- Valuations of noise based on willingness-to-pay studies are used to calculate the costs of noise pollution and compared to the ceilings imposed by the directive.
- Costs of congestion are calculated with a French methodology easier to implement.

Finally the paper provides results with prices that HGV should pay for the external costs they cause. These prices are compared to usual prices on French road network, that are limited to infrastructure costs only. It also assesses earnings that could be expected with internalization and then invested in greener transport measures.

Key words: Internalization ? Air pollution ? Noise pollution ? Congestion ? HGV ? Eurovignette directive

- 2007, CE Delft, Handbook on estimation of external costs in the transport sector.
- 2001, Commissariat Général du Plan, Transports : choix des investissements et coût des nuisances (""rapport Boiteux II"").
- 2005, Comité des Directeurs Transports, Instruction cadre relative aux méthodes d'évaluation économique des grands projets d'infrastructures de transport.
- 2006, Institute of Energy Economics and the Rational Use of Energy (IER), Harmonised European Approaches for Transport Costing and project assessment (HEATCO).
- 2007, UNECE/EMEP Task Force, EMEP/CORINAIR Emission Inventory Guidebook.
- 2007, SETRA, Production des cartes de bruit stratégiques des grands axes routiers et ferroviaires.
- 2001, SETRA, Bruit et études routières, Manuel du chef de projet.
- 2003, Conseil Général des Ponts et Chaussées, Couverture des coûts des infrastructures routières."

Association for European Transport


Monday, August 14, 2017

Looking Back to Look Forward

I have spent some time these last few days looking back through the 13+ years of my writings on both this blog and my personal blog before this (Red Lights). I started blogging about a month after my son started kindergarten. We are now just over two weeks away from him starting his last year in school. It seems to have gone by in the blink of an eye. Yet when I look back through the years of writing about first his life experiences and later how those experiences shaped my beliefs and career, the early days of his kindergarten year seem a long time ago. A lot has happened. There have been a lot of celebrations and a lot of frustrations. I could write a book about the things that I wish I could go back and "do over" but also recognize that we would not be in this moment in time without all those things... and that it matters that we are in this moment in time. It is where we are supposed to be right now.

In the past couple of years I have come often to the page on my blog where one starts a new post and I have begun to write only to hit a block and then eventually just go on to do something else. Yet it keeps pulling me back. I wonder what to blog about.

As I looked back through my posts, it is clear to me that much has changed. There is a part of me that wants to take down posts that outline excited plans about teaching life skills in a segregated classroom as it doesn't connect to what I believe in. It seems important though to keep them up there; To recognize and remember the journey. To remember that sometimes we pull into things that we believe will create safety but then come to see it does the opposite. When I look at it though it seems a bit odd that my writing became blocked at the point of finally clarifying my beliefs and truly working toward connecting them to my actions.

I question why. Did I get too busy? Did I not feel the need to write to clarify anymore because there was less turmoil? Did I find other ways to share rather than writing? Did I realize my audience and become afraid? Was there a piece of wanting to protect it all from the scrutiny of people who have a different perspective of what success is? Did I come to recognize that my son's story needs to his to share rather than mine? Perhaps it was little pieces of all those reasons and a whole array of others.

These past couple of years have brought about more changes for me and I'm not seeing an end to that for a while yet as life will become different again when my son graduates in the spring.

Even though my job had transitioned from self-contained classroom teacher in a single school to support teacher in multiple schools, we had maintained the room that I had been in as a support space that all students had access to through to the end of this past year. It has now transitioned to a classroom in the school. For me it is a concrete sign of not going back; Of continuing to find a path forward. I have been spending time this summer going through everything that was in the room, purging some it and a categorizing the rest to use as supports for the inclusive education of the population of students we used to segregate in the classroom I taught in.  In these next couple of weeks before school starts I will finish that job and set up my office and then begin another year.

Each year things change - with my son, in my life, in my job - but the changes are often so incremental that they are hard to see until you get to a moment where you stop and look back. I seem to come back to what my goal was with blogging when Mikey was only five years old often now. Is it possible to somehow capture not just the moments but the thoughts of the moments in writing?

The blogs I've written through the years have taken many different focuses and it feels like it is time again for another twist in the road in the hopes of bringing the pieces together. As I began writing a blog about work-related topics, I stopped writing a blog about parenting my son. In my work for a long time I tried to separate parenting a child with a disability from the work I was doing around the education of students with disabilities. Then I came to a point where I recognized that bringing the two together mattered; That inclusive education could never be about just education; That it needed to be about life.

As a new school year is about to begin it feels like the right time to commit to blogging again. I feel like there are so many things to write about: my involvement with Inclusion Alberta (a parent advocacy organization) in the past few years, learning more deeply about Shanker Self-Reg and how it feels to be one of those things you search for all your life, my hopes and dreams for my son as we move through this upcoming transition year and beyond...etc. I need to connect with what I would do in the past and just sit down and write and see what came out.

And so it begins again...

Sunday, March 5, 2017

Inclusive Education: From Political Correctness Towards Social Justice

"Children with disabilities are among the most marginalized and excluded groups of children; routinely, they are denied their right to quality education (WHO and World Bank, 2011). Policies vary considerably worldwide, with some countries prioritizing education for these children in different settings: special schools and centres; special classes in integrated schools; or inclusive schools which work to identify and remove barriers, and to enable every learner to participate and achieve in mainstream settings. Establishing inclusive schools is widely regarded as desirable for equality and human rights, and it has educational, social and economic benefits (UNESCO, 2001)."

Sunday, January 22, 2017

Great Quote - Erna Alant

Wednesday, December 28, 2016

One Word 2017 - Self-Reg

It's that time of year again when we shift toward thinking about the concept of 'new beginnings' that seem to come with the changing of calendars. For the last couple of years rather than thinking resolutions, I have looked at "one word" that would set a focus for the year. The word that I have picked these last couple of years are actually words that found me through the course of the previous year. This year is no different as the word that I've chosen is one that has been a part of my life for several years but has become more a part of my life through 2016. The word that I'm choosing this year is Self-Reg.

This past year has brought with it many opportunities to dig deeper in to Self-Reg. I have come to more deeply understand the science of energy, tension and stress and, in that process, the word "Self-Reg" has become meaningful to me both personally and professionally. I'm excited to see what continued learning and application of Self-Reg will bring in 2017.

Saturday, August 13, 2016

CCN Alphabet: Language of Control

To get this series going again, I have decided to jump around the alphabet instead of follow alphabetical order. I wanted to share that in case anyone is wondering what happened to the letters F through K. They will come. As I am completing posts, I am linking them in the original post in the series which can be found by clicking here.

The idea for this topic comes from the book Enhancing Communication for Individuals with Autism: A Guide to the Visual Immersion System by Howard C. Shane, Emily Laubscher, Raif W. Schlosser, Holly L. Fadie, James F. Sorce, Jennifer S. Abramson, Suzanne Flynn, and Kara Corley. The information on the Language of Control and the language functions that reflect the Language of Control comes from this book and the thoughts and ideas are a combination of some of the thoughts and ideas from this book as well as ideas from other sources and my experience. I also wanted to think through how to use core boards or the individual's core based language system with some of these ideas.

Often we tend toward using visual supports from a "behaviour management" perspective. It's important to not get too caught up in this as it can serve to inhibit spontaneous communication. Rather, but we should reframe this and look at visuals and language supports from a self-advocacy and opportunity for expressive and receptive language growth lens.

As outlined in the book mentioned above, the Language of Control is related to "control functions" that allow the individual to influence his or her surroundings by inspiring others to act. These functions are (1) protesting and refusal, (2) organization and transitions, (3) requesting, and (4) directives. These functions are controlled based rather than conversational in nature because their goal is to influence the behaviour of another rather than to initiate a conversation exchange.

Protesting and Refusal: According to this book, protest is a "behaviour that expresses objection or disapproval of an activity, event or person", while refusal is a "behaviour that expresses rejection of an object, activity, or event suggested or initiated by another person." Most children have a non-symbolic way of communicating protesting and refusal so the idea is to work toward a more symbolic (and often adaptive) way of protesting or refusing.

The language of protest and refusal is rooted in core words. The core words that are associated with protesting and refusal include "all done" or "finished", "stop", "no", "more", "help". "Take a break" is an important phrase that should be taught as well.

When working with students around the language of protesting and refusal we should (1) explicitly teach the words, (2) model the use of the words. and (3) ensure that the words are always easily available to the individual.

When we teach core vocabulary we need to do it "during meaningful interactions throughout the school day" (Project Core Website). At 12:15 of this Dynamic Learning Maps PD video there is a great demonstration around directly teaching core words to a group of students. I will be posting a separate post soon with some ideas around strategies for teaching the words included in the language of control. Modeling the use of the words is related to reading the individual's cues and modeling the language around it. Example: Modeling the capitalized words without expectation that the student will say them: "It looks like you DON'T LIKE that and that you are ALL DONE." Ensuring the words are easily available to the students means having their system there but it might also mean having these specific visuals available in different ways (i.e. having them tapped down to a work space or included right on a visual schedule).

Although protesting and refusal are primarily about expressive language, it is also important to be aware of the times when one cannot immediately honor an individual's protest or refusal as being able to cope with this requires receptive language skills. Visual supports such as first-then displays, timers and countdowns, a "surprise" visual, and social stories can be used to facilitate receptive language. To be effective, there may need to be some explicit teaching around these. Ideas related to that specific teaching will be included in the blog post mentioned above.

Organization and Transitions: This book defines organization as "the act of arranging elements into an orderly, functional structured whole" and transition as "the process of changing from one state, stage, activity or environment to another." Memory, attention, time management, problem solving, initiating, sequencing and prioritizing are all skills that are important to organization. Developing these skills cannot be done without also developing the receptive language understanding that is necessary for the skills. The visual supports that we put in place for the underlying skills can also serve as an opportunity to work on language development.

Specific things we should be thinking about when teaching organization and transitions includes completing multi-step directions, sorting and organizing materials, following a schedule, understanding and using measures of time, moving from a preferred activity to a non-preferred activity or vice versa, dealing with changes in familiar routines, dealing with a delay in receiving an anticipated item or activity and tolerating unexpected events.

Again, we need to think about the language that is important and ensure that we are teaching, modeling and making symbols available. We should consider (1) prepositional words like "in", "on", "away", "up", and (2) time-related words like "first", "then", "later", "wait"...etc., The action and descriptive words outlined in directives section below overlap in to the area of following schedules, sorting and organizing.

There are a lot of visual tools that can be used to support receptive understanding in this area. We need to be cautious that our primary goal with these tools is not that of compliance as that can have va very negative impact on language and communication growth.  These tools will be furthered explained in another post but they include things like visual schedules (including learner constructed schedules), first-then visuals, countdown boards, task or activity schedules, social stories, video modeling, and symbols like "surprise" or "wait".

Requesting: Requesting is defined as "expressing a desire for objects, activities, people, affection, attention, recurrence, assistance, information and/or clarification."

When thinking about requesting, we need to be cautious around believing that there is language understanding if an individual is using a scripted phrase like what would be used in PECs. A scripted phrase is no more meaningful than a single work and doesn't represent generative language. As this book points out, PECs focuses primarily on requesting but there is little opportunity for language development as it consists of mostly nouns, it uses carrier phrases rather than generative word-by-word language, and the individual words represented by the symbols are not actually taught.

As we expand requesting skills, it is important to also focus on descriptive language as having descriptive language allows an individual to request things that may not be represented in their system or are not directly in sight. This doesn't mean we make the individual describe everything they are requesting, but rather that we embed descriptive approaches naturally so that the individual is coming to an understanding of these words through seeing them modeled and used in natural contexts.

Directives: Directives is "explicit instructional language used to control the behaviour of another." Underlying a directive is an implicit understanding that a specific order or command will be carried out. In regards to the "language of control" we are looking at the ability of the individual to expressively give others directives. This does involve receptively understanding the language of directives.

This book outlines the most common directives as being either control based (sit down, quiet, no running), routine-based (get, open, put away, stand up), instructional (cut, circle, point), or play-based (roll, throw, blow, pop). There are many opportunities for teaching vocabulary and generative language (putting words together to create meaning) within directives. Understanding and using verbs, prepositions and descriptors is particularly important. Many of the most important words are included in core language lists. It's also important to recognize that not following directions may be related to receptive language (understanding of what these words mean as individual words and in combination with other words). Not following directions may also be related to things like attention, memory, or inability to organize multiple steps. or just being too overwhelmed/stressed in the moment to be able to follow the direction. When an individual has difficulty with following directions we need to step back and think about weather we are properly scaffolding.

This book offers suggestions around teaching directives by moving from video modeling of the directive to a static picture from the video to incorporating symbols and putting them together to represent the directive. As I read through it, I was thinking of some ways to modify it and embed it with teaching of core words and/or Predictable Chart Writing.

Another suggestion they offer related to play is to create topic displays that allow the user to manipulate symbols in to phrases or sentences. I could see the value in this but as I read through it I also thought about the need to move it over to modeling on a language system so that the words that were being used didn't just disappear when the activity was done. This is also got me thinking about incorporating the idea in teaching core words and/or Predictable Chart Writing.

You can advance these topic displays from simple statements to more advanced by adding in different elements. If used, they recommend using them around highly motivating activities. I'm including pictures of how a "Bubbles" topic display could be expanded over time. Note that there is a line on the side included to "comment" on the activity. As well, these displays can include a "sentence strip" at the top that is either color coded or not in which the symbols and be moved up to create a phrase or a sentence.

Final Thoughts: The communicative functions outlined here are far from the only communicative functions that individuals should be learning but they are important ones to learn in the middle of learning others. As mentioned at the beginning these ones are very restricted in regards to learning conversational skills.

Ultimately, being explicit about teaching students the language of control positions them to active agents in their lives. It is also important and important step in social/emotional development that positions individuals to engage in organizing and problem solving as if one is unable to consistently exercise control over their own life they will become passive and helpless and are at an even greater risk for abuse.

Monday, July 4, 2016

Pittsburgh AAC Language Seminar

The Goal is Language Acquisition

Promoting Success in the Classroom

Motor and Cognitive Automaticity

Thursday, December 24, 2015

One Word 2016 - With

Monday, July 27, 2015

CCN Alphabet: Engagement

What did you do in school today? is a document that summarizes the information on a multi-year research project on adolescent student engagement that was completed by Canadian Educational Association (CEA). In this document, engagement is defined as "the extent to which students identify with and value schooling outcomes, have a sense of belonging at school, participate in academic and non-academic activities, strive to meet the formal requirements of schooling and make a serious personal investment in learning. For the sake of the study, engagement was broken in down in to three components: (1) social engagement, (2) institutional engagement and (3) intellectual engagement.  To be fully engaged in school, a student must experience all three types of engagement. We need to be intentional about facilitating all three types of engagement for students with complex communication needs (CCN) as there are potential barriers that may be experienced in each area.

Engagement, in general, means participating actively and with understanding rather than being passive in a process. Being able to communicate (use of expressive language) and comprehend (use of receptive language) is a necessary condition for active participation in all three components mentioned above. Being able to understand and impact the context that the communication takes place in is another necessary condition for engagement.

More barriers to effective communication exist for people with complex communication needs than for those without. This means there is an increased risk for communication breakdowns. When communication break downs are not resolved, the result is often not feeling like one has control over the situation and this results in disengagement or passive involvement. We also have to question if break downs are often not resolved if that act of putting words into the world is actually communication at all.

One of the goals we often aim for when supporting people with disabilities is "active participation". Even "active participation" can boarder in to passive participation if it is about participating in an activity that is set up and directed by someone else. If we aim past participation toward connecting and contributing, we are aiming at something that is generative, collaborative and co-created. When we are contributing, what we produce is different as a result of our input. Isn't this more of what communication actually is? The challenge then is how do we work with students who have CCN to move along the continuum from presence to contribution.  If this is where we are aiming, supporting the development of communication using a robust language system is a necessity.

The three areas of engagement mentioned in the What did you do in school today? study can apply to any activity or setting.  When we focus on developing the combination of the communication skills needed for social, academic/institutional and intellectual engagement in any setting we need to do it in a way that these skills will not impact only that setting but can be transferred across settings. Below are a few more of my thoughts related to each of these domains of engagement in the school setting specifically but the same concepts can be taken and carried over to any setting.

Social Engagement relates to a sense of belonging and meaningful participation in school life. Students who are socially engaged participate in extra-curriculars and have positive relationships with peers and adults.

Developing the communication skills necessary for social engagement involves focusing on pragmatics - which involves the understanding of the social use of language. The Pragmatics Profile of Everyday Communication Skills in Children is a tool that can be used to focus the work of facilitating the development of the communication skills needed for social engagement. The advantage to using a tool like this is that it involves conversations with the people who are interacting on a regular basis in natural settings with the child/student. This means we can focus on what team members can do to make communication attempts more effective and satisfying... which ultimately will result in increased engagement and development of social communication skills.

Academic (Institutional) Engagement relates to participation in the formal requirements of schooling. Students demonstrate academic engagement through the completion of assignments, attending classes, completing work needed to accumulate credits needed for graduation...etc. The reason for re-framing to "institutional" rather than "academic engagement is that the concept of thinking about the formal requirements of participation could then be applied to other settings. While understanding and functioning successfully withing the context of the institution is important, it is only one small part of the picture. We need to be careful not to think about only this piece when aiming for "participation" or else we are really just sitting on a rocking horse...

The communication skills required for academic (institutional) engagement can at first appear to be rooted in rote repetition. It is important to think and facilitate beyond just repetitive routine communication as the communication skills required for academic (institutional) engagement must be applied to the many other institutional settings that one must function in to survive and thrive in our world. When thinking about facilitating the development of communication skills, we need to always remember that communication is generative and the skills that are learned should be transferable.

Developing the communication skills necessary for academic (institutional) engagement involves focusing on literacy skills as literacy allows for communication across space, people, time and medium. There will be more on literacy in other posts.  It also involves communication for the organizational tasks involved in thriving in institutional settings and the communication skills that are required for self-determined learning. The Bridge School in California has put their Self Determination Program up on their website. Their adapted self determination model focuses on the unique components and activities needed to support development of self-determination with AAC users.

Intellectual Engagement, for this study, is defined as "A serious emotional and cognitive investment in learning, using higher order thinking skills (such as analysis and evaluation) to increase understanding, solve complex problems, or construct new knowledge." Intellectual engagement requires thinking and thinking is the processing of language. When learners engage intellectually, they need to be intentional about connecting and using knowledge, experience, and strategies they have or are being exposed to.

The presumption of competence for people with complex communication needs is connected to the belief that these are students who can engage intellectually. All too often, this is a population that is not given the opportunity to engage intellectually due to some of the traditional beliefs about educational approaches for this population. This begs the question of how one could develop language if they aren't intellectually engaged. The way we design learning experiences matters when we are aiming for intellectual engagement and language development. We need to think in terms of frameworks that provide structure and some level of predictability but then within those frameworks, we must ensure variety and opportunities for interaction and generative communication. If we are pre-defining and scripting everything before it happens, this is not possible.

Sunday, July 26, 2015

Alberta Summer 2015 Course on Supporting Literacy for Students with Low Incidence Disabilities

Over four years ago, I received the book Children with Disabilities: Reading and Writing the Four Blocks Way as one of the resources for a provincial community of practice I was involved in. The book was the answer to this nagging feeling that there had to be a way to think about "real literacy" for the students that I was working with. So that year, with PODD training behind us and this book in hand, I began the process of shifting toward comprehensive literacy instruction with the students that I work with. Toward the end of that year, I traveled to Toronto to go to a week long course with the authors of the book, Karen Erickson and David Koppenhaver. I returned home and began the process of implementing  what I learned, but the fact that we were also shifting from self-contained to inclusive practices meant that there were times in the next couple of years where decisions about priorities had to be made. After two years of experimenting, I felt we were in a much better place to take a more systematic approach to things and so, last summer, I went to learn from Karen Erickson and David Koppenhaver again at Camp ALEC. I returned from that camp not only fired up about literacy, but also fired up about core vocabulary and ensuring that students have a language system that allows them to more deeply engage in literacy learning and life in general.

As this past year ended, I was feeling like we were now on the right path and then the opportunity to see Karen and David again, this time right here in Alberta, presented itself.  I have just returned now from spending another week learning from them and am once again excited to put what I've learned in to practice. I am sure that it will take me some time to fully process all that I've learned but for now I am just going to share my thoughts around the things that most resonated with me at this point immediately following the course.

It's All About Language and the Connecting Arrows
Last summer, when I was able to interact with proficient AAC users, I came to better understand the need to focus on language and communication as a larger part of the picture than what we had been doing. Last week the diagram that is presented very early on in each course and speaks to how speaking (AAC), listening, reading and writing develop in interaction with each other with language permeating every aspect of learning spoke more loudly to me. It was interesting that the statement was made that as time goes on, there is an increased understanding that "the arrows" are what is important about this diagram because that perfectly reflects what I've been discovering over the last few years of trying to put this in to practice. I also find it interesting how language sits as the heart of what thinking and learning are and that I was well in to my teaching career before I ever thought intentionally about language.

A Deeper Understanding of Emergent Literacy
The first course that I took was focused on conventional literacy and so when I returned, I started immediately to try to implement the conventional components with students who were actually at the emergent level. Through the next couple of years, I researched and modified to try to create programs that were more geared toward emergent learners.

Last summer, at Camp ALEC, it became much clearer to me what emergent and conventional programs should look like.  I have a couple of students though who would appear to be "conventional" because they know all of their letters and a whole lot of sight words and can even sometimes answer rote questions from 1970's reading programs. The problem is, these students do not engage in generative writing or just talking about books during shared reading. They are literally lost for words in these situations... either because they are just coming to be able to use their communication system in a generative way or because they have a history that doesn't include any exposure to this type of generative approach to learning.

The statement made this year that emergent literacy is connected to opportunities to actively engage and construct meaning over time with print really resonated with me and confirmed much of what I had been thinking through this past year as I backed up with some of these students to working on the emergent, rather than the conventional, literacy "to do every day" list that was shared during both this course and last year at Camp ALEC. I walked away with more clarity around the idea that for students at the emergent literacy level it is about us creating these opportunities for engagement so that all the foundational pieces can be in place before we focus in on the conventional level.

Universal Design for Learning and Students with Significant Disabilities
I have posted quite a bit in the past about UDL so really appreciated that there was time dedicated to speaking about what it means to  apply UDL concepts to planning for instruction for students who have significant disabilities. Ultimately, applying UDL concepts to this population of students works against the traditional behavioural approach that has been taken in special education and requires a paradigm shift.

UDL is founded on the idea of learner variability and an understanding that the learning process engages three different brain networks including the recognition network (the what of learning), the strategic network (the how of learning) and the affective network (the why of learning). To design learning that addresses learner variability means ensuring that there are multiple means of representation (recognition network), multiple means of expression (strategic network) and multiple means of engagement (affective network). Traditional approaches to teaching students with disabilities is not rooted in a multiple means approach as it is often about rote, repetitive learning of the single task that is currently being "mastered". This approach looks at the what of learning in isolation of the how and the why and often involves some type of extrinsic way of motivating students. The shift to thinking about repetition with variety to ensure multiple means of representation and expression and to focusing on engaging students by focusing on the functions of literacy can be a pretty big paradigm shift when looking at how education should work for this population of students.

Ultimately, I was just thrilled to be sitting in a room where UDL was being discussed with explicit focus on students who seem to often to be left out of the UDL discussion.

Supporting Communication
This is one that I came back from Camp ALEC last summer understanding much more deeply but the work that we did with core boards during the workshop last week got me even more excited. David and Karen have been doing work around developing core vocabulary boards that will be available to everyone that can be used as a bridge for those students who need a way to communicate but do not have a comprehensive language system. For a better explanation of this, check out the module on core vocabulary from the DLM Professional Development website. During the week, we used the core boards a few times to engage in different literacy activities and it was great to see just how much conversation could be generated with just the first 40 words. The bottom line is that being able to engage in conversation during literacy activities does not have to be restricted to answering yes/no to lists that have been generated. I went in having a pretty good feel for the power of core but being able to engage with it during the week has me even more excited about it as I could see how it can be used in creating back and forth interactions and in developing much needed skills related to being strategic with the words that are available.

One other important statement that was made during the stretch of time that we were playing with core in one of the activities is that it positions us as communication partners to really support the student and ask questions to understand what they are trying to say. This moves us away from the idea of not responding until something is said in some predefined format and toward authentic and meaningful communication.

Dynamic Learning Maps Professional Development Website
I wanted to end this post by including a piece that I was very aware of before taking this course but came to better understand how it can be used in implementation during the course. So much of the information that David and Karen present at these workshops is now available to anyone online for free through the Dynamic Learning Maps Professional Development website. What a goldmine this is for people who were in the position I was in four years ago - feeling like there was so much more to what literacy instruction could be for these students but not really confident about how to make that happen. Now, all it takes is to go to the Dynamic Learning Maps Professional Development website and begin working through the modules they have there. The great thing from the implementation standpoint is that a person can work through the modules on their own or use the facilitate module resources to work in a group through the modules. This also opens up opportunities to go back and relearn the things that have been presented or have something to pass on to those who want to learn more about any component of a program that we are trying to implement.  It's such an amazing resource!

Wednesday, July 8, 2015

CCN Alphabet: Descriptive Language

Vocabulary is critical to language development. Without sufficient vocabulary, it is hard to understand others or to express your own ideas. We expand vocabulary by exposing children to words and their meaning. With people with complex communication needs we sometimes get stuck in focusing a lot of our effort on nouns simply because nouns represent things that we can touch or point to or match an object/symbol to.

In education, we often think of noun-related questions as the "easiest" questions as they require only "simple memorization". This noun-focused approach to teaching is known as "referential teaching". Referential teaching/questions require a specific one-word answer. These questions are sometimes referred to as "closed-ended". Referential teaching/questions require access to vocabulary that is specific to the topic that is being studied.  If a student has a communication system, this requires that the topic-specific words get programmed or added to the system at the beginning of each new unit of study. These words often have limited functional value beyond that unit of study so do not necessarily stay on the system beyond the time of the unit of study. Because they have limited  functional use, they also do not serve to increase a student's functional language skills.

Gail Vantatenhoven (2012) proposed that an alternative to a referential approach is a descriptive approach. In this approach, the vocabulary that is specific to the topic is still used but it is used by the communication partner/teacher/tutor and then concepts related to that vocabulary are talked about using high-frequency (core) vocabulary that is already available on the individual's communication system. The questions that are asked are more "open-ended" and encourage the use of common words for describing, defining, predicting, explaining, and/or comparing. This approach ensures that students can participate at pretty much any level of language development and that there is ongoing opportunity to work on language learning through the facilitating of more specific description using phrase/sentence construction, use of tense (past, present, future), use of word endings (s, ing, er, est...etc.),

Description and action words that could be used include talking about:
  • how something, someone or some place looks (pretty/ugly, straight/crooked, bright/dark,shiny/dull, neat/messy, it's color...etc.), sounds (noisy/quiet), smells/tastes (stinky, sweet, salty, hot, spicy, sour, nice...etc.) or feels (hot/cold, hard/soft, bumpy/smooth, heavy/light, sticky, fuzzy, slippery, wet/dry...etc.).
  • the quantity, size or shape of the person, place or thing: big/little, long/short, many/few, short/tall, empty/full, far/near, whole/part, all/some/none
  • how the person or thing moves and/or acts: fast/slow, push, pull, turn, roll, drop, fall, write, talk, tell, sing,

This handout on the Descriptive Teaching Model includes some examples of how this could be implemented in a couple of different curriculum areas.

This post titled Fringe Makes Me Cringe on the blog voices4all shares a mother's story of changing from referential to a descriptive model.

I have just recently experienced the power of using a descriptive language approach with my son. He has an extremely limited number of spoken words and we have tried many different communication supports through the years. Last summer we started using a system that is Core Word based as well as focusing on Aided Language Input and using descriptive language both for his school-based learning and throughout the day. At first, much of what we did was modeling but after a few months, he started using his talk to describe things rather than just to name things. At one point, he wanted to go to a hotel and the word hotel was not on his talker so he proceeded to use words that describe the things we do or see in a hotel - car, sleep, swim, curtains, eat...etc. When I still didn't understand, he went and got a suitcase to try to help with his explanation.  The picture included here is him when he finally got to go to the hotel.

At one point we also started sitting down each night with his talker and talking about what we did that day. Sometimes there were pictures on his iPad that helped and sometimes we just had to go with what we knew. We used a descriptive approach when we did this so there were a lot of things that were happening right within his day that we were wrapping descriptive language around.  There was actually a stretch of time when he was asking to add words to his talker that were tied to things we were doing so that he could use them when we talked that evening (rather than trying to go back and describe it).

These are just a couple of examples of how we have used this approach beyond just classroom application. He has used it to describe quite a few other things that are meaningful to him as they have come up and as he started to do this around things that were personally meaningful to him, he also started engaging in descriptive language related to school content so we could move on from just the input stage and start having some back and forth interactions. The great thing about the approach is that we are able to use the context of what is going on in the classroom to meet him where he is at in regards to language development. We can focus on expanding answers to just one more word to get a bit more specific answer.

Monday, July 6, 2015

CCN Alphabet: Communication Process

"Communication is the key to learning because a great deal of what we learn depends on our interactions with others. Communication can occur every time two or more people are in proximity with one another, whetehr in person or through electronic means. Although all human being communicate, some individuals may have limited communication skills due to the impact of their disabilities or limited contact with others. Individuals with significant disabilities may not have full access to or full control of the multiple means by which most individuals communicate (e.g. speech, facial expression, body language, print). This inability to express themselves as others would does not mean that these individuals have nothing to say, not does it diminish their need and right to communicate. Teachers and other service provides must assume that all people have the desire to communicate and, therefore, must use their expertise, experience, and commitment to facilitate the development of communication for their students." (Downing, Henreddy, Packham-Harden, 2015, Teaching Communication Skills to Students with Severe Disabilites)

There are many places within the communication process (outlined in the diagram below) where a communication breakdown can occur as a result of misunderstandings and confusion for both individuals with and without complex communication needs.

Understanding the communication process, how we can support individuals with complex communication needs to develop the skills needed during each stage of the process, and the potential barriers that exist at each stage positions us to (1) engineer the environment/situation/context for communication growth and success, (2) understand and implement plans related to how we ourselves and others can be more effective communication partners, and (3) support the individual to become a more effective communicator.

Context: The context is the environment that the communication occurs in. Communication partners and their beliefs about the competence of the individual with complex communication needs will impact the communication process. When we understand all actions of another as intentional, we create the context for communication to occur. Some other thoughts to consider in regards to the communication context for individuals with complex communication needs include:

What communication channel is being used by the people within the context? Is the same channel being used by all people in the context?  Is the person who is expected to use AAC getting input through verbal language only or a combination or verbal language and AAC?

Does the individual with complex communication needs have access to a language system that will allow him/her to communicate a variety of messages for a variety of purposes or has he/she been restricted to only being able to say a handful of things?

Are there activities happening in the environment that require interaction and generative communication or is the environment set up in a way that people are working independently with a large portion of the communication happening being someone directing another person on what to do next?

Source: The source is the reason, or the motivation, that a person would communicate. Because the effort involved in using AAC is often greater than the effort involved in speaking for those without complex communication needs, we need to ensure that we are designing environments and activities that involve high levels of motivation to communicate.

"If the motivation to communicate is greater than the physical effort, cognitive effort and time required then communication will occur. If not, no message will be generated." (Bruce Baker)
If effort is always greater than motivation for an individual, communication development will not happen. When we force a person to communicate something they are already able to communicate effectively with an approach that is less efficient, we are creating the condition where the effort to communicate may be greater than the motivation to communicate. It is important to honour and recognize all the ways another person communicates at the same time as modeling a method that will eventually allow that person to communicate across all contexts and with all people.

Message: The message is what the individual is going to communicate. It could be a question, a comment, a request, a story, an answer, a thought/idea, a rejection, a greeting, a statement...etc. The message is originally what a person wants to say and as it moves through the communication process there are a lot of places where the message can become something different. Sometimes it is difficult to come up with possible messages for a given context. When an individual has a communication device or some other type of visual support, they are able to reference it for possible ideas related to messages that make sense in a given context.

Encoding: This is the process of taking the information that is in one's head and transforming it in to some form that can be understood by others. For those who use spoken words, this simply means putting ideas in to words and saying them. For those who use AAC, there is an complexity involved as it involves not just connecting thoughts and words but connecting thoughts and words and the alternative way to communicating (pictures, written words, sign language...etc.).

For obvious reasons, this is the stage of the communication process that we focus on when trying to implement AAC plans. This is about using the system to generate the message so it makes sense to put our efforts in to supporting this but if we only support this without intentional work for the rest of the communication process, it seems we would have difficulty achieving the goal of autonomous communication.

Channel: This is how the message is transferred - gestures, sign language, visuals, device...etc. The channel is often multi-modal. For individuals that use AAC, barriers related to tone, facial expression, gestures can come in to play. It is important to remember to support a person with complex needs to use multiple channels to communicate in the same way that we all do even if their channels may have to be adapted in some way.

Decoding: This is where the communication partner comes in as decoding is about the communication partner's interpretation of the message. When we are working to support the communication of an individual with complex communication needs, part of the work involves supporting communication partners with understanding and interactions.

Receiver: This is the communication partner. Receiving a message through a channel different from spoken words requires the partner to keep certain things in mind: allow time for the communicator to generate their message, do not put words in to the mouth of the speaker by finishing the statements they start, how to ask for clarification when you don't understand...etc. Developing these skills in communication partners should be part of a communication plan.

Feedback: This is the reaction/response to the message by the communication partner. Was the intended message delivered? Did the intended message create the intended action? Did the message serve to extend the social interaction that was taking place? This part of the process again reflects the importance of thinking about both the communicator and the communication partner when supporting the development of communication skills.

Thursday, July 2, 2015

CCN Alphabet: Behaviour

Supporting the Development of Emotional Competence

  1. Awareness of one's own emotions.
  2. The ability to discern and understand other's emotions.
  3. The ability to use vocabulary of emotion and expression.
  4. The capacity for empathetic involvement.
  7. Awareness of emotional communication within relationships.
  8. The capacity for emotional self-efficacy.

Augmentative Communication News December 2004 Issue on Internal Dialogue

A Communication Support Plan Instead of a Behaviour Support Plan

Sunday, June 28, 2015

CCN Alphabet: Aided Language

The following video outlines a few key concepts related to ALS:

Focused Aided  Language Stimulation

  5. Check for understanding and reteach, as necessary.

Aided Language Stimulation - Focusing on Functions

Pixon Language and Learning Activity Notebook (PLLAN)

Pixon 60 TouchChatHD App Clinical Manual

So how does this play out in actual practice?


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Review at Heathen Harvest :

Of the Wand and the Moon has returned to the neofolk arena with yet another powerful album
of shamanistic heathen neofolk.
“Sonnenheim” is Of the Wand and the Moon’s first full length album in two years
following the release of the mini CD “Midnight Will,” the 7” vinyl “Hail, Hail, Hail”
and the widely acclaimed full length album “Lucifer” released in 2003.”
Containing fifteen songs and a play time of nearly fifty-four minutes
“Sonnenheim” continues the poetic and spiritual legacy
that has established Of the Wand and the Moon as one of the leading voices
in the heathen / esoteric inspired neofolk music scene.

“Sonnenheim” sees Of the Wand and the Moon delving deeper than ever before
into heathen inspired themes of honor, kinship, resistance, worship, nature, and magick.
Using poetry and allusive references Kim Larsen communicates his experiences
and insights with finesse and grace. Kim is able to weave a spell
that seduces the listener into a remembrance of things faint
and almost forgotten by wrapping insightful poetry in dreamy acoustic instrumentation
and swaying electronic keyboards.
Values, insights, and experiences are thoughtfully shrouded in song craft
and left for the listener to find and initiate.
The listening experience is intimate and devoid of force or proselytizing.
Those with an open heart and a knowledge of self, spirit
and ancestry will find “Sonnenheim” to be an unparalleled journey through elusive spiritual experiences.
Much can be garnished from “Sonnenheim” by those who have sought the runes and the path of the wolf.

“Sonnenheim” launches with the opening song “Black Moth.”
“Black Moth” begins with sounds of the night paired with a deep steady resonant drone.
A disembodied female voice lends a haunting quality to the track as she sings a vintage song
in the back ground without instrumental accompaniment.
The lyrics contribute to the eerie atmosphere as she sings “When your smiling,
when your smiling the whole world smiles with you…when your laughing,
when your laughing the sun comes shining through…”
This uncomfortable introduction last for a little over a minute
before the eruption of fully automated gun fire echoes in the distance.
A burst of rumbling brass instrumentation heralds in deep shamanistic drumming
and ritualistic percussion that includes the steady shaking of reindeer bells.
The song is enveloped in thick drumming, ritualistic percussion,
and gentle chime like keyboards that float across the heavy atmosphere.
Kim sings gently from within the music.
His words weave impressions of brotherhood and valor amongst warrior kin.
This is Of the Wand and the Moon at the height of their craft.
This is modern day skald craft peeling away the ages to give voice to the timeless spirit we share.

Track seven titled “Hollow Upon Hollow” echoes the pain in every modern heathens heart
when we gaze into the ruins of the past and see the faded glory of our faith.
“Hollow Upon Hollow” is a poetic reflection upon what has been lost to time
and conquest and a pondering of what can be reclaimed.
The song begins with the signature acoustic guitar and wistful keyboards that have become a trademark
of Of the Wand and the Moon.
The keyboards waver and swirl around the steady guitar as Kim sings chant like passages
that reflect upon the loss of heathen faith amidst our people.
Kim sings “Once sword now rust, once faith now dust, hollow upon hollow, once a word now deceit,
once flowers now weeds, hollow upon hollow.”
The lyrics reflect the knowledge that has been discarded and the values which have faded from our grasp with time. Plants once sacred and known to heal have become weeds to be eradicated.
Our grip no longer knows the grace of the sword as our battles are fought by youth driven by political aims.
And faith in our gods has been usurped by the foreign cult from the east.
“Here comes the bloodwind…Did we forget our past, shall we regain the path, hollow upon hollow…”
Kim’s words embody personal reflection that echoes in many of our hearts as we seek to reclaim for ourselves
and our kin that which was so thoughtlessly discarded by our societies.

“I Shall Feast” is the eleventh song on Sonnenheim
and it gives voice to the spirit of retaliation every warrior must become familiar with.
Staying true to his heathen values Kim Larsen gives voice to the spirit of the warrior
as he delivers a song rife with illusions to shape shifting and the mysteries of the wolf.
“I Shall Feast” begins with a brief introduction of plucked or stroked strings.
The strings fade quickly to the sound of hypnotic bass guitar
and organ like keyboard playing that whines and swirls in a repetitive trance inducing cycle of sound.
This pulsating tapestry of sound is imbedded with various sounds that emerge and fade.
The music imbues the listener with a sense of intensity and frenetic activity.
Images of being encircled in the warm glow of fire light while outside the ring of visibility wild animals scratch,
snort, and growl.
The listener remains transfixed upon the cyclic swirl of music
while the random sounds tear at the edge of your attention like restless spirits that have been invoked.
The lyrics speak in whispers of a blood ritual and a curse upon ones enemies.
The wolf is invoked in all of its glory and fierceness. May the fangs find their mark.

Kim Larsen has produced another dark celestial album that has captured the most fragile
and elusive experiences of our kin.
Kim has captured the sacred with his words and music yet he never grasps hard enough to shatter
or smother that which he captures.
Like capturing the delicate flight of the moth or the first rays of dawn
Kim has taken that which often eludes speech and has gracefully wrapped it in song.
Those who seek their path under the limbs of oaks and beneath the silver rays of the moon
will be touched by this music.
“Sonnenheim” stirs the embers that have resisted the frost.
Kim does nothing more than share his own experiences and insights
but in doing so he also gives voice to a vision and understanding of life
and humanity that has almost faded from our lives.

Hearing another lone heathen speak of kinship, honor, valor,
the magick of summer solstice and debts repaid in blood and the bite of the wolf
has renewed my faith that our ways have not been lost.
Indeed they are eternal and await seekers such as Kim Larsen
and Of the wand and the Moon to give them a voice once more.
Needless to say “Sonnenheim” comes highly recommended by Heathen Harvest
and I encourage you all to experience the beauty and grandeur invoked by Of the Wand and the Moon.

Back to Sonnenheim >>


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FOGO - Islands Characteristics

Fogo is basically one large volcano which is over 3000m in height. The volcanic landscape is beautiful and you are still able to see the landscape as it was formed by previous eruptions. Fogo's landscape is very dry and arid in the south but humid and fertile in the north. Of all the islands Fogo is the hottest of all Cape Verde islands. The port of Sao Filipe is Porto du Vale de Cavaleros. Which is situated about 3km from the capital Sao Filipe.

Fogo (Portuguese for "fire") is a volcanic island in the Sotavento group of Cape Verde. It is the most prominent of the group, rising to nearly 3,000 m (10,000 ft) above sea level at Mount Fogo. If you are visiting Fogo then a trip to the Volcano summit is recommended. But it is not for the faint hearted. Guides are there to help you with your trip to the volcano crater - the ascent of 1,200m takes approximately 5 hours and the descent into the crater (180m) takes approximately 2 hours. The volcano has been historically active, last erupting in 1995, forming a new crater called Pico Pequeno. Its largest feature is a 9 km wide caldera, which has walls 1 km high. The caldera has a breach in its eastern rim, and a large peak rises in the centre. A violent eruption took place in 1680. The mountain of the island was visible over hundreds of kilometres and lasted for a few years. It was during this eruption that the island earned its name.

Fog is the group of Sotavento west of Santiago and east of Brava The island's main town is SÃ£o Filipe, near which is the airport. First settled in the 1480s, it is largely an agricultural island. The islands also houses schools, a gymnasium, banks, a post office, some hotels and squares (praÃ§as). . Fogo has fertile land in the southwest with a slope of about 10 to 15 degrees. The north and the east are slopey. The entire island is a seamount, called the Cadamosto Seamount, and the surrounding ocean can be as deep as 5,300 m at a distance of 5 km from the shoreline. The exception is to the west, but it is connected with another seamount further west in Brava.

Fogo was discovered in 1460 by an Italian captain AntÃ³nio Noli and was first called SÃ£o Filipe meaning Saint Philip in Portuguese. The Portuguese settled the island in 1500. Emigration started in 1850, mainly to North America. The island used to have slavery. The 1910 civil revolution in Portugal drew aristocracy and large landowners back to Portugal and left civilians behind. A small museum on Fogo explains many of these connections.

The economy of the island is based on agriculture and fishing, with coffee and wine among the main products. Many private households live off remittances from emigrants in the US and other countries as the island has a substantial diaspora. Many emigrants send some money to their relatives in the island even if the senders and receivers no longer know each other. Tourism is steadily becoming popular.

Tourist activities

Horse riding is provided at Cha das Caldeiras and this allows people to explore the volcano on horseback. The volcano is the island's major attraction but many visitors also come to see relatives. The historic town of SÃ£o Filipe and ChÃ£ das Caldeiras in the volcanic crater receive the bulk of visitors. In Salina de Sao Jorge there is a natural swimming pool with black reefs which is worth a visit. Guides are also available to assist hikers. The slopes in the northeastern part are green and grassy all-year round. The rest of the mountain is dry and barren. One of the southernmost islands in Cape Verde, Fogo receives the most precipitation. The creeks and streams are dry all-year round. SÃ£o Filipe's buildings use classic Portuguese colonial architecture. Mosteiros in the northeast is the island's second most important town.


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Title: Distributed task rescheduling with time constraints for the optimisation of total task allocations in a multi-robot system
Authors: Turner, Joanna
Meng, Qinggang
Schaefer, Gerald
Whitbrook, Amanda
Soltoggio, Andrea
Keywords: Distributed task-allocation
Multi-agent systems
Vehicle routing
Issue Date: 2017
Publisher: © IEEE
Citation: TURNER, J. ... et al, 2017. Distributed task rescheduling with time constraints for the optimisation of total task allocations in a multi-robot system. IEEE Transactions on Cybernetics, In Press.
Abstract: This paper considers the problem of maximising the number of task allocations in a distributed multi-robot system under strict time constraints, where other optimisation objectives need also be considered. This study builds upon existing distributed task allocation algorithms, extending them with a novel method for maximising the number of task assignments. The fundamental idea is that a task assignment to a robot has a high cost if its reassignment to another robot creates a feasible time slot for unallocated tasks. Multiple reassignments among networked robots may be required to create a feasible time slot and an upper limit to this number of reassignments can be adjusted according to performance requirements. A simulated rescue scenario with task deadlines and fuel limits is used to demonstrate the performance of the proposed method compared with existing methods, the Consensus-Based Bundle Algorithm (CBBA) and the Performance Impact algorithm (PI). Starting from existing (PI-generated) solutions, results show an up to 20% increase in task allocations using the proposed method.
Description: This paper is closed access until it is published.
Sponsor: Q.Meng was supported by EPSRC (grant number EP/J011525/1) with BAE Systems as the leading industrial partner.
Version: Accepted for publication
URI: https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/2134/26419
Publisher Link: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/RecentIssue.jsp?punumber=6221036
ISSN: 2168-2275
Appears in Collections:Closed Access (Computer Science)

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Ageism in the Workplace – Essay

Ageism can impact any individual, especially in the workplace, where individuals can be at a disadvantage for a variety of reasons. Considering the fact that this type of discrimination affects people of all ages, ageism is most easily discussed when divided into three groups: * Young age (16-24 years) * Middle age (25-49 years) * Older age (50- over State Pension Age) The ideas and beliefs of young adults are often discriminated against because societal norms have put forth the notion that their ideas are less important because they have less experience.

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Young adults may be as responsible and may value the desire for further advancement in their job as much as middle and older aged groups, yet they are automatically denied positions based on the simple number that is age. Young adults are just as, if not more, capable than their elders in that they are more energetic and physically strong, enabling them to work more hours and complete the task just as any of the other age groups. The bulk of the workforce falls under the middle-aged category.

One’s professional peak is said to occur through their 30s and 40s. This being said, we can conclude that the middle age group is least affected by age discrimination. The stereotype is that they are more qualified for the job because they are more experienced, focused and ambitious towards their desired career while still being physically capable of benefiting the job. Within the age limits of this group, it can be said that gender also leads to ageism when women are perceived as becoming older workers at an earlier age than men.

Society has created a norm that perceives the older age group as the weak and incompetent. In Older Employees: New Roles for Valued Resources, “age stereotypes depict older people as frail and fragile, as having lost the vitality and energy necessary to make a full fledge commitment to their careers” (Rosen, B. , & Jerdee, T. , 1985). In the work field, managers assume that older employees are less motivated to improve their job skills compared to younger employees; therefore managers are less likely to hire them.

On the contrary, many employers look to hire older people because they feel that older people are more experienced in the work place, which means that no additional training is necessary. Furthermore, employers rarely increase older people’s pay because they are less likely to switch careers. The younger groups have more opportunity to further their careers and hence, need motivation to stay loyal to their employer. Although there have been vast improvements in medicine and increases in life span, the elderly are considered to be frail and more apt to get injured or fall victim to illness.

This idea affects the working culture because this view towards older people has not changed, “This way of thinking-and acting- has been expressed in discriminatory practices such as (a) limiting or excluding older workers from substantive job responsibilities and activities, (b) removing older employees from the workforce through negative performance evaluations or through encouraging their retirement; (c) implementing insensitive, poorly conceived policies; (d) limiting older workers’ access to job-related education, career development opportunities, or employee benefits; and (e) refusing to hire or promote older workers” (Hedge J. Borman W. & Lammlein S, 2006). Generally, the idea is that “older people [are treated] less favorably than others, perhaps because of an idea that such people have outlived the useful part of their lives and that society should somehow allocate its resources to those that have something left to contribute. Older people may be segregated and regarded as a burden or a drain on the resources of the community”, generating ageism to come into effect (Malcolm, 2007). Older workers face ageist attitudes and age discrimination. Ageism plays a harmful role in the workplace.

Discrimination of age is illegal under both the Federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act, and the California Fair Employment and Housing Act. However, these laws are geared towards the elderly and offer no protection for young workers. The law of “The Age of Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967” protects individuals who are forty years of age or older from employment discrimination based on age. Not only is ageism evident in the workforce, but also it is also present in the government. There is no law whatsoever protecting young age groups. Some might say that these instances of unfairness occurring in the workplace seem acceptable.

However, discriminating against someone based on how old and young they are is never justifiable. It is not ones age that determines their capability and qualifications but their competence. “Competence, not age, should determine whether a person should keep a job. To do otherwise, is to squander one of our nations most precious resources and to hasten the day of the end of those who are denied the experience that would keep them vitally and for a long time alive. ”(Rosen, B. , & Jerdee, T. H. (1985). pg. 49) Age should not be a factor in the work force for many reasons.

The young, the middle-aged, and the elderly all need their place in the job market. It is unfair to discriminate against those who are fully capable of completing the task efficiently entirely based on age. If employers continue to follow these trends, we will run into many problems. As the baby boom generation gets older, there will be an increase in the older working group. There is no way to prevent this and because baby boomers make up a large percentage of the population, it could create economic issues if we don’t find ways to accommodate the needs of the elderly.

Otherwise, we will have fewer workers and less wisdom to guide future generations. “The use of older workers can help organizations meet their growing and changing company objectives in a global economy while providing meaningful work rolls for middle-aged and older Americans. ” (Hedge J. , Borman W. & Lammlein S, 2006). On the other side of the spectrum, young people are very valuable to the corporate world. We need the fresh ideas of young adults who are excited about starting new careers and motivated to advance their knowledge.

It is also important that we encourage the independence of young people by trusting them to be responsible instead of doubting their abilities. Hedge, J. W. , Borman, W. C. , & Lammlein, S. E. (2006). The Aging workforce: realities, myths, and implications for organizations. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Rosen, B. , & Jerdee, T. H. (1985). Older employees: new roles for valued resources. USA: Dow Jones-Erwin. Sargeant, M. (2007). Age discrimination in employment. Retrieved from http://site. ebrary. com/lib/emmanuel/docDetail. action? docID=10209153

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Bills are proposed legislation, and must go through a number of stages before becoming law. Federally and provincially, the process is essentially the same.

In the federal system, most bills can be tabled (introduced) in either the House of Commons or the Senate. Bills starting with "C" were first tabled in the House of Commons - for example, Bill C-2 - while "S" denotes a bill which was first tabled in the Senate. There is no Senate at the provincial or territorial level.

Bill numbering re-begins each legislative session, so it is helpful to know approximately when your bill was tabled.


NS iNSight – A Perfect Fit

RADIUS Users cover

Music instrument aesthetics are rarely, if ever, considered from a scientific point of view. Yet for industrial designers and architects, form must meet function. And there is a lot of science and technology to apply in this way.

While technique for playing bass is often the subject of passionate discussion, and there are varying theories (plectrum, fingers, slap, tap, Simandl method, one note per fret method, etc.) the design of the instrument itself has a lot to do with the overall playability of the bass and the ability of the player to successfully use those techniques. When the very first electric bass was created it was just a squared, slab of wood with no cuts or rounded/beveled edges. Ergonomics took a backseat to sound production. And while there were changes over the years, they were an answer to specific player issues and ideas rather than a look directly at design. Even today, most of the emphasis and science in the music instrument industry goes into the materials and electronics of the instruments. Guitar and bass aesthetics are merely a function of what is pleasing or challenging to the eye.

RADIUS blueprint cover

Ned Steinberger is synonymous with innovative headless instruments. Yet it is not as well known that Ned designed the body of one of the most iconic basses of all time, the Spector NS-2 bass. Yes, the NS stands for Ned Steinberger. As a furniture designer and builder specializing in chairs, Ned understood that function and form are all essential to an aesthetically pleasing, yet functional piece of furniture. And it was in that Brooklyn co-op that he shared with some up and coming guitar and bass builders where he first applied those principles to music instruments. In collaboration with Stuart Spector, he designed something radical for the time, a rounded, radiused bass body with cuts and carves that naturally fell against the body of the player, making the bass exponentially more comfortable and easier to play. His body shape has been copied numerous times over the years, by some of the world’s largest guitar manufacturers.

With the NS Design Radius Bass, Ned uses ergonomic science and technology and has taken the body contour to a whole new level. While maintaining and refining the back body curve cut so that the bass lies on the player’s body comfortably, the front of NS Diradial™ Body has a 20 inch radius, which, in combination with the general wedge shape of the body, shifts it into more comfortable orientation for the right and left hand. The slight wedge shape of the body tilts the body and neck slightly inward so the fingerboard is more visible to the player, and the concave curve on the back of the body creates a more stable platform. The radius of the bass is continued along the entire body, to include pickups and bridge, to optimize the playability and comfort of the bass.

The pictures show how the radius has been built into the bass. Built in based on technology.

Simple, yet intuitive. Form, science, and engineering meeting function.


What does capital accumulation plan mean?

capital accumulation plan meaning in Business Dictionary

Pension program in which employees make tax-deferred efforts from their salary to your retirement records. This deduction decreases their taxable income and qualifies all of them for a lower life expectancy tax bracket. Also referred to as wage reduction plan.


rosella flower face oil - balance 30ml

rosella flower face oil - balance 30ml
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Keep skin hydrated and nourished with our natural, vitamin enriched facial oil. This can be used as a regular face moisturiser. Gently massage onto clean face until well absorbed. Suitable for normal, oily and combination skin types.

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