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TACTics Journal
A Publication for and by TOC for Education Practitioners
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TOC for Education 11 th International Conference Warsaw, Poland Airport: Frederic Chopin Airport (Airport Code: WAW) Venue: The National Library of Poland Some arrangements have yet to be finalized and we hope to have more for you next month!
compiled by Kathy Suerken Poland: The Mazovian In-Service Teacher Training Centre hosted a upgrade seminar for 13 TOCfE facilitators in Plock, Poland on April 22-23. Kathy Suerken facilitated with Agnieszka Dluzniewska providing a presentation on TOC and Maslow's theory of needs. Lithuania: Lina Simonaviciute and TOC Sprendimai, a business consulting company, gave a TOCfE presentation to local education authorities on May 19. Lina is collaborating with Petra Pouw Legene and a local colleague of hers in NL, who is a former resident of Lithuania. Mexico: A one day TOCfE conference in Leon on June 6 is being organized by Flavio Sanchez and his TOCfE Guanajuato Team. Sponsors of the event are SEG - Secretaria de Educacion de Guanajuato, ITESM Campus Leon (Tech) and TECNOS, Acierto Educativo. Netherlands: Annemie Knibbe-van Dijck and Petra Pouw Legene co-hosted a 4 day “Addressing Layers of Resistance to Change Through TOC” seminar in May which was taught by Kathy Suerken. The next “Layers” seminar will be in Gdansk, Poland October 11-14, 2008. Peru: Nelly Caraza Charun and a team of Peruvian teachers will provide a TOCfE workshop for MEPSA workers. MEPSA is a TOCfE business partner which sponsors TOCfE, Peru.
Last year Tactics published an article regarding the Saturday School I ran for primary aged children, called The Indigo Academy. The Indigo offered an alternative to the wealth of sport and drama classes traditionally available – The curriculum was made up of , Yoga, Art, Craftwork, Magic, Thinking Skills, Developmental Games and Stacking Cups. All of which was delivered to a backdrop of TOC. By this I mean the children were familiar with the tools, using them as and when required, e.g., behaviour we didn't want to encourage, problems that arose or ones that were shared etc. More and more children joined who were diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome (high functioning autism). The curriculum was very interesting to them and they benefitted immensely from the social interaction with a small group. After about 6 months I started to receive some very interesting feedback..... Two or three of the children diagnosed with Asperger's who were attending main stream schools (but monitored very closely,) were flying past their academic targets for the year and integrating more than was ever considered possible. Their parents were convinced TOC was responsible. Sunny was 6 years old when he came to a TOC summer workshop I was running for kids. The course (9 hours in total) introduced the three tools. Because of his difficulties he was chaperoned by his mother. At break on the first morning, I noticed his mum was grinning and felt compelled to ask her if she had just had some good news. She told me she could not believe what she had witnessed, Sunny had never been able to focus and enjoy a learning activity for more than a few minutes before. She was astounded at his attention span. As the morning drew on she began to explore the possibility that the limitations he was experiencing may have as much to do with his environment as his abilities! She didn't bother attending the rest of the course with him as he was so comfortable staying with us on his own. At 6 years old Sunny was able to use the 3 thinking tools, the cloud, the negative branch and the ambitious target tree. After the short summer course, his mother enrolled him into the Indigo Academy. For the first 6 months he applied the tools to his favourite character from a book. He did not seem able to entertain the idea that he could use the tools on himself (as you know, one issue with autism is a lack of awareness of self) But gradually that changed and he was able to apply the strategies to his personal issues - which has huge implications! His mother firmly believed that his exposure to TOC had helped him to both develop an understanding beyond what she (or anyone) thought was possible and help him integrate much more at school, which obviously would have many wonderful re-percussions for him. Autism is not my speciality. In total, I have probably worked closely with about 10-15 autistic children. All have enjoyed TOC. It seems to give them a structure - which they like, even if they don't they don't at first see an application; the structured procedure in itself is useful. I believe, as with Sunny, the use of TOC tools, eventually allowed the neural connections to be made, that allowed him to apply the logic to himself (and perhaps more importantly, to understand he had a self.) I am currently studying for my Masters Degree in Emotional Intelligence. It requires that I have a certain level of knowledge in neuroscience and its applications to education. My theories are still formulating but I am clear there is an, as yet, un-sung hero - TOC. I believe its ability to effect cognition is enormous. I would like to share with you some of what I have learnt and how I feel this is relevant to what you have just read. Have you heard of Mirror neurons? They are cells in the brain that fire when we take, hear or observe an action taking place. Specific functions attributed to them are: - understanding goals and intentions, empathy, language and ability to infer. (Perhaps we could affectionately call them TOC cells!) They are also known to be absent/reduced/malfunctioning in those diagnosed with autism. Mu rhythm, a human brain-wave pattern, is suppressed or blocked when the brain is engaged in doing, seeing or imagining action, and correlates with the activity of the mirror neuron system. In most people, the Mu wave is suppressed both in response to self movements and those we observe in others. Tests show that mirror neurons of autistic people only respond to their own movements. "The findings provide evidence that individuals with autism have a dysfunctional mirror neuron system, which may contribute to many of their impairments -- especially those that involve comprehending and responding appropriately to others' behaviour," Lindsay Oberman, first author and doctoral student working in the labs of senior authors V.S. Ramachandran, director of the Centre for Brain and Cognition, and Jaime Pineda, director of the Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory. . "We can learn to increase or decrease the strength of the mu signal at will. By imagining action, subjects are able to move a paddle in a computer game of 'Pong' after just four to six hours of practice,” "Because this rhythm is one that we have access to volitionally, it may prove useful in therapy." (Jaime Pineda) It occurs to me that this is exactly what the negative branch does. It allows one to explore the meaning or consequences of an action taken or being considered. It mirrors an action; it plays it out, allowing a template for the possibilities of the consequences without having to have physical experience of them. The same way mirror neurons impact learning and cognition Another therapy being considered involves ordinary mirrors. Ramachandran has successfully treated amputees who experience pain or paralysis in their missing, or "phantom," limbs by using a mirror reflection of their healthy limb to "trick" their brains into believing that the missing limb has been restored to pain-free motion. Since autistics' mirror neurons respond to their own motion, the researchers say, perhaps their brains can be induced to perceive their own reflected movements as the movements of another human being.' Is this what happened to Sunny? Over many months applying TOC tools to his favourite fictional characters did he develop neural pathways that allowed him to perceive 'self' - hence his ability to apply them to himself? Researchers are also looking to see if mirror neurons are involved in the ability to understand metaphors? Autistic individuals usually have difficulties with metaphors, often interpreting them literally, and researchers believe this also may be connected to a dysfunctional mirror neuron system. Well, this too reminds me of Sunny and his mother's greatest joy - her son's new ability to understand that people do not always mean what they say or say what they mean. University Of California, San Diego (2005, April 18). Autism Linked To Mirror Neuron Dysfunction. ScienceDaily. Retrieved May 21, 2008, from http://www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2005/04/050411204511.htm) I am in no doubt that using TOC tools improves cognition and have seen the benefits for the children I have worked with. Sadly we are long way off from empirical evidence, but if I was looking for a non-invasive therapy to use with high functioning autistic children I know what I would try! Debi Roberts debiroberts@hotmail.co.uk References taken from; Society for Neuroscience (2007, November 7). Mirror, Mirror In The Brain: Mirror Neurons, Self-understanding And Autism Research. ScienceDaily. Retrieved May 21, 2008, from http://www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2007/11/071106123725.htm And Finally ... We are always looking for articles for the TACTics Journal and welcome any contribution from you the readers. Please send anything that you would like us to consider for publication to the following address. tactics@mct-ltd.com |