naked: a plague of tics

Usually anything written by David Sedaris proves to be an easy read. I love the style Sedaris uses throughout his writing. While reading his story, I found my laughing at his witty jokes and sense of humor. The story introduces Sedaris as a young boy displaying signs of obsessive compulsive disorder. It seems as though the nervous tics he suffered from were not seen as a 'defect' at the time. All throughout his time in elementary and middle school, Sedaris's teachers found his obsessive tics to be disruptive in the classroom and just down right weird. Teacher after teacher meets with his mother, discussing the oddities of his behavior. We can gather by the description of Sedaris's mother that she is quite the alcoholic. In addition to his mother's problems, his father seems to be somewhat of a hoarder (seems to be a bit ironic to think their child is the one with all the problems, eh?). By the time he reaches college, Sedaris picks up a new habit that replaces some of his tics. He finds that smoking allows himself to continue his fidgety behavior except in a more normal nature. As time progresses, his tics aren't as obvious to others and have progressively died down.

After reading the entirety of the story, I found two of David Sedaris's awkward situations to be my favorite. The first takes place within the first two paragraphs of the story. The way Miss Chestnut points out his OCD is great. I personally enjoyed when she asked him in regard to the licking of light switches, "Would you like me to come over to your house and put my tongue on your light switches? Well, would you?" It seems a bit mean to call him out in front of an entire class, but yet none the less hilarious. Now what I thought was the best part of the story was Sedaris's feelings toward his roommate. He so badly wanted to be able to rock back in forth alone in the confines of his dorm room. He formulated an idea hoping his roommate would never come back after visiting his girfriend. Instead just about the opposite happened. The couple broke up two months later and Sedaris found himself in hell yet again.

Final Research Topic

In my final research paper, the question I want to answer is what do I believe is the the real etiology of autism. There isn't a set in stone cause of the disorder, but I feel that it is important I decide which theory of autism to support. I am familiar with the disorder and learned about it in the past, yet I didn't have enough information to state my opinion until I completed my research. I came across two theories that had the most relevant information. The theories are known as congenital and regressive autism. Those who support congenital believe that autism is caused by abnormals genes or altered chromosomal patterns. The onset of the disorder is seen at the time of birth, therefore only caused by factors prior to birth. Regressive autism is drastically different, where the onset of the disorder doesn't appear until after the first few years of the child's life. Factors related to this theory would be present postnatal and due to the environment. With a bit more information on these theories, I decided which I wanted to support. With that said, I believe the developmental disorder of autism is caused by prenatal and perinatal factors that affect the genetic makeup of an individual.

As I previously stated, I had already had prior knowledge of autism before researching. In all of my speech and education classes, I have studied it in some form. Mainly I have learned the symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, and educational services needed for children with autism. These individuals lack communication, language, and social skills. They seem to be extremely introverted and have a hard time engaging socially. However, this is disorder is a bit unique due to the vast range of diagnosis. The disorder is seen in forms of mild to extreme autism. Therefore, the term autism spectrum disorder is used to classify cases of autism because of the different forms. In addition to studying these aspects of autism, I briefly explored (by briefly I mean little to none) the possible causes of the disorder. Since it's a debatable topic I didn't learn much about it.

In addition, I needed to find information on the opposing theory, regressive autism, to make arguments that favor my opinion. This goes in hand with the information I needed to look up for the opposing arguments. This is the only other theory that I will state in my paper. Lastly, this is an up to date list of the sources I am using in my paper. This list will probably grow longer within the next couple weeks.

Goin-Kochel, Robin P.; Myers, Barbara J. “Congenital Versus Regressive Onset of Autism

            Spectrum Disorders: Parent’s Beliefs About Causes.” Focus on Autism and Other

            Developmental Disabilities. Fall 2005. 1 Mar. 2011.

Mooney, Chris. “VACCINATION nation.” Discover. Discover, June 2009. Web. 1 Mar. 2011

Spence, M. Anne; Flodman, Pamela. “Nuclear and Mitochondrial Genome Defects in Autism.”

            Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. Jan. 2009. 1 Mar. 2011.

the debatable causes of autism..

For my research topic I wanted to choose something that could be of future use to me. So I decided to write about the theories associated with the causes autism. I find autism to be extremely interesting, mainly because these are the kids I want to teach after I'm done with school. There are a ton of speculated theories that explain what autism is, what triggers it, and how to treat it. I'm not sure what theories I believe and disagree with because I haven't put much thought or research into it yet. This topic is something I need to be more aware of so why not start now?

Annotated Bibliography

Kully, Deborah. Langevin, Marilyn. "Evidence-Based Practice in Fluency Disorders." ASHA. ASHA. 18 Oct. 2005.

Throughout the article, authors Kully and Langevin stress the importance of Evidence-Based Practice (EBP). EBP's purpose is to provide ethical means of practicing among other factors. This type of practice is meant to provide the most effective treatment for patients, cost effective solutions, and more information on a particular disorder. EBP is strongly focused on the patient to provide the tools to produce the best desired outcome. Not only is it beneficial to the patient, but it provides more knowledge for practicing in the future as a clinician. Since evidence-based treatment needs to be tested before it is performed, many experiments need to prove its effectiveness. However, it is difficult to find successful treatments options for fluency disorders because it is so controversial. Fluency disorders, such as stuttering, are very opinionated and often not agreeable among clinicians. Even though EBP has had a slow start in speech pathology, it is seen as the leading means of research in the field.

Attached to Technology

It's easy to see that Mr. Campbell has become infatuated with technology. The man can't go more than 5 minutes without getting his fix. This statement, "When he rides the subway to San Francisco, he knows he will be offline 221 seconds as the train goes through a tunnel," seems crazy to me. And to think that I once thought I was addicted to Facebook. This guy puts me to shame.

After reading the first two pages of this article, I decided that no one should indulge themselves in this much online activity. It seems like Mr. Campbell's only concerns in life are checking his email, video games, or reviewing some stranger's tweets. I think that his online addiction will potentially lead to unfortunate consequences. The article already states that he rarely has his full attention on any person or topic. Nor does he take the time to read important emails, which could determine the fate of $1.3 million dollar deal.

I don't like to generalize that technology has a largely negative effect on people.. but this is a pretty good example of how the internet can consume someone's life. Don't get me wrong, I do believe the internet poses positive characteristics and most people use it to their advantage. However, Mr. Campbell's life revolves around his technology, which is not a healthy way to live.

The article did state that only 3% of the population are this consumed by online technologies, therefore I don't see this as a prominent problem yet. The internet and other technologies are mostly beneficial, people just need to know when how much is too much.

Hi Everyone!

Hey my name's Elizabeth. I'm at sophomore at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. My major is Speech-Language Pathology and my minor is in Deaf Ed. In other words, it's speech therapy. Eventually I want to teach children with autism. I'm from a town outside of Pittsburgh, so obviously I'm a die-hard Steelers and Pens fan :). The reason I created this blog was a fulfillment for a college research writing class, but it should be interesting since it's my first blog!