What’s up, doc…

Learning disabilities

I’ve been doing some reading on learning disabilities. No earth-shattering revelations as of yet (once you’ve read one book, a lot of the information is repeated in others). So far most books talk about what it is, how it’s diagnosed, how it affects kids (& adults). I’ve yet to find much on treatment or techniques for helping kids learn better. But the one I’m reading now has a few chapters on “treatment” and another one is designed for teachers working with kids with learning disabilities, so I have hope of finding a few ideas.

I also took out a video called “Bright kids, bad grades.” After watching it, I thought Mustang could benefit from watching it too so we did so on Sunday afternoon. She found it very interesting and I think it helped her to see she isn’t the only kid with these kinds of problems. I’ve also started reading her the story bits of a book that combines a story about a kid with LD with other information about LD. She’s finding it interesting too. One section where it describes the tests the school psychologist did with the boy, she got all excited because they were some of the same tests / games the psychologist did with her last Thursday.

Of course, a diagnosis has not yet been made, but I have few doubts. (If it doesn’t come back as an LD diagnosis I will be both perplexed and frustrated, because she simply isn’t learning the way she “should.”)

Work

It’s been pretty hectic for the last two weeks. I am discovering how much politics there is in how decisions as to government funding programs are made… and how that can interfere with the completion of processes designed to move the government agenda forward. Everyone wants/needs time to do their job properly, but the politics sometimes means decisions are delayed and then the resultant (approval) processes get rushed. Much of my current job is process-driven, which is not my favourite thing, but as long as there’s enough content-driven work, too, it’s not too bad.

Camera

As noted before, I’m desiring a digital camera. I would appreciate any suggestions as to a good but inexpensive model that fulfills the following criteria:

• lightweight and compact (but not excessively small);
• capable of close-focus (within appx 30 – 45cm of the object being photographed);
• capable of turning flash on or off as desired; taking photos on delay-release setting;
• does not need to be SLR, though that could be nice if it meets the size and price criteria;
• does not require a super-high pixel rating, but would like larger pixels for sharper/brighter images;
• some zoom capability (optical zoom preferred over digital zoom);
• price of under $250.