Monterey Bay Forum

Thank you for your quick response.

There is nothing that occurred at our meeting at Peter’s house that made us an association. The Jackson check to pay for paving street was left blank re name. Baker never held meetings and we never years ago established an association. The Minutes have to be ratified to be legal. There has not been any meeting ratifying the Minutes. Thus , nothing has occurred that makes us an “association”.

We do have a good lawyer on the block. Why not ask Jim Jackson, Esq. He can be reached at jaj48@aol.com 688-6002 How about a phone call?

Thank goodness that email (my new email account) is now working!! Take care, Your neighbor, Cameron Jackson

The above was written in response to the following:

“The account at the bank is the Florence Drive Association. We made our checks out the Florence Drive Association. It is also documented in the minutes which were filed at the bank as the Florence Drive Association.”

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$200 price tag for an autism screen that samples the child’s vocalizations to assess for autistic spectrum disorder. Is such a tool necessary? Differences in vocalization is just part of the problem, probably not the central problem.

Children with autism spectrum symptoms have non-verbal problems — not following a point, not looking at mommy’s face, not establishing joint attention with their caregivers. Vocalization is just part of the problem.

The real issue is what can be done early on to assess and correct the problems with attachment and non-verbal communication.

See the article below:

“LENA Foundation has increased the accuracy of the LENA Autism Screen (LAS) to 91 percent for children 24 to 48 months. LAS – the first automatic and totally objective autism screen is now as accurate or more accurate than other autism screens currently available to parents and clinicians.

“We’re thrilled with this leap in accuracy, especially on the eve of the launch of LAS for parents of young children who want to screen their child for autism spectrum disorders (ASD),” said Terrance (Terry) D. Paul, president of the foundation. “LAS is truly revolutionary because the analysis is based on the child’s vocalizations in the natural home environment. It will allow parents to quickly and inexpensively screen children as young as 24 months, enabling earlier interventions while reducing the anxiety of ‘not knowing.’”

The LAS, scheduled for release in mid-September, will also include an automatic screen for language delays; the LAS is priced at $200. LAS is expected to be warmly embraced by parents and clinicians in the United States, where 1 in 150 children has ASD and more than 5 percent of children have language delay. Despite the “autism epidemic” and the fact that the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that pediatricians screen children twice for autism by the age of two, the average age of diagnosis is 5.7 years. This diagnostic lapse adds up considerably in financial and societal costs. The estimated cost of treating a person with ASD over a lifetime ranges from $3.5 to $5 million; however, with early detection, such as that enabled by the LAS, it is estimated that costs can be reined in by up to two thirds, reducing that range to $1.2 to $1.7 million. Of course, the improvement in the quality of life enabled through earlier intervention for both autism and language delay is unquantifiable.

The new technique, which generated a significant boost in accuracy compared to the previously announced phone model, incorporates a data-driven cluster approach that utilizes k-means clustering to partition the acoustic feature space of child vocalizations. It has been known for many years that children with ASD have aberrations of voice and prosody. These differences between the vocalizations of typically developing children and children with ASD, though extremely difficult to identify with the human ear, can be identified statistically using advanced computer technology. The new technique was developed based on naturalistic full-day recordings from children diagnosed with ASD and children without ASD.

“Child vocalization decomposition could be done using either a phone model or clusters derived directly from child vocalizations,” explained Dongxin Xu, Ph.D., manager of software and language engineering at the foundation. “The performances of the two methods are similar when applied individually. When combined together, the performance is significantly improved. This suggests that the two approaches capture different discriminant information for autism detection.”

The LENA System comprises advanced processing software and specially designed children’s clothing fitted with a lightweight LENA Digital Language Processor (DLP), a small, unobtrusive digital recorder. Designed for use in the natural home environment, the DLP can save up to 16 hours of high-quality audio, capturing all of a child’s vocalizations as well as adult speech and other sounds.

About LENA Foundation

Established in 2009, the LENA Foundation develops advanced technology for the early screening, diagnosis, research, and treatment of language delays and disorders in children and adults. Philanthropists Terry and Judi Paul formed the not-for-profit organization through a multimillion-dollar gift and the donation of assets from Infoture Inc. Over a five-year period, Infoture created the LENA (Language ENvironment Analysis) System, the world’s first automatic language collection and analysis tool and the foundation’s principal product. The foundation employs a team of scientists and engineers skilled in computerized speech and speaker recognition, microelectronics, statistical research, and children’s language acquisition and development; they are passionately devoted to helping the foundation enhance language development worldwide.

Source: LENA Foundation

Paul Krugman in Baucus and the threshold (Santa Cruz Sentinel 9-20-09) writes that the Baucus plan doesn’t create “real competition in the insurance market. The right way to create competition is to offer a public option, a government run insurance plan individuals can buy into as an alternative to private insurance…”

That boggles the mind. Paul, we already have a public option – it is called Medicare. Everyone age 65 is forced to use the public option plan. Whether they like it or not. Medicare is a single payer, government run plan. And it runs hugely in the red. Reform Medicare instead of creating another government run bureaucracy.

How reform health care? Here’s how:

One, let the over 65 population opt out of Medicare in favor of privately run insurance plans of their choice. Create an Exchange that allows private insurance plans to compete with Medicare Over 65 people who are healthy and only want catastrophic care can get what they want. People over 65 may not want to and should not have to to pay for cosmetic surgery, abortions or AIDS care. Let the over 65 choose the level and kind of care they want. This is a way to create real competition with the existing single payer system – Medicare.What was that cry in the wilderness — Let my people go! Today let the people go out of Medicare if they choose.

Two, get serious about tort reform. Cap the amount of money people can get for non-economic losses at $400,000. Get rid of joint and several liability. That is serious tort reform. One state has already made these reforms. Make tort reform applicable in all states.

Use the carrot instead of a stick. Give incentives for people to either buy health care or set aside money in an account to pay for their cost. Don’t use penalties for not buying insurance

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Topic: Why infants don’t sleep as they used to when left with babysitters & what to do about it. written by Dr. Cameron Jackson, licensed psychologist PSY14762 cameronjacks@gmail.com

I take care of a grandchild 2 mornings a week. He is 3 months old. This last week he did not sleep much as he used to do. His mother said that happened also this past week when left with the babysitter that comes the other 3 mornings.

I think the 3 month old knows mommy is gone and he is staying awake until she gets back. The child is vigilant concerning the loss of the most important object in his young life — mommy’s presence and mommy’s milk.

What might reduce this infant’s vigilance and mild anxiety? Knowing that she will return soon and that she will do what she says. Can this be taught to an infant? Certainly worth trying.

This infant and all infants need to hear a simple explanation ahead of time: Tomorrow, Mommy goes to work. Mommy comes back in 5 hours. While Mommy is gone, Grand-ma takes care of you. This is a picture of grand-ma. When gone you have a picture of me. I will do what I say. I come back soon.”

Parents need to say what they mean to infants and clearly and simply say what goes on. And then do it. The KISS principal.

Puppets are a wonderful way to teach the stories that infants need to hear. Use a simple, repetitive song to sing the story. It is not too young — in fact it is never too young — to tell infants ahead of time important things that affect their lives. Say clearly and simply, “tomorrow ma-ma goes and grand-ma comes….I come back soon….and fun things will happen while grand-ma cares for you…

Parents need to mean what they say and say what they mean in simple, clear terms talking to their infants. Tell them the important things that are happening in their young lives. And sing it as a simple song.

For example, Old MacDonald Had a Farm can be changed to “Mommy & Daddy have a House… eeeiiii eeeiiii eeeeiiii ooooo. And in that House there lives a boy…. eeeiiii….eeeiiii….eeeeiiiii…oooo. And Grand-ma comes to care for (name of child)….eeeiii…eeeiiii…eeeiiii ooooo. And Grand-ma brings fun things to do…. eeeiiii….eeeiii…eeiiii oooo.

Long before a child can look at a book he or she can hear stories sung in simple rhymes telling them the important events in their lives.

Here is an example: The child’s father wants a BOB stroller so he and mom can jog with their child. Ahead of time, They could improvise Yankee Doodle: The real tune goes like this: “Yankee Doodle went to town Riding on a pony; He stuck a feather in his hat and called it macaroni. Yankee Doodle fa, so, la, Yankee Doodle dandy, Yankee Doodle fa, so, la, Buttermilk and brandy.”

Instead, sing the tune to different words:
“Yankee (baby L) goes to town, A riding in his Bob-Bob. Dad sticks a flower in (name of baby) hat and calls it macaroni…..” And then Dad in fact puts a flower, or feather or whatever in Baby’s hat and off they go on their jog to town.

Done repetitively the child will connect the song with the coming ride in the stroller ahead of time. Knowing what is coming down the line can reduce anxiety about the future. This is a wonderful, easy way to teach language to infants. Use simple, repetitive rhymes sung to simple tunes. Sing the words slowly and clearly sometimes and sometimes quickly. Children need to hear the words clearly and distinctly and see the words illustrated by actions.

For just a few dollars you can get a used nursery rhyme book full of the old classics. Get the old rhymes and improvise. Teach your children your stories about the important events in your lifes. At Logos in Santa Cruz, for $4.00 I got Stories and Rhymes for Every Bedtime. It is full of all the classics.

Here is one I’m going to do next week using puppets to illustrate:

Ding Dong Bell
” Ding Dong bell, Pussy’s in the well. Who put her in? Little Tommy Green. Who pulled her out? Little Tommy Trout. What a naughty boy was that, to try and drown poor pussy cat. Who never did him any harm, and killed the mice in his Father’s barn.”

I have some small bells that I will ring. Ding, dong Bell (ring the bells). Ba-ba (bottle’s) in the Well (glass container to warm the milk) Who put it in? Ma-ma put it in. Who takes it out? Grand-ma takes it out (when nice and warm). Who gets it NOW? (name of child) gets in NOW!

This is one way that young infants hear stories ahead of events using language and song to talk about important events about to happen. Getting a warm bottle is a very important event in the life of a 3 month old. The old stories and rhymes are still useful today.

Let me know your favorite rhymes and stories that might be improvised in new ways with young infants.

written by Cameron S. Jackson, Ph.D., J.D. licensed psychologist DrCameronJackson@gmail.com

831 688-6002

from Peter Wardon on Sept. 14, 2009:

“In response to my last letter dated September 3, several people initiated communication with each Florence Drive Association homeowner. Ninety-three percent of the households surveyed support moving forward with the patch and slurry seal procedure.

“Asphalt patching will occur on Monday, September 28 by Earth Works. The street will remain open but be sure not to park near the white painted areas. The street will be slurry sealed on Monday, October 19, and will be closed for 24 hours. Prior to the October 19 slurry seal, I will be more specific with exact times. Call Earth Works (475-1223) if you want work done at your house.

“For more efficient communication we are in the process of setting up a website. email the Smith’s for further information. ibsmith317@bcglobal.net from Peter Wardon 9-14-09

Date has been set for fixing Florence Drive. Any new information helpful for homes along Florence Drive can be posted here.