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We took a weekend trip to Roanoke to visit the Virginia Museum of Transportation. The museum has a large O-scale train model, a few older automobiles, and a pretty large collection of railroad engines and rolling stock.
This past fall was my last semester of graduate school. I didn’t have any classes, so I spent 5 days a week at my externship site. I was at the elementary school in our town. The school was about 14 blocks from home, so I was able to walk most days. The school is for kindergarten through second grade with two Special Ed preschool classes. My supervisor has been at the school since the mid-80s! She was an amazing teacher. I learned so much from her.
Most of the kids we served had language or speech problems. We did a lot of assessment of kindergarteners. The kids were great! They were well-behaved and so much fun. I had to create a lesson each week to do with the groups. Because that age group is so focused on literacy, many weeks I went through a book and asked them lots of questions. Therapy was conducted in groups of 2-8 kids.
My favorite group was the preschoolers. The 3-year old preschool class was across the hall from our room, and we were in there quite a bit. According to state law, for every special ed preschooler you have to have a normally-developing peer. Of course the parents decided whether or not their child was normal, which made some interesting situations (there were two boys who were supposed to be normal, but seemed to have some mild autism characteristics). The class had about 14 kids. The special ed kids included 2 boys with autism, a boy with a seizure disorder (and did not speak), a girl with a cleft palate, and a boy with childhood apraxia (we think). The kids loved sitting on the adults laps during circle time. Sometimes I would have 2 or 3 kids trying to sit on my lap at once.
Here are a few funny stories from the semester.
We evaluated a little boy for speech and language. We see his sister for speech, and she is not the brightest light bulb in the box. After talking to the father, I think it might be hereditary. After the testing, the father asked if the boy would need speech. My supervisor said we would have to calculate the scores before we knew. The father said, “Well, if he has a 7 year old brain he won’t need to come to speech.” Then, with a very pronounced lisp and accent said, “I know where he gets his speech impediment from. His mom’s cousin has a real bad country accent.”
Dawson (one of the preschool boys whose mom is the teacher) went with his father to a meeting. The lady had short, dark, and curly hair. Dawson pipes up, “You have dark curly hair just like Miss Melanie!” When they got home the father asked his wife (the preschool teacher), “Who’s Miss Melanie?”
Fall Fun Day was a school-wide day of different activities to celebrate Fall. I helped the preschool class as they went to their various activities. Our first stop was Continue reading
A recent article on Inside Higher Ed discussed Christian schools that want to teach, or at least permit, various elements of evolution in Christian education. As in most cases, the claim from the ‘evolutionists’ is that the scientific evidence clearly casts doubt on the creation account in Genesis. It’s remarkable to me that few ever bother to articulate the evidence they think is so convincing. Maybe that’s because it ends up being a bit less persuasive than they’d like.
Here’s an example, from Gordon College’s president R. Judson Carlberg:
Studying the geological evidence, he said, makes it hard to credit the the "young earthers" who believe that the Bible is the only guide needed to date the earth: "If you accept the young earth argument, you have to think that God is trying to trick us [with the geological evidence] and I don’t think He would do that." Carlberg said he wants to see Christian colleges speak out publicly about their ability to embrace faith and science
I agree that God wouldn’t try to trick us. But how exactly is God being deceptive here?
First, God told you what He did, so it’s hard to see how an old-looking Earth would count as some kind of intentional deception on His part. It would be a little like insisting that an old-looking photograph is clearly an antique, even though the photographer told you that he made it look old in Photoshop.
Second, if this account is just a myth or a moral tale or something, not intended literally, then many later biblical writers, and Jesus himself in fact, perpetuated the literal interpretation of the passage erroneously. Perhaps you could make a case for biblical writers’ error. But if the accounts of Jesus’s words are accurate, then you have God Himself lying to His hearers. In that case, I don’t see how we’d avoid the “God deceived us” problem. Note that Jesus’s comments on the matter are indirect, but they’re loaded with theological import. So if you want to say that Jesus got it wrong, or Paul, or whomever, then you’re going to have to deal with a theology that loses its moorings in reality pretty fast. The problem is that the “literal” account is pretty unambiguous throughout Scripture (and it isn’t just in the so-called ‘disputed texts’ either).
I don’t mind respecting the right of someone to hold a view that gives more credence to evolution than I do. I just wish they’d actually advance some serious arguments (and evidence) to bolster the view, particularly if they want to portray those to the right of them as hopelessly naive.
I finished my externship at Wytheville this past Tuesday. I was able to get 120 hours (I was aiming for 100) with a variety of experiences in different age groups and disorders. Although the drive was long (45 min one way), I think it was worth it for the experience and all the hours. I really liked my supervisor and got along well with her.
Here are some more stories about some of my patients.
In my other post about my externship, I mentioned the 80 year old doctor who had a stroke. He made a lot of improvement throughout the summer. When I left, he was working on some conversational speech he could use at his granddaughter’s wedding next week. He has a hard time with long words and words with several consonants in a row. In just a session or two he was able to say “speech” very clearly and made great improvement on “difficult” and “beautiful.” Some more interesting facts about him…. Although he has a house in Bluefield, WV; he’s now living with his son and daughter-in-law in Wytheville. They don’t think he can ever live alone again. However, my supervisor and I disagree. Even living with his son he has a caregiver around the clock. He can communicate and can walk. Other than difficulty speaking, his mind is working well enough for daily life skills. Because he has to have a caregiver, it seems to me that he could live just as well at home as with his son. The other more interesting bit of information is that he owns about 5 miles of property along the New River. The New River Trail actually borders his property. He and his son both have a “cabin” there. Apparently these cabins are very nice. His son just built a picnic shelter, and his shelter is being constructed (out of stone). I can’t help but wonder how much that property is worth.
The other patient I mentioned in my other post was the man who pocketed the fruit and was being treated for a swallowing problem. I really enjoyed working with him. He was very funny. During the summer he retired from his job. Now he plays golf several days a week. He says funny things like “now that I’m retarded” (instead of “retired”) and “your generosity is overwhelming me” (once I told him I wasn’t going to make him eat during our session). One time he mentioned Shoney’s, and I asked if they still had their strawberry pie. I told him I love strawberry pie, my mom has the Shoney’s recipe, and I’ve never had a piece from Shoney’s. He told me I should go get some. The next time he came he asked if I had gotten my strawberry pie. I told him I hadn’t, and then he surprised me with a piece for me and my supervisor! I thought that was very sweet of him.
Another patient I didn’t mention was there for swallowing and voice problems. To make a long story short, he had cervical neck fusion surgery that should have kept him in the hospital for 3 days. Instead he was in for 21 days and couldn’t swallow anything (even his own saliva). At some point from when he was put under anesthesia to when he woke up someone had damaged his cranial nerve which resulted in not being able to swallow and vocal fold paresis. A stomach tube was incorrectly installed which got infected. Apparently, he should have died several times. Just last week the doctor told him his vocal fold was functioning at 90%. He has eaten a hamburger several times (with great care!), and he should be getting his stomach tube removed soon. This man has a garden, and he brought my supervisor and me cucumbers and yellow squash a few times. It sure was good!
We had some new patients such as two foster brothers. One was being seen because he doesn’t speak much and the other for articulation. The boys are supposed to be going back to live with their mom in a few weeks even though it sounds like she is violating some of her rules (such as letting the boys’ father be around). I guess since the 4 year old boy has been the one making comments about the violations the social worker is giving the mom the benefit of the doubt?
I evaluated and began seeing another boy these last few weeks. He is four years and eight months old. Most of what he says is unintelligible. He is not potty trained and he doesn’t know his colors. He has been in Head Start for 2 years and will begin a third year (because his birthday is after the cutoff date for kindergarten). I don’t understand how a child can go to preschool for 2 years and not even know his colors! I wonder how much of his problems comes from his environment.
I worked with two autistic siblings. The girl is 13. She has some speech, but she mainly uses it to quote lines from movies and who knows what else. Her mom wanted her to work on pronouns. It was very hard to get her to focus and even harder trying to teach her what to do. Apparently, the mom thought the girl’s autism was a result of vaccines. When she had her second child, she didn’t get him vaccinated…and he has autism too. Situations like that make me think that there MUST be a genetic component in some autism cases. The autistic boy is about 8. He regurgitates food in his stomach. He also hits, scratches, pinches, spits, and bites people. He is basically non verbal, although we can get him to say words when looking at picture cards. He improved some when I saw him so that he didn’t get too violent with me. I didn’t work with him by himself though! He also started pool therapy for occupational therapy. We didn’t think he would do well with speech therapy before or after the pool, so we sort of combined the therapies. We went to the pool and helped him get changed and used a visual schedule to prepare him for the pool. After being in the pool, we took him back and got him ready to go. I had never seen autistic children like this before. It was fascinating in a sad sort of way.
The last patient I’ll share is about a little boy about 3 ½. He is being seen because he doesn’t speak much. Apparently, he has made progress before the summer. This child seems to need some discipline. The last few weeks when we’ve tried to get him to say his words he pouts and says, “NO!” It gets pretty annoying. I also think some of this child’s problem is his environment, especially his mother. Apparently her other 2 children (teenage or older) have been in trouble with the police. My last day we saw this boy. He had a fever, but his mom brought him in anyways. Wednesday, my first day of vacation, I got a call from my supervisor. After we did therapy with this boy, his mother took him to the hospital. He was diagnosed with Swine Flu. Because my supervisor, the occupational therapist, and I all had contact with him, the hospital wanted us to take some medicine to help prevent us from getting sick. Andrew and I drove to Wytheville Wednesday night to pick up my medicine. Thankfully I’m still healthy. Hopefully it will stay that way!
That’s just a few of the stories from my externship this summer. In the fall I should be at the elementary school down the road. That will be very convenient because it will be within walking distance. When that externship is completed, I will be graduating with my master’s! I’ll post more about the externship when the time comes.
On Sunday after the wedding we drove to northern New Jersey to spend a few days with Mel’s aunt and uncle. The driving wasn’t too bad, even though we were on I-95 for most of the way.
On Sunday afternoon there was a picnic for family involving hot dogs, hamburgers, sausages (all grilled), lots of salads and chips – and a little bit of rain. In fact, it rained off and on quite a bit when we up that way. Apparently, they’ve had a lot more rain than usual this spring.
Mel and I were relegated to a tent in the back yard. The Boones have a large indoor cat, and Mel is allergic to cats. The tent was ok, but it rained a little at night and the sun came up very early. I don’t think we got much sleep.
On Monday we went with Mel’s cousins into NYC. Stephanie drove, since we determined that finding parking would be cheaper than taking public transit. We parked near Times Square and then got on the subway to Chinatown. Morgan wanted to go to Chinatown – the good part, not the purely tourist areas. We ended up walking around Chinatown quite a bit. It’s a little ironic how much Chinatown has “invaded” Little Italy
. Italians have a long, influential history in NYC, but the district they are commonly associated with is tiny compared to the neighboring Chinatown.
After Chinatown we got on the subway (and waited for a while) to go to Central Park. We got off on Madison Avenue and walked to FAO Schwartz. While we were in the store, the fire alarm apparently went off, though we couldn’t really tell in the store. When we got out into the plaza (where the Apple store is), it was covered in suited businessmen and women milling about. After a few minutes, some fire trucks showed up and clarified what was going on.
We got lunch at a hot dog stand at the corner of Central Park. After lunch Mike and Cameron went to the Apple store, while Mel, Stephanie, Morgan and I walked down 5th Avenue. The girls wanted to find the American Girl store. I actually went in when we found it. It was kind of fun. It would be an awesome treat for a little girl, but it was fascinating how much time and money goes into the dolls. They had a hair salon (for the dolls), shelves and shelves of clothing options, a photo studio, and a cafe. 
On Monday night, after we got back to NJ, Mel and I went to supper in White Plains with my grandparents. We went to a nice Italian restaurant and then to a park near the dam that holds back the water for NYC. Getting there and back was yet another reason to love GPS. It’s amazing how easy it is to find your way.
On Tuesday we went with Mel’s family to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. The GPS didn’t do so well this time. It took us through downtown Jersey City. We got there, but it’s hard to believe that it was the fastest way.
Ellis Island was really cool. I think we got there early enough to just beat the rush, though people arrive a boatload at a time, so there tends to be large clumps milling about. The exhibits were really fascinating. After a while, some started to seem a bit redundant, but the overall effect was very nice. There was lots of detail and first-person stories about coming into the USA. It seemed like the National Park Service (who runs the island now) wanted to dispel some of the popular notions about Ellis Island. Often people think that immigrants coming through Ellis Island were treated little better than so much cattle. It’s true that they were often poor and that conditions were hard, but most of that had nothing to do with Ellis Island. Further, poor as they were, they were often much better off here than where they came from. Most people made it through immigration in less than a day (90%). Only 2% were denied admission, and often for very obvious reasons. The immigration officials seemed genuinely concerned for the welfare of the people, and sometimes that meant forcing them to endure some discomfort in order to reduce their overall stay in immigration.
One of the most interesting exhibits to me was the room about mental health. Immigration officials wanted to prevent insane people and those who weren’t intelligent enough to work out of the country. It seems like a cruel policy, but they wanted to avoid having to become a giant welfare state (remember, this was the early 1900s). But often the immigrants came from very poor backgrounds, and many of them didn’t speak English. The psychologists had to devise psychometric tests (including intelligence tests) that didn’t depend on culture or language. Of course, modern psychologists debate endlessly about the cultural aspect of intelligence tests as if past Americans were benighted bigots who unjustly discriminated because of invalid tests. But what happens if the person you’re testing doesn’t speak English, can’t read, and has never held a pencil? The Ellis Island psychologists realized the impact of all these factors, and more, and seem to have done a pretty good job evaluating immigrants in spite of themselves. 
Liberty Island was fun too, though there isn’t much to do. Security onto the monument is tight and access is limited. We got to go, but we spent a while in lines. On Saturday, July 4, the NPS will open the crown again to visitors. We were just a few days early.
We spent Tuesday night with Tim and Mel Taylor. They’re living in Newark now so that Tim can go to law school. We had a good time with them, and a fairly decent night of sleep before our trip home.
On Wednesday we headed home. It’s about 8 hours from Newark to Radford, but we took a slight detour to visit Gettysburg National Military Park. We didn’t really have that much time, so we only did part of the 24-mile driving tour. We also went the the cemetery (call us weird) where Lincoln gave his Gettysburg Address. It was hot, so we didn’t want to walk that much outside, and the museum was a little too expensive to justify an hour’s visit.
We made it home around 8:30, completely exhausted. I think we’re still recovering. But it was a fun trip. We’ll have to do it again when we have more time to enjoy it.
Andrew and I were able to take some time off of work last week to attend my cousin Brandon’s wedding. My family came and stayed with us Wednesday night, and Thursday morning they drove to Philadelphia, PA for some sight seeing. Andrew and I left Friday morning. We needed to be at the Philly airport at 5:15pm to pick up my brother Matt who was flying from camp in Wyoming. We had a few hours before he arrived, so we parked at the airport and took the train into the city. We met up with Michael (my parents had already left to get ready for the rehearsal dinner), and we were able to see the Liberty Bell and the outside of Independence Hall before heading back to the airport to get Matt.
After getting Matt, we drove to the hotel to pick up my cousin Morgan so we could go get supper. We hung around the hotel for awhile waiting for our parents to get back. Andrew and I were staying with some friends of Aunt Debbie and Uncle Dave, so we left later in the evening. Here are the funny hotel room stories.
The toilet in Morgan’s room didn’t work. She called several times asking them to fix it. Eventually the front desk asked if she needed it tonight (dumb question). She said she could send Morgan a plunger or move them to another room. I encouraged her to move to another room. (Why should the paying guest have to plunge her own toilet when it was stopped up before she got the room?) So, we helped her move. After moving everything we noticed the deadbolt in the door was out and wouldn’t close back in which kept the door from closing. We unsuccessfully tried to fix it. Then I had the bright idea of playing with my brothers’ door to see if we could figure out what happened. That resulted in their deadbolt not closing either. Andrew called the front desk and was trying to explain the problem to the girl there. Meanwhile Morgan started playing with the door again. She discovered that turning the door handle the opposite way solved the problem! Meanwhile, earlier that day when Aunt Debbie and Uncle Dave checked into the hotel they were informed that there was no room registered for David Boone. They had a Daniel Boone (my dad) and a Christine Boone (my mom). So, Uncle Dave took my parents room. Then when my parents checked in they didn’t have the right size room for them, so they were given two rooms for the same price. Meanwhile, later that night Uncle Don, Becky, and Kyle and Candace (cousins) checked in and were given Uncle Dave’s room. They walked in the room to discover Aunt Debbie’s mom sitting there. At first no one recognized the other until Kyle finally remembered. They were given another room. Then when Uncle Dave returned from the rehearsal dinner their keys didn’t work because their room had been reassigned! The next morning my parents toilet had gotten clogged as well!
The wedding was at 2:30pm. We found the church without much trouble thanks to the GPS. It was nicely attended. I have never seen so many cameras and phones taking pictures during a wedding before! The wedding went pretty smoothly. Brandon and Justine got a little choked up during their vows. My cousin Stephanie was singing a duet, and her microphone didn’t work, but she worked around that well. The funniest part was the kiss. As Brandon and Justine kissed, the groomsmen all pulled a piece of paper out with a number on it to rate the kiss. The audience roared with laughter. Only the groomsmen knew it was going to happen.
The reception was at Shady Maple, a Smorgasbord run by Mennonites. Apparently it’s a popular place, and as the teenager whose house we stayed at said, “Most of the people there need two seats.” Shady Maple was an hour away, so the reception was at 5pm. It was amazing when we pulled in. It was a gigantic building and parking lot, and the line out front was incredibly long. I was glad we were in a banquet room. According to the Shady Maple website, the buffet room can seat 1, 200 people. It has a 30,000 square foot gift shop in the basement.
We sat at the table for awhile waiting for the wedding party to arrive. When they arrived, we waited some more for the microphones to work. The reception was long. After we finished eating we waited awhile. There was going to be a slide show, but it took a long time to get set up, and then it was a 25 minute presentation! We waited awhile more and Brandon and Justine cut the cake. Brandon was nice, but Justine smeared it on his nose. Eventually Justine threw her bouquet which was caught by Stephanie! The couple finally got out around 10pm, but the night wasn’t over for them yet.
A little later, Aunt Debbie received a phone call from a frantic Justine. Her luggage wasn’t in the car. It was in Stephanie’s car which was back at the church. No one had moved it to the getaway car. They made arrangements to meet at the church, but it was a 45 min drive. Then Cameron realized that HIS luggage was in Brandon and Justine’s car! They finally met up at 11pm to switch the luggage.
The next morning we packed up and headed to New Jersey for a few days at Uncle Dave’s house.
I have finished 3 weeks at Wythe County Community Hospital. I’m still enjoying it. Most of the patients I see actually come to the outpatient rehab unit. My supervisor and I have seen a few patients in the hospital.
We see a large variety of patients in the rehab unit. So far the age range is about 16 months to 85 years. A lot of the patients come in for swallowing treatment. We place small electrodes on the neck or face which provide electrical stimulation to the muscles. This helps strengthen the muscles. The toddler and school age children are there for articulation, language, or auditory processing. The two children under 2 have trouble with swallowing, so we do oral motor exercises with them. There are several voice patients as well. Usually, voice patients are few and far between, but I’ve gotten some good experience with them. One had a total laryngectomy (where muscles, bone, and cartilage from the epiglottis to the trachea are removed so there aren’t any vocal folds to use for speech) and uses an electrolarynx. Another has one vocal fold that is very weak and doesn’t move much. Another patient (a preacher) just had cysts removed from his vocal folds so we are teaching him how to use his voice correctly. There are also a few patients who have aphasia as the result of a stroke.
Two of the most interesting patients are both in their 80s. The one was a medical doctor who was still practicing until he had his stroke. He is so sweet and is making a lot of progress, although he can’t really say much yet.
The other patient is there for a swallowing disorder. He has been putting his food in a blender and eating it that way for 10-15 years! The first time I saw him he was given some fruit to eat. He had eaten some and then said he was finished. My supervisor didn’t think he had swallowed very much for the amount he had eaten, so she had him open his mouth. Sure enough, he hadn’t really eaten any of the fruit. He had pocketed it all in his cheeks. He said he didn’t want us to feel bad because he couldn’t eat it, so he stuffed it in his cheeks and was going to spit it out after he left. Apparently he does this around other people. Aside from that story, he is a funny man and makes me laugh.
So far things at the hospital have been pretty slow. We’ve done several modified swallow studies where food is coated with barium and the patient swallows this food while an x-ray is taken. We watch the x-ray to see how the food is swallowed and if any of it goes into the airway. We’ve also seen 3 patients admitted to the hospital. So far I’ve just watched my supervisor evaluate those 3 patients.
I still have most of the summer to go for my externship. Hopefully I will continue to enjoy it even though I don’t care for the long drive (45 min one way). I’ll try to periodically update any interesting stories throughout the summer.
Clinic this semester was a little different. I had two clients and diagnostics this semester.
My first client was about 9 and came because he couldn’t say his “r” sound. He had attended clinic the previous spring, but hadn’t been back since. However, during the first session he said every single “r” correctly. During the year he wasn’t in clinic he began to use “r” correctly. Since there was nothing to help him with, he was dismissed after the second session.
It took a few weeks for me to get a new client. This one was coming for accent reduction. He was a new client and wanted help because he thought he had a very thick Spanish accent. I say “thought” because his accent wasn’t very thick at all. He was a 6′ 5 black man, and I felt very small standing next to him. We enjoyed working together. We worked on vowel sounds and using final consonants. He made progress. He was a very nice man. My classmates and teachers would see me walking with this huge man down the hall and would later ask if that was my client and comment on how tall he was.
My other client came once a week for stuttering. He made a lot of progress the previous semester, but I didn’t see as much this semester. We also worked on being descriptive in writing. His stuttering wasn’t too severe, but he also didn’t seem too interested on working to keep from stuttering.
For diagnostic clinic I had a partner. We spent a few hours doing speech and hearing screenings at a nearby preschool. The kids were so cute! Then we had 3 different kids where we did more specific testing. All 3 were between the ages of 3-5. The first boy came because of articulation concerns, but we determined his errors were age appropriate. The second girl was so cute and sweet, but we couldn’t understand a word she said. She was hard to test because we weren’t sure what she was saying, so we didn’t know if she was giving the right answers or not on the language portion of the test. The third girl didn’t talk much at all. She was shy and wanted her mom in the room. We had a hard time testing her as well. We ended up referring both girls to the clinic.
Diagnostics was difficult because I didn’t get along with the supervisor. She also took forever to edit reports. We would do multiple drafts and each time she would change different things or change things she had added in. She also tended to add in puncuation and grammar mistakes. She was very frustrating to both my partner and me.
This Tuesday I begin my externship at Wythe County Community Hospital. I’m sure it will be a very interesting experience.
Ross Douthat, a columnist for the New York Times, serves up a fine article: Dan Brown’s America. Brown is, of course, the best-selling author of The DaVinci Code and Angels and Demons, both of which have been made into hit movies. Douthat suggests that Brown’s success relies on — or at least is a symptom of — a shift in American public religion.
Douthat argues that American religion has devolved into vague spirituality, divorced from any sort of structure or serious doctrine. His critique of ”spiritual” or “religious” Americans is insightful, but he doesn’t let them off the hook. The New Testament does not present religion this way.1
These are Dan Brown’s kind of readers. Piggybacking on the fascination with lost gospels and alternative Christianities, he serves up a Jesus who’s a thoroughly modern sort of messiah — sexy, worldly, and Goddess-worshiping, with a wife and kids, a house in the Galilean suburbs, and no delusions about his own divinity.
But the success of this message — which also shows up in the work of Brown’s many thriller-writing imitators — can’t be separated from its dishonesty. The “secret” history of Christendom that unspools in “The Da Vinci Code” is false from start to finish. The lost gospels are real enough, but they neither confirm the portrait of Christ that Brown is peddling — they’re far, far weirder than that — nor provide a persuasive alternative to the New Testament account. The Jesus of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John — jealous, demanding, apocalyptic — may not be congenial to contemporary sensibilities, but he’s the only historically-plausible Jesus there is.
For millions of readers, Brown’s novels have helped smooth over the tension between ancient Christianity and modern American faith. But the tension endures. You can have Jesus or Dan Brown. But you can’t have both.
