Happy Birthday to Me!

Well it is indeed my birthday AGAIN today, lol! It feels like I JUST had a birthday! What amazes me about birthdays is how many people tend to know it's your birthday. I actually had birthday wishes from people I went to high school with 30 years ago - thanks to Facebook!

When I decided to write a post today, I noticed that there was a comment on my post regarding Autism and the "On the Brain" blog by Dr. Merzenich. The gentleman who posted the comment suggested that we look at the Brain Fitness Program created by Dr. Merzenich's company, Posit Science. So I went to their site and eagerly tried the Brain Fitness Demo - in order to see just how far along I have actually aged, lol. I was happy to discover that my brain is still very functional, and that in fact I am able to visually track 5 moving objects on a screen at one time!!

I think that what Dr. Merzenich has created is wonderful, amazing, fun to use, and very necessary - especially with the size of our aging population. While their program is at the opposite end of the spectrum from eReadingPro (our program is for beginning readers, whereas Posit Science - Brain Fitness is for the aging reader), I think both program are equally important. After all, knowledge is power! Try it out for yourself at Posit Science!

Autism on the Rise

One of my favourite blogs to read is one by Dr. Michael Merzenich called "On the Brain". Dr. Merzinich is a professor at the University of California in San Francisco and is a leading pioneer in brain plasticity research. When I read about him in a book by Dr. Norman Doidge called "The Brain That Changes Itself" I emailed him to tell him about our program. He promptly emailed me back and urged me to continue creating new programs and challenging my brain, lol. I was extremely impressed that he took the time out of his obviously busy schedule to reply to my email.

Dr. Merzinich's blog address all sorts of things to do with the Brain. One that I read recently called "Autism on the Rise; additional factors?" addressed the concerns that we are all facing with autism on the rise, and no near-term solutions to be found. You can read it here at On the Brain. Other recent posts include a discussion about drugs for children with bipolar disorder and the concerns about keeping troops on alert by use of various drugs. Interesting reading indeed!