TED-ed is a program where information produced by noted authorities are “visualized” by artists in order to teach more effectively. Such is the case with this timely educational piece covering a wide-spread outbreak of meningitis in Saudi Arabia written by Dr. Melvin Sanicas a British educator. The piece was also directed by Balint Gelley and narrated by Addison Anderson.
Born three and a half months prematurely, Derek Paravicini is blind but has literally become an Autistic Concert Pianist. But with perfect pitch, innate talent and a lot of practice, he became a concert pianist by the age of 10. Here, his longtime piano teacher, Adam Ockelford, explains his student’s unique relationship to music, while Paravicini shows how he has ripped up the “Chopsticks” rulebook.
Derek Paravicini weighed half a kilogram when he was born, prematurely at just 25 weeks. Growing up blind and with severe autism, Paravicini had trouble communicating, but was fascinated by sound. He began teaching himself how to play the piano and, by 4-years-old, had taught himself an incredible catalogue of songs that he played with unusual technique. Soon, Paravicini began studying with Adam Ockelford, a teacher at the Linden Lodge School for the Blind in London, who saw in him the marks of a highly inventive musician. Paravicini gave his first concert at age 7 and, two years later, played the Barbican Hall.
Once a child prodigy, he’s matured into a creative musician, able to reimagine songs in ways few can. Now in his thirties, Paravicini has continued to grow as a performer, with the ability to reimagine complex pieces of music even after only hearing them once. He was featured in the series Extraordinary People in the United Kingdom and, in the United States, on Stan Lee’s Superhumans, which verified his musical ability and confirmed his savantism. Paravicini has also worked with composer Matthew King. The two have played improvised pieces on BBC Radio and collaborated on Blue, the first concerto ever composed for someone with learning impairment. Autistic Concert Pianist indeed!
We’ve all heard of the tumult going on over head injuries, concussions, traumatic brain damage, the NFL; but, there is little specific information helping parents about their children and sports.
I’m told that during the war the brits had difficulty accepting that their wounded “chaps” with belly wounds shouldn’t be given tea to drink (it causes peritonitis) because doing so was such a national “tradition”—such is American football!
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Did you pick out the Five Things About Concussions You Should Know?
First – don’t wait to “see if it goes away” before you seek accurate diagnosis. Often an accurate diagnosis depends on comparing measurements in an early visit with those in a later visit.
Second – Follow-up care is important not only to prevent further harm but sometimes to make an accurate diagnosis, especially about the brain and nervous system which can be very subtle.
Third – We now realize that there are long term effects of concussions, possibly up to 6 years! There may even be life-long consequences that must be overcome.
Fourth – Even multiple impacts without a diagnosed concussion often lead to long term effects. And,
Fifth, Helmets are designed to prevent skull fractures and NOT concussions.
We’ve been reviewing all the new pediatric health-care guidelines published last year in the past two articles. So far we’ve found that new research prompted governing groups to release care-guidelines for Congenital Dislocated Hips, Calcium supplementation, Fluoride supplementation, Read more→
Pretty much everyone has had a headache at some time or other. Unfortunately it is principally viewed as an adult disease when, in fact, it frequently occurs in children and adolescents as well.
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Childhood concussion is when a child’s head gets knocked around and causes their brain to be bumped back and forth against the hard skull. It always causes at least some tissue damage but children’s bodies being what they are, doesn’t always produce noticeable effects, at least not immediately.
Here is a fairly large collection of posts about the why’s and wherefore’s of the topic, which is receiving a whole lot of interest from the research community, including explanations, examples and even videos.