Shape Poem

I decided to chose a part of a song for my shape poem. I chose the song Some Hearts by Carrie Underwood. This song means a lot to me because it makes me think of my boyfriend. I know it's mushy, but it does. lol. I shaped the poem into a heart because the song is called Some Hearts, so it's perfect. It took me a long time to get the words just right to make a heart and I love that the last two words of the chorus ended up at the end. It kind of ties it all together and explains right away why the song is in the shape of a heart.

Project Two Revision

I worked very hard on the first draft of my paper and I feel like I did not have to change that much on it. I read over the comments that people left for me to read and there was not that much constructive criticism. The main thing I did with my paper was read it over and made a few minor changes. I had a few typos and a few sentences that needed to be re-worded. Overall I worked very hard on my paper and I think it reads very well and reading the comments I received, a lot of people liked the subject that I picked because it was very unusual and original. I also read a lot of other people's papers and got ideas how to perfect my paper so I also put a few new things into my paper as well. I'm very proud of my autism language paper.

Project Two rough draft

Language Impairment in Children with Autism

The American Psychiatric Association defines autism in terms of a triad of core impairments in social interaction, communication, and behavioral flexibility. There are many different forms of Autism and there are many different levels of Autism. Tons of different symptoms fall under the umbrella of Autism, but language is the one that my two articles focused on the most. Since my major is psychology and I am interested in going into Child Psychology I thought learning more about language could help me significantly in my career future.
Language and communication are a very important part of anyone and everyone’s life. Children with Autism often have a hard time communicating with caretakers and teachers. They cannot voice what they need to say, if they are hungry, or tired, or if they simply want to express what is on their mind. It can also be very hard on the parents because they cannot tell what their own child needs, or what they are thinking.
Specific language impairment (SLI), sometimes referred to as developmental language disorder, is diagnosed in children who display markedly impaired spoken language functioning with test scores at least 1.25 SDs below the mean, despite normal nonverbal intelligence, and with no apparent sensory or neurological dysfunction (Language in Autism and Specific Language Impairment). SLI is only diagnosed in children if they do not have any other symptoms of Autism, but like Autism it has many different branches.
Researchers have thought that SLI and Autism are related. One early hypothesis was that autism resulted from a severe developmental language disorder leading to social withdrawal, disorientation, and reactive rigidity of behavior (Language in Autism and Specific Language Impairment). Then another researcher argued that language developmental impairment could occur independently of Autism. More recently evidence has shown that language impairments in autism and SLI are more closely related than researchers thought.
During the early stages of development parents play a huge role in the development of their child’s language skills. Particularly during the early period from 9 to 15 months, several longitudinal studies have found that responsive parental behaviors reliably predict children's subsequent rate of language acquisition. Parents who are more likely to provide language input that is contingent on children's attention and activity have children who subsequently develop language at a faster rate than children of parents who are less likely to provide contingent language initially (Modeling Longitudinal Change in the Language Abilities of Children With Autism).
Children with autism show a characteristic deficit in joint attention. They respond to joint attention less than either typically developing or developmentally delayed children. They also initiate joint attention less than children in these other groups in that they make fewer attempts to direct the attention of another person to an object or event by pointing, showing, or alternating their gaze between an object and another person's eyes (Modeling Longitudinal Change in the Language Abilities of Children With Autism).
Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder with strong genetic influences. Moreover, the nature of these abnormalities is likely to constrain a child's potential for language learning. At the same time, it has been suggested that interactive experiences may be particularly powerful in promoting the language development of children whose biological constitution puts them at risk for language delay.
The first article I read, Language in Autism and Specific Language Impairment: Where Are the Links?, suggested that a child’s language development is simply up to the parents and the child’s environment. The second article I read, Modeling Longitudinal Change in the Language Abilities of Children With Autism: Parent Behaviors and Child Characteristics as Predictors of Change, also talked about a child’s environment, but it focused more on the genetic aspect of Autism. These two articles were interesting to read because it brought up the reoccurring conflict of Nature vs. Nurture. There is no way of knowing what exactly causes language impairment but these articles helped my understanding of what could possibly effect a child’s language development.

Project One reflection

Going Green

Our earth is an important thing to protect. It is where we live, we get our resources from it, and without it we would not be able to survive. There are many ways in which we can protect our planet. For my project I focused on a few ways in which we can protect our planet and keep it healthy.
An important way to help save our Earth is to recycle. Recycling paper and plastic can prevent more trees being cut down and can also prevent our landfills from becoming any bigger than they should be. Buying recycled paper products helps support recycling and helps save trees. When you go to the store use the cloth reusable bags instead of using plastic or paper bags. You can find them at mostly every grocery store and they are only a couple dollars. A cheap easy way to save some trees! I personally have around six of them, and I do not just use them for shopping, I use them for all day outings like going to a picnic or carrying all my stuff at the beach.
Riding your bike to work or to the store is a good way to cut back on air pollution. I only live five minutes from my work so I ride my bike there as much as I can, at least until winter sets in. When you can not ride your bike somewhere a good way to help the environment and save money on gas is to get a hybrid car. Right now I drive a Saturn, it is gas efficient that is for sure, but it does not help the environment as much as I would like. This summer I plan on getting a new car and I hope to get an Escape Hybrid.
Saving energy is another good way to save money and help the environment. Turning off lights when you leave the room, turning off your computer when you are done with it, keeping the heat/air a bit lower than normal are many good ways to help save energy. When you replace a light bulb, replace it when an energy efficient one. They are a tiny bit more expensive but they can help save you money on your electricity bill too. They are pretty much the same as regular light bulbs, only they are good for the environment.
I never used to be one of those people who helped clean up rivers or was environmentally aware of everything. Just recently my friend and I decided to better ourselves, so why not the environment too? I ride my bike whenever I can (When it is a bit warmer out), I use reusable bags, my city has recycling pick up so I put my paper and plastic out for the city to take, and I have energy efficient light bulbs in mostly every room in my house. If everyone did little things like this everyday, our world would be a cleaner and healthier place to live.

Project Proposal

For this project I wanted to pick something that pertains to everyone, not just myself. I think it is important that everyone gets involved in our community. We all live here and enjoy our neighborhoods, so why not pitch in every once in a while? That's why I chose to do my project on Going Green.
Our Earth is going through some hard times, and in reality it is our fault. We put factories here that pollute our earth, we litter, we drive big cars that are not good for the environment. We use plastic bags so much in our daily lives that we do not realize that they are harmful to our earth after we throw them away. We have tons of landfills, filled with garbage that will not decompose and fertilize the earth, it will just sit there forever.
We need to be more careful with how we treat our planet or else it will not be a healthy clean place to live for the next generation, or the next, and so on. If we take care of our planet now then so many things can be prevented, and the Earth will be a healthier place to live.
Saving our Earth is easy, there are many different things we can do to keep our planet clean. We can buy gas efficient cars, use cloth bags when we shop instead of taking the plastic or paper ones from the store, car pool, and recycle. If everyone did little things everyday to help the earth, it would help save our planet for years to come.