Friday, August 31, 2007

Down's Syndrome...

What is Down's Syndrome? It is a congenital birth condition and it is unknown why it happens. But with the increasing age of a woman, the risk of having a baby with Down's syndrome increases too. More info can be found in here :-



And here's a video (courtesy from YouTube) where a couple explains their experience when they discovered that their baby girl has Down's Syndrome. It is pretty sad to watch but hope it will increase our awareness as paediatric nurses in handling such condition in our near future.


SMARTER 5TH BRUNEI CONFERENCE




TOPICS TO BE PRESENTED


Day 1
What is a Home Program? How to start a Home Program?
Workshop on Home Program
ASD Centre Learning Program
Preparation for Adulthood
Sibling Support/ Peer Support/ Family Support/ Neighbour Support


Day 2
Advocating Community Support
Advocating Educational Support - Integrating National Curriculum
Advocating Health Support - Regular Assessment/ Follow up/ Review by Professional


Day 3
How to Prepare IWA for Independent Living
How to Live with Autism
Laws Protecting IWA
Financial Implication for a Family With Autism
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------


We, the Paediatric students will be attending a 3 days SMARTER conference from 7th to 9th September. The theme of the conference is "Strategies Towards Advocating an Autism Friendly Society". Will post pictures on the events!! Huhu..*standby camera mode*

14/8/07 - 1st health education by Ka Sofi & our trip to KB!

Amal jadi flipping girl with Ka Sofi as the health educator for that day~
Khusyuk mendengar health talk presented and nampak tuuu our teacher assessing Ka Sofi
After health talk, discussion time on Ka Sofi's health talk
Attention sorang-sorang. Hahah.
And oh? Ani sapa? Well..our part-time driver..Thanx! :P


Friday, August 3, 2007

The immunity platoon!! :P

Here's a link to a cool flash movie about our immunity system. It's colourful and pretty easy to understand for kids. Check this one out~ a nicely done flash movie~LOL..and do drop by on the other links at the website~ :D You'll get a lot of info on the body system, health for kids and many more! :D

http://www.bam.gov/sub_diseases/diseases_immuneplatoon.html

Til next time~ :D Hope you'll gain some knowledge and insights about our immunity system..:P

How the body works? - a simple movie to explain

Another useful movie taken from www.kidshealth.org on how the body works. It is a child-friendly movie and is a simple way to understand how our body really works. But unfortunately, some of the body system has no movie yet. Anyway, just try and check it out! :D



Enjoy! :D

Thursday, August 2, 2007

BLS & ALS [1/8/07]

On the first of August, we had to attend a BLS (Basic Life Support) and ALS (Advanced Life Support) course for the whole day from 8am to 4.30am. We had the course in the National Resuscitation Centre in Ong Sum Ping Health Centre. Basically, there were seven of us Paediatric students and a few of our Paed teachers were also involved in the course.

In the morning, we had a bit of briefing and explanation on what BLS is all about and the importance of it. We also learned a few A&P on heart, brain and the respiratory system which consist of the most important and major organs in our body.Soon after it, we then had our practical or demo session on a total of 11 BLS skills. There were four rooms and we were divided into four different groups. Among the BLS skills that we learned were the Paediatric (Infant & Child) CPR, what to do when somebody is choking (Adult & Infant), the use of AED or Defibrillator on Adult, Adult CPR, rescue breaths and two rescuers' CPR.

After the practical or demo session ended, we then proceeded to practice by ourselves and had our tea break. Then we continued to practice on the dummies on the BLS skills that we've just learned. At about 1:30pm, we had to went through the assessment on our understanding of the BLS skills individually. After the assessment, we had to sit for a multiple choice questions of about 50 questions for an hour. Then, we will be told how we did on our MCQs and practice soon after.

Congratulations to us, dear colleagues on surviving our BLS & ALS course! It will be valid for two years and we will need to renew it somewhere in the year 2009. :D

P/S : No pictures on that particular day sal nada masa..wawawa...panik lagi, nervous lagi..kan practice lagi..all and all, for sure, it was a very exhausting day!!! :P

Dyslexia - what's it all about?

Dyslexia, what is it? Why does it matter for us to know if a child is dyslexic or not? Do you know that a number of famous actors and actresses has a history of dyslexia in their lives? Well let's say that you need to read the sentence below...can you read it?


"Ther eis al otoff am ouspeo ple who ha vedys lexia su cha sOrla ndo Blooman d even Alexan derGraham Bell."


It's all jumbled up right? That is what a dyslexic will see when asked to read a sentence. The words of a sentence will appear to be jumbled up and doesn't really make any sense to them.
An interesting explanation of what is dyslexia is mentioned below, taken from http://www.kidshealth.org/ on the topic of "Dyslexia".


"Hav ingdys lexiac anmake it hardtoread!"
Translation: Having dyslexia can make it hard to read!
Writing that looks just fine to you might look like this to someone who has dyslexia.

Dyslexia (say: dis-lek-see-uh) is a learning problem some kids have with reading and writing. It can make words look jumbled. This makes it difficult for a kid to read and remember what was read.

So what's going on inside the person's brain? Well, it doesn't mean the person is dumb. In fact, some very smart people have had dyslexia. How smart? Well, some people say Albert Einstein was dyslexic.

The problem does occur in the brain, though. Sometimes the messages the brain is sending get jumbled up or confused. A kid who has dyslexia might get frustrated and find it hard to do schoolwork. But the good news is that dyslexia doesn't need to keep a kid down.


What Is Having Dyslexia Like?

A kid who has dyslexia might start out doing fine in school. But gradually, it can become a struggle, especially when reading becomes an important part of schoolwork. A teacher might say that the kid is smart, but doesn't seem to be able to get the hang of reading. If a teacher or parent notices this, the best thing to do is to go to a specialist who can help figure out what's wrong.

A specialist in learning disabilities knows a lot about learning problems that kids have - and what to do about them. During a visit with a specialist, a kid might take some tests. But the idea isn't to get a good grade; it's to spot problems. Discovering a learning disability is the first step toward getting help that will make it easier for the kid to learn.

How Does Reading Happen?

Most kids begin learning to read by learning how each letter of the alphabet looks and sounds. Next, they start figuring out what the letters sound like when they're put together to form words. Reading is a little like riding a bike because you have to do a bunch of things at once. It's hard at first, but once you know how to do it, it feels easy and natural.

Reading means your eyes and brain have to do all these steps:

>focus on printed marks (letters and words)
>control eye movements across the page
>recognize the way letters sound
>understand words and grammar (the way words are put together)
>build images and ideas
>compare new ideas to what is already known
>store the ideas in memory

Phew! You may know that certain parts of your brain do certain jobs. For reading, you need your centers of vision, language, and memory. And you also need a network of nerve cells to connect these centers. If a kid has a problem with any of the centers - or the connections between them - reading could be difficult.

What Can a Kid Do?

Kids who have dyslexia can get help from specialists who know how to make reading easier. They might learn new ways for remembering sounds. For example, "p" and "b" are called brother sounds because they are both "lip poppers." You have to press your lips together to make the sound. Thinking about the way the mouth needs to move to make sounds can help dyslexic kids read more easily.

Kids with dyslexia also might use flash cards or tape classroom lessons and homework assignments instead of taking notes about them. At home, kids may need to spend extra time doing homework. They may need parents or tutors to help them stay caught up. There are even special computer programs that help kids learn how to sound out words.

How Do Kids With Dyslexia Feel?

Kids who have dyslexia might get frustrated sometimes and they may not like that they are in a different reading group than their friends. But they can get help to improve their reading skills and go on to do great things in life - just like Einstein, Walt Disney, the actor Tom Cruise, and the long list of others who succeeded despite dyslexia.
Here's a list of some few famous people who is dyslexic or have symptoms of dyslexia :
- Whoopi Goldberg
- Robin Williams
- Muhammad Ali
- Cher
- Keanu Reeves
- Jamie Oliver
- Keira Knightley
- Harrison Ford
- Walt Disney, founder of Disney
- Leonardo da Vinci
- John Lennon
and lots more...


That's all for the info on dyslexia. For further information, please browse through the Internet to find more about dyslexia. :D