Elder Care – Teaching Your Elder How to Fall
♫ Monday, May 24th, 2010
Just like anyone else, elderly folks tense up when they begin to fall. However, if you are able to demonstrate to your elder how to completely relax and fall like a rag doll would, the chances of reducing the severity of injury is greatly enhanced. You can fall into a chair or a bed to take the time to demonstrate this. Simply go limp as you fall. Once you’ve done this a few times, ask your elder if they want to try it. Don’t force them into doing this, but impress upon them how important it could be to help them escape serious injury should they fall.
Once you have gone through this exercise with them, you’ll want to work with them on what to do once they are on the ground. Show them how to roll onto their hands so that they are able to crawl to a telephone to call for help. This can be accomplished by having them use a solid piece of furniture to raise themselves up for support. Not only will this help your elder in understanding how to get to the phone, but it will help them understand how to help themselves as opposed to panicking when they fall.
Regardless if they think they are fine after a fall, they should call for help – either by calling a caregiver, neighbor or 911. Anytime an elderly person falls, they absolutely need to be checked out by a doctor. Falls can sometimes be due to illnesses that have gone undetected, stroke, medication issues or potential infections.
If your elder falls when you are present, you will want to check for any severe pain they may be in, along with any difficulty they may have while trying to move. If they are in significant pain, or can’t move, keep them calm and call 911 for additional assistance. If they don’t appear to be in significant pain and are able to move, offer them support by bending your legs and keeping your own body straight. Another option would be to bring a small table or strong chair to them so they can lift themselves up on it with your help. Don’t risk injury to yourself or further injury to your elder – if you don’t think you will be able to help your elder without injuring yourself or causing further injury to your elder.
Teaching Babies to Read
♫ Tuesday, June 9th, 2009From birth to five years old, babies are learning language at an amazing rate. This includes any language. It can be spoken language, sign language and even written language.
Babies are able to learn to read effortlessly and easily from birth through 3 years old using the whole word method. Not only are they able to learn to read, they learn to read intuitively as opposed to those of us who learn to read much later by learning the rules of the language.
This means that babies absorb language in the written form and the brain figures out the rules on its own. The incredible thing about teaching babies to read using the whole word method is that they learn the rules on their own and are able to use them to read words they have never seen.
When you teach a baby to read, you don’t need to spend a lot of time teaching, they learn at lightening speed and they are able to read fluently almost overnight. They are able to read well and they generally are able to read more quickly and with a higher level of comprehension than children taught at an older age.
Babies that are taught to read develop a love of reading that lasts a lifetime. When they are being inquisitive and want to know that answers to many things, we can point out the books that will give them those answers. We teach them from a young age to find information from books, giving them the ability to learn for a lifetime.