If I Ever Lose My Way: A Writer Shares What Has Made Crawford Path a Touchstone for Her

A writer pays tribute to the ways Crawford Path has become her touchstone

Cairn Stones: A Mosaic Memoir and Manual

These twenty essays are scraps and fractals of larger stories, windows on coming to understand the world and my place in it. Taken as a whole, the collection tells the story of a formation of open-eyed hope. Roughly, they run from 2001 to 2010, covering the same years as the terrorist attacks of 2001, the War on Terror’s beginnings and toll, Hurricane Katrina, and growing awareness of globalization and climate change. These are big topics, and the only way I can make sense of them, and my coming of age within and around them, is to tell the stories of the connections I found between world events and my own self. It’s not about me, but these are the only eyes and stories I have, the only way I know to point towards a different way. The essays are roughly chronological and do build on each other, but are not meant to fit tidily—the mosaic nature is part of the point. Partly, of course, these essays are my own efforts to grapple sense and meaning into the very bland and bleak way the world can often be. But, moreover, it is my hope that they will be read as posts and markers to guide a reader towards their own sense of belonging. It’s a manual, use it where and how you may

Alternative Concussion Balance Testing Between Land & Aquatic Athletes

Sports related concussions have been a global and community health issue, with up to 3.8 million occurring in the U.S each year (Langlois et. al. 2006). Impaired postural control is one of the most common symptoms. Balance assessments have been an integral part of concussion analysis to assess if an athlete can return to play (RTP). Swimmers show significant differences in Star Excursion Balance Test (SEBT) performance compared to a normal population (Sugiura et. al. 2021). PURPOSE: This study aimed to determine if the SEBT (Plisky et. al. 2009) can assess differences in dynamic balance between land and aquatic athletes as a measure of dynamic postural stability in RTP protocols. We hypothesized that land athletes will outperform aquatic athletes on the SEBT. METHODS: Thirty healthy NCAA DIII athletes (13 male, 17 female athletes) volunteered to participate in accordance with the local IRB. Subject height, mass, and leg length were measured. Participants completed the following warm-up: 10 anterior tibialis raises, 10 squats, and 10 single leg Romanian deadlifts on each leg. After a 3-minute recovery, participants proceeded with 3 trials on each leg of the SEBT. Reach in each direction was normalized by leg length and averaged across trials. Paired t-tests in each direction compared land and aquatic athletes (jamovi v2.2.5). Repeated measures ANOVA compared all directions across both groups for each leg. Significance was set at α = 0.05. RESULTS: Athletes were (Mean±SD) 21±1.25 years old, 1.70±0.10 m tall, mass of 73.48±15.95 kg, and leg length of 0.92±0.06m. Both left (F=47.5, p\u3c.001) and right leg (F=52.1, p\u3c.001) revealed differences in directional leg excursions (Fig. 1 & 2). Left leg anteromedial excursions (Fig. 1) were greater for aquatic (85.92%) versus land athletes (81.39%, t(14) = 2.53, p=0.024). CONCLUSION: The SEBT was able to determine differences in excursion direction and between athlete populations. Land and aquatic athletes performed approximately equal in each direction, except for when aquatic athletes reached further in the anteromedial direction with the left leg. In the future, we plan to recruit a larger group and include center of pressure with the SEBT n analysis to further evaluate dynamic postural control as part of pre- and post-concussion protocol

Are there Balance Differences between Aquatic and Land Athletes?

Proficiency in static and dynamic balance tests is an indicator of both athletic proficiency as well as an indicator of movement deficiencies. Those movement deficiencies could be due to a neurological issue related to mild traumatic brain injury (i.e. concussion). Previous studies have studied single leg static balance using the BESS (Balance error scoring system) which is also used by the NCAA to pre-test for concussions (Riemann, 2012). Aquatic athletes could be at a predisposed disadvantage in NCAA concussion testing because there is a possibility of having differences in balance ability (as compared to land athletes) that may be mistaken as concussion-like symptoms. Examining the difference between aquatic and land athletes\u27 balance could help us find a better alternative for concussion testing aquatic athletes. PURPOSE: This study aimed to determine if land and aquatic athletes have different levels of inherent balance. We hypothesized that aquatic athletes would have worse balance compared to land athletes. METHODS: Thirty healthy NCAA DIII athletes (15 aquatic and 15 land athletes) volunteered in accordance with the California Lutheran University IRB. Subjects performed the BESS test while barefoot. Independent t-tests compared BESS scores for the land and aquatic athlete groups (jamovi v2.2.5). Paired samples t-test determined differences between surfaces (flat vs. foam) across the entire group. Significance for all tests was set at α = 0.05. RESULTS: There was no difference between total BESS scores for aquatic (17.13+5.35) versus land athletes (14.86+4.55, t(28)=1.25, p=.221). We found there was a difference in total BESS score between flat (4.3 +2.83) vs. foam (11.7+3.42, t(28) = 10.76, pCONCLUSIONS:The results of this study showed the BESS test is more difficult on a foam surface compared to a solid surface. The comparison of the BESS scores for land versus aquatic athletes could show differences with a larger subject pool as we saw aquatic athletes generally had higher overall BESS score. We plan to further study the BESS test with a larger sample population of athletes in a wider variety of sports

The (Im)possible

What exactly are you talking about? Invaded my ear. I often, contradictorily, desire unity or total comprehension in my work. At the same time I am reminded of the complexities involved in communicating, and the gaps and silences I 'd have to live with in order to achieve this apparent unity. Despite attempts to create and enforce governing ideologies, I don't feel most of us really live that way. We piece together our stories and realities, from whatever we encounter. This cannot be solved by introducing a "master" framework in which to understand our experience, but by developing open ended partial descriptions of experience. Art must be more than a site of opinion for me, but a place where audiences can experience complex feelings, questions, doubt, hope, and maybe even laughter. &nbsp;</p

The Use of Rapid Motor Imitation Antecedent Training For Increasing Spoken Phonology In Minimally Speaking Autistic Preschoolers

Many children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) fail to acquire spoken language (Tager-Flusberg & Kasari, 2013) with spoken language predicting positive outcomes (Tager-Flusberg, 2016). Thus, the more evidence-based interventions available to clinicians, the more likely these children will acquire language. This project proposes to evaluate the effectiveness of Rapid Motor Imitation Antecedent Training (RMIA) for improving speech production in preschoolers with ASD. Twenty children, 3-4 years, diagnosed with ASD and exhibiting restricted spoken phonemic repertoires, will be recruited from early intervention programs. Participants will be randomly assigned to either an immediate treatment group or a delayed treatment group. The delayed treatment group will act as the control group. Each participant will complete a pre-treatment evaluation that includes a developmental assessment measuring nonverbal problem solving, motor and language skills, a standardized articulation test along with a speech production sample that will be phonetically transcribed. The intervention will consist of RMIA sessions conducted three times a week for 45-minutes over a 12-week period. An additional speech sample will be collected and transcribed following treatment to be used as the outcome measure. To evaluate the effects of treatment, pre- and post-treatment speech samples from the treatment and delayed (control) groups will be compared using repeated measures t-tests. It is hypothesized that the treatment group will add a greater number of phonemes to their repertoire compared to the delayed (control) group. Successful implementation of this intervention could provide an additional clinical tool for improving spoken language outcomes among children with ASD