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This course has been an amazing learning experience. First coming in I was a little skeptical about what we were going to be doing and if what we were doing was actually going to have an effect. I was extremely nervous to work with someone who was genuinlly seeking help and was worried that we weren't going to be able to provide it.
Looking back it's so incredible to be able to see the outcomes. I enjoyed going to UCF every week to meet with C.S. and to see everyone else in the class work with their clients. By the end I was shocked to notice the differences that C.S. had made since the first day of class. The same for all the clients. At the last days, everyone was always so talkative and had something to say and input during group discussions-which is amazing since we are working with people with a language disorder. One thing that was always interesting was the different range of communication and lack there-of that each client had. They all have suffered the same but with different outcomes. It was so good to see a class full of people who were willing to work towards making an improvement, on all ends: the student, the client, and the teacher.

For my final project, my initial idea was to research the differences between a left hemispheric stroke and a right. I was then going to take pictures of objects from two different perspectives that would be able to illustrate these differences and how people view the world and objects because of damage done by the stroke. I began researching though and could not stop researching. I became extremely interested in the concept of language and how even a person with damage to the right hemisphere still has to recover from certain aspects of communication disabilities. This all stemmed because of the six clients we worked with over this semester, I had been partnered with the only one who has suffered a right-hemispheric stroke. So throughout this course, my partner and I have had a different journey of learning different ways to communicate than the others.

(http://www.dh.org/body.cfm?id=872)

This first image, from the Doylestown Hospital Stroke Resource Center simple shows the what happens when a stroke occurs.  "A stroke is an interruption of the blood supply to any part of the brain. When part of the brain does not get blood flow due to a blocked or ruptured blood vessel, that part of the brain starts to die." (http://www.dh.org/body.cfm?id=872) The effects of stroke differ depending on the severity as well as the location.

( http://www.undergrad.ahs.uwaterloo.ca/~aktse/unilateral.html)

Someone who suffers a right hemispheric stroke often has a complication called left-side neglect. When the right side of the brain experiences a stroke, areas of the brain that function in attention and certain sensory outputs. Left-side neglect is the tendency for a person, due to damage in the visual and perceptual fields in the brain, to essentially forget or ignore objects or people on their left side.

 (www.acoustics.org/press/152nd/Liu.html)

In terms of communication functions, the left side is important for recognizing pitches and tones which often determine the seriousness or playfulness of a comment. 

Damage to the right-hemisphere will cause a disorder known as aprosodia. Aprosodia is characterized by the inability of a person to properly convey and interpret prosody, or the emotions of language, such as the ranges of rhythm, pitch, stress, and intonation. This is important because of its intristic, intellectual, and emotional context of a sentence.
            For the duration of this class many things were observed dealing with damage to both the right and left hemispheres of the brain. The client that I was partnered with was faced with different circumstances than the other participants, but it was also soon realized that his disability still impaired what we would see as “normal” functions. 

Final Project so far.

My final project has at last begun to take a solid shape. My initial idea was to create a photo portfolio to express the ways in which objects, as simple as they are, can become so complex. (to illustrate the difficulties that aphasic patients have in forming a single word); but, as I was thinking about the process further, I decided to incorporate my aspirations of photojournalism. So the idea of turning simple objects into things more visually complex, I am going to partner that with research and an essay based on why something that most of us find as such an easy task, becomes so difficult for those with aphasia. Language and speaking is second nature to us and when that is taken away, it's easy to see how complex it really is. My client is different than the others in that he has suffered a right-hemisphere stroke, leaving him with different disabilities. In the research paper I want to be able to compare the consequence of strokes on the two hemispheres; the photo's, I will be taking three viewpoints of each object to illustrate the idea of a "normal" viewpoint, as well as two different views to illustrate the two different outcomes of stroke.

Thus far in my research I have been able to gather and begin writing on what both the right and the left side hemisphere's of the brain are in control of, generally. I have also dove into what happens to the brain when it is subjected to a stroke and why language impairments are a result, as well as different mood disorders occur.

The sources I have found to aid are as follows:
1. Joanette, Yves. Right hemisphere and verbal communication . New York: Springer-Verlag, 1990. Print.

2. Burns, Martha. Speech/language treatment of the aphasias : an integrated clinical approach . Rockville, Md: Rockville Publishers, 1988. Print. 

3. Levin, Tal. "Aphasia Talks: Photography as a Means of Communication, Self-Expression, and Empowerment in Persons with Aphasia." (2007): n. pag. Web. 26 Mar 2010. . 

4. "What are the Effects of Stroke?." Public Health Agency of Canada, 29 01 2009 . Web. 26 Mar 2010. .

The assignment we were given for this week was to think about home and what it means to us. To me home has been a place of memory. To me home revolves around personal space and the ways that I can find a personal space, areas to be away from things going on, like in school or with friends. When I am at home I like to have space to myself. The first picture illustrates the importance of my room, my bed, and journaling in general. My room has always been the most personal space. It was the one area in the house that I could really get away and when my door closes, people know that I don't want to be bothered. The swingset is a bit deeper. I have been moving around, a lot since I was younger. From college to house, to other houses. The swingset reminds me of memories of a stable place where a childlike freedom is always relevant-like a home should be...The eggs I feel is the most self explanatory-Breakfast at home is my favorite thing!

The Practice of Looking

The Practices of Looking provides an insight to the visual complexities we go through when we look at an image. We see pictures every day whether it be advertisement, news, or art photographs are unavoidable. But when we take a minute to look at a picture (look as a “act of choice…that involves greater sense of purpose and direction” according to Sturken and Cartwright) we begin to dissect the picture, consciously and subconsciously. A lot of times we don’t realize that the way that we look at a picture is often biased by the culture and society we have been brought up in or even others that we have learned. We take the meaning of a picture from details that the photographer chose to include, such as objects, positioning, angles, and lighting. Often times we can get a literal as well as a cultural, connotative meaning from a single photograph.

There is more that our minds go through when looking at an image than we first realize and Practices of Looking does a good job of explaining different aspects of why we view an image the way that we do. I did feel like one very big point was missed, that quite honestly, I thought was going to be hit but never was. What prompted me to think of this was on page 11 and the photograph by Weegee, “Their First Murder”.
This picture is talked about and the first thing that is said about it is that the children in the picture have just seen a murder scene in the street; without being told that upfront, I would have never guessed that’s what was going on when this shot was captured (though I do believe that was the emotion sought by the photographer). My problem now with the readings is that an image is a split second captured in time and in that split second something can be captured that tells a different story than what is actually going on. During this reading the authors speak of the intentional taking of a picture but I truly believe that some of the best pictures to be produced, though certain intent may have been sought, have been unexpected. I say this, only because especially with people, there is no saying what can happen in that split second when the shutter is released. That picture though, may end up being the best one to have been captured. The authors touch on the truth value of photography, but focus on digital imaging, but I believe that a photograph can sway a situation depending on that split second that a photograph is captured. I think the best term to put on what I am trying to say is “accidental biased”.

I think I may have to come back and touch on this again to better make the point.

Project #2, Portrait.

For this second assignment we were to take portrait photos. Since I was little I was always so skeptical about the term 'portrait' because the cliche definition of portrait revolves around sitting in a studio, big flashy lights, with a photographer telling you to move your chin slightly to the left, not too much though. Taking photography in high school, it was the same thing: when we worked on portraiture, we went to a studio and were taught how to light and set up the set. I was horrible at it. I didn't like to do it. So from then on when I heard 'portrait' it quite honestly scared me because I knew I disliked them so much. 

Portraits are so much more than sitting in a studio taking yearbook pictures though. Portraits do not have to be set up in a studio, but can be captured anywhere, anytime. They can be candid, facial, whole body, one person or many, animals, anything your mind can think of. The photographs I chose for this project involve different types of portrait. 

The first, a non-traditional portrait of a whole scene and event. Instead of just including the 'main' person, the scene shows who is involved. 

The second, a self-potrait. This image I decided to include because I saw an emotion in me that I didn't realize that I had right then. It just reminded me how a moment captured in a split second can show so much. 

The third I chose because this takes portrait completely out of the box. I don't like that idea that the cliche portrait idea is of strictly people and so this captures Charlie in such an almost anthropomorphic way. He has his blanket, just waken up, groggy "let me go back to sleep" look...it is just intriguing. 

Community Based Classroom

This class, though a class, is much more different than the traditional "classroom" setting that most of us are used to. I am going to be honest right now, I am in a class writing this blog. (multi-tasking!) My role as a student is to listen to the professor, what he has to say as well as what the other students have to say. We ask questions based on the material we have read or have heard lectured and expect to learn from those given things.
What makes this community-based class so unique is the fact that I play more than one role. I am a student yes, an observer, a listener. Each class period we learn from the 'head instructor' (i.e. Dawn!) but there is so much more than that. We go in to work with our clients and it is our duty to interact with these people and learn what types of interactions work for them particularly. They interact differently than you are I might interact with each other with words and complex phrases. To speak to them it is my responsibility to learn how my client is going to react to simple phrases and hand motions, more visual clues than words, and to learn what works best for my client.
But I am also an instructor, someone who is being observed. In this experience we are working with clients who need our help, friendship really. I go into each class period expecting to be able to act in such a way that the person that I am working with is going to have a reaction that is speaking against the 'disability' that they obtained. My client in particular struggles with left-side neglect (not noticing or paying attention to things in his left field of vision) so my goal is to get the client to react to me when I am on his left side. Especially in this course, it is my role to help the client understand the importance of the photograph. It's what this course revolves around and I truly want my client to be able to see how much he can express with one picture or five or ten!
In this setting, I am a teacher. I am a student. Both in one.
We also have the Rollins instructors as well as UCF who are able to help us throughout this semester being able to work with and better understand why our clients have the certain disabilities that they have, as well as helping us recognize when improvements are being made.