AI Guardian - a summary post
This post will be updated for a week or two. It ' s to track those interested in theAI Guardian concept; this and similar posts have the tag "AIGuardian"Spectrum-ainnova.org blog post on the concept of an AI Guardian. I think this is a repurposed older business site that sold adapted reading materials. I follow the blog. (Source: Be the Best You can Be)
Source: Be the Best You can Be - January 29, 2024 Category: Disability Tags: adult AIGuardian cognitive impairment nsAI support technology Source Type: blogs

What I am up to these days - Smartphones for all (updated)
Update 12/29/2023I ' ve retired the Smartphones for all project, at least for now. I really couldn ' t find much interest in the topic, so I came to feel I was writing something just for myself. I have retired the sphone4all.com domain, it will be soon available for others (including, certainly, spammers can scammers - no way to avoid that).I have moved archived the WordPress site as a subdomain of another domain I own. If for any reason you ' d like to see the archives they are at:https://www.sphone.bethebestyoucanbe.us/I ' ve removed the URLs from the post below.Original: 4/2018This blog is quieter than it used to be. Th...
Source: Be the Best You can Be - December 29, 2023 Category: Disability Tags: smartphone smartphone4all support technology Source Type: blogs

AI and special needs adults: The AI Guardian is in sight
Over the past decade I ' ve written on social media about the concept of an AI Guardian, but I realize I ' ve never put it into a blog post [4]. With the release of the LLM AIs [1] including ChatGP4,ChatGPT plugins,  and recentlyGPT Agents (GPTs) the AI Guardian is much closer than I ' d expected. So it ' s time to write something.First, of course, I decided to ask ChatGPT. I ' ve never seen the concept of an AI Guardian online, but evidently I ' ve been looking in the wrong places. As of its April 2023 incarnationChatGPT4 has quite a bit to say:You: What do you know about the concept of an " AI Guardian " for sp...
Source: Be the Best You can Be - November 11, 2023 Category: Disability Tags: autism cognition cognitive impairment computer finance nsAI smartphone smartphone4all sport support technology Source Type: blogs

Email cleanup - reducing predation opportunities
Afterfalling prey to a predatory " Second Swing " (golf) promotion #1 agreed to let me cleanup his email stream. He ' s fond of signing up for email but, inevitably, there was more garbage than he could handle.I unsubscribed from about 20 lists and deleted perhaps 5000 messages -- all junk.I ' m hoping he ' ll let me do this periodically. He ' s particularly vulnerable to email marketing but he does use his email and he dislikes clutter. (Source: Be the Best You can Be)
Source: Be the Best You can Be - November 10, 2023 Category: Disability Tags: adult smartphone technology Source Type: blogs

Explosions and anxiety: Adult special needs life is a tough haul
My 26yo son, " #1 " , is pretty solidly in the 3-4th (bottom) percentile of cognitive abilities. It ' s a cognitive continuum of course; what ' s true of the 3rd percentile can also be true of the 10th or the 20th -- especially when lack of sleep or alcohol is involved. So this isn ' t just about special needs adults. It ' s something useful to understand for tens of millions of Americans.The other day he exploded. No harm came of it, except to him. It ' sa behavior we ' ve known from childhood though it ' s only with time we came to understand how closely tied it is to his anxiety.It happened during an ice hockey gam...
Source: Be the Best You can Be - February 5, 2023 Category: Disability Tags: ADHD adult anxiety athletics autism behavioral therapy cognitive impairment community discrimination exercise Explosive Child legal Source Type: blogs

Social media ad-based education on fake profiles soliciting funds
Our two special needs children are chronologically fully adult now. The challenges they face are increasingly complex but their capabilities have likewise grown.As in the past their challenges are not unique to adults with a life history of cognitive and/our neurological disorders and diversities. They are, however, more vulnerable than most adults to social media predators who focus on loneliness and relationship frustration. I have a thought on what to do about that, but first I need to provide some context for people who don ' t live in this world.In the past I had more control over our children ' s online actives. That...
Source: Be the Best You can Be - October 11, 2022 Category: Disability Tags: adult cognitive impairment crime education policy support Source Type: blogs

Progress in adulting
 Progress in adultingWhen asked to do something he doesn ' t want to do #1 rants for shorter and shorter periods of time and often then just does it. (Assuming he sees the point of it.) Or he comes up with a reasonable compromise.#2 has a line on a reasonable government job that he can do well and that is well suited to him. (Government jobs have lots of accommodations and support for neuroatypical.)#1 hasn ' t gotten a handle on his diet (he ' s classic ' metabolic syndrome ' ) but he understands the need and sometimes he tries. He cheerfully does his 300 calorie a day bike trainer routine. Every day.#1 has done a go...
Source: Be the Best You can Be - February 12, 2022 Category: Disability Tags: ADHD adult autism cognitive impairment Source Type: blogs

Exercise for autism - the home mini-CrossFit program
A few weeks ago I posted about amandated 300 calorie a day weight stabilization program for #1. I also mentioned there ' s a different program for #2. There ' s no mandate for his program -- it ' s something he and I put together. He dislikes exercise but feels it his duty to do it.The program has 3 events each week that we do together:- Depending on season either a 1h singletrack mountain bike ride or a 1hMN Special Hockey event.- A few miles of walking or (depending on season) 2h family road bike ride or 1h outdoor ice skating loop*.- Home mini-CrossFitThe home mini-CrossFit is a highly scaled version of a standard Cross...
Source: Be the Best You can Be - October 27, 2021 Category: Disability Tags: adult Asperger ' autism exercise health Source Type: blogs

Metabolic syndrome and cognitive disability - 300 calories a day with Zwift and a Schwinn IC-4
Short versionA cognitively limited adult with early metabolic syndrome (hyperlipidemia, elevated glucose, elevated blood pressure, obesity) has halted weight gain over 9 months with a 300 calorie a day exercise program and some compliance with dietary guidelines.IngredientsSchwinn IC-4 trainer ($900 to $1000 depending on demand and supply chain). This is one of the few quality cycle trainers on the market that doesn ' t require a subscriptionZwift exercise service on iPad ($15/month - we could put this on his ABLE account but Ihate his ABLE account)Zwift Companion on iPhone to monitor activity (free)iMessage to send screen...
Source: Be the Best You can Be - August 7, 2021 Category: Disability Tags: cognitive impairment exercise Source Type: blogs

Special Needs CrossFit
It ' s been two years since #1 started working with a personal trainer I knew from her CrossFit coaching, maybe one year since he started going to my regular CrossFit classes.#1 is 23 now. He can read at about a third grade level, most of his writing is text messaging to Emily or I. He ' s impulsive, but has generally done well with listening to coaches and workplace supervisors. Putting it all together I thought CrossFit was a bridge too far. Trying it was his idea, not mine.I was wrong about that. He can now do up to 2/3 of a workout with some minor guidance. Sometimes he does less, but over time he ' s getting better. H...
Source: Be the Best You can Be - August 2, 2020 Category: Disability Tags: ADHD adult athletics cognitive impairment exercise Explosive Child sport therapy Twin Cities Source Type: blogs

ABLE (529A) plans -- what's a good one and who has it
Wikipedia has a succinct description of the529A (ABLE) plan:ABLE programs are similar to tax-advantaged 529 plans for college savings.[8] In addition, a 529 plan can be rolled over into an ABLE account for a qualified beneficiary.An ABLE account can be opened by a disabled individual who became disabled before 26 years of age.[8] An ABLE account can receive after-tax cash contributions from any person, including its owner.[1] Contributions in a year are limited to the federal gift tax exclusion [9] for that year — $15,000 in 2018.[10] If the beneficiary works and does not contribute to a 401(a), 401(k), 403(b), or 457 pl...
Source: Be the Best You can Be - April 12, 2020 Category: Disability Source Type: blogs

Thanksgiving 2019 - update
Continuing in the vein of "how does the story end" (Jan 2019) #1 and #2 continue to mature and achieve. It would have been a great comfort 17 years ago to see #1 vault the 36 " box jump at our family CrossFit Box. I didn ' t think he could jump that high. Wrong.I guess I gave away the story there. After about a year of working with a personal trainer who is also a CrossFit coach #1 joinedmy box. He has done better than my fondest hope. Not least because coaches have hit just the right tone ... friendly, supportive, but also treating him much like every other adult. Same for our athletes. The power of expectations is hard t...
Source: Be the Best You can Be - November 23, 2019 Category: Disability Tags: adult autism cognitive impairment Explosive Child Source Type: blogs

Twin Cities facility for special needs strength and fitness training
(I copiedthis over from my shares feed as it fits better here).My #1 is doing their special Olympics strength training atBuilt on Bravery, located at the Mendota Height MN Lions United Fitness Center (map):Lions United is a new kind of training center, designed specifically to prepare people with disabilities for exceptional performance in individual competitions, team sports and life, especially people with autism, down syndrome and cerebral palsy. We ’re dedicated to Special Olympics’ Project UNIFY and Unified Sports®, which means we bring people of all abilities together to strengthen individuals, relatio...
Source: Be the Best You can Be - November 23, 2019 Category: Disability Tags: athletics cognitive impairment exercise Explosive Child health Twin Cities Source Type: blogs

A (very) inclusive CrossFit gym - in Reno Nevada
Fitness is a problem for many people, not least special needs teens and adults. Diabetes and obesity are common in our population.Diet is a factor — it takes a lot of cognitive work to outrun the American junk food industry. The special needs population is vulnerable to deceptive advertising implying health benefits of " sports drinks " .Exercise is also a problem. Special Olympics and Special Hockey programs are low volume — typically once a week. Group classes may be intimidating or unwelcoming. Incomes are low and gyms can be costly [1]. Workout music may be intolerable. The feel and odor of sweat may be unusually b...
Source: Be the Best You can Be - March 13, 2019 Category: Disability Tags: adult Asperger ' autism community exercise Source Type: blogs

How did the story end?
Istarted writing this particular blog in September of 2004. At that time Explorer #1 was 7 and #2 was 5. They are adults now.The early years before this blog are a blur now. I think by the time I started writing we had developed a reasonably effective approach and seen some progress. The years between 2000 and 2004 were harder.We aged a lot in those years.Now this blog is infrequently updated. That ’s partly because of myrelated book project, partly because adult Explorer challenges are personal, and partly because the complex educational and financial (SSD, etc) challenges we deal with now are managed by my wife — and...
Source: Be the Best You can Be - January 27, 2019 Category: Disability Tags: adult Asperger ' autism cognitive impairment Explosive Child Source Type: blogs