# 'Agricultural specialisterne': rural employment revolution for those with Autism

**URL:** <https://pheromonetalk.com/t/agricultural-specialisterne-rural-employment-revolution-for-those-with-autism/50615>\
**Category:** Lounge\
**Created:** [June 5, 2011, 5:40am UTC](https://pheromonetalk.com/t/agricultural-specialisterne-rural-employment-revolution-for-those-with-autism/50615 "2011-06-05T05:40:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
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**Author:** ![Visionary7903](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/45deac/32.png) [@Visionary7903](https://pheromonetalk.com/u/Visionary7903)\
**Post date:** [July 4, 2012, 8:56pm UTC](https://pheromonetalk.com/t/agricultural-specialisterne-rural-employment-revolution-for-those-with-autism/50615/336 "2012-07-04T20:56:10Z")

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I have mentioned in an earlier [post](https://pheromonetalk.com/t/specialisterne-leveraging-the-unique-skills-of-autistics-at-competitive-market-terms/50245/155), ways to make long-term compliance with therapies like Neurofeedback more likely. For a child to to do regular Neurofeedback sessions over a long period of time, it might well take the excitement of having the therapy packaged as fun video games.😉

**One video gaming technique based on Neurofeedback that has come out in the past year, is Focus Pocus…**

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> …Focus Pocus uses a brainwave-reading headset and helps children ages 7-13 improve impulse control, memory, attention and relaxation.  
> …the child … takes on the role of an apprentice wizard, working through 12 mini games that requires he or she to think in certain ways. [For example, the] player … can turn a pig into a trumpet by relaxing and do things like fly a broomstick by concentrating…

**One interesting feature of Focus Pocus is the way parental involvement is incorporated as part of the system:**

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> **…FocusIn is a parental reporting application that works alongside Focus Pocus, allowing parents to login daily and see how their child is doing with their exercises, and also reward them for good behavior, unlocking features within Focus Pocus. FocusIn also provides a report after 25 sessions, focusing on performance and behavior change…**

**One additional idea to ensure maximal long-term compliance to a therapy like the one just mentioned, is to follow the research from a 2009 best-selling book on raising children, _Nurtureshock: Why Everything We Think About Raising Our Children is Wrong_ by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman. A parent can tweak their parenting style to bring maximum effort out of their child in the long term; for example focusing on _praise for a child’s effort_ (which is something that a child can control) rather than _praise for his/her intelligence_ (which is something out of their control), and focusing on _intermittent reinforcement_ (rather than _frequent praise_) teaches a child persistence…**

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> …New research from Columbia University’s Dr. Carol Dweck found that parents may actually be growing a generation of “praise junkies” who can’t figure out how to survive life’s setbacks, the Daily Mail reports.
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> Other experts agree. “Providing a child with too much praise is actually depriving the child of the skills necessary to deal with the real-life situations that are facing them as they grow and develop,” says Marlene Belew Huff, associate professor of adolescent medicine at the University of Kentucky. “Too much praise can cripple the ability of adolescents to enter into adulthood with the ego strength necessary to manage even the least significant offense.”..

(sources: [Video Game Uses Brain to Control Action | PCWorld](http://www.pcworld.com/article/241993/video_game_uses_brain_to_control_action.html); [Focus Pocus?? is the world’s first learning application that effectively incorporates NeuroSky’s real time electroencephalography.](http://ballantinespr.com/News/NeuroSky/NeuroSky_Focus_Pocus.html); [Are parents creating generation of ‘praise junkies’? Being too encouraging can backfire, says study - New York Daily News](http://articles.nydailynews.com/2009-09-28/entertainment/17932954_1_bullies-parents-praise))

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