Yesterday, Ananth shared his first post as blogger saathi.
What can one blog post set in motion?
First, we decided to include blogging in our daily routine. Writing a small amount daily is important for producing blog posts regularly.
While Ananth will write a small amount for his blog daily, we don’t know exactly how the writing process will unfold for him. We are now in a phase of continuous exploration, experimenting with tools and process for daily writing. For example, Ananth started jotting ideas for his next post in Obsidian today. Since he has liked using this note-taking/second brain tool in the past, we figured it was worth exploring it for capturing ideas as they come for preparing blog posts at a later date.
Our initial goal for targeted practice is to write 8 – 10 sentences daily. The daily memory shares may or may not feed into the blog post for SpecialSaathi. But the daily shares will build a repository that Ananth can use in future writing.
Growing the Six Cs
Connections: Shilpi is now another champion for Ananth encouraging to write. She is supporting him by making him a part of the SpecialSaathi ecosystem. Shilpi played an important role in bringing writing/blogging into Ananth’s daily routine!
Competence: Targeted practice develops skills. Over time, we will identify and practice specific writing skills.
Coordination: Once Ananth starts blogging regularly, he will find ways to coordinate with Shilpi, me, and the readers of his blog.
Clarity: Over time, Ananth will gain clarity about the topics that interest his audience, and how best to present this information.
Choice: As he gains clarity, Ananth will be better able to choose content for his blog.
Conversations: I have interacted with many parents today. These parents have read about a variety of issues that Ananth mentioned in his post. They have asked me about different therapies and educational opportunities.
Becoming LIFESMART
We have taken a small step forward to becoming LIFESMART with SpecialSaathi! Blogging is a way to Learn daily, share Interests with others, enhance Family interactions, and expand community Engagement. Blogging can be a particularly valuable tool for neurodivergent individuals to communicate with others and to connect with people. Blogging creates SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-framed) projects since we have a specific target for producing blog posts.
Week 1
Ananth started compiling his ideas in Obsidian. He started writing a few sentences daily at 9PM after we have finished other work for the day. Read his post here.
Week 2
Ananth added an Explorations section to list what we explored in writing this week. The information below is from his blog post. Read the full post here.
Explorations: My Journey to Blogging
- Ackerman A. 2016. The Urban Setting Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to City Spaces. JADD Publishing
My writing teacher Ms. Idania Cater, suggested this book. I have not used it for more than two years. Now, it is time to use it for writing my blog!
- I am using Obsidian (https://obsidian.md/) to record my thoughts daily. I build my blog post gradually during the week.
- Theater and writing: Since I had the opportunity to participate in RASA Day 2022 (https://rasaindia.org/), my mother and I talked about theater and the role of setting and props. Now, I can see why the Urban Setting Thesaurus suggested by my teacher is important. Writers must paint a vivid picture of the setting with words!