Hey everyone. So, my past two blog posts have been a little deep. So, I wanted to talk about a lighter topic. A positive topic. I have been a medical auto claims adjuster for 15 and a half years. I am good at it. Took me a while, longer than most I would say, but I got it down now. And…I live with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. No two people with an FASD are the same, but I will tell you, ask anybody with an FASD or someone who is touched in some way by FASDs, and they will tell you, REPETITION helps. With LOTS of things. With following directions, learning a song, remembering a part in a book or a movie, learning a new task, like cooking, cleaning, or tying your shoes. In the past couple months I have realized the type of job I have is repetitive in nature, and that in addition to my empathetic nature, repetitive functions has led to my success as a claims representative. Every single day, I turn on my computer, and go into the same 3 systems. I perform the same key strokes for each system every day, and every day I make phone calls to people and ask them the same questions. I press the same buttons every time for the same functions every day. I click the complete button on everything when i am done, and the tasks go away. It took me a bit longer than others to master the systems, but now it is in my memory, and in turn I am a great employee!

Some may wonder why repetition helps our brains. I think back to my kiddos, when they were between 18 months and 5 years old. They liked to watch the same movie OVER and OVER again. Or read the same books OVER AND OVER AGAIN. Yes, for me as a parent it would become boring and mundane, to read a book or watch a show for the umteenth time. I realize though that this is how my kids were learning. They were storing away bits and pieces of the books and movies into their memories, through repetition. Our FASD brains work in a similar fashion.

My kids go to Tae Kwon Do classes, and they participate in Sparring. Well, Sparring has all of this gear to put on. Through my own introspection, I have realized why I am not very helpful getting the gear on and just stand there holding a helmet that goes on last. I only help with sparring once a week. I need a few weeks to learn what gear on first and second and so forth. I asked my son today before we left for Tae Kwon Do the order the gear goes on. He told me, and in my head I realized the bottom half goes first, and then the top portion. I filed it in my brain in a way my brain could remember, and as a result I was successful tonight. This is not to say next week will be the same though. Some days, I will remember clearly. Other days are a little cloudy. Sparring gear has this chest protector called a Hogu that ties in the back. If you ask anybody, they will look at you and tell you, it ties like a shoe, how can you be so confused? Let me tell you how. It doesn’t look like a shoe, and the damn thing is upright, and i am crossing ties across and down. It is not the same as a shoe. So, I had to watch someone do it a few times over a course of 3 weeks, then I tried it a few times over 2 weeks, and now I have it down. To me, you switch out an object for another object, and you are going to lose me. You will have to start over teaching me what is common knowledge to you, and repeat it again and again. Be patient with us, we will retain the information, in our own time. Our brains work, they just follow different paths to get to the same result. So,

R-E-P-E-A-T to me means S-U-C-C-E-S-S.