Inspirations for Better Living October 2025 | Tips, Tricks, Techniques

Many of you may know that I wrote a book to help children learn. One of the components is using color, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques. A self-directed Approach to easier Learning.

The purpose of this endeavor was to give parents and caretakers an easy-to-follow guide to help children and the adult to learn faster, retrieve information more easily, and prolong memory.

Our son was deprived of oxygen after a very long labor. When I say 65 hours make you cringe? Yep, 21 were born on the full moon night. I knew enough about what was going on to see that the fetal monitors were starting to show distress. Trust me, I was distressed after all this time. James simply did not want to come out and join the chaos of this world. Being on this side of the chaos, I couldn't really doubt his decision. Finally, they jerked him out, but the damage was done.

He was a beautiful baby. Lots of black hair. I had the indigestion to prove the old wives' tale. He wasn't all wrinkly like most babies. His skin was smooth, and his face was angelic.

A few months after his birth, we began noticing some delays in development. One day, he was able to sit up, and the next, he couldn't. A very long and hard to tell story later, he was diagnosed with Development Delay, Encephalopathy, Hemiparesis, and Hypotonia, and the list goes on.

To try to simplify, he was deprived of oxygen during labor and/or birth, resulting in neurological damage. Some of his nerves did not grow and make the connections to their counterparts as they should.

Another longer, grueling story cut short here: being educators, Snell and I began to read and attend classes in everything we could to help our child.

We were told to expect James to function at the third or fourth grade level as an adult and not so far beyond that. He reads on an upper school/college level and has a memory for facts that is amazing, especially for animals. He had a job for twenty years and blows glass as a hobby. He knows a great deal about indoor and outdoor plants and enjoys gardening.

He doesn't care for crowds, and he is immature for his age. He has the maturity of a teenager. And those of you with adolescents understand this very big "SIGH."

But he is ours, and he is gentle, kind, and caring. And he is a special gift.

In Tips, Tricks, & Techniques, I removed all the medical research and hard-to-understand neurological details. I wanted this book to be an enhancer in one's life, not a boring, hard-to-get-through job.

Everyone learns differently. This small book can make the biggest difference in the life of your family. Easy-to-understand information covers using color, shapes, sound, and movement to enhance learning. There is more to what I listed here.

Please take a moment and read about this book, and I hope it will give you support in aiding your children to learn more easily and to help the aging slow down the memory loss process.

You can contact me at: MsRatWrites.com

This book and my others are available at www.amazon.com and retailers. All of my books have received the Georgia Independent Author of the Year Award. Available in print and eBook.

I am available for speaking engagements on this topic and finding the humor in the last's foibles. MsRatWrites@gmail.com

With love and understanding, Mama Marlene

Marlene Ratledge Bucha, multiple award-winning author — www.MsRatWrites.com