Jessica Rieper

Essential Tips for Parents with Kids with Autism

A project manager with extensive experience in complex conversion projects, Jessica Rieper has a background in project management analysis, AGILE, SCRUM, process mapping and improvement, vendor relations and IT testing among others. Besides her professional work, Jessica Rieper focuses on her son’s Facebook page Isaac’s World which is dedicated to autism and parenting.

As a parent that has a child with autism, being equipped with the right information will help you to make informed decisions for your child. For starters, it’s best to seek treatment at an early stage rather than wait to see if your child will outgrow the condition. As a parent, learn to focus on the positive aspects as children with autism spectrum disorder respond well when you recognize their good behavior. Being consistent ensures that your child gets constant guidance to help them internalize what they learn from therapy.

It is also wise to learn what triggers your child’s disruptive behaviors and what elicits a positive response. For instance, what makes your child frightened, uncomfortable, calm or enjoyable? Once you know what affects your child, it is easier to prevent or modify situations that cause difficulties. Finally, parents with children with autism spectrum disorder shouldn’t compare them with other children. Instead, you should celebrate their successes and guide them through their failures.

Three Useful Apps for Foodies

Experienced project manager Jessica Rieper spends her free time contributing to her personal blogs. Jessica Rieper documents her experiences raising her son through her blog Isacc’s World and shares her reviews of local restaurants on her food blog, Central Iowa Foodie.

Food bloggers often visit the newest and most popular restaurants to inspire content for their writing projects. The following applications can help connect foodies to up-and-coming chefs, memorable dining experiences, and good wine.

1. Where Chefs Eat. This app draws information from the best-selling restaurant guide with the same name. Users can scroll through thousands of food reviews written by some of the world’s best chefs.

2. Feastly. This app connects foodies directly to professional chefs and ambitious home-trained cooks, and offers one-of-a-kind dining experiences. The app allows users to select from a variety of venues, including limited seating dinners at the chef’s own home, pop-up restaurants, and cooking classes.

3. Delectable. Diners can take a photo of any wine label and upload it to the Delectable app to find reviews and descriptions. To ensure that people can recreate their favorite dining experiences at home, Delectable also enables users to buy wine directly off the app.

What Role Does a Scrum Master Play in Daily Office Processes?

Possessing experience at major financial firms like Wells Fargo, Jessica Rieper serves as a project manager with Co-op Financial Services. To best serve her team and clients, Jessica Rieper has pursued certification in Lean Six Sigma and undergone training as a scrum master. The scrum methodology derives from agile development principles and helps teams become self-organized so that they can adapt quickly.

The term scrum comes from rugby and refers to team huddles during the game. In the workspace, a scrum takes place in the morning and serves as a time to review progress and make necessary adjustments. The scrum master leads these meetings and asks three basic questions. First, the team learns what members did yesterday followed by what they plan to do today. Then, individuals identify and obstacles they see in getting their work done.

Ultimately, the scrum master helps the team reach a consensus about what can realistically be accomplished in a given time period and keeps everyone accountable for what they agree to do in the daily meetings. In addition, the scrum master helps figure out ways to remove identified obstacles.

Chemical Levels in Brain Linked With Severity of Autism Traits

A project manager at Co-op Financial Services in Iowa, Jessica Rieper oversees various conversion projects involving data from such sources as credit and phone applications. The mother of a son with autism, Jessica Rieper is passionate about autism research and advocacy, and maintains a Facebook page for her son called Isaac’s World.

According to a recent study led by researchers at the University of Southern California, four chemicals in the brain are linked to varying severity of autism traits. These four are N-acetylaspartate, glutamate, creatine, and chlorine compounds and are responsible for such things as producing cell energy and monitoring brain activity. Typically, people with autism display high levels of at least one of these chemicals.

To obtain their results, researchers used multiplanar chemical shift imaging to scan the brains of 96 control subjects and 78 individuals with autism. These participants ranged in age from 6 to 50. Based on these scans, higher chemical levels in the white and gray matter of a person’s brain were linked with more severe autism traits as measured by the Social Responsiveness Scale and the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule. The levels in the individuals with autism had to be high compared to the levels recorded in the control subjects. These findings could be important in developing effective biomarkers for diagnosing autism.