Communication with all senses

A total of five participants on the course: Communicating with All Senses.

Ceramist Karin Aashamar instructed in various techniques with clay. The course participants found it a good material to work with and used both their creativity and sense of touch to create beautiful objects. Everything they produced this week will be fired and further processed with paint etc. in part 2 of the course in May.

Training in different hand alphabets was on the programme. Svein O. Gulbrandsen chose the LORM alphabet even though the interpreters did not already know it. He believed that it would take days just to learn handshapes in other hand alphabets. And it would be very difficult to read the interpreter's spelling. "I didn't know LORM before. Both the interpreter and I learnt it in ten minutes. Now we've practised, and this can support me in meetings when I can't recognise names or don't understand the topic. Then the interpreter can quickly and discreetly write key words in my hand.", says Svein, who is an active member of the organisation.

The course also focussed on the "forgotten senses", proprioception, which is the sense of joints and muscles, and the vestibular sense, which is the sense of balance. Various outdoor activities provided an opportunity to experience these senses. Ester thoroughly experienced both senses, along with her sense of touch, when she spun on the toboggan and tumbled around on the ground. Presumably, both her senses of taste and smell were also well activated, with snow in her face.

Part two of the course is in week 22, when we look forward to continuing our work in a pleasant and educational environment.