Story Sharing
Everyone should be able to share their stories
“For everyone fighting for people’s rights to be equal citizens”. This book is unique- co-authored by people with learning disabilities, it describes lived experience of universal human rights enshrined in the UN Declaration. I was specially privileged to work with teenager Emily, her family and teachers to look at what citizenship means for her – now and in the future. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-99-5563-3
Professor Mark Solms’ theory of consciousness promises to revolutionise our ideas about the relationship between emotional and rational (cortical) consciousness. He argues that people with profound intellectual disabilities are emotionally conscious.. In our upcoming webinar run with PAMIS (https://pamis.org.uk) we will be debating how we can translate his ideas into practice. You can find a summary of his talk here https://storysharing.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Neuroscience-Narrative-PMLD-summary.pdf
Two speech and language therapists discuss his work in a 5 minute talk here..: Interview with Nicola and Charlotte. The Hidden Spring is available on Kindle for only £4.74:Kindle: The Hidden Spring. And listen to Mark talking about his life, work and music, here…https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0010nwy
Look out for further events where we will be discussing the impact of these ideas on how services are delivered
Our courses are now available online by clicking here.
Storysharing Masterclass with Gunnar Vege December 2nd 16.00-17.30pm- tickets available now for a rare opportunity to see him demonstrate how memory for events can be created and shared with people who have complex sensory impairments, including those with PMLDs. Gunnar is one of the leading practitioners working with people with congenital deaf blindness.
Click here to buy tickets and email us if you are a parent carer who would like a free place.
On November 25th we have the Surviving through Story conference, sharing the experiences of people with learning disabilities during the pandemic (you will NOT want to miss the gorilla doing a charity run…) https://www.survivingthroughstory.com/post/surviving-through-story-conference
On October 12th with Julie Calveley of NAC we held a webinar to explore how parents think their children with PMLDs experience and express emotions. If you would like to be part of the working group, please email us at info@storysharing.org.uk. A short presentation can be viewed here https://storysharing.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Do-you-know-how-I-feel-presentation.pdf
More events planned for 2022 – so watch this space and sign up for our newsletter to learn more.
Download the September 2021 newsletter for more information about the above, and more.
In this workshop, speech and language therapist Ashleigh Paddon and mum Jitka Jacubkova took us through a practical guide to creating and sharing personal stories with children who use aided communication – books and apps that are widely available. Certificate and powerpoint can be found below for attendees.
This interactive talk by Charlotte Parkhouse, Gareth Smith and Nicola Grove shared creative ways of using gesture and key word sign (eg. Makaton, Signalong) to promote narrative and discussion with young people who have learning disabilities. Our ideas come directly from our students, when we started observing closely what they were actually doing with the vocabulary we had taught them. We saw them holding the floor, innovating, and expressing their ideas directly in ways far beyond what we had thought they were capable of. A recording of the talk will shortly be available. Attendees can access the powerpoint and a certificate of attendance here. The research is described in the chapters we wrote for the book Manual Sign Acquisition by Children with Developmental Disabilities, now available in paperback and with individual chapter purchase. For 20% discount, use code special20 https://novapublishers.com/shop/manual-sign-acquisition-in-children-with-developmental-disabilities/
Two great sessions exploring how The Story Massage Programme can be combined with personal stories. Thanks so much to Mary Atkinson (TSMP) and Gill White (PAMIS) for co-hosting these, and to all of you who joined. We are planning to learn more about the role of movement and touch in forming memories from colleagues working with Deaf blind people – watch this space! And our next workshop, on key word sign and story, will look at movement too. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/finding-a-voice-through-sharing-stories-in-sign-tickets-136270309163?aff=ebdssbonlinesearch
You are the people who keep this venture alive with your ideas, challenges and expertise!
Lucy Cooke has just qualified as a Storysharing Tutor, submitting a really impressive portfolio to demonstrate how she leads training and implementation in her school. Lucy will be co-teaching a Creative Education webinar on gaining a voice through story with pupils who have profound learning difficulties. https/:www.creativeeducation.co.uk. Lucy will be posting some of her experiences on the site
Gill White is a parent, working as well with the PAMIS charity for children and adults with profound disabilities, in Dundee. Look at their website for fab resources and ideas…www.pamis.org.uk. Clare Cummings and Amy Meredith work at Three Ways School. Lucy O’Neill works at Wilson Stuart School. Rachel Barker from Dorothy Goodman School works with autistic youngsters and has been combining Storysharing with other relevant approaches – she will be writing about some of these ideas soon on this website. Thanks to all for contributing thoughts for the online course.
Our first online graduates were Ashleigh Paddon, Jess Meredith Wickes and Jade Cook. Ashleigh is a Speech and Language therapist who has a wonderful website at https://the-therapy-tree.com; Jess is well known to you all as one of the stars of Abbie’s hospital visit, and has been using Storysharing for some years; Jade Cook is the Director of Spectrum Community Arts (www.spectrumca.co.uk ).
We are delighted to have had a number of articles published on the topic of Surviving through Story.
Surviving through Stories
How people with learning disabilities are getting through COVID
Community Living – coming soon October 16th www.cl-initiatives.co.uk
Surviving through Story – documenting lives in lockdown and beyond PMLD Link 32 issue 96. As a Guest Subscribers and get free access to almost 30 years of journals – filled with stories of the real lives and experiences of individuals with profound and multiple learning disabilities (PMLD) www.pmldlink.org.uk
International Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication newsletter May 2020
Surviving through Story: COVID-19 personal narratives for children and adults with communication and learning disabilities
We were also delighted to be interviewed by Amber and Lucy on Frozen Light
Episode 5 frozenlighttheatre.com/podcast/
