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Lessons are for students who are working and interested in social work.

Communicating with people with disabilities.

Purpose of the lesson is to learn more about different forms of communication with people with disabilities. Students often have a lot of experience with the following points that will be called upon (make use of that).
The lesson "People with disabilities" can be used for this purpose.
Start of the lesson.
Everyone thinks of an emotion or feeling for themselves (heartbreak, something won, ned to pee, quarrel, happiness, homesickness or whatever you can think of). It is about being able to hold on to that one feeling or that one thought. Next step is to imagine that you can't share that feeling, that thought, with someone else, so it really remains all to yourself. Do this for about a minute and maybe you feel powerless because you can't share anything.
In our work we can deal with clients who have limitations in communication (very diverse and originated from different causes). How much attention and time do we as professionals spend on communicating well with our clients? Do we find it important or does it always occur to us that we know what the client has to tell us?
How powerless can clients feel when they feel they are being misunderstood. How does this powerlessness manifest itself and do we always have an eye and ear for it? As a residential counsellor and teacher, I can give the world examples of situations that have to do with this. Communication and time have to do with each other.
Assignment:
- You will give a presentation in which several specific forms of communication and communication techniques with your target group is highlighted.
- During the presentation, one is the client and one is the Social Worker.
- In the presentation you show the way in which there is communication with your target group, you do this by means of a role play.
- You show what the pitfalls or difficult factors are in this communication.
- You give the class a clear explanation of the way you communicate with the clients at your BPV/workplace.

Questions you can address in this lesson are:
1. What is worse, being deaf or blind?
2. How do people communicate?
3. Why is communication important?
4. What can the reasons be why people find it more difficult to communicate?
5. With which people is it sometimes difficult to communicate?
6. Do you have experiences with communication problems?
7. What tools are there to communicate better?

My experience:
I worked in Finland at a school for people with disabilities. A few years in a row I met L, a 20 year old student with spasm. He was in a wheelchair, could only make sounds (not talk) and of his limbs he could use his big toe from one foot. With this toe he controlled the wheelchair and the computer (L. communicated with this). L. had at his disposal 24 hours a day a personal assistant. L. asked if I would like to come and watch floor-ball training (summer version on ice hockey and very popular in Finland). Agreed at 17.00 hrs at the parking lot of the school and together with L.'s assistant in the van. Both the driver and guide only spoke Finnish. After a quarter of an hour drive the guide was dropped off at home and we drove on to Helsinki where the hall for the training was. When we arrived there another guide was waiting for us and took L. with us for the training. Nice to see how someone with in my eyes such limitations, can fanatically participate in such a sport. A stick was mounted to his wheelchair and off he was to go get them, because it was a hard game. The whole time I couldn't talk to anyone because they only spoke Finnish. Back in the bus (only with the driver and L.) I sat next to L. and he started writing on his computer. I tried to read it, but apart from the fact that I forgot my reading glasses, I couldn't decipher Finnish. L. had apparently figured this out because he switched to English texts, big enough for me to be able to read. L. asked me questions on the computer and it turned out that I could just talk to him in English and that he understood me very well. During the ride back L. and I talked for another twenty minutes. At school L. was welcomed by an attendant and we said goodbye.
At night I could not sleep because the incident kept me busy. That afternoon I felt very unhappy because I could not communicate, at least not verbally. Of course I still had all kinds of possibilities to make something clear to someone else if necessary (e.g. gestures) and yet I felt powerless.
Half a year later I was at the school to say hello (the day after I flew back to the Netherlands) and I met L.. He wanted to tell me something through the computer but the computer didn't work. This was a painful moment for both of us, we sat opposite each other and looked with questioning eyes. What impotence! Day later I went back to school and looked up L. His computer was working again and he told me that he had won a floorball tournament last weekend and made the winning goal. Tears shot into my eyes, we hugged each other and I left again.

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