{"id":386,"date":"2021-10-06T00:36:02","date_gmt":"2021-10-05T19:36:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jessicacurrall.com\/?p=386"},"modified":"2021-10-06T00:36:02","modified_gmt":"2021-10-05T19:36:02","slug":"meaningful-interactions-go-beyond-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jessicacurrall.com\/index.php\/2021\/10\/06\/meaningful-interactions-go-beyond-speech\/","title":{"rendered":"Meaningful Interactions Go Beyond Speech"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Sometimes ideas are difficult to wrap our minds around &#8212; that we may have never seen someone complete a task in a particular way, so it <em>seems<\/em> unusual or difficult to try.  Or, a person may have never thought about an activity they <em>already do<\/em> in an additional context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Example:  everyone I know communicates using a wide range of methods:      <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>sounds with mouthparts (commonly speaking, but other noises as well),<\/li><li>facial expressions,<\/li><li>body movements and gestures,<\/li><li>visual and text media (such as sharing photos, exchanging text messages, emojis and emotional reactions, writing notes, etc.), and<\/li><li>references to things outside of themselves (a cardboard roll indicating there&#8217;s no more toilet paper, a family calendar or coordinating app, a glance at an empty glass to alert a waiter that more drink is wanted, and so on).<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"390\" height=\"413\" src=\"http:\/\/192.241.129.221\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Text_Emoji_Reaction.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-390\" srcset=\"https:\/\/jessicacurrall.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Text_Emoji_Reaction.jpg 390w, https:\/\/jessicacurrall.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Text_Emoji_Reaction-283x300.jpg 283w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 390px) 100vw, 390px\" \/><figcaption>Screenshot of text exchange with one of my teens which illustrates &#8216;sounds,&#8217; words, images and punctuation incorporated to convey messages. <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>One of my teens types out <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">noises<\/span> they might make incorporated into their messages &#8212; that&#8217;s tricky for me since they also have used acronyms to save time and keystrokes.  Fortunately, I can use the emotional reaction (represented by a question mark) to convey that I am confused.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><span class=\"has-inline-color has-red-color\">My point is:  using a wide variety of approaches is not new.  It&#8217;s part of how everyone communicates all of the time.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>All of this also applies when it comes to someone who has dementia (changes to their thinking), or aphasia (changes to language), or does not hear perhaps as well as they once did; and even in situations that are a combination of factors.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My own experience with elder populations is that whether a listener has dementia, aphasia, or no hearing aids:  yelling seems to be the most typical go-to strategy. I&#8217;m not sure why that is exactly, but it may be that&#8217;s what <em>has<\/em> been seen (with elder populations) and so that&#8217;s what gets re-tried.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It may be hard to imagine incorporating other communication methods though if you&#8217;ve never seen it before.  This isn&#8217;t a perfect example, it&#8217;s just one illustration of how it might look:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1576\" height=\"2098\" src=\"http:\/\/192.241.129.221\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/JMC_MultimodalCommunication2.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-393\" srcset=\"https:\/\/jessicacurrall.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/JMC_MultimodalCommunication2.jpg 1576w, https:\/\/jessicacurrall.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/JMC_MultimodalCommunication2-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/jessicacurrall.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/JMC_MultimodalCommunication2-769x1024.jpg 769w, https:\/\/jessicacurrall.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/JMC_MultimodalCommunication2-768x1022.jpg 768w, https:\/\/jessicacurrall.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/JMC_MultimodalCommunication2-1154x1536.jpg 1154w, https:\/\/jessicacurrall.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/JMC_MultimodalCommunication2-1538x2048.jpg 1538w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1576px) 100vw, 1576px\" \/><figcaption><em>I am wearing a personal amplifier with the speaker set near my friend to support hearing in a noisy environment.<\/em>  Holding up an item (a wreath decorated with sewing notions), allows for shared viewing and reference.   A set of dry erase cards allows for quick hand-written notes or to provide options.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/jessicacurrall.com\/this-is-what-i-said-that-time\/\">I have written previously on the set of dry erase &#8220;flash&#8221; cards I have<\/a> in supporting exchanges.  They are easy to hold in my hand and are on a ring so I can flip to a blank card readily in a conversation (without pausing to erase) or refer back to something if needed.  It&#8217;s also a way for me to gauge messages that are repeated often enough to warrant making a permanent card in the set.  I have used letter stickers and typed messages that I affixed with clear packing tape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A phone&#8217;s camera can also be a ready and fast way to share information or provide a visual cue.  Taking a photo of the nightstand allowed my friend to tell me what she wanted off of it:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1036\" height=\"770\" src=\"http:\/\/192.241.129.221\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Multimodal_Phone_Camera2.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-398\" srcset=\"https:\/\/jessicacurrall.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Multimodal_Phone_Camera2.jpg 1036w, https:\/\/jessicacurrall.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Multimodal_Phone_Camera2-300x223.jpg 300w, https:\/\/jessicacurrall.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Multimodal_Phone_Camera2-1024x761.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/jessicacurrall.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Multimodal_Phone_Camera2-768x571.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1036px) 100vw, 1036px\" \/><figcaption>A collection of lotion and hygiene items, personal effects, and snacks that were on a nightstand out of reach and angle of view of an individual can be photographed to present an impromptu &#8220;menu&#8221; of options.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Recently I had a different opportunity to use a standard app on my phone &#8212; opening a new Notes page and typing with the largest font in bold allowed a high-contrast, backlit text support which proved more functional than my hand-written ones for an individual who has significant vision impairment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/192.241.129.221\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Notes_DidYouPlayGolf.png\" alt=\"Screenshot of my iPhone on Notes Page which is a mostly blank screen with a keyboard at the bottom.  Text depicted reads, &quot;Did you play golf?&quot;\" class=\"wp-image-403\" width=\"188\" height=\"334\" srcset=\"https:\/\/jessicacurrall.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Notes_DidYouPlayGolf.png 750w, https:\/\/jessicacurrall.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Notes_DidYouPlayGolf-169x300.png 169w, https:\/\/jessicacurrall.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Notes_DidYouPlayGolf-576x1024.png 576w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 188px) 100vw, 188px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Again, <span class=\"has-inline-color has-dark-gray-color\">using a wide variety of approaches is not new. It&#8217;s part of how everyone communicates all of the time.<\/span>  <span class=\"has-inline-color has-medium-orange-color\"><strong>My point is:<\/strong>  to try providing examples of different ways we all <em>already <\/em>communicate in the additional context of with elder populations.<\/span>  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>End blip.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My point is:  using a wide variety of approaches is not new.  It&#8217;s part of how everyone communicates all of the time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":387,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-conversations","category-hospice-experience"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jessicacurrall.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jessicacurrall.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jessicacurrall.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jessicacurrall.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jessicacurrall.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jessicacurrall.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jessicacurrall.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jessicacurrall.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jessicacurrall.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jessicacurrall.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}