Conversations With
A conversation with Joanna Grace about….
The ‘Conversations With’ events offer a mixture of formal presentation and informal chat. They start with a presentation on a particular topic that draws insight from research and practice but are very free flowing: groups taking part in them can discuss the topic with Joanna at length, or they can veer off onto different topics and access other presented content. They offer delegates the chance to deeply engage with material and personalise the event precisely to their needs and interests. Because of their conversational nature they are not suitable for large groups. Numbers are limited to 20, but can be extended to 30 by agreement.
Conversations can be booked for half a day or for a full day. Full-day conversations will involve activities that inspire us to think in different ways, as well as the presentation and chat included in the half-day conversations.
Delegates who attended conversations whilst the ‘Conversations With’ offering was in development found them to be informative, inspiring and entertaining. People frequently laughed. Often the personalised nature of the events meant that people found them very moving, so there were tears as well as laughter. People reported experiencing intellectual turn-arounds, and suddenly seeing something from a completely different point of view, or being given a way of looking at things that they could use to yield new insight into situations they were dealing with. Many professionals attending reported finding topics significant to their private life as well as their work life. Parents attending valued the appreciation of their loved one as a whole person with a whole life, rather than as, for example, a patient in hospital or a student in school. Teams who took part found the days to be bonding as the conversation element enabled them to find out things about each other that they had not known before. Some days began on one topic digging deeper and deeper into it throughout the day, others began on one topic and diverted to several tangents, resulting in delegates carrying a way a pick-and-mix bag of insights. No two conversations were the same!
Have a conversation focused on people with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities:
Sensory strategies for people with profound and multiple learning disabilities and the WHYs hidden within them.
Playfulness and Creativity - the fluff and nonsense that is life.
The conceptual lenses that underpin and inform our practice: drawing awareness to these foundational philosophies and looking at how choosing them, or changing them, can enhance our provision.
Hearing from, gaining feedback, from people with profound and multiple learning disabilities - exploring research and projects that have looked at hearing directly from people with profound and multiple learning disabilities.
Listening to people with profound and multiple learning disabilities, with The Sensory Projects: exploring the Sensational Sensory Selection Salon Project and the Sensory-being Project.
Respecting ability, agency and communication, with The Sensory Projects: exploring the Structured Sensory Art Project and the Sensory Story Project.
What are our goals for people with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities in education, and where did they come from?
Sensory strategies and their value/risk for people with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities.
Have a conversation about neurodivergence:
The difference between viewing autism as a behaviour and viewing autism as a neurotype.
The conceptual lenses that inform our practice and how to choose and change them to enhance provision.
The significance of autistic identity for mental wellbeing and physical health.
Hearing from, gaining feedback, from people who do not use words or standardised forms of communication - exploring research and projects that have looked at hearing directly from people who face communication barriers.
Supporting autistic girls as they become autistic women (also inclusive of non binary and trans identifying autistic young people).
Supporting pregnant autistic people.
Love across a neurodivide. Exploring relationships in which one person is autistic and one person is not autistic.
Sensory strategies and their value/risk to autistic people.
Start your own conversation:
Do you have a topic you would like to talk about? Email sensorystory@gmail.com and we can advise on whether it would be suitable as the basis of a conversation day.