Definitions

Exploration – The different Workshops, Definitions and Timing of the Project

Exploration was placed in Redhill, Surrey, at the Colebrook Day Service, a community centre providing support and activities for people with learning disabilities.

A learning disability can be described as a disorder that affects people’s ability to either interpret what they see and hear or to link information from different parts of the brain. These limitations are characterized by difficulty in reading, writing, listening, speaking, reasoning and doing maths.

There are different levels of ability and the Exploration workshops have been designed accordingly to relate to the units of the service for severe disabilities, and the more mild to moderate disabled people from the mainstream service.

The workshops of Exploration started on the 22nd of April with a  presentation given to Day Services staff and service users prior to the start of the workshops. The workshops, four per week, ran over a ten week period until the end of June 2009.

Facilitation of the project ‘Exploration’

The Project ‘Exploration’ was divided into two separate courses of workshops according to the needs of different levels of ability of the people taking part:

1. “Discovering my self” was designed for members of the units

OASIS, people with multiple needs (‘multiple disabilities’ or ‘high support needs’ people who require consistent assistance because of their multiple and profound intellectual disabilities, severe or long term impairment and sensory disabilities with ‘additional needs’).

SPECTRUM, for people with autistic spectrum disorders – (Autism is a developmental disorder that is characterized by impaired development in communication, social interaction, and behavior. The degree of autism can range from mild to severe. Mildly affected people may appear very close to normal. Severely afflicted people may have an extreme intellectual disability and are unable to function in daily life situations.)

ISIS for people with challenging behaviour – (The term “challenging behaviour” has been used to refer to the “difficult” behavior which may be shown by adults (or children) with a learning disability. Such behavior can include hitting, kicking, biting, ripping clothes, throwing objects, self-injury (e.g. head banging), tantrums and other behaviour such as eating inedible objects, rocking or other stereotyped movements. It often appears in people who have difficulty communicating their needs and wishes in other ways. Challenging behaviour can often put the safety of the person or others at risks or has a significant impact on the person’s or other people’s quality of life.

These workshops were designed for the artists to work one-to-one with the participants:

• People from ISIS and SPECTRUM on Wednesday afternoon. (Participants from ISIS would use the room first before participants from SPECTRUM would arrive for the painting workshop.)
• OASIS participants would attend the workshop on Friday mornings.

2. “SELF PORTRAIT” was aimed for the more able people using the Day Service: mainstream service users and Staff.

To make Exploration a valuable learning experience for users and staff alike, we suggested that staff participate in the Portrait workshop. There was a lot of interest (about ten staff members singed up for the course) but unfortunately, because of staffing problems in the service, only three members of staff could participate.

The workshop, designed for a group of 6-8 people, ran on Friday afternoons.

For further information of Learning Disabilities and definitions please view the following web sites:

http://www.mencap.org.uk/

http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/index.htm

http://www.bild.org.uk/

<a href=”http://www.ldworldwide.org”>Learning Disabilities Worldwide</a>