OUT OF MY MIND BY SHARON M. DRAPER

~ Our class completed a non-verbal communication activity. for this we used communication boards we made ourselves in class. During this activity, our class partnered up and used their communication boards to navigate their ways through different scenarios. The purpose for this activity was so we were able to put ourselves in Melody’s position. We were allowed to see her everyday struggles and gain a better understanding of how difficult it was.

~I included words I know I use frequently. I did include a few words that traditionally, are filler words in a sentence. I do believe that these are important though. Some words I included were I’m, what, want, talk, to, at, help. Most of these are necessary for basic communication and therefore were put on my board. I think that if I were to do this again, I would do many more long words. The reason for this is that it’s easier to spell shorter words and it takes less time.

~I found that in the activity, communicating was time consuming and I wasn’t able to convey my thoughts easily. I didn’t have much difficulty with this, but I can see how it would get frustrating very quickly. For me, as it was a change of pace, communicating this way was fun. It was interesting to interpret what my friend was saying and when we messed up, we cracked up because it often ended in a funny way.

~This activity has allowed me to understand why Melody has such difficulty communicating. At first I questioned why she wasn’t just talking using the words on her board. Though after this, I understand how difficult it is and why that isn’t an option. This has certainly changed my view on this story. It has so much more depth than I originally thought. I think that understanding how frustrating her lack of communication is, I will be able to be more in touch with Melody.

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