Communication

Communication is one of the most important abilities we have. People communicate in many ways, we use body language, language, hand signs, written expression, art or drawing, email, text, phones and face time. We often don't think about the necessity of this because it comes so easily to us, most people here understand me when I speak, write, draw etc.. It is when we are forced to communicate with someone who does not understand us that we realize its importance. My sign language is very limited so when faced with  having to work with a deaf man who could not read lips I had to rethink how we would communicate. I was doing a landscaping project and he was an excavator operator, we quickly developed a simple means of communication. I would touch the next stone I wanted to be moved and  then use both hands to signal how I wanted the stone rotated and which side I wanted down. We worked along quite well with simple signs that once we established what they were and reused them were sufficient. All you really need for communication to take place is first the need to express something, second willing parties to both give and accept the communication and when necessary a creative means of doing so. The creative component always comes out when we realize the limits of our own abilities, maybe we can't physically do it or we just don't speak the same language as someone else. I work with non-verbal students who don't read and used limited sign language and the barriers to communication are very real. I have to become very attuned to their body language to understand them, I still don't always understand, but I try.