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  4. Workshop 2 - Be your own adventure: hero tales in everyday life

Workshop 2 - Be your own adventure: hero tales in everyday life

Nicola Grove and Robin Meade (OpenStory tellers)

This workshop will explore the idea of being a hero and how it applies in the lives of people with learning disabilities. Taking a traditional story, we will look at epic and everyday acts of courage and bravery and discuss how we can help people recognise and be proud of their achievements. We need hero stories to help us deal with all the ways that people are excluded and discriminated against, and these stories help us also to laugh and have fun together.

Biographies

Nicola Grove - Nicola has over forty years' experience working with children and adults who have severe learning disabilities, initially specialising in augmentative and alternative communication. She began using poetry and story in special schools in the 1980s, and worked with teachers and speech and language therapists to explore strategies for making literature accessible. She began researching the use of oral storytelling with children and adults with learning disabilities in 2001, and in 2004 set up the first inclusive storytelling course, now an award winning charity (www.openstorytellers.org.uk)

Publications include The Big Book of Storysharing, Using Storytelling to Support Children and Adults with Special Needs; Odyssey Now; Ways into Literature. She regularly contributes articles to professional journals. She is an honorary senior lecturer at the Tizard Centre, University of Kent.

Robin Meader - Robin is an artist and storyteller who have worked with Openstorytellers for over 10 years. He took part in a cultural leadership programme for artists with disabilities, and regularly speaks and tells stories at conferences and festivals. He is developing his own business as a graphic facilitator to help people understand information and discussions.

Contact us

About the Group

If you woud like to get in touch with the Social History of Learning Disability (SHLD) Research Group, please contact:

Liz Tilley 
Chair of the Social History of Learning Disability (SHLD) Research Group
School of Health, Wellbeing and Social Care
Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies
The Open University
Walton Hall
Milton Keynes
MK7 6AA

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