Upon arriving at Headway, I was immediately greeted with a “Hello!” but it wasn’t from the staff, it was from a member. This instantly changed my perspective towards my time at Headway from wary to calm as I initially had this irrational fear that it would be difficult to communicate with the members.
I had the pleasure of spending my time with two members and another volunteer (not from our class) and we spent the first half playing Wii bowling and the second half baking oatmeal cookies but all the while enjoying communicating with one another.
Both of the members were at first glance seemingly impaired due to their injury, but after a mere 5 minutes of being around and talking to them, it was obvious that they were ordinary people as you and I.
The first member I had the pleasure of talking to, was very animated as she loved to talk about her children and her grandchildren and in no way did it seem like she or her family was truly affected by her injury. She expressed polite interest and asked about my life but was definitely more focused on telling me about her family.
During class, we have talked about the struggles that the victims, both direct victims and family members, of TBI face: communication and understanding. Secondly, the struggle of adapting to the consequences of suffering a TBI has been a large factor in how it affects family dynamics. However, it was amazing to see that this member had fully adapted to her change in lifestyle and if anything, loved her family more because of how it knit them all together.
The second member hardly spoke and if so, it was in two word sentences. At first I couldn’t quite understand what he was trying to tell me or what he was doing. I soon realized that although he couldn’t quite communicate with his words, he was very clear in his actions. It was a constant playful game and everyone who was there at Headway truly enjoyed both his company and playful antics.
What was also really interesting was that he had an app on his iPad that allowed him to communicate via conventional methods: speech. There were pre-recordings of sentences that he frequently used and when needed, he would simply press play and viola! Although he himself wasn’t the one speaking, it was interesting to see how easy it was for him to tell us or ask us something.
Despite the two of them having different communication abilities, it was very easy to understand both.
Although I didn’t get too much into the nature of their injuries for fear of prying, it was clear that despite having been impaired, the way they had adapted was incredible. Looking past their exterior, they were functioning just as you and I could and if anything, had a better grasp on living life.
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