Jax Burgoyne Writes

  • Work
    • Secondary and Gifted and Talented >
      • Word Sounds Elegy
      • Fitzgerald, Joyce, and the Physical Side of Language
    • Reminiscence, Life Writing (and combinations)
    • Adults with Learning Difficulties >
      • Making Characters
      • Soap Opera
      • A Story from Some Poems
      • Sunflower Mobiles
    • Artists for Climate Change >
      • Pilot at The TARDIS
      • Travel Guide of the Future
    • Tutoring
    • Proof Reading
    • Biography and Reminiscence Workshops
    • Interactive Performances
    • Arts Awards
    • Audio Documentaries
    • Infant and Primary School Projects >
      • The Dr Seuss One
      • Nature Poems for the Royal Norfolk Show
      • Monsters!!!
  • Store
    • Prints and art for sale
    • Holidays in Greece >
      • Beginners' Course
      • Intermediate Course
      • Experimental Writing
      • Family Writing
      • Biography & Autobiography Writing
      • Travel Writing
      • Drafting and Redrafting
      • Make a Short Film
      • Make a Mini Documentary/TV Show
      • Terms and Conditions
  • Play
    • Films and animation
    • Short Stories
    • Less Short Stories
    • Lifewriting >
      • 1yr Scratch Pad
    • Travel Writing >
      • My Thoughts
    • Poems (attempts at)
    • Collaborations (including a Radio Play)
    • Feedback
  • News
    • News
    • Archive/Gallery >
      • USA Open Mics
      • (Art Club) Posters
  • CV
 

Adults with Learning Difficulties

Doing creative writing work can be challenging with people who have learning difficulties, however it can also be very rewarding, both in terms of the educational/language-practising  benefits and the psychological benefits associated with creating a story - the joy of it and also the confidence-boost of succeeding at making a good story.

I've so far found that mixing art with writing often works well, and breaking activities down into small chunks and, sometimes, writing down to sentence-level structure games.  And people don't have to write to do writing: it's great discussing a story as a small group - what will happen next?  What do things look, sound, smell like?  What should characters be called, wear, carry etc?  Why do they do what they do?

Obviously every group is different.  I've been working with two people at a care home and we work together to write a story from a stimulus, deciding together what will happen next etc, and one of the two people writes it all down.  Great fun! 

Other times deciding things at random using dice, or thinking about what a room will look like with the help of an Argos catalogue can work well.  Many options.
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