full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Graham Shaw: Why people believe they can't draw

Unscramble the Blue Letters

Hi. I've got a question for you: how many plpeoe here would say they can draw? (Laughter) I think we've got about one or two percent of the hdnas going up, and it's interesting, isn't it? It's a little bit like people think of slepnlig or singing. They think,"You can either do it, or you can't." But I think you can. Because when people say they can't draw, I think it's more to do with bfeleis rather than telant and ability. So I think when you say you can't draw, that's just an illusion, and today I'd like to porve that to you. When I say "draw", I'm not saying we're all going to draw like Michelangelo. We are not going to be ptnniiag the Sistine Chapel's ceiinlg. But would you be hppay if, by the end of this session, you could draw pictures a little bit like this? (adineuce murmuring) Oh, yes! (Laughter) Or even a little bit like this? (Laughter) Actually, there are only two things you need to do to be able to achieve this. One is have an open mind. Are you up for that? (Audience) Yes! And two, just be prperaed to have a go. So grab a pen and a piece of paper. OK, so here's how it's going to work: I’ll show you the first cartoon we're going to do, so just watch to begin with. Here we go. Just watching. That's going to be our first cartoon. It's a character called Spike. I'd like you to draw along with me. I'll draw the first line, you draw, and when you've done that, look up, and I'll know you're ready for the next line. Okay, here we go. Start with the nose. Now the eyes. They're like 66s or speech mkras. That's it. Next, the mouth. Nice, big smile. Now, over here, the ear. Next, some spiky hair. Next, put the pen to the left to the mouth, little line like that. Pen under the ear, drop a line like that. Pen to the left of the neck, top of the T-shirt. Line to the left, line to the right. Just hold your drawings up and show everyone. (Laughter) How are we all doing? (Laughter) OK. OK, fatsaintc. So, it looks like you've just learned to draw one caotron, but you've actually learned more than that; you've learned a sqnuceee that would enable you to draw hundreds and thousands of different ctonoras, because we're just going to do little variations on that sequence. Have a go at this. Draw along with me. Nose. Eyes. Smile. That's it. Now some hair. Pen to the left of the mouth, under the hair, little V-shape for the top, line to the left, line to the right. So we've got another character. Let's call her Thelma. (Laughter) So, we've got Spike and Thelma. Let's try another one. Here we go. Another little vaoitarin. You're getting the idea. Starting with the nose. But this time we'll cnhgae the eyes slightly. Look, two circles together like that. That's it. Then, two little dots in for the eyes. And this time we'll change the mutoh sthllgiy. Watch. Little circle colored in there. Have a go at that. Next, the ear. Now, we'll have some fun with the hair, watch. Nice curly hair. Then same thing: pen to the left to the mouth, little line like that. Under the ear, drop a line. Top of the T-shirt. Line to the left, line to the right. I think we'll call him Jeff. (Laughter) We'll do one more. One more go. Here we go. You're getting the idea. (Laughter) So we'll start with a nose again. Notice we're doing little variations. Now we'll change the eyes, so we've got them apart. We'll put some little dots in like that. Next, the mouth slightly different. Let's put a little V-shape like that. Triangle. And a little line across, and we'll just color this a little bit in. Now, watch this bit carefully; some hair, watch. Here we go, little line like that. Next, a bit more there. And watch, a couple of triangles to make a little bow. tlagnrie at the bottom, rest of the hair. Pen to the left of the mouth again. You get the idea. Drop a line for the neck. Now the V-shape. Line to the left, line to the right. There we go. Let's call her Pam. (Laughter) So you've done... (Laughter) So you've done four cartoons. You can have a little rest now. (Laughter) Take a rest. You're getting the idea. All we're doing is little variations. I'll just demonstrate a couple to you. We could go on all day, couldn't we? You could do someone looking unhappy, a bit like that, or you could experiment with, perhaps, someone who is… just draw a straight line, someone looking a bit fed up. Or perhaps, you could do anything you like, really, just try things out. Look at this. Little squiggle. There we are. So, all stors of things we could do. Actually, one more I'll let you do, one more idea. This is a great little teunqiche. Have a go at this: people with glasses on. Just draw a nose a bit like Spike's. Next, draw some famres, so two cirelcs like that with a little bit in between. Now, just put some dots inside for the eyes like that. Next, the ear. So it's little bit like we did before, but this time we'll join up the frames. That's it. Watch this bit. (Laughter) And this bit I really like. Watch. (laehtugr) And then, little bit there. Pencil under the mustache, line down, top of the sihrt, left and right. So there we have it. We could carry on, couldn't we? Hopefully, we've done enough to convince you that in fact we can all draw. And not just people here. I've worked with… I'm going to give you three examples of other people who've learned to draw, and that actually surprised them, too. I'm going to save what I think is my favorite, most surprising example until last. The first example is: I've worked a lot with children and students in solchos. Actually the little ones, they just draw fine, but when they get to about 15 or 16, most of them think they can't draw. But I worked with them. I worked this week in a school where I was coaching them on using pictures for memory. A girl was trying to remeebmr what red blood cells do, and she drew this little picture of a red blood cell carrying a haabndg with O2 on it to remind her that the red blood clles carry oeyxgn to all parts of the body. That was a geart one. The other people I worked with are many adults in all walks of life, and particularly in business, and they often will want to make presentations memorable. So again, a qcuik cartoon or sketch could be really good for that. And again, most people think they can't draw, but take this example. Couple of wavy lines, little boat could be a metaphor to represent we're all in this together. So that, if that was just dwarn in the pitsnaertoen, would really stay in the memory, wouldn't it? Yeah. But the third example is - you shouldn't have fitaoervs, should you? This is my favorite. Have you ever been at the party when someone asks you what you do? It gets a little bit sctikpael when people ask me that. This lady said to me, well - I said, "I do a little bit of training, and I teach people to draw," and she said, "Would you come along and do some for our gruop?" She said, "I work with some people" - she was a volunteer - a group of people who have suffered strokes. So I said, "Sure, I could spare some time for that." So I said I would, and I booked the time in. Have you ever done that? You get near of that time and you think, "What have I let myself in for here?" "Will I be able to do it?" I thought, "What could I do with them?" you see. "I know. I'll do my cartoon drawing. They'll like that." But then, as I got near of the time, I got more apprehensive, because then I was thinking, "I've worked with chrideln, with all sorts of adults; I've never worked with a group like this." It truns out it was all part of a cihtray cealld TALK. This TALK charity is a wonderful charity that helps people who've suffered seotkrs, but have a particular coiitondn known as aphasia. You might have haerd of aphasia, sometimes called dysphasia. The key thing is it affects their ability to communicate. So, for example, they might have torlube reading, writing, speaking, or understanding. It can be quite an iitonalsg condition; it can be very, very frustrating and can lead to a loss of confidence. Anyway, so I prepared all this stuff, what to do for this session - for a couple of hours, tea break in the mildde - and I got more avispprehnee. But actually, I needn't have worried, because I'm going to show you now the work that they did. It was one of the best things I've ever done. I'm going to show you the first slide. I taught them Spike, just like I did for you, and I want you to see the reaction on their faces when they did this. (Audience) Oh. What you can see here are two of the stroke recoverers on the left and right, and one of the volunteer helpers in the ceentr. Each stroke recoverer, there are about 36 in the room with volunteers as well, there's one-to-one helpers. You can just see the delight on their faces, can't you? Let's look at another picture. This is a gentleman called David, and he's hnildog up his picture, and you can tell it was the picture of skipe, can't you? In fact, I think he's drawn Spike even better there. But what I didn't rizleae until even after the sssoien was that the nbumer of the people in this session, including David, were drawing with their wrnog hand. David's stroke meant that it affected the right side of his body, and he drew with his left hand, as many did. Nobody mentioned it to me, nobody complained. They just got on with it. It was an inspirational session for me. It was quite a humbling session, one of the best things I felt I've ever done. At the end of it, I had a lovely email from doctor Mike Jordan, and he's the cihar of the TALK group; happens to be a medical dootcr, but he's the chair of the group. He wrote to me, and I'm quoting, he said, "Our recoverers lrneaed today that they can draw. It's a bit more than that; this sort of activity really builds their confidence." So I was happy, he was happy, everyone was happy, they've invited me back again, and I go in there now about every three or four months. So it's great. I thought that was a lvoley example to sahre. fncay one more diwanrg? (Audience) Yes. Here we go. Grab your pens. Here we go. Right. I'm going to get you to draw someone that you would recognize. So sartt with a big nose, a bit like Spike's. Next, we'll do some eyes, and you might be thinking, "This is also a bit like Spike." Watch the next bit. You're getting warm. There you go. Little line down there. Down here. Little V-shape, line to the left, line to the right. And you've got Albert Einstein. (Laughter) So you've got the pens with you, you've pverod that you can draw. You're very welcome to take the pens with you and have a practice at home, even show somebody else. But actually, I'd like to leave you with a fianl thought. When you walked in here tdoay, many of you didn't believe you could draw. I've got a qietsuon for you about that. How many other beliefs and limiitng thoughts do we all carry around with us every day? Beliefs that we could perhaps potentially cllgnhaee and think differently about. If we did challenge those beliefs and think differently about them, apart from drawing, what else would be possible for us all? Thank you very much. (Applause)

Open Cloze

Hi. I've got a question for you: how many ______ here would say they can draw? (Laughter) I think we've got about one or two percent of the _____ going up, and it's interesting, isn't it? It's a little bit like people think of ________ or singing. They think,"You can either do it, or you can't." But I think you can. Because when people say they can't draw, I think it's more to do with _______ rather than ______ and ability. So I think when you say you can't draw, that's just an illusion, and today I'd like to _____ that to you. When I say "draw", I'm not saying we're all going to draw like Michelangelo. We are not going to be ________ the Sistine Chapel's _______. But would you be _____ if, by the end of this session, you could draw pictures a little bit like this? (________ murmuring) Oh, yes! (Laughter) Or even a little bit like this? (Laughter) Actually, there are only two things you need to do to be able to achieve this. One is have an open mind. Are you up for that? (Audience) Yes! And two, just be ________ to have a go. So grab a pen and a piece of paper. OK, so here's how it's going to work: I’ll show you the first cartoon we're going to do, so just watch to begin with. Here we go. Just watching. That's going to be our first cartoon. It's a character called Spike. I'd like you to draw along with me. I'll draw the first line, you draw, and when you've done that, look up, and I'll know you're ready for the next line. Okay, here we go. Start with the nose. Now the eyes. They're like 66s or speech _____. That's it. Next, the mouth. Nice, big smile. Now, over here, the ear. Next, some spiky hair. Next, put the pen to the left to the mouth, little line like that. Pen under the ear, drop a line like that. Pen to the left of the neck, top of the T-shirt. Line to the left, line to the right. Just hold your drawings up and show everyone. (Laughter) How are we all doing? (Laughter) OK. OK, _________. So, it looks like you've just learned to draw one _______, but you've actually learned more than that; you've learned a ________ that would enable you to draw hundreds and thousands of different ________, because we're just going to do little variations on that sequence. Have a go at this. Draw along with me. Nose. Eyes. Smile. That's it. Now some hair. Pen to the left of the mouth, under the hair, little V-shape for the top, line to the left, line to the right. So we've got another character. Let's call her Thelma. (Laughter) So, we've got Spike and Thelma. Let's try another one. Here we go. Another little _________. You're getting the idea. Starting with the nose. But this time we'll ______ the eyes slightly. Look, two circles together like that. That's it. Then, two little dots in for the eyes. And this time we'll change the _____ ________. Watch. Little circle colored in there. Have a go at that. Next, the ear. Now, we'll have some fun with the hair, watch. Nice curly hair. Then same thing: pen to the left to the mouth, little line like that. Under the ear, drop a line. Top of the T-shirt. Line to the left, line to the right. I think we'll call him Jeff. (Laughter) We'll do one more. One more go. Here we go. You're getting the idea. (Laughter) So we'll start with a nose again. Notice we're doing little variations. Now we'll change the eyes, so we've got them apart. We'll put some little dots in like that. Next, the mouth slightly different. Let's put a little V-shape like that. Triangle. And a little line across, and we'll just color this a little bit in. Now, watch this bit carefully; some hair, watch. Here we go, little line like that. Next, a bit more there. And watch, a couple of triangles to make a little bow. ________ at the bottom, rest of the hair. Pen to the left of the mouth again. You get the idea. Drop a line for the neck. Now the V-shape. Line to the left, line to the right. There we go. Let's call her Pam. (Laughter) So you've done... (Laughter) So you've done four cartoons. You can have a little rest now. (Laughter) Take a rest. You're getting the idea. All we're doing is little variations. I'll just demonstrate a couple to you. We could go on all day, couldn't we? You could do someone looking unhappy, a bit like that, or you could experiment with, perhaps, someone who is… just draw a straight line, someone looking a bit fed up. Or perhaps, you could do anything you like, really, just try things out. Look at this. Little squiggle. There we are. So, all _____ of things we could do. Actually, one more I'll let you do, one more idea. This is a great little _________. Have a go at this: people with glasses on. Just draw a nose a bit like Spike's. Next, draw some ______, so two _______ like that with a little bit in between. Now, just put some dots inside for the eyes like that. Next, the ear. So it's little bit like we did before, but this time we'll join up the frames. That's it. Watch this bit. (Laughter) And this bit I really like. Watch. (________) And then, little bit there. Pencil under the mustache, line down, top of the _____, left and right. So there we have it. We could carry on, couldn't we? Hopefully, we've done enough to convince you that in fact we can all draw. And not just people here. I've worked with… I'm going to give you three examples of other people who've learned to draw, and that actually surprised them, too. I'm going to save what I think is my favorite, most surprising example until last. The first example is: I've worked a lot with children and students in _______. Actually the little ones, they just draw fine, but when they get to about 15 or 16, most of them think they can't draw. But I worked with them. I worked this week in a school where I was coaching them on using pictures for memory. A girl was trying to ________ what red blood cells do, and she drew this little picture of a red blood cell carrying a _______ with O2 on it to remind her that the red blood _____ carry ______ to all parts of the body. That was a _____ one. The other people I worked with are many adults in all walks of life, and particularly in business, and they often will want to make presentations memorable. So again, a _____ cartoon or sketch could be really good for that. And again, most people think they can't draw, but take this example. Couple of wavy lines, little boat could be a metaphor to represent we're all in this together. So that, if that was just _____ in the ____________, would really stay in the memory, wouldn't it? Yeah. But the third example is - you shouldn't have _________, should you? This is my favorite. Have you ever been at the party when someone asks you what you do? It gets a little bit _________ when people ask me that. This lady said to me, well - I said, "I do a little bit of training, and I teach people to draw," and she said, "Would you come along and do some for our _____?" She said, "I work with some people" - she was a volunteer - a group of people who have suffered strokes. So I said, "Sure, I could spare some time for that." So I said I would, and I booked the time in. Have you ever done that? You get near of that time and you think, "What have I let myself in for here?" "Will I be able to do it?" I thought, "What could I do with them?" you see. "I know. I'll do my cartoon drawing. They'll like that." But then, as I got near of the time, I got more apprehensive, because then I was thinking, "I've worked with ________, with all sorts of adults; I've never worked with a group like this." It _____ out it was all part of a _______ ______ TALK. This TALK charity is a wonderful charity that helps people who've suffered _______, but have a particular _________ known as aphasia. You might have _____ of aphasia, sometimes called dysphasia. The key thing is it affects their ability to communicate. So, for example, they might have _______ reading, writing, speaking, or understanding. It can be quite an _________ condition; it can be very, very frustrating and can lead to a loss of confidence. Anyway, so I prepared all this stuff, what to do for this session - for a couple of hours, tea break in the ______ - and I got more ____________. But actually, I needn't have worried, because I'm going to show you now the work that they did. It was one of the best things I've ever done. I'm going to show you the first slide. I taught them Spike, just like I did for you, and I want you to see the reaction on their faces when they did this. (Audience) Oh. What you can see here are two of the stroke recoverers on the left and right, and one of the volunteer helpers in the ______. Each stroke recoverer, there are about 36 in the room with volunteers as well, there's one-to-one helpers. You can just see the delight on their faces, can't you? Let's look at another picture. This is a gentleman called David, and he's _______ up his picture, and you can tell it was the picture of _____, can't you? In fact, I think he's drawn Spike even better there. But what I didn't _______ until even after the _______ was that the ______ of the people in this session, including David, were drawing with their _____ hand. David's stroke meant that it affected the right side of his body, and he drew with his left hand, as many did. Nobody mentioned it to me, nobody complained. They just got on with it. It was an inspirational session for me. It was quite a humbling session, one of the best things I felt I've ever done. At the end of it, I had a lovely email from doctor Mike Jordan, and he's the _____ of the TALK group; happens to be a medical ______, but he's the chair of the group. He wrote to me, and I'm quoting, he said, "Our recoverers _______ today that they can draw. It's a bit more than that; this sort of activity really builds their confidence." So I was happy, he was happy, everyone was happy, they've invited me back again, and I go in there now about every three or four months. So it's great. I thought that was a ______ example to _____. _____ one more _______? (Audience) Yes. Here we go. Grab your pens. Here we go. Right. I'm going to get you to draw someone that you would recognize. So _____ with a big nose, a bit like Spike's. Next, we'll do some eyes, and you might be thinking, "This is also a bit like Spike." Watch the next bit. You're getting warm. There you go. Little line down there. Down here. Little V-shape, line to the left, line to the right. And you've got Albert Einstein. (Laughter) So you've got the pens with you, you've ______ that you can draw. You're very welcome to take the pens with you and have a practice at home, even show somebody else. But actually, I'd like to leave you with a _____ thought. When you walked in here _____, many of you didn't believe you could draw. I've got a ________ for you about that. How many other beliefs and ________ thoughts do we all carry around with us every day? Beliefs that we could perhaps potentially _________ and think differently about. If we did challenge those beliefs and think differently about them, apart from drawing, what else would be possible for us all? Thank you very much. (Applause)

Solution

  1. presentation
  2. talent
  3. final
  4. sequence
  5. holding
  6. cells
  7. remember
  8. question
  9. lovely
  10. charity
  11. wrong
  12. favorites
  13. slightly
  14. skeptical
  15. shirt
  16. laughter
  17. triangle
  18. strokes
  19. condition
  20. fancy
  21. doctor
  22. spike
  23. session
  24. technique
  25. isolating
  26. people
  27. middle
  28. cartoon
  29. change
  30. proved
  31. mouth
  32. group
  33. prepared
  34. start
  35. circles
  36. limiting
  37. trouble
  38. sorts
  39. drawn
  40. spelling
  41. handbag
  42. drawing
  43. realize
  44. great
  45. audience
  46. called
  47. challenge
  48. fantastic
  49. oxygen
  50. today
  51. schools
  52. happy
  53. prove
  54. number
  55. center
  56. cartoons
  57. learned
  58. children
  59. hands
  60. marks
  61. frames
  62. chair
  63. quick
  64. share
  65. heard
  66. ceiling
  67. beliefs
  68. painting
  69. turns
  70. variation
  71. apprehensive

Original Text

Hi. I've got a question for you: how many people here would say they can draw? (Laughter) I think we've got about one or two percent of the hands going up, and it's interesting, isn't it? It's a little bit like people think of spelling or singing. They think,"You can either do it, or you can't." But I think you can. Because when people say they can't draw, I think it's more to do with beliefs rather than talent and ability. So I think when you say you can't draw, that's just an illusion, and today I'd like to prove that to you. When I say "draw", I'm not saying we're all going to draw like Michelangelo. We are not going to be painting the Sistine Chapel's ceiling. But would you be happy if, by the end of this session, you could draw pictures a little bit like this? (Audience murmuring) Oh, yes! (Laughter) Or even a little bit like this? (Laughter) Actually, there are only two things you need to do to be able to achieve this. One is have an open mind. Are you up for that? (Audience) Yes! And two, just be prepared to have a go. So grab a pen and a piece of paper. OK, so here's how it's going to work: I’ll show you the first cartoon we're going to do, so just watch to begin with. Here we go. Just watching. That's going to be our first cartoon. It's a character called Spike. I'd like you to draw along with me. I'll draw the first line, you draw, and when you've done that, look up, and I'll know you're ready for the next line. Okay, here we go. Start with the nose. Now the eyes. They're like 66s or speech marks. That's it. Next, the mouth. Nice, big smile. Now, over here, the ear. Next, some spiky hair. Next, put the pen to the left to the mouth, little line like that. Pen under the ear, drop a line like that. Pen to the left of the neck, top of the T-shirt. Line to the left, line to the right. Just hold your drawings up and show everyone. (Laughter) How are we all doing? (Laughter) OK. OK, fantastic. So, it looks like you've just learned to draw one cartoon, but you've actually learned more than that; you've learned a sequence that would enable you to draw hundreds and thousands of different cartoons, because we're just going to do little variations on that sequence. Have a go at this. Draw along with me. Nose. Eyes. Smile. That's it. Now some hair. Pen to the left of the mouth, under the hair, little V-shape for the top, line to the left, line to the right. So we've got another character. Let's call her Thelma. (Laughter) So, we've got Spike and Thelma. Let's try another one. Here we go. Another little variation. You're getting the idea. Starting with the nose. But this time we'll change the eyes slightly. Look, two circles together like that. That's it. Then, two little dots in for the eyes. And this time we'll change the mouth slightly. Watch. Little circle colored in there. Have a go at that. Next, the ear. Now, we'll have some fun with the hair, watch. Nice curly hair. Then same thing: pen to the left to the mouth, little line like that. Under the ear, drop a line. Top of the T-shirt. Line to the left, line to the right. I think we'll call him Jeff. (Laughter) We'll do one more. One more go. Here we go. You're getting the idea. (Laughter) So we'll start with a nose again. Notice we're doing little variations. Now we'll change the eyes, so we've got them apart. We'll put some little dots in like that. Next, the mouth slightly different. Let's put a little V-shape like that. Triangle. And a little line across, and we'll just color this a little bit in. Now, watch this bit carefully; some hair, watch. Here we go, little line like that. Next, a bit more there. And watch, a couple of triangles to make a little bow. Triangle at the bottom, rest of the hair. Pen to the left of the mouth again. You get the idea. Drop a line for the neck. Now the V-shape. Line to the left, line to the right. There we go. Let's call her Pam. (Laughter) So you've done... (Laughter) So you've done four cartoons. You can have a little rest now. (Laughter) Take a rest. You're getting the idea. All we're doing is little variations. I'll just demonstrate a couple to you. We could go on all day, couldn't we? You could do someone looking unhappy, a bit like that, or you could experiment with, perhaps, someone who is… just draw a straight line, someone looking a bit fed up. Or perhaps, you could do anything you like, really, just try things out. Look at this. Little squiggle. There we are. So, all sorts of things we could do. Actually, one more I'll let you do, one more idea. This is a great little technique. Have a go at this: people with glasses on. Just draw a nose a bit like Spike's. Next, draw some frames, so two circles like that with a little bit in between. Now, just put some dots inside for the eyes like that. Next, the ear. So it's little bit like we did before, but this time we'll join up the frames. That's it. Watch this bit. (Laughter) And this bit I really like. Watch. (Laughter) And then, little bit there. Pencil under the mustache, line down, top of the shirt, left and right. So there we have it. We could carry on, couldn't we? Hopefully, we've done enough to convince you that in fact we can all draw. And not just people here. I've worked with… I'm going to give you three examples of other people who've learned to draw, and that actually surprised them, too. I'm going to save what I think is my favorite, most surprising example until last. The first example is: I've worked a lot with children and students in schools. Actually the little ones, they just draw fine, but when they get to about 15 or 16, most of them think they can't draw. But I worked with them. I worked this week in a school where I was coaching them on using pictures for memory. A girl was trying to remember what red blood cells do, and she drew this little picture of a red blood cell carrying a handbag with O2 on it to remind her that the red blood cells carry oxygen to all parts of the body. That was a great one. The other people I worked with are many adults in all walks of life, and particularly in business, and they often will want to make presentations memorable. So again, a quick cartoon or sketch could be really good for that. And again, most people think they can't draw, but take this example. Couple of wavy lines, little boat could be a metaphor to represent we're all in this together. So that, if that was just drawn in the presentation, would really stay in the memory, wouldn't it? Yeah. But the third example is - you shouldn't have favorites, should you? This is my favorite. Have you ever been at the party when someone asks you what you do? It gets a little bit skeptical when people ask me that. This lady said to me, well - I said, "I do a little bit of training, and I teach people to draw," and she said, "Would you come along and do some for our group?" She said, "I work with some people" - she was a volunteer - a group of people who have suffered strokes. So I said, "Sure, I could spare some time for that." So I said I would, and I booked the time in. Have you ever done that? You get near of that time and you think, "What have I let myself in for here?" "Will I be able to do it?" I thought, "What could I do with them?" you see. "I know. I'll do my cartoon drawing. They'll like that." But then, as I got near of the time, I got more apprehensive, because then I was thinking, "I've worked with children, with all sorts of adults; I've never worked with a group like this." It turns out it was all part of a charity called TALK. This TALK charity is a wonderful charity that helps people who've suffered strokes, but have a particular condition known as aphasia. You might have heard of aphasia, sometimes called dysphasia. The key thing is it affects their ability to communicate. So, for example, they might have trouble reading, writing, speaking, or understanding. It can be quite an isolating condition; it can be very, very frustrating and can lead to a loss of confidence. Anyway, so I prepared all this stuff, what to do for this session - for a couple of hours, tea break in the middle - and I got more apprehensive. But actually, I needn't have worried, because I'm going to show you now the work that they did. It was one of the best things I've ever done. I'm going to show you the first slide. I taught them Spike, just like I did for you, and I want you to see the reaction on their faces when they did this. (Audience) Oh. What you can see here are two of the stroke recoverers on the left and right, and one of the volunteer helpers in the center. Each stroke recoverer, there are about 36 in the room with volunteers as well, there's one-to-one helpers. You can just see the delight on their faces, can't you? Let's look at another picture. This is a gentleman called David, and he's holding up his picture, and you can tell it was the picture of Spike, can't you? In fact, I think he's drawn Spike even better there. But what I didn't realize until even after the session was that the number of the people in this session, including David, were drawing with their wrong hand. David's stroke meant that it affected the right side of his body, and he drew with his left hand, as many did. Nobody mentioned it to me, nobody complained. They just got on with it. It was an inspirational session for me. It was quite a humbling session, one of the best things I felt I've ever done. At the end of it, I had a lovely email from doctor Mike Jordan, and he's the chair of the TALK group; happens to be a medical doctor, but he's the chair of the group. He wrote to me, and I'm quoting, he said, "Our recoverers learned today that they can draw. It's a bit more than that; this sort of activity really builds their confidence." So I was happy, he was happy, everyone was happy, they've invited me back again, and I go in there now about every three or four months. So it's great. I thought that was a lovely example to share. Fancy one more drawing? (Audience) Yes. Here we go. Grab your pens. Here we go. Right. I'm going to get you to draw someone that you would recognize. So start with a big nose, a bit like Spike's. Next, we'll do some eyes, and you might be thinking, "This is also a bit like Spike." Watch the next bit. You're getting warm. There you go. Little line down there. Down here. Little V-shape, line to the left, line to the right. And you've got Albert Einstein. (Laughter) So you've got the pens with you, you've proved that you can draw. You're very welcome to take the pens with you and have a practice at home, even show somebody else. But actually, I'd like to leave you with a final thought. When you walked in here today, many of you didn't believe you could draw. I've got a question for you about that. How many other beliefs and limiting thoughts do we all carry around with us every day? Beliefs that we could perhaps potentially challenge and think differently about. If we did challenge those beliefs and think differently about them, apart from drawing, what else would be possible for us all? Thank you very much. (Applause)

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
red blood 3
hair pen 2
mouth slightly 2
blood cells 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
red blood cells 2

Important Words

  1. ability
  2. achieve
  3. activity
  4. adults
  5. affected
  6. affects
  7. albert
  8. aphasia
  9. applause
  10. apprehensive
  11. asks
  12. audience
  13. beliefs
  14. big
  15. bit
  16. blood
  17. boat
  18. body
  19. booked
  20. bottom
  21. bow
  22. break
  23. builds
  24. business
  25. call
  26. called
  27. carry
  28. carrying
  29. cartoon
  30. cartoons
  31. ceiling
  32. cell
  33. cells
  34. center
  35. chair
  36. challenge
  37. change
  38. character
  39. charity
  40. children
  41. circle
  42. circles
  43. coaching
  44. color
  45. colored
  46. communicate
  47. complained
  48. condition
  49. confidence
  50. convince
  51. couple
  52. curly
  53. david
  54. day
  55. delight
  56. demonstrate
  57. differently
  58. doctor
  59. dots
  60. draw
  61. drawing
  62. drawings
  63. drawn
  64. drew
  65. drop
  66. dysphasia
  67. ear
  68. einstein
  69. email
  70. enable
  71. examples
  72. experiment
  73. eyes
  74. faces
  75. fact
  76. fancy
  77. fantastic
  78. favorite
  79. favorites
  80. fed
  81. felt
  82. final
  83. fine
  84. frames
  85. frustrating
  86. fun
  87. gentleman
  88. girl
  89. give
  90. glasses
  91. good
  92. grab
  93. great
  94. group
  95. hair
  96. hand
  97. handbag
  98. hands
  99. happy
  100. heard
  101. helpers
  102. helps
  103. hold
  104. holding
  105. home
  106. hours
  107. humbling
  108. hundreds
  109. idea
  110. illusion
  111. including
  112. inspirational
  113. interesting
  114. invited
  115. isolating
  116. jeff
  117. join
  118. jordan
  119. key
  120. lady
  121. laughter
  122. lead
  123. learned
  124. leave
  125. left
  126. life
  127. limiting
  128. line
  129. lines
  130. loss
  131. lot
  132. lovely
  133. marks
  134. meant
  135. medical
  136. memorable
  137. memory
  138. mentioned
  139. metaphor
  140. michelangelo
  141. middle
  142. mike
  143. mind
  144. months
  145. mouth
  146. murmuring
  147. mustache
  148. neck
  149. nice
  150. nose
  151. notice
  152. number
  153. open
  154. oxygen
  155. painting
  156. pam
  157. paper
  158. part
  159. parts
  160. party
  161. pen
  162. pencil
  163. pens
  164. people
  165. percent
  166. picture
  167. pictures
  168. piece
  169. potentially
  170. practice
  171. prepared
  172. presentation
  173. presentations
  174. prove
  175. proved
  176. put
  177. question
  178. quick
  179. quoting
  180. reaction
  181. reading
  182. ready
  183. realize
  184. recognize
  185. recoverer
  186. recoverers
  187. red
  188. remember
  189. remind
  190. represent
  191. rest
  192. room
  193. save
  194. school
  195. schools
  196. sequence
  197. session
  198. share
  199. shirt
  200. show
  201. side
  202. singing
  203. sistine
  204. skeptical
  205. sketch
  206. slide
  207. slightly
  208. smile
  209. sort
  210. sorts
  211. spare
  212. speaking
  213. speech
  214. spelling
  215. spike
  216. spiky
  217. squiggle
  218. start
  219. starting
  220. stay
  221. straight
  222. stroke
  223. strokes
  224. students
  225. stuff
  226. suffered
  227. surprised
  228. surprising
  229. talent
  230. talk
  231. taught
  232. tea
  233. teach
  234. technique
  235. thelma
  236. thinking
  237. thought
  238. thoughts
  239. thousands
  240. time
  241. today
  242. top
  243. training
  244. triangle
  245. triangles
  246. trouble
  247. turns
  248. understanding
  249. unhappy
  250. variation
  251. variations
  252. volunteer
  253. volunteers
  254. walked
  255. walks
  256. warm
  257. watch
  258. watching
  259. wavy
  260. week
  261. wonderful
  262. work
  263. worked
  264. worried
  265. writing
  266. wrong
  267. wrote
  268. yeah