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
- presentation
- talent
- final
- sequence
- holding
- cells
- remember
- question
- lovely
- charity
- wrong
- favorites
- slightly
- skeptical
- shirt
- laughter
- triangle
- strokes
- condition
- fancy
- doctor
- spike
- session
- technique
- isolating
- people
- middle
- cartoon
- change
- proved
- mouth
- group
- prepared
- start
- circles
- limiting
- trouble
- sorts
- drawn
- spelling
- handbag
- drawing
- realize
- great
- audience
- called
- challenge
- fantastic
- oxygen
- today
- schools
- happy
- prove
- number
- center
- cartoons
- learned
- children
- hands
- marks
- frames
- chair
- quick
- share
- heard
- ceiling
- beliefs
- painting
- turns
- variation
- 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
- ability
- achieve
- activity
- adults
- affected
- affects
- albert
- aphasia
- applause
- apprehensive
- asks
- audience
- beliefs
- big
- bit
- blood
- boat
- body
- booked
- bottom
- bow
- break
- builds
- business
- call
- called
- carry
- carrying
- cartoon
- cartoons
- ceiling
- cell
- cells
- center
- chair
- challenge
- change
- character
- charity
- children
- circle
- circles
- coaching
- color
- colored
- communicate
- complained
- condition
- confidence
- convince
- couple
- curly
- david
- day
- delight
- demonstrate
- differently
- doctor
- dots
- draw
- drawing
- drawings
- drawn
- drew
- drop
- dysphasia
- ear
- einstein
- email
- enable
- examples
- experiment
- eyes
- faces
- fact
- fancy
- fantastic
- favorite
- favorites
- fed
- felt
- final
- fine
- frames
- frustrating
- fun
- gentleman
- girl
- give
- glasses
- good
- grab
- great
- group
- hair
- hand
- handbag
- hands
- happy
- heard
- helpers
- helps
- hold
- holding
- home
- hours
- humbling
- hundreds
- idea
- illusion
- including
- inspirational
- interesting
- invited
- isolating
- jeff
- join
- jordan
- key
- lady
- laughter
- lead
- learned
- leave
- left
- life
- limiting
- line
- lines
- loss
- lot
- lovely
- marks
- meant
- medical
- memorable
- memory
- mentioned
- metaphor
- michelangelo
- middle
- mike
- mind
- months
- mouth
- murmuring
- mustache
- neck
- nice
- nose
- notice
- number
- open
- oxygen
- painting
- pam
- paper
- part
- parts
- party
- pen
- pencil
- pens
- people
- percent
- picture
- pictures
- piece
- potentially
- practice
- prepared
- presentation
- presentations
- prove
- proved
- put
- question
- quick
- quoting
- reaction
- reading
- ready
- realize
- recognize
- recoverer
- recoverers
- red
- remember
- remind
- represent
- rest
- room
- save
- school
- schools
- sequence
- session
- share
- shirt
- show
- side
- singing
- sistine
- skeptical
- sketch
- slide
- slightly
- smile
- sort
- sorts
- spare
- speaking
- speech
- spelling
- spike
- spiky
- squiggle
- start
- starting
- stay
- straight
- stroke
- strokes
- students
- stuff
- suffered
- surprised
- surprising
- talent
- talk
- taught
- tea
- teach
- technique
- thelma
- thinking
- thought
- thoughts
- thousands
- time
- today
- top
- training
- triangle
- triangles
- trouble
- turns
- understanding
- unhappy
- variation
- variations
- volunteer
- volunteers
- walked
- walks
- warm
- watch
- watching
- wavy
- week
- wonderful
- work
- worked
- worried
- writing
- wrong
- wrote
- yeah