Word adoption
As a copywriter, you may have guessed that language and the art of communication are very important to me. Perhaps this appreciation came about because I had difficulties communicating when I was growing up, I really can’t say. But it’s not important to know why I came to the conclusion that communication is a BIG deal. It just is.
I read a news article that deeply upset me yesterday. It was about a girl who couldn’t see or hear and the woman who was supposed to be looking after her had left her outside overnight, strapped into a pushchair. In the morning, the girl was found, still in her pushchair which had fallen over. Her face was pressed into the ground and she was taken to hospital suffering badly from hypothermia. I imagine that as time went on and the girl realised she had been abandoned she tried to wriggle free and ended up tipping her chair over. The article did not make clear whether or not the girl was capable of speech or making any noise at all. Clearly if she had been able to shout – even an unintelligible noise – it had gone unnoticed which is why she had tried to save herself.
For people like me who can see and hear this scenario is hard to imagine. Blind people tend to rely heavily on their hearing and deaf people can still communicate visually. If you are deaf and blind how do you communicate?
What happens to people who can’t communicate effectively?
Well, they don’t all end up abandoned with hypothermia thank goodness. And there are a lot of communication issues which can be rectified or assisted if people are given the right help and guidance.
That’s why I’ve adopted a word for I Can – a charity aimed at helping children with communication problems. If the story I related above sent a chill down your spine or you just love words you can adopt one here! Or find out more about I Can and how they help children here.
Incidentally, the word I’ve adopted is ‘pyrophoric’, which describes any object that catches fire when exposed to air. It’s probably normally used in laboratories but I like to think of it in terms of ideas and the dissemination of powerful messages.
