We are so pleased that Nicola Grove will be leading a sensory storytelling workshop at the Accessible Book and Story Festival. Nicola was one of the very first practitioners of multisensory storytelling.
In the 1980s, as a speech and language therapist working in a special school, she grew interested in the possibilities of using literature that would appeal to teenagers, rather than picture books designed for preschoolers, to develop understanding and communication skills. She was convinced that the youngsters she was working with would respond to the sound and rhythm of the text.
Her first book Odyssey Now, explored the story of the Odyssey through games, art, music, smells and tactile stimuli. It was published over 20 years ago and is a sensory storytelling classic that continues to be extremely popular with teachers and language practitioners to this day.
Nicola currently works with the Open University and the Universities of Leipzig and Koblenz and runs training in Storysharing®, an innovative approach which enables people with profound learning disabilities to share their experiences.