Health sports course November 2015
Students on the three sign language and interpreting programmes receive training in various methods of interpreting for people with combined visual and hearing impairment and deafblindness. Students at the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences receive practical training in organising training for people with combined visual and hearing impairment/deafblindness. People with combined visual and hearing impairment/deafblindness receive a personal trainer for a week and a good basis for continuing their training when they return home. They also help to train new interpreters and provide them with good interpreting training.
We meet Jannicke Hauge and Ninni Steen, third-year students in the Sign Language and Interpreting programme at HiST and HiOA respectively, who are interpreting for Cor van der Lijcke this week, to hear their experiences of the Health Sports course at Eikholt.
Jannicke has the following comments about having an internship at Eikholt.
“The practice sessions Eikholt are absolutely top-notch. The course week provides opportunities for good and intensive interpreting training. It is great that the deafblind people are volunteering and are excellent teachers for us. I was very nervous beforehand, with a lot of nerves, but the meeting with Cor and the others made me feel confident.”
Hilde Rustad is one of the students from the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences' Department of Physical Activity and Health, who is responsible for organising exercise for the participants in Health Sport Week. We ask her about what it's like to be in charge of the training programme for Helsesportuka at Eikholt.
“There are many challenges that require great patience. The participants are so different and the communication methods are so different. That is why everything takes so long. But, all the participants master the challenges and enjoy the activities very much”, says Hilde.
“Eikholt Norwegian is a wonderful place that makes it so easy for deafblind people to be active. The facilities here are so well organized with hiking trails and opportunities to challenge themselves. We see a big difference in the skills when courses start on Monday and end on Friday. From the Health Sports Week, participants learn simple exercises that they can continue with now that they are back home. It is very educational for us students to work with the participants here Eikholt.”
Cor has been involved in teaching interpreting students for a number of years and really enjoys taking part.
“Good quality interpreters are essential. Therefore, it is important that we, the users, act as «teachers» for the interpreter students. The first time we meet, the students are extremely nervous, but quite quickly they become more confident. It is important that we deafblind people stand by the students as mentors with praise and criticism. Therefore, I encourage other deafblind people to stand by the students as teachers during the Health Sports Courses Eikholt.”
“Interpretation for the deafblind is much more than just interpretation. Sign language is also an important element in interpretation for the deafblind. They are also trained in haptic communication, which enables the deafblind to «see» what they cannot see. Haptic communication is therefore the «icing on the cake»,”, says Cor, who also emphasises that interpreting for deafblind people involves intimacy that can be demanding for both user and interpreter.
Cor says that both Jannicke and Ninni have "passed the exam" as interpreters for him these days.
Helsesportukene, which is held every autumn at Eikholt, has become an arena where students from four university colleges in Norway get to spend a whole week with people with combined visual and hearing impairments. Through their internships, they get a unique opportunity to practice as interpreters and as training instructors for challenging users. In this way, Eikholt helps to spread expertise to future interpreters and healthcare workers with training expertise.
The offer is a good example of good resource utilisation.
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