Ergonomics !

ERGONOMICS!
What is this word? And why is she yelling it at me?


Well…Ergonomics is described as: “constantly make slight invisible adjustments to an activity to adapt to the needs of those taking part and ensure that it continues to work for its intended purpose” (Caulton and Dickson 2007).
When applying this to my online sign language tutorials I found I began to slow down (pause) the tutorials in order for me to engage and fully grasp the right movements corresponding with the definitions/words. I adapted the activity to ensure that the purpose (learning more sign language) was achieved. today is saturday and once a month on a saturday is "lawn mowing day" as you can imagen this is rather loud activity and i can't control how it fully interfered with my sign language practice. At this moment in time I'm considering how the world of noise wouldn't have as much influence for a def person. I pondered how i was distracted and difficult to focus on my hand movement when any auditory interference interrupted my train of thought. How clear is the mind of a def person i wondered. In order to stay focused on performing my activity I had to adjust ways of learning. I put head phones on and shut the windows.
 I was still able to carry out the tutorial on "meetings and greetings" and even taught the class how to say/sign "whadup".....rest your hands so that they are inline with your belly button, having your arms practically on a 90 degree angle, now bring your middle finger towards your palm holding it there while you in one smooth movement bring your hands up towards your chin, making sure to remain in space without making contact with any body parts. And that is a slow-mo way of explaining how to do a sign. i can asure you it it a lot simpler when in person, you can just mimic the gestures. 


References:
Caulton, R. & Dickson, R. (2007). What's going on? Finding an explanation for what we do. In J. Creek & A. Lawson- Porter (Eds.), Contemporary issues in occupational therapy (pp. 87- 114). Chichester: John Wiley & Sons Ltd