I’m steeling myself for an outbreak of inappropriate hand gestures and speaking very s-l-o-w-l-y in the NHS.  I wrote in another post about how the staff at my local hospital some years ago all seemed to have been sent on a very bad deaf awareness course, resulting in them accompanying their speech with (for me) quite superfluous “thumbs up” signals, pointing and grinning.  Thankfully, it died out (or the staff had better training).  But I quaked as I read this week about very laudable new legislation, about which more in a minute, because there it was again.  “Use gestures and facial expressions to support what you are saying.”  “Speak a little slower than you would do usually.”  Aagh………. Continue reading →