Who is the approach for?
 
 

 

 


The people with whom we are concerned have major learning needs in the areas of sociability and fundamental communication abilities.   We sometimes describe them as being 'pre-verbal', or 'pre-lingual' or 'difficult to reach'.

 

Text Box: What are We Trying to Teach? • enjoying being with another person • developing the ability to attend to that person • concentration and attention span • sharing personal space and giving and receiving touch • using and understanding eye contacts • using and understanding facial expressions • taking turns in exchanges of behaviour • starting to use vocalisations with meaning • having fun, enjoying people and – life • the fundamentals of communication The aims of the approach are listed on the right.  These are the things, which are usually learnt during the first year by a naturally developing infant.  The learning mostly takes place during interactions with parents and other available adults.  The interactions are playful, full of fun and enjoyment for both participants.  The adult behaves in a very flexible way, constantly responding to things that the infant does and thereby encouraging the infant to do more, to experiment with behaviour.  The adult is therefore a flexible facilitator of the infant learning and the infant is therefore a full and powerful participator in the learning sessions.  Therefore, during these interactions sessions, the infant has the opportunity to learn the things in the box above, rehearse the use of eye contacts, facial expressions, taking turns in exchanges of behaviour.

 

 

 

So, Intensive Interaction is:
 
 

 

 

 


Intensive Interaction is an approach, which has been developed from examination of these characteristics of the parent-infant interaction model.  Teachers and other practitioners attempt to borrow aspects of the parents' activity within interactive sequences, focusing particularly on game-like experiences.

 

This way of teaching or relating is not technically complicated.  It uses natural behaviours and attitudes which most of us possess.  The main resource for the activities is minimal - it is simply the presence of the member of staff, face, voice and body.  The interaction sequences are characteristically brief - 5 minutes is a long one.

 

 

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What do you do?
 
 

 

 


First and foremost, the idea is to create enjoyable and understandable social experiences for the person you are teaching or caring for.  The member of staff finds ways of responding to the behaviour of the other person which attracts their enjoyment and attention.  These activities are repeated daily as one-to-one sessions.  The idea is that as these activities are repeated, they are gradually extended and varied, with the learner acquiring an ever-increasing knowledge about things she/he can do with another person and simultaneously gaining crucial abilities to attend and concentrate for longer and longer periods.  One way of thinking about it is that a communication learner gradually learns communication abilities by taking part in daily rehearsals with an experienced person.  Another way it has been expressed is to see the learner as an 'apprentice', learning by experience in practical situations.

Text Box: Some Principles The learner is active: The learner is an active participant in the learning process, not merely a passive recipient The learning activity is intrinsically rewarding and motivating: The reward for participating in the learning activity is mainly pleasure, and that the learner is motivated to return to similar learning activities by the knowledge that they are pleasurable. Therefore there should be no need to reward the learner with sweets or even great praise, the thrill of the activity is its own reward. The learner shares control of the activity with the carer/teacher In interaction sequences the learner is able to exercise control over the extent, duration and content of the activity, and even whether to participate at all. Due to the teacher's overall responsive style, the learner arguably exerts more control during sessions.

 

Over time, the learner should have clearly improved and extended general communication abilities and may have become a generally more assertive and aware person.  There should thus be other corresponding benefits and attainments in the person's general lifestyle, such as finding it easier to be a member of a group, it is easier to involve the person in all sorts of activities, she/he is generally more relaxed and happy, perhaps having less outbursts of challenging behaviour (see the diagram on page 10  for further explanation).

 

 

 

 

For the last ten years, Intensive Interaction and other approaches which could be called 'interactive' have been adopted in many areas of work with people with severe learning difficulties nationwide.  Intensive interaction is commonly used in SLD schools, day centres and residential establishments.

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w     Text Box: The aims of Intensive Interaction These things which we can see Thomas learning, these are the aims of Intensive Interaction - these are the learning outcomes we are looking for when we start using Intensive Interaction with a person who has severe learning difficulties. It can be seen that these abilities or outcomes are the Fundamentals of Communication, they are the foundations of all subsequent learning. Indeed, we can see that without knowledge of these abilities, it is very difficult to proceed to other learning to have fun - to enjoy life

w     turn-taking

w     to imitate

w     eye contacts

w     facial expression - its use and meaning

w     use of touch and proximity

w     co-operating with another person

w     to explore/experiment

w       to read non-verbal signals and cues

w       to attend to another person - listen,     look and concentrate

w     my noises have meaning

w     to choose

w     cause and effect - I do something, and it causes her to do something

w     I can be powerful - I can affect positively what is going on around me

w     properties of objects

w     fine motor abilities

w     spatial awareness

w     being with another person is good

w     emotional stuff - trust, love, companionship etc.

w     my behaviours are important - I am important

w     I am good to be with

 


 

 

 


w     RESPONSIVENESS - She follows his behaviour - constantly responsive, then celebrates and extends

w     quality one to one time

w     she scans him constantly for signals and feedback - 'tunes in' to him

w     sometimes she offers stimuli - but does not insist that he take them up

w     she uses imitation - a good way of celebrating his behaviour

w     she is particularly responsive to sounds

w     intentionality - Sue constantly responds to Thomas' behaviours meaningfully

w     no force, dominance or compulsion

w     powerful general trend to the positive - no negatives during this activity

w