Policy for using I.I
As I.I therapists we believe that every student has the fundamental right to be able to communicate. Every student has the right to develop his or her ability to communicate, at whatever level, and to be given the opportunity to respond to and control his or her environment (Barber 2005).
- How does I.I work?
- Why we use I.I with people with communication problems?
- The aims of I.I
- School policy and physical touch
- Equal opportunities, who is it for?
- I.I in the curriculum
- Record Keeping
- How progress is assessed and evaluated
How does Intensive Interaction work?
First and foremost, Intensive Interaction is highly practical. The only equipment needed is a sensitive person to be the interaction partner. The approach works by progressively developing enjoyable and relaxed interaction sequences between the interaction partner and the person doing the learning. These interaction sequences are repeated frequently and gradually grow in duration, complexity and sophistication. As this happens, the fundamentals of communication are gradually rehearsed and learnt in a free-flowing manner. The style of the teacher person is relaxed, non-directive and responsive. In fact, a central principle is that the teacher person builds the content and the flow of the activity by allowing the learner basically to lead and direct, with the teacher responding to and joining-in with the behaviour of the learner. This simple principle is the one used by adults in interaction with babies during the first year. The first year is the period of development when a baby carries out intense and very rapid learning of the fundamentals of communication. Much of the development of Intensive Interaction was based on reading of the scientific research on the way in which human beings learn to communicate during the first year.
The teaching sessions are therefore frequent, quite intense, but also fun-filled, playful and enjoyable. Both participants should be at ease with enjoyment of the activity as the main motivation. A session could be highly dynamic, with a great deal of vocalisation, sometimes with fun-filled physical contacts. A session could also be peaceful, slow and quiet.
Why we use I.I with people with communication problems?
Due to their ASD, all of our clients have a communication impairment and consequently they present with a very low sense of self-esteem and self-worth. I.I is an approach to teaching the pre-speech fundamentals of communication to children and adults who have autism and who are still at an early stage of communication development.
Due to their diagnosis and the effect that ASD may have in our clients, we must ensure we teach them what they lack due to their diagnosis:
- The ability to be generally social – to understand other people
- To take part in interactions with another person
- To enjoy other people and desire to be with them
- To learn and understand communication skills and routines, including non-verbal signalling, emotional content, facial expressions, use of eye contact.
The aims of I.I
We try to teach our students the fundamentals of communication. These are:
- Enjoying being with another person
- Developing the ability to attend to that person
- Concentration and attention span
- Learning to do sequences of activity with the other person
- Taking turns in exchange of behaviour
- Sharing personal space
- Using and understanding eye contacts
- Using and understanding facial expressions
- Using and understanding physical contacts
- Using and understanding non-verbal communication
- Using vocalisations with meaning
- Learning to regulate and control arousal levels
School policy and physical touch
Lack of physical contact was deemed as abusive (Nind 1997). It may give the individual the message that he or she is ‘’untouchable’’. The consequence of the lack of human touch is learned helplessness: depression, withdrawal and the development of stereotypical and self-stimulatory behaviours.
In order to use touch we must have the permission of the client.
Why should we use touch?
- Acts as a comforter
- acts as an alerter
- to make life meaningful
- to make life possible (survival)
- enhances physiological functioning
- regulates arousal
- provides information
- reduces tension and anxiety
Montagu (1986) inferred that as an infant matures, the importance of skin contact gives way to the importance of looking and listening. Touch is vital to the infants well being and development.
Equal opportunities, who is it for?
Intensive Interaction is for people who are still at the early stages of communication development. This may be a person who is ‘very difficult to reach’, living a socially isolated life, perhaps having a range of self-stimulatory behaviours and not showing motivation to be with others. These people tend to be:
- People difficult to reach
- People absorbed in repetitive behaviour
- People who avoid others
- Socially isolated
- People who are learning the Fundamentals of Communication
- Expanding and broadening
- People who exhibit frustration and communication difficulties
- Help passive communicators become active ones
- Active communicators who need to rehearse speech sounds
- Those who enjoy it
- People learning Fundamentals of Communication for a second time
- People loosing knowledge
- People who have Autism and Asperger’s syndrome.
I.I in the curriculum
During I.I sessions, the learner outcomes emerge gradually over time as a result of rolling, accumulative (progress in one area will bring progress in other areas) and generative process of activating the session, day by day, with each session building and expanding upon the ones that went before.
There are no national specified times for particular subjects. It is for the schools to determine and justify the amount of time allocated to different parts of the curriculum.
I.I focuses on making the curriculum fit the student and not the pupil fit the curriculum.
We aim to:
- Enable our students to interact and communicate with a wide range of people.
- Enable our students to express preferences, communicate needs, make choices, make decisions and choose options.
- Promote self-advocacy.
- Increase our pupils’ awareness and their understanding of the world.
We should take into account:
- The needs of the pupil
- The needs of the family and local community
Although the NC is specified in subjects, we, as an independent school, are not required to teach them separately.
Record keeping
- A record is kept for each individual who uses this service. After each sessions the communicative partner (mediator/teacher) writes a summary of the session.
Every few sessions a video will be taken of the sessions and this will be analysed and recorded.
- Register of clients participating in I.I (start date and number of sessions)
- Copies of consent forms
- A register of staff participating in I.I (number of clients they work with and sessions)
- Progress reports/summary reports
- Standardised assessments
- Home report assessments about I.I progress
- Library or video data as evidence of progress
- Monitoring reports of sessions (observations, recommendations, summary of content of sessions)
- Monitoring evaluations reports (where is I.I establishes, where is embryonic, where is absent...)
- Copies of I.I policy documents
How progress is assessed and evaluated
A baseline observation of possible candidates is carried out using a Language Development Chart, natural observation carried out in the classroom using a 15 minute observation form (M. Barber, 2005), and discussions with the class team. Clients are also assessed using a framework for recognising attainment in intensive interaction (Grahan Firth, 2004). Finally, a language and communication assessment (Heard and Kanthan, 2007) is completed.
We want to record:
- new things the student doe which are identified as progress
- the order in which progress occurs
- what are we doing that is effective
We need to regularly (monthly at least or weekly) video record sessions. These should be analysed to the point that we are able to identify and note new developments, changes in behaviour, teacher technique, etc.
All recorded sessions should be evaluated and analysed. This should be done as soon as possible after a session. These evaluations need to be descriptive, subjective and anecdotal. Special recording sheets are provided (interaction session sheet and progress track, as well as the video analysis).
Clients will be given opportunities to be actively engaged in communication learning across the curriculum. Opportunities to actively work with others should be offered in all key learning areas.
Progress will be monitored through narrative and video means, noting significant developments such as new responses, increased range of facial expressions, emerging vocalisations, imitation, awareness of others, joint attention, sharing, turn taking, etc.
Fernando Teixido-Infante
BSc Psychology
PGDip Autism
Intensive Interaction Co-ordinator
