Intensive Interaction – giving control over to the student

1. Intensive Interaction – giving control over to the student Kieron Hubrick Intensive Interaction Coordinator Carlson School for Cerebral Palsy

2. And what I might have said… “I always tell the truth . . . It’s a new way of lying. If you tell the truth people don’t know whether to believe you. It helps me in my work.” J.G Ballard Ballard, J.G (2003) Millennium People. Hammersmith, London: Flamingo. The deconstructed introduction…

3. Intensive Interaction is a way to find, support and acknowledge potential communication behaviours from students that are generally perceived as individuals without recognisable forms of communication (pre-intentional or pre-symbolic, non-verbal students). • Intensive Interaction involves forms of respectable mimicry (as parents do with infants) in order to establish a shared common ground between a student and his or her Intensive Interaction partner and then to build a communication connection over subsequent sessions. It includes elements of ‘play’, social games and appropriate touch contact, an example of which might be holding hands. • Intensive Interaction promotes social awareness, acknowledges all individuals regardless of their disability as potential communicators and is a way to build positive self-esteem by acknowledging pre-intentional (or pre-symbolic) communicators as individuals with something unique to contribute to school/community life. Right, I better talk about Intensive Interaction…

4. The main resource is the teacher – face, voice, body language, personality and sense of presence. The teaching is quite artistic in that the progression of a teaching session is not planned or prescribed, the teacher and student develop the flow together by using the same flexible principles. Hewett, D. (2007). Do Touch: Physical Contact and People Who Have Severe, Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulties. Support for Learning. Vol 22. Number 3. 116 -123. My favourite I.I quote…

5. The more I want to be me, the less I know myself. - Nicky Wire Manic Street Preachers. (2010). Auto-Intoxication. On Postcards from a Young Man [CD]. UK: Sony Music. My other favourite I.I quotes…

6. I think of paintings I shall do. Last night I thought of one, it was a sort of butter-yellow (farm-butter-yellow) field rising to a white luminous sky and the sun just rising. A strange rose-pink, I knew it exactly, full of hushed stillness, the beginning of things, lark-song without larks. (Miranda from) The Collector – John Fowles. Fowles, J. (1963). The Collector. Great Britain: Jonathan Cape. Or…

7. This idea was first called the ‘System’ by Konstantin Stanislavsky, and later, as further developed by Lee Strasberg (at the Group Theatre, the Actors Studio and then at the Institute), ‘The Method’. The Method trains actors to use their imagination, senses and emotions to conceive of characters with unique and original behavior, creating performances grounded in the human truth of the moment. Method Acting?

8. Head dancing • Sitting and observing • Listening to the sound around us • Silence as a teaching tool, the space between activity • Non-verbal sessions Method Acting in special education…

9. In 2013 a new student started at Carlson school – Bailey. • He had only just started I.I at his previous school, where he was assessed at the Awareness stage. • According to the notes, Bailey had missed several sessions due to various health issues. So he was relatively fresh to this way of working, which meant that I could work with him and monitor his progress over a year to see what would/could happen. • I also knew that the family were on board with I.I as an appropriate learning programme for Bailey. • The family are happy for me to talk about Bailey. Let’s talk about students…

10. This was my first session with Bailey, but in the back of my mind I was thinking about my ‘superficial’ observations of him and also what his parents had mentioned about who he is (in some ways), and how he interacts. • I feel a certain shyness implicit in the way Bailey presents socially, and as indicated by his parents. This ‘shyness’ intrigued me so I was very subtle with my interactions with him although I did place my face very close to his so that he had as direct an awareness of me - with him – as possible. Term 1: the first session – 18.02.13

11. He presented with his head down initially and appeared to be nodding off as we started – but as the enjoyable touch continued his eyes widened and I felt he may have been listening to the gentle hum of my breathing that I paced alongside his – hoping to trigger some kind of vocalisation if possible. After a while, he lifted his head with eyes open and although I wouldn’t say he was directly focusing them on me – I felt that he was opening up in a way; his body language indicating that he was opening up his senses to gain some understanding of who I was and what I might be doing with him.

12. …his body language and an increase in arousal/wakefulness that indicated to me that Bailey was potentially showing some interest in me – whether that can be taken as communicating is debatable – but if we think about how an individual should present to be open to communication, then we can say that he did seem to be presenting in this manner. • Positive start with Bailey, we have an interesting and I think enjoyable road ahead of us.

13. Bailey seemed to push out some quite strong vocalisations today after a period of shared mouthing between us. It seems as if he needs to physically put his body into action to “push out” a vocalisation. This was exciting for me as I could easily accommodate these sounds into our ‘conversation’, in quite fun conversational tones. After some effort in this manner from Bailey he seemed to really visually focus in on me with an almost penetrating stare – for a good 30 seconds (or at least it seemed that long) before he shut down – which I took as an end to the session and was grateful for the intense shared time (as short as it was) between us. Term 2: first session - 06.05.13

14. This was quite an impressive session – he was so animated in his interaction with me that at times I worried whether this was leading into seizure activity – something I am still trying to gauge with Bailey. Otherwise – very impressive session, a lot of animation from Bailey today – quite something compared to term one’s more gradual sessions. • I will look towards really anchoring our mouthing as conversation and again will continue to insert vocalisations into these mouthing ‘chats’.

15. This session was amazing. I felt we were doing well to connect and enjoy each other’s company previously – but this session – wow! Bailey was very animated and excited to be spending time with me. • Bailey was very excited to be with me today. I have never seen him so animated, and I felt that our conversation was complex and celebratory. I found his enthusiasm contagious and for once I was doing my best to keep up with him; being sure to watch for his contributions and not overtake the conversation myself with my own natural excitement. I actually didn’t know that he had that much personal energy to give over. Term 3: 05.08.13

16. He enthusiastically vocalised, and what started as beaming smiles turned into laughter and excited squeals – which was fantastic to join in on. This was also conversational in a sense, in that we were connected and conversing and Bailey wasn’t simply enjoying himself (independently) in the moment. I also felt that with this - Bailey’s hands became more animated – and with his free hand that was not in hand contact with mine, he seemed to be seeking/offering touch contact – running his fingers over my forearm which was in contact with his other hand (this may have been involuntary, but as I watched his mobile hand – it seemed to be moving gently across my forearm and did seem to not have the more jerky involuntary movements has hands can sometime have).

17. Session consistency • Learning from each session • Understanding Bailey’s repertoire • Intuition • Reflection • Belief The creative tools used…

18. 2010-2012: Attention & Response • 2013: Participation Matthew I.I since 2010

19. Matthew seemed to physically register my presence by leaning into me. At one point Matthew appeared to smile in response to an on going interaction with me. Occasionally Matthew appeared to look at me – although fleetingly. (Kieron - 01.07.10) • Attracted to Andrew’s fingers moving in the air at his eye level. It appeared that he would still and look toward this activity. He did not pull away from touch on his hands. He appeared very calm during the session (no negative facial expression, more pleasurable ones). Query if he was trying to imitate Andrew’s hand movements at one point of the session (albeit very briefly). He also displayed some occasions of joint focus (again very brief). He tracked Andrew’s hand moving from left to right. (Justine – 30.05.11)

20. I feel that he is aware of things around him, but still in his own little world. (Tania – 26.04.12) • Matt and Damon had an enjoyable session with continuous vocal turn-taking. Fleeting eye contact Matt reaches out to touch and enjoys hand games. He turns his head from side to side searching for environmental sounds. He becomes an enthusiastic communicator and responds with a variety of sounds and intonation. He is happy and smiles (Jenny – 08.03.13)

21. Before withdrawing into himself Matt was very vigorous and explorative with his sensual hand contact – really stroking/rubbing my right hand/forearm. It was a lovely re-introduction and I really felt as if Matt was saying ‘great – nice to see you’, he did all the connecting in this way and I was sort of gob-smacked and then decided (after a while) that I should reciprocate. My session notes: 11.03.13

22. Before the lovely touch contact I had pulled out what I understood to be Matt’s vocal repertoire from the past – his lilting sing-song vocalisations, while making hand contact. As I tried to connect with him he lifted his head – seemed to look towards me or at least maintained some good face to face contact and appear to show a ‘stilled awareness’ of me. I felt as if the vocalisations I had made had triggered some recognition within him… almost as if he was aware of some memory of me, or of a time, or of a general recognition of him from someone else; which if we add that up – meant he was possibly reciprocating in response to this trigger… but this of course is all conjecture.

23. I have never experienced such purposeful/active/engaging touch contact from a student. I felt he was doing all the giving/leading and I was receiving, trying to keep up – and think about what it meant – think about what I should do. It was almost as if the tables had been turned. I felt quite soothed and touched by this and felt he given me a lot – before he withdrew (into himself) once more.

24. From my notes on Bailey: I felt that our conversation was complex and celebratory. I found his enthusiasm contagious and for once I was doing my best to keep up with him; being sure to watch for his contributions and not overtake the conversation myself with my own natural excitement. I actually didn’t know that he had that much personal energy to give over. • From my notes on Matthew: I felt he was doing all the giving/leading and I was receiving, trying to keep up – and think about what it meant – think about what I should do. It was almost as if the tables had been turned. Giving Control Over? The results…

25. It updates itself continuously for no extra charge • You can reason with it, or at least try to if it doesn't function properly • It outlasts power surges, and can run on very low battery for a substantial time – although that does depend on the model and its history of usage • When an iPerson is running as you want it, you can actually feel like the world is within your grasp • The iPerson knows about content that is unwritten and unspoken • An iPerson will continue to be current if it fully uses its potential • An iPerson will retrieve data from an alternative or slightly disabled device and attempt to fill in the blanks Presenting the iPerson