This year is the 30th anniversary of the publication of Melanie Nind & Dave Hewett’s ground-breaking book setting out the foundational philosophy and working practices of Intensive Interaction in ‘Access to Communication: Developing the Basics of Communication with People with Severe Learning Difficulties Through Intensive Interaction‘ (David Fulton Publishers).
What started out as an action research investigation at Harperbury Hospital School into meeting the primary learning needs of a group of young adult students with learning difficulties and/or autism has now, 30 years later, become a truly worldwide approach. That claim is not in any sense hyperbole, Intensive Interaction is literally bringing its life-enhancing outcomes to people with social communication differences and difficulties across the globe (possibly excepting Antarctica).
Just to prove that ‘worldwide approach’ point, I have looked at where this ‘ConnectingwithIntensiveinteraction.com‘ blog has been accessed from over the past 3 years … and it includes views from over 85 countries; as can be seen on the ‘visitors’ map below; it covers every continent (excepting Antarctica).
Not only that, but as I am a member of an online research group called ‘Researchgate’, I can see where citations of my Intensive Interaction research papers are coming from, and these include academics and clinicians at: Over 20 Universities across the UK and Ireland (from departments or schools of Education, Special Education, Psychology, Healthcare, Nursing and Health Sciences, Neuroscience, Psychological Health and Wellbeing, Music, and Disability Studies), and also at a good number of universities in Australia and New Zealand, several more still in the USA; also quite a few across Europe, in Greece, Bulgaria, Germany, Italy, Finland, the Netherlands, and Russia; then variously from researchers and academics in Brazil, Malaysia, India, Isreal, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Zimbabwe, and Nepal – and all this will be but a tiny fraction of the citations Nind & Hewett (1994, 1996, 2001, 20051) will have had for their publications on Intensive Interaction more generally.
On courses and conferences run by the Intensive Interaction Institute we have had trainees/delegates from the UK, Ireland, Demark, France, Germany, Spain, Romania, Slovakia, Cyprus, The Falkland Islands, Kazakhstan, Greece, Australia, New Zealand, the Caymen Islands, Cape Verde, Hungary, the USA, Hong Kong, Iceland, Thailand, and a fair few others I can’t now recall.
So, over 30 years of dissemination of this most vital of communication approaches, building on the seminal work of Melanie Nind and Dave Hewett, huge progress has undoubtedly been made. Perhaps we should take a minute to collectively congratulate ourselves as a community of Intensive Interaction advocates, academics and practitioners; yes, well done to us all!
However, as I’m sure we all accept, until Intensive Interaction is made available to everyone who could and would benefit from the approach, our collective work of ‘getting Intensive Interaction out there’ certainly isn’t finished.
Note 1 – publications by Nind & Hewett/Hewett & Nind:
Nind, M. & Hewett, D. (1994) ‘Access to Communication: Developing the Basics of Communication with People with Severe Learning Difficulties Through Intensive Interaction’, David Fulton Publishers.
Hewett, D. & Nind, M. (1996) ‘Interaction in Action: Reflections on the Use of Intensive Interaction’, David Fulton Publishers.
Nind, M. & Hewett, D. (2001) ‘A Practical Guide to Intensive Interaction’, BILD Publications.
Nind, M. & Hewett, D. (2005, 2nd Edition) ‘Access to Communication: Developing the Basics of Communication with People with Severe Learning Difficulties Through Intensive Interaction’, David Fulton Publishers.
Connecting with Intensive Interaction 