The ‘Intensive Interaction in Action’ DVD – 10 years on, and still brilliant

It is now 10 years since the launch of the ‘Intensive Interaction in Action’ DVD (Hewett, D. & Firth, G., 2015). This DVD has nearly two hours of footage, and is still a brilliant learning resource about our approach; it’s even now available on (or as) a USB stick!

The DVD clearly illustrates the vital, life-enhancing importance of Intensive Interaction for a whole range of people with social communication difficulties or differences related to their learning difficulties and/or autism. There are many, many invaluable insights given across the DVD by a range of Intensive Interaction practitioners. Below, I give some brief details on the content of each chapter:

Chapter 1 – ‘The Fundamentals of Communication’: in this opening chapter, Dave Hewett explains what the DVD is for and who it is aimed at. He also addresses questions like: ‘why do we do Intensive Interaction?’ and ‘how do we do Intensive Interaction?’, with a particular focus given to illustrating the ‘Fundamentals of Communication’ (FoCs).

Chapter 2 – ‘How to do Intensive Interaction: the principles’: here, Dave and a range of Intensive Interaction coordinators set out a fuller description of the rationale and practices of the approach, supported by several illustrative video clips.

Chapter 3 – Sam’s story: this chapter focuses on the use of Intensive Interaction with Sam (a 4-year-old boy).  Initially, we see Sam on his own, but then we see Amandine, the practitioner, engaging with him by reflecting back to him aspects of his own behaviours. This chapter wonderfully captures the many vital, positive social communication developments for Sam that emerged over the 6 months of Intensive Interaction.

Chapter 4 – Julie–Ann: in this chapter, we see Julie-Ann (a 12-year-old girl with PMLD) with her Intensive Interaction partner Julie, who talks about “listening with all my senses” so that she can ‘tune in’ to Julie-Ann. We also see Irena, Julie-Ann’s teacher, engaging with her in a very ‘warm and gentle’ manner, giving Julie-Ann time to process, relate and respond.  At the end of the chapter, Julie goes on to report on all the life-enhancing developments that Julie-Ann made through the use of Intensive Interaction.

Chapter 5 – Dennis: here, we see how Jules (the practitioner) used Intensive Interaction with Dennis, an older man with severe learning disabilities and autism. Initially, Dennis was seen sitting or lying on the floor, facing away from other people, often engaging in a range of rhythmical and self-stimulatory behaviours.  Jules talks about and shows them gradually building a ‘repertoire’ of mutual engagement behaviours, and them having “just having fun” together in the busy home environment. 

Chapter 6 – Jessica: in this chapter, Miray Kester speaks about using Intensive Interaction with her daughter Jessica, a young woman with Angelman Syndrome. Miray so effectively explains (and so beautifully shows) how Intensive Interaction works as the main means of “communication, bonding … and helping Jessica’s social interaction”. Miray also talks powerfully about Jessica needing a “nurturing approach”, and that on finding Intensive Interaction, she felt she had “come round full circle” to that natural approach.

Chapter 7 – Ned: here, Kelly (Ned’s teacher) talks about how turn-taking vocal exchanges were the starting point of his interactive development, with Ned also then becoming increasingly tactile, more often using touch in his socially interactive play.  Interestingly, with the sustained use of Intensive Interaction, Ned’s fundamental communication skills developed to the point that he would successfully engage socially with his peers.

Chapter 8 – Dylan: in this chapter, Cath, a service manager, tells us about using Intensive Interaction with Dylan (a previously fearful and socially isolated man with autism). Cath describes how she initially sat in a corridor with Dylan, and within a few minutes, he accepted her proximity. He then also let her join in with his ‘rocking’ and ‘sock-flicking’. Cath talks about how quickly Dylan understood that he could lead a social interaction, and that social interactions can be fun.

Chapter 9 – Jemima: here, Julie discusses Jemima, a woman with severe learning disabilities, who lives in a supported living service.  Julie shows how Jemima needs people to interact with her in an ‘unhurried’ way – “she needs time to pause, to process… and to see that someone is responding to what she does”.  Julie demonstrates how a matched tempo and timings can be vital in engaging successfully with someone.

Chapter 10 – Tom: in this chapter, Dave Hewett tells us about using Intensive Interaction with Tom, an academically able 8-year-old boy with autism who spoke 3 languages and could “read and write better than his peers“. However, Tom had “a great deal of difficulty being with other children” and thus was home-schooled. As the chapter unfolds, we see Tom’s support workers and his mum, Sara, taking every opportunity to join in with his activity to “create communication movements” that facilitated Tom’s development of the fundamentals of communication. Finally, we are reminded that “speech does not equal communication” and that “communication is more important than speech”.