Author Archives: Graham Firth

Clegg, J., Black, R., Smith, A. & Brumfitt, S. (2018) Disability and Rehabilitation [on-line] This study of day service staff focused on answering three questions, these being: What did staff think about using Intensive Interaction in their daily work with people with PMLD? What challenges did staff experience in implementing Intensive Interaction? What support doContinue reading “Examining the impact of a city-wide Intensive Interaction staff training program for adults with profound and multiple learning disability: a mixed methods evaluation”

Weedle, S. (2016) Learning Disability Practice, 19(9), 27-34. This paper reviewed the academic and research literature focusing on studies of Intensive Interaction with people with a severe-profound intellectual disability. The literature search produced 18 relevant peer-reviewed papers (6 quantitative, 6 mixed methods and 4 qualitative) 16 from the UK, 1 from Australia and 1 fromContinue reading “The use of Intensive Interaction with people with severe-profound intellectual disability”

Hutchinson, N. & Bodicoat, A. (2015) Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities, 28 (6), 437-454. This paper looked at 15 quantitative and 3 qualitative peer-reviewed papers which examined the efficacy of Intensive Interaction (I.I.) with participants of different ages in both educational and residential settings: In Nind’s 1996 study, a multiple-baseline study with 6 adultContinue reading “The Effectiveness of Intensive Interaction: A Systematic Literature Review”

Berry, R., Firth, G., Leeming, C. & Sharma, V. (2014) Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, 21 (5), 403-410. Some Background This explored clinical psychologists’ views of Intensive Interaction as an intervention in learning disability services in terms of its theoretical underpinning and empirical support. It was also hoped that the study might illuminate significant issues influencingContinue reading “Clinical Psychologists’ Views of Intensive Interaction as an Intervention in Learning Disability Services”

Sharma, V. & Firth, G. (2012) Learning Disability Practice, 15 (9), 20-23. This paper reviews research on the effects of Intensive Interaction on the conduct, health and wellbeing of people with learning disabilities who exhibit severe challenging behaviour, and on the wellbeing of their carers.  The authors conclude that Intensive Interaction can benefit clients, carersContinue reading “Effective Engagement through Intensive Interaction”

Firth, G. (2009) British Journal of Learning Disabilities, 37(1), 43-49. Since the 1980s, intensive Interaction has been employed to meet the social and communicative needs of people with severe or profound and multiple learning difficulties and/or autism. The approach, which employs naturalistic interactions with learning disabled people based on the ‘infant-caregiver’ interactional model, was initiallyContinue reading “A Dual Aspect Process Model of Intensive Interaction”

Nind, M. (1999) British Journal of Special Education, 26 (2), 96–102. This article addressed the potential usefulness of Intensive Interaction (I.I.) for pupils whose learning disabilities are compounded by autism. It begins with a general outline of Intensive Interaction, describing it as an approach to ‘communication’ suitable for children and young people with the mostContinue reading “Intensive Interaction and autism: a useful approach?”