- Always remember that Intensive Interaction is child or person-centred: it is based on us as Intensive Interaction practitioners trying to ‘be with’ the person (child or adult) by responding to some aspect of their current behaviour or activity.
- With Intensive Interaction, we build sociability with the person (child or adult) by sensitively joining in with, or reflecting back, some aspect of their current behaviour or activity, rather than trying to lead them into our preferred activity.
- Good observation of the person’s communication and interactive behaviour is vital before deciding how best to offer ourselves as social partners for them.
- It is important to remember the taskless nature of Intensive Interaction. It is the quality of the two-way social connection that is made that is important, not any concrete or observable outcomes.
- Intensive Interaction should always be mutually pleasurable, so remember to enjoy interacting with your person (child or adult).
- Go at the pace of the person (child or adult) – there is never any rush!
- Don’t be put off if things don’t always go so well – sometimes things will go better than others; that’s just human nature.
- Intensive Interaction is something everyone can do! But we should always work on developing our own Intensive Interaction practices so that we can become an even better social communication partner for the person (child or adult).
- We should always do Intensive Interaction with positive sensitivity, but also with a gentle sense of perseverance; Intensive Interaction is something we should be doing over the longer term!
- With intensive interaction, if it doesn’t feel right for either of you, then it probably isn’t right; so perhaps it’s best to stop and reconsider what is happening.
- If things aren’t developing as you think they should, don’t be afraid to ask for help and support, e.g. from fellow staff or carers, or other experienced interactors.
- But equally, share your Intensive Interaction successes with anyone and everyone else who should know.
So finally, Intensive Interaction is about being sensitively responsive to the person (child or adult) in their preferred way, at their current level, and at their preferred pace or tempo.
This means us sensitively responding to the person (child or adult) and their behaviour, rather than trying to get them to respond to us and ours. We are doing Intensive Interaction with the person, and not to them!
(Adapted from the work of Firth, G., Menzies, L. & Guthrie, N.)
Connecting with Intensive Interaction 