An Introduction to Intensive Interaction Workshop

A survey in the UK found over 85% of Speech & Language therapists were using INTENSIVE INTERACTION IN THEIR PRACTICE (Goldbart & Caton 2010) Intensive interaction is an approach to teaching the pre-speech fundamentals of communication to children and adults who have severe learning difficulties and/or autism and who are still at an early stage of communication development. Intensive Interaction was developed in the UK in the 1980s and is now used across hundreds of special schools, therapy clinics, community centres and institutions around the globe. A relationship based intervention, it teaches clinicians, educators and health professionals how to utilise the foundation skills of interaction to support people with significant intellectual disabilities and communication impairments. Intensive Interaction training gives its participants skills to coach parents, caregivers and paraprofessionals on how to engage and interact meaningfully with people with significant disabilities and/or autism.