A Dual Aspect Process Model of Intensive Interaction

Accessible summary•  Intensive Interaction is a way of communicating sociably with people who have severe or profound learning disabilities and/or autism. •  The writer of this paper thinks that some people may have different ideas why they do Intensive Interaction with people who have severe or profound learning disabilities and/or autism. •  Some people use Intensive Interaction to communicate with and respond to people who have severe or profound learning disabilities and/or autism, in whichever way works best. •  Other people use Intensive Interaction to help people who have severe or profound learning disabilities and/or autism to learn more ways to communicate and get on with other people around them. •  The writer of this paper thinks that there should be more research into what people think about Intensive Interaction.Summary Intensive Interaction is an empirically researched approach to developing fundamental communication and sociability for people with severe and profound learning disabilities and/or autism. However, it is the author’s contention that certain aspects of Intensive Interaction are not universally conceptualised in a uniform manner, and that there are two general process models that are used to describe the approach by an increasing number of multi‐disciplinary practitioners and advocates. Firstly, there is a ‘Social Inclusion Process Model’ of Intensive Interaction, with practitioners using the approach with the primary aim of inclusively responding to the communication of a person with learning disability, however it is expressed. Secondly, there is a ‘Developmental Process Model’, with practitioners having identifiably educative or developmental goals, rather than the approach being viewed simply as a means of contemporaneous social inclusion. In an attempt to clarify this position, this paper makes the case for a ‘Dual Aspect Process Model’ of Intensive Interaction.