The first national meeting of I.I. Regional Support Group representatives

On Monday 22nd February, at Sunfield School near Kidderminster, the first national meeting was heldwith representatives of the UK Intensive Interaction Regional Support Groups (see photo).

There were representatives present from Oldham, Sunderland, Macclesfield, the Midlands, Oxford,the South East, London, Cardiff, Nottingham, Leeds and Merseyside, with Dave Hewett, Cath Irvine and Graham Firth being present to represent the Intensive Interaction Institute.

As well as allowing the representatives to report on their group’s achievements, the meeting addressed issues such as the purpose of the regional groups, and of each support meeting, and the intended participants of each group. It was suggested that different meetings should haveparticular themes, such as:

• Looking at I.I. information and trainingresources, such as instructional videos or DVD’s, or the available I.I. books, or web-resources or pamphlets etc
• Giving a presentation specifically for localparents to attend and find out about I.I.
• Managing Services providing I.I., and how to improve and sustain the quality and frequency of I.I. work
• Video analysis or recording for Intensive Interaction – how to structure this to best effectfor measuring progress and attainment
• Discussions on what makes for good I.I.training? e.g. in short information presentations, longer practice development training, etc

There was also discussion of recent ‘hot topics’, such as the planning of future conferences, and the Endorsed Practitioner Pack that has been trialled by Cath Irvine with the help of some of the recently qualified Co-ordinators.

It is hope that this will become an annual meeting, and that the mutual support and the sharing of ideas and experiences between the representatives will help develop the