Intensive Interaction Co-ordinator Course
To express an interest in this course please register at the foot of the page.
- Courses commence:
- St Albans, Herts: 14th July 2009
- The course planning team is Dave Hewett, Cath Irvine, Graham Firth and Val Regan.
- Current planning is for the courses to be open-access course at three centres: the south east (M25 zone), the west midlands and the north (hopefully M62 corridor).
- The provision of these courses is a major and complicated undertaking. At present we are not asking for anyone to register for the courses, but rather to express interest to us so that we can make some assessment as to whether we are presently over-planning or under-planning.
- Therefore, if you have a serious interest in undertaking the course, please click to email Sarah Forde at the bottom of the page.
- We believe that this course will be attractive to employers in that they will see the value of having a member of staff within the establishment or service who is an II Co-ordinator.
- The course contact time will be 21 days over a period of approximately sixteen months, in blocks of 3 days with 6 – 8 weeks in between blocks. The projected cost of the course, (£3,300) implies that most course members will be sponsored by their employer.
- Note: the planning team is presently undertaking application for the course to be accredited by a nationally recognised accrediting body.
Course Aims:
By the culmination of the course an Intensive Interaction Co-ordinator will:
- be an advanced practitioner in the techniques of doing Intensive Interaction
- have read and be knowledgeable about all publications and theories on Intensive Interaction
- have knowledgeable about much of the underlying research theory on parent-baby interaction
- be knowledgeable about many of the issues and associated theories, e.g.: touch, age-appropriateness, developmental theories, the history of psychology and the place of II, autism theories and history, communication work in the field of SLD etc.
- be able to train and mentor individuals and small staff teams in the practice of II
- be able to give workshops on II to larger groups (optional)
Course members
Target group:
All practitioners who work in the field: teachers and teacher assistants, speech and
language therapists and assistants, psychologists, probationers and assistants, social
workers, residential staff, qualified and non-qualified etc. Therefore: the course will
be open to all practitioners, of whatever qualification, or holding no qualifications
except for their practical experience.
There will be an academic component to the course in terms of reading and becoming
familiar with the underlying research. However, versions of this course have already
been piloted by Dave Hewett and Cath Irvine and the experience is that all practitioners
can be assisted to become comfortable with the academic components.
Intensive Interaction Co-ordinator person specification
- a member of staff who has daily contact with pupils/service users
- a member of staff who enjoys working closely with the pupils/service users
- a member of staff who already has undertaken the introductory course and has
practical experience of using Intensive Interaction
- a member of staff of any status – an II co-ordinator may be, but does not
need to be, a senior member of staff
- a member of staff who at times, is prepared to work outside of their immediate usual team
- an open personality who enjoys the sense of ‘team’ and is prepared to undertake
collaborative work with individual members of staff or teams
- a person prepared to give small workshop presentations and to learn the skills for this
- a person prepared to do some reading and study as part of the course
- a person who is prepared to give full participation to the course, to contribute
to discussion, analysis and all other course processes
Course delivery
- contact time will be in 3 day blocks every 6 – 8 weeks
learning will be by:
- collaborative seminar/workshops
- lecture style seminar
- running an Intensive Interaction project
- shooting video and collaborative video review
- solo study
During the three day blocks, the course processes will be a collaborative seminar/workshop
forum, led by one of the present Intensive Interaction experts. There will also be direct, 'lecture'
style teaching on certain topics, transforming into open discussion. Extensive handouts and
supporting papers will be given on all topics. There will be extensive use of video and video
review of II technique during each three day block.
Throughout the course, each course member will work on at least one Intensive Interaction
project with a pupil or service user. They will shoot videos of their work to bring to the
course blocks. Collaborative review of these videos comprises a major aspect of course content,
both in terms of learning II technique by reflection and evaluation together and in terms of the
course members satisfactorily demonstrating their abilities. The course members will maintain
written logbooks on the processes of their project.
Throughout the life of the course, course members will conduct solo study in-between
the contact blocks.
Specimen Course Outline
- Pre – course preparation
-
- read: 'A Practical Guide to Intensive Interaction'
- read: pre-course materials
- do: pre-course exercises
- Session 1 - 3 days
- introduction, welcomes
- the story of Intensive Interaction
- video analyses parent/baby - exercises
- seminar on infant communication and language development
- seminar on the Fundamentals of Communication
- video analyses II sessions - exercises
- Preparation for course members' projects
- Practical Session on video shooting
- Intervening period
- carry out practical work as an II practitioner, including involvement of other staff, keep a logbook on II work, shoot video of own II sessions for presentation to course
- read selected materials on infant and communication development
- Session 2 - 3 days
- team-building exercises
- literature on parent/baby interaction
- seminar session: 'Who is II for and why? 'Secondary disability'
- Secondary Motivational Deficit
- review and rehearsal of II technical concepts and their application
- General review of course members’ projects and logbooks
- Intervening period
- read: 'Access to Communication', selected articles
- carry out practical work as an II practitioner, including involvement of other staff, keep a logbook on II work, shoot video of own II sessions for presentation to course
- Session 3 - 3 days
- seminar on autism and Asperger’s Syndrome
- review of course members’ logbooks and seminar on II working processes
- video analyses of course members’ II work
- working with practitioners and teams
- Intervening period
- read selected material on autism, Asperger's syndrome, normalisation, age-appropriateness, physical contact
- carry on with practical II project
- Session 4 - 3 days
- Working with practitioners, teams and management
- review of course members’ II projects, logbooks, videos
- seminar/idiscussions of issues related to II – normalisation, age-appropriateness, physical contact, challenging behaviour, total communication, psychological theories
- relating II to trends and concepts in our field
- review other techniques and approaches, particularly those relating to the teaching of communication
- Intervening period
- read 'Implementing Intensive Interaction in Schools'
- carry on practical work on II
- Session 5 - 3 days
- seminar/discussion/exercises – supporting teams and individual members of staff
- approaches to helping staff to understand what II is and how to do it
- FAQs - answering questions
- troubleshooting staff/team problems
- review of course members’ II projects, logbooks, videos
- record-keeping and documentation of II – recognising progress
- writing II into programmes and schemes of work – IEPs, PCPs etc
- Intervening period
- read 'Interaction in Action'
- carry on practical work on II
- Session 6 - 3 days
- workshop rehearsal - troubleshooting
- more in-depth overview of psychological theories, e.g. Bruner, Vygotsky, Skinner, Watson, Pavlov
- curriculum theory (for teachers)
- detail on the history of work with people who have SLD
- detail on the practices and expertise of SALTs, music therapists, Ots
- Intervening period
- read selected II literature
- read introduction to psychology text
- Session 7 - 3 days
- review of course members’ II projects, logbooks, videos
- using video
- mini workshop presentations by each course member and review/evaluation with group
- review of all course content
- preparation for future work and agreement of work to take place following the course, particularly institutionalisation of II work
- close and presentation of certificates
- After the course
- continuing work to be agreed by course members
- possible follow-up days to refresh and consider on-going work