What is intensive interaction? 

Intensive interaction is a social communication approach that is most often used with people who have learning difficulties and/or autism. It helps to develop early interaction skills so that children can enjoy being with other people and develop their ability to use eye contact, facial expression, vocalisation and turn taking. 

Intensive Interaction is a type of play based therapy which works to engage a
child who may find it challenging to communicate or interact with those around
them. It is in some ways, a conversation that doesn’t require spoken words
This method is different from other approaches in that in encourages the adult
to completely follow the child’s lead, using skills your child has to join them in
their own style of communication. This teaches your child that their “ voice” is
valued and encourages them to explore it further.

What does it involve?
The following points are a great place to start, but we would highly recommend
you speak to your speech therapist to see a demonstration or discuss this
further.

Mirroring– this simply means copying what your child does, as they do it,
this includes using the same body language and facial expressions, mirror-
ing movements, repeating any sounds your child makes back to them.

Expanding– over time, if your child is showing a positive response to you
copying their movements/sound etc. you can then expand on it a little.
E.g. if your child is tapping on the floor, you could move to gentle tapping
on their arm and seeing if their response changes.

Pausing to Watch and Respond—at all times your should be fully focused
on how your child responds to your actions, do they look/stop/smile etc.
The more you watch, the more you will notice how to adapt what you are
doing to maintain their interest.

This interaction is key for building the foundations for communication,
therefore your child may need to be showing good progress with this be-
fore they are ready to work on communicating using words or pictures.