A SENIOR education support officer has become the Island's first recipient of the Intensive Interaction Institute Endorsed Practitioners Certificate.

Helen Griffiths who works at Scoill Phurt Le Moirrey in the school's special needs unit, Elmer's Room, gained the certificate after an eight month study programme.

Intensive Interaction is a communication approach to developing the pre-speech fundamentals of communication with individuals who at very early levels of interaction and communication.

Her work included a detailed case study and recorded sessions and detailed analysis of videos showing her interactions with a particular child in the unit.

Helen was mentored through her study by Jan Gordon, a specialist speech and language therapist and director of the Intensive Interaction Institute.