A week to raise global awareness about intensive interaction, and its benefits for children and adults with severe learning difficulties or autism, is being supported by the Isle of Man’s Speech and Language Therapy Service.

The awareness week – which runs from 10 to 16 October – is in its first year and was setup to encourage professionals and carers to do something a ‘bit extra’ to promote the therapy and its potential benefits.

Jan Gordon, Specialist Speech and Language Therapist, explained what the therapy aims to achieve: “It is all too easy to take basic interaction skills for granted, but for people with a learning disability or autism, as well as their families and carers, achieving two-way communication and understanding can be very difficult and frustrating.

“Intensive interaction, developed in the 1980s, is a technique of teaching the pre-speech fundamentals of communication to both children and adults who are still at an early stage of communication development. It is largely based on scientific research of how babies learn communication in their first 12 months – a period when their brains undertake intense and very rapid learning.

“In essence it is about taking the time to ‘intensively’ develop interaction skills through repetition, frequency, increasing duration and complexity; as well as being there to provide support and care to the service user through the process.”

To mark the awareness week, two events are being held in the Isle of Man. The first was a presentation, yesterday, for health and social care professionals by members of the Speech and Language Therapy team, with the aim of raising awareness about the therapy and the difference it can make, including a DVD demonstration of the therapy in practice. The second, tomorrow, is an awareness event at the Eastcliffe Resource Centre – a day centre for adults with a learning disability – for service users and members of the Department of Health and Social Care’s senior management.

The Speech and Language Therapy Service provides treatment, support and care for children and adults who have difficulties with communication or with eating, drinking and swallowing.

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