As I write this it is two weeks before Christmas, and I was thinking about Jesus coming into this world as a baby. In my previous post, I talked about how Jesus communicated in different ways, in ways that meant something to the person or people He was with. He entered their world and used communication that they would understand.
What better way for Jesus to show us His love than to enter our world, to share our humanity, to live amongst us with the knowledge that His life would end on the cross, taking on our sins so we could have a relationship with the Father and to experience the abundant life that He offers both now and for eternity. Jesus came to us. He knew we couldn’t come to Him by ourselves. He knew He had to communicate with us in a way we would understand.
We need to do the same when we reach out to others. We cannot expect people to come to us. We need to go to them and find the best way to communicate with them.
Last time I talked about different ways we can communicate with people with a disability, whether mild, moderate or severe intellectual disability. This time I want to concentrate on one of those ways: Intensive Interaction.
“Barney stood in the middle of the classroom and looked at me. In fact he stared at me and sought out my eyes. He held eye contact for an uncomfortable length of time – or rather a socially unacceptable amount of time. My sense was that he wanted to communicate with me, but what?
Barney had been diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder and was an elective mute.”
Everyone seemed to be trying very lovingly to encourage Barney to speak. This was not working so we debated different nonverbal ways to communicate. We started at the beginning.” (Living Fulfilled Lives, page 37).
Intensive Interaction
Dave Hewitt worked in a long-stay hospital for people with learning disabilities in the 1970s. He stated that he was lacking in knowledge and did not really know what he was doing. He said, ‘I was especially concerned that I did not know how to reach the people who were difficult to reach, the ones who were pre-verbal, who were not sophisticated communicators.’
He cited examples of children and adults who did not seem to understand speech, those who appeared isolated within themselves, some rocking seemingly oblivious to other people or the world around them, those who grunted, those who stared at him as if wanting something but not having the ability to communicate their needs, and those who had repeated vocalizations. Many had a diagnosis of autism.
After a challenging time trying to teach these children, Dave and his teaching team decided that they needed to rethink their teaching methods. They had tried teaching signing, just simple words like please, biscuit and drink without a lot of success. They went back to the very beginnings of how babies learn to communicate and studied how parents teach their children to communicate. ‘They go and join the infant and hold themselves ready to select items of the infant’s behavior to respond to, “chime in” with, comment and elaborate upon. In the earliest stages, very simple turn-taking exchanges and episodes of attention are initiated simply by the parent responding to something the baby does—often by imitating pleasurably.’
As professionals, carers or parents, we can be very controlling. We are teachers trying to impart knowledge and skills, including communication skills. We often ask the disabled person to join in our activities and learn to function in our world. Yet there are some who are not ready for that. They are at a very early stage of development, especially in their ability to interact and communicate. Dave Hewitt and team decided that they would try joining their students in their world, as a parent would their baby, instead of the other way round. They withdrew all the classroom equipment including tables, musical instruments, puzzles and feely bags. The only equipment they left were beanbags and staff. They labelled their way of working as intensive interaction.
I had an amazing opportunity to do some teaching in the ‘intensive interaction’ classroom. I was horrified. I was so used to having a sensory rich environment and I felt lost. I was advised to sit with a learner who we will call Mark, who was rocking on the floor. I obediently did this, and started joining in with his rocking. Gradually he started looking at me. Our eyes met and there was a connection. He then started crying, tears just rolling down his face. He had allowed me to enter his world and it was one of the first times that anyone had seen him communicate or interact in any way.
When a baby is first born we don’t try to give them rattles. They are not ready for them. Yet when I first taught learners with a profound learning disability, I introduced a sensory program with all sorts of visual, auditory and tactile stimulation. I encouraged learners to interact with me through shared play. I tried to help them hold musical instruments or touch soft fabric. It worked for some but others seemed less than enthusiastic. Maybe some of the learners were below a 3–4 month developmental level and I needed to start where they were.” (Living Fulfilled Lives, pages 40-42).
Isn’t that what God does with us all? He shared our humanity. He loves us where we are. Let us learn from Him and enter the world of those who find our ways of communicating difficult. Let us join them as Jesus joined us. He didn’t need lots of resources. He gave Himself. Maybe we will allow Him to work through us. It will mean we have to be vulnerable, and maybe a bit uncomfortable, but let us give ourselves to loving people by joining their world as Jesus joined ours.
Sue Sutton has nearly 50 years of experience working with people with learning disabilities. She has developed training programs for people working with a variety of learning disabilities and mental health issues. Sue is the author of “Living Fulfilled Lives: Empowering People With Learning Disabilities.” Connect with her on Facebook.
