Learning someone's personal language: what Intensive Interaction really builds
For some of the children and young people we support, communication does not look like words. It might look like a particular sound made under a certain kind of light. A specific movement of a hand when something is uncomfortable. A rhythm of breathing that shifts subtly when a familiar adult sits nearby. It might not look like communication at all until we slow down enough to notice it.
When staff are working with people whose communication does not fit the templates most of us grew up with, it is easy to feel unsure. How do you build a relationship with someone whose responses feel unpredictable, or whose signals you may be missing entirely? How do you know whether what you are doing is landing? For people supporting individuals with autism or severe learning difficulties, this can be one of the most rewarding parts of the work, and also one of the most uncertain.
The idea of a personal language
Every person communicates. That is one of the central ideas behind Intensive Interaction, and it is also the shift that changes everything. Rather than assuming that communication has to look a particular way to count, the approach starts from the position that every person already has a personal language of sounds, movements, expressions and rhythms. The task is not to teach the person how to communicate. It is for those around them to learn to read what they are already doing.
That reframing sounds simple, and in one sense it is. But its consequences run through every part of a staff member's practice. It changes how attentive they are to small signals. It changes what they treat as meaningful. It changes what they consider a successful interaction. And, quietly, it changes how the person they support experiences being with them.
What relationship looks like without shared words
Relationships built through Intensive Interaction do not look like relationships built through conversation. They look like a slow accumulation of shared moments. A sound offered by the person and gently mirrored by the adult. A moment of eye contact returned. A rhythm developed between two people that neither of them would have created alone.
Over time these moments form the foundation of trust. The person begins to recognise the adult as someone who notices them, who responds in ways that feel right, who does not try to move them out of their own way of being. Staff often say that the day they realise they are having a conversation, even without a single word being exchanged, is the day their whole understanding of communication shifts.
Focusing on the difficulty, not the behaviour
One of the ideas that runs through all of this is a gentle but important shift in how staff think about behaviour. In busy settings it is easy for behaviour to become the focus of every conversation. Whose is it, what triggered it, how do we manage it. Intensive Interaction asks a different question. Rather than 'what is this person doing', it asks 'what is this person finding difficult, and what would help them'.
That shift does not mean ignoring safety or structure. It means responses become more accurate, because they are aimed at what is really happening for the person rather than at the surface behaviour. Staff often notice that once they start looking through this lens, situations that used to escalate begin to de-escalate more easily. Not because the person has changed, but because the response around them has.
How Concept Training can support your team
Our Intensive Interaction course is designed for anyone working with people with autism or severe learning difficulties, of any age, across both specialist and mainstream settings. It supports staff to understand the underlying principles of the approach, to implement and evaluate its techniques in their own settings and to develop positive plans for action for the individuals they support.
The course is delivered by Janet Gurney, who has been with Concept Training for 27 of our 28 years and is one of the most experienced Intensive Interaction practitioners in the country. We are very proud to have worked closely with Phoebe Caldwell, a world-renowned autism expert whose thinking has shaped Intensive Interaction practice for decades, and Janet has taken up the mantle now, with her work endorsed by Phoebe. As with all our courses at Concept Training, this session is written and delivered by the same experienced practitioner, so the material is grounded in years of direct work rather than second-hand theory.
For over 28 years we have supported schools, trusts, local authorities and care organisations across the UK and overseas to build the kind of understanding that helps staff feel more confident with the people they support. If you would like to explore our Intensive Interaction course, or talk about training options for your team, you can browse upcoming courses at www.concept-training.co.uk/courses or get in touch directly to discuss what would suit your setting best.