Full Description
If you have no language, how can you make yourself understood, let alone make friends? Phoebe Caldwell has worked for many years with people with severe intellectual disabilities and/or autistic spectrum disorder who are non-verbal, and whose inability to communicate has led to unhappy and often violent behaviour. In this new book she explores the nature of close relationships, and shows how these are based not so much on words as on the ability to listen, pay attention, and respond in terms that are familiar to the other person.
This is the key to Intensive Interaction, which she shows is a straightforward and uncomplicated way, through attending to body language and other non-verbal means of communication, of establishing contact and building a relationship with people who are non-verbal, even those in a state of considerable distress. This simple method is accessible to anyone who lives or works with such people, and is shown to transform lives and to introduce a sense of fun, of participation and of intimacy, as trust and familiarity are established.
Contents
Introduction. Part One: Learning the Skills of Interaction. 1. First Encounters. 2. Attention. 3. Stress. 4. Body Language. 5. What Are We Trying to Do? 6. Theory of Mind. 7. How Well Does Using a Person's Body Language Work? Part Two: Meeting People. 8. Three Children on the Autistic Spectrum. 9. Cerebral Palsy. 10. Does age matter? 11. Changing Rooms. 12. Lost Voices, Learned Language. 13. Rub It Better. 14. What Next? References. Subject Index. Author Index.
