Intensive Interaction with a Woman with Multiple and Profound Disabilities: A Case Study

Abstract

Intensive interaction (II) recognises the pre‐verbal nature of adults with profound learning disabilities and mimics the early attachment process to develop the very beginnings of communication and sociability. This paper Reports on the use of II with a remote and withdrawn adult with severe learning disabilities and visual impairments, who engaged in serious self‐injurious behaviour. The results indicate that the intervention was successful in facilitating the development of the first stages of social and communication skills.

The Effectiveness of Intensive Interaction, A Systematic Literature Review

“…Two papers (Lovell et al . ; Elgie & Maguire ) video‐coded similar measures of sociability, but added idiographic measures of social behaviour. Lovell et al .…”

“…One study has examined an attempt to reduce self‐injurious behaviour using Intensive Interaction (Elgie & Maguire ) This study found no evidence that an Intensive Interaction intervention affected self‐injurious behaviour. The woman who participated in displayed self‐injurious behaviours, so severe and chronic that she spent most of her time in arm splints.…”

Intensive Interaction: a Research Review

“…Nind (1996) makes a claim for reductions in the levels of the participants' ritualistic or self-stimulatory behaviours as new interactive behaviours emerge, whereas in the much shorter case study of Elgie and Maguire (2001) no significant change in the levels of their client's self-injurious behaviour was evidenced.…”

“…A study by Elgie and Maguire (2001) ('Intensive Interaction with a Woman with Multiple and Profound Disabilities; a case study') reported on the use of Intensive Interaction with an extremely socially withdrawn woman with profound learning disabilities. This lady had engaged, since childhood, in serious self-injurious behaviour which damaged her face and eyes, and she was therefore blind.…”

“…The three papers briefly discussed below (Nind, 1996;Lovell, Jones and Ephraim, 1998;Elgie and Maguire, 2001) employ varying methodologies, and were carried out in different settings: an adult special educational arena; a long-stay residential hospital; and a small group home. However, across the studies there emerge the common themes of increased or novel interactive responses by the research participants with severe or profound and multiple learning disabilities.…”