Abstract

All humans have an innate need and ability to communicate with others, and this book presents successful approaches to nurturing communicative abilities in people who have some type of communication impairment.

The contributors look at a wide range of approaches, including intensive interaction, co-creative communication, sensory integration and music therapy, for a variety of impairments, including autism, profound learning disabilities, deafblindness, severe early neglect and dementia. This wide perspective provides insight into what it feels like to struggle with a communicative impairment, and how those who work with and care about such individuals can and should think more creatively about how to make contact with them.

Covering both the theory and practical implementation of different interventions, this book will be invaluable for health and social work professionals, psychologists, psychotherapists, counsellors, speech and language therapists, as well as researchers, teachers and students in these fields.

Contributors explore a wide range of approaches including intensive interaction, co-creative communication, sensory integration and music therapy, for a variety of impairments including autism and profound learning disabilities.'

BILD Information Service

'Built from materials presented at a 2007 seminar entitled 'promoting Social Interactions for Individuals with Profound Communication Needs' held in Dundee, Scotland, these essays range from lessons learned in practical and clinical work to results of empirical studies. They address learners with situations ranging from autism to profound learning disabilities, deaf-blindness, severe early neglect and dementia, and includes contributor's notions on how it feels to be in such a learner and professional interventions. Topics include assessing intuiton as a part of human communication, using music to communicate, using imitation with children with autism spectrum disorder or with those who have suffered early institutionalization, communicating with people who are congenitally deaf-blind, interacting intensively with those who have profound learning disabilities, and using adaptive interaction to communicate with people with dementia. Other interventions include video interaction guidance and sensory integration.