I specialise in helping people working in care and education settings to understand and meet the social needs of people living with autism, dementia, learning disabilities and mental health problems. I achieve this by offering public training events and developing communities of practice around the socially inclusive approaches of Rapport-based Communication and Rapport-based Music. I have collaborated with many schools and care settings around the UK to implement sustainable change and practice development and I am recognised for a fresh, enjoyable and thought provoking approach. I also aim to offer accessible and affordable training for family members and carers on low pay who are in need of support.
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Places are available for £10 for family members and personal assistants of a person with additional needs
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Recent Blog Posts:
The purpose of Musical Interaction is to create rapport, an experience that leads to many benefits for both a person with special needs and the person that cares for them.
Instruments are fun and exciting things to introduce to a session and help to create more offers and starting points for interaction. Here are some ideas for using instruments:
In my experience, I have noticed different ways that groups of children with additional needs self-organise in a classroom. So that the children can have choice and control over how they participate, it is important to adapt our facilitation style to the needs of the group.
In anticipation of a new long-term project, I have developed a new form for recording Intensive Interaction and Rapport-Based Communication.
How should we approach the notion of progress? Rather than think about trying to ‘move the person on’ to things that they can’t do yet, my suggestion is to offer opportunities for the person to do more of what they are already capable of.
The five most popular interactive songs in the order below take around 15 - 20 minutes to play. These songs can be used as the basis for all of your sessions. You can experiment with adding other songs to find the best combination for the children in your group or class. As you become more confident you will be able choose songs in response to offers.
Sessions will be easier, more fun and more engaging if they are co-led. This is because there are two roles that need to be implemented: holding the group and interacting with individuals.
Have you ever been to a party where you only knew one person? Who was the first person you went to when you arrived? If you’re like everyone else I’ve asked this question then you’d go to the person you knew.
We can use this metaphor when we consider our classroom or group session.
Today I was mentoring teachers doing Musical Interactions in the classroom at the Rowan school in Sheffield. The purpose of the project is to embed the practice across the school and I have been working with each class for a single term, teaching a repertoire of interactive songs, how to play the ukulele and how to design and lead the sessions.
Rapport-Based Communication and Rapport-Based Music help you to find rapport by responding positively to the interests of the person. The three C’s are designed to help the practitioner to adopt a positive, sensitive and responsive practice.
The principle of Rapport-Based Music is to develop rapport and relationships with the person we are supporting. We achieve this by using the 3C’s to join in with a person’s in the moment interests and behaviour, celebrating the person for who they are.
To have empathy is to see and understand that all of person’s behaviour is an attempt to meet their needs. Rather than judging a person through the lens of what we think is wrong or right, empathising is to understand what a person is going through and know that unmet needs are the cause.
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