Progress?

It is natural that practitioners offering Rapport-Based Communication or Intensive Interaction wish to help the person they support to progress in some way. And, when progress is not evident, it is common for practitioners to feel that there is something lacking, to feel dissatisfied in some way with what is happening.

A common question that results from this feeling is how to ‘move someone on’ to the next stage or level of their communication. A consequence of this attitude is that the practitioner may start to respond to what they want to teach the person, rather than just responding to what the person is doing using the 3 C’s. And a disconnect can result.

Of course, there is a place for teaching a person something - no-one will learn Makaton without it being taught for example - but to find rapport the practitioner must be wholly invested in response to what the person is doing now.

So 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. So, rather than trying to help them have a better ‘best moment’ - a higher level - in the interaction, a more person-centred ethic would be to help the person to have more of these best moments such that the average level increases, that they are able to find more and more moments within which they are operating at their full potential. This to me, seems like a more gentle way to support progress, one that allows people to develop communciation skills at a natural pace with a practitioner who is focussed upon helping a person to flourish in the moment.