Relatively soon after I started working at Cherry Garden School, in approximately 2009, we had an INSET day with a focus on Intensive Interaction. Dave Hewitt OBE (then just plain old Dave) came to deliver the training and tell us about the approach he and his team developed in the 1980s whilst he was Principal of a school for children with complex support needs. I was instantly struck by the simplicity of the approach and it was at this point that I began to think more about how working with children with additional support needs, and the need for a sound understanding of typical development in very young children, go hand in hand.
The concept is based on the interactions that typically take place between a mother or father and a baby in the first 12 months of a child’s life. New parents don’t often attend training on how to interact with their new arrival, it is something that comes very naturally and invariably isn’t even considered as something special. If a baby gives eye contact, we naturally smile and attempt to prolong the engagement. If a baby makes a cooing sound, we make that sound back. If they then respond further, we continue to copy their sounds in an effort to establish turn taking. These simple, and usually unconsidered actions from a parent/carer, are hugely important building blocks for future, more formal, methods of communication. If you consider the expectations for an ‘adult’ conversation, they are based on the same principles as those we start learning in the first few months of our lives: we look at a person when we’re talking to them, preferably making eye contact; we listen and respond once the other person has finished talking; we show engagement in what is being said; and we use facial expressions and gestures to embellish our spoken word.
The thinking behind the Intensive Interaction approach is that children with particular additional support needs may well have missed some of these key milestones in the development of their communication skills. Some children might be very withdrawn and show little interest in other people. To the child, other people may not seem useful or interesting. It is the role of the communication partner to become as interesting, engaging and useful as possible. To do this, it is necessary to draw on the natural skills that the vast majority of us possess and to communicate with the child on a level that is appropriate to them. Just as with a young baby, this often starts with adjusting your proximity to the child and mimicking some of their sounds or gestures. The intention here is to grasp a child’s attention. I particularly like the analogy of becoming the perfect ‘cause and effect’ toy. We need to consider how we can become the most interesting ‘object’ in the room.
In my experience, Intensive Interaction can be an amazing tool to use, and at Cherry Garden School, we would often film a ‘session’ at the start of the school year and then again in January. The difference in the child in the second video was invariably significant. The child would show more interest in the adult and their faces would be so much more animated and happier. The beauty of the approach is that it can take place anywhere, and the only required resource is yourself. Often the best interactions can take place at the times you would least expect to see ‘learning’, for example whilst getting changed in the bathroom (changing times are a particularly great time to observe interactions between a parent/carer and baby – the positioning allows for amazing eye contact and playfulness).
It is important to say that Intensive Interaction isn’t for every child. Children who are wrongly considered to have profound learning differences because of a significant physical need can find the approach patronising. Other children may dislike having their sounds and actions imitated, although from my experience of working with children with complex additional support needs, this is very rare. The other point to note is that newer staff members can sometimes find it challenging to remove their inhibitions and be truly playful and childlike with a pupil in a classroom environment. This invariably passes with time, especially when they see the new responses and interest they are gaining from the child in question.
To summarise, I would highly recommend that any nursery/school practitioners who are working with children with significant learning differences take the time to consider using this approach. I would also advocate staff members spending as much time as possible considering developmental milestones that young children typically meet and in which order. To have this knowledge can be very powerful and can support educators in finding gaps in learning as well as setting appropriate next steps. The Cherry Garden Branch Maps for CLL and Mathematical Development may prove useful in this regard, and are free to download here. The first 12 months are covered in Branches 1-3.
For more information on Intensive Interaction, you can visit their website.
Relatively soon after I started working at Cherry Garden School, in approximately 2009, we had an INSET day with a focus on Intensive Interaction. Dave Hewitt OBE (then just plain old Dave) came to deliver the training and tell us about the approach he and his team developed in the 1980s whilst he was Principal of a school for children with complex support needs. I was instantly struck by the simplicity of the approach and it was at this point that I began to think more about how working with children with additional support needs, and the need for a sound understanding of typical development in very young children, go hand in hand. The concept is based on the interactions that typically take place between a mother or father and a baby in the first 12 months of a child’s life. New parents don’t often attend training on how to interact with their new arrival, it is something that comes very naturally and invariably isn’t even considered as something special. If a baby gives eye contact, we naturally smile and attempt to prolong the engagement. If a baby makes a cooing sound, we make that sound back. If they then respond further, we continue to copy their sounds in an effort to establish turn taking. These simple, and usually unconsidered actions from a parent/carer, are hugely important building blocks for future, more formal, methods of communication. If you consider the expectations for an ‘adult’ conversation, they are based on the same principles as those we start learning in the first few months of our lives: we look at a person when we’re talking to them, preferably making eye contact; we listen and respond once the other person has finished talking; we show engagement in what is being said; and we use facial expressions and gestures to embellish our spoken word. The thinking behind the Intensive Interaction approach is that children with particular additional support needs may well have missed some of these key milestones in the development of their communication skills. Some children might be very withdrawn and show little interest in other people. To the child, other people may not seem useful or interesting. It is the role of the communication partner to become as interesting, engaging and useful as possible. To do this, it is necessary to draw on the natural skills that the vast majority of us possess and to communicate with the child on a level that is appropriate to them. Just as with a young baby, this often starts with adjusting your proximity to the child and mimicking some of their sounds or gestures. The intention here is to grasp a child’s attention. I particularly like the analogy of becoming the perfect ‘cause and effect’ toy. We need to consider how we can become the most interesting ‘object’ in the room. In my experience, Intensive Interaction can be an amazing tool to use, and at Cherry Garden School, we would often film a ‘session’ at the start of the school year and then again in January. The difference in the child in the second video was invariably significant. The child would show more interest in the adult and their faces would be so much more animated and happier. The beauty of the approach is that it can take place anywhere, and the only required resource is yourself. Often the best interactions can take place at the times you would least expect to see ‘learning’, for example whilst getting changed in the bathroom (changing times are a particularly great time to observe interactions between a parent/carer and baby – the positioning allows for amazing eye contact and playfulness). It is important to say that Intensive Interaction isn’t for every child. Children who are wrongly considered to have profound learning differences because of a significant physical need can find the approach patronising. Other children may dislike having their sounds and actions imitated, although from my experience of working with children with complex additional support needs, this is very rare. The other point to note is that newer staff members can sometimes find it challenging to remove their inhibitions and be truly playful and childlike with a pupil in a classroom environment. This invariably passes with time, especially when they see the new responses and interest they are gaining from the child in question. To summarise, I would highly recommend that any nursery/school practitioners who are working with children with significant learning differences take the time to consider using this approach. I would also advocate staff members spending as much time as possible considering developmental milestones that young children typically meet and in which order. To have this knowledge can be very powerful and can support educators in finding gaps in learning as well as setting appropriate next steps. The Cherry Garden Branch Maps for CLL and Mathematical Development may prove useful in this regard, and are free to download here. The first 12 months are covered in Branches 1-3. For more information on Intensive Interaction, you can visit their website.
What are the Cherry Garden Branch Maps? A new assessment tool developed by the namesake school (an outstanding specialist school in London for children with severe and complex support needs). The maps organise key milestones that you would expect to find in a typically developing child from birth to 5 years, with additional bridging branch maps for a level expected in Year 1. The aim is to provide practitioners with a straightforward overview of a child’s current level and support them to set appropriate next steps. What makes them different to existing assessment models? The maps are intended to be child-centred documents that allow for a flexible approach to assessment – moving away from previous models where the expectation would be that a child makes typical ‘linear’ progress. A child’s learning journey can follow its own unique path, and the straightforward organisation of milestones means that adults can see if a child has missed a key step that is holding them back from moving forward. How can using the Branch Maps enhance parental engagement? Cherry Garden School’s initial concept for their assessment system was for an interactive Cherry Orchard that parents/carers could explore to investigate the learning of their child. Once they had completed the writing of the developmental documents, they joined forces with Tapestry to make this idea a reality. Tapestry have brought the concept to life, creating an attractive, interactive orchard that shows multimedia evidence of a child’s learning. How does the Cherry Orchard show progress to parents? There are two key visualisations in the Orchard. For a child whose support needs are less complex/severe, their cherry tree grows and leaves are added as they secure understanding. A parent can click on leaves to see evidence of learning. The tool allows a user to take snapshots at any time to make comparisons in the future. A child will have their own learning tree for each main curriculum area. What about progress for children with the most profound needs? The second visualisation type in the Orchard is a flower. The flower’s interactive petals grow as a child gains understanding, but they also deepen in colour as a child generalises skills. It is important for learners with the most significant support needs that we celebrate this ‘lateral’ progress and help parents to understand the learning that has taken place. A parent can click on a petal to see evidence of learning. Summary The Cherry Garden Branch Maps from Tapestry provide schools with a child centred, flexible approach to assessing children with learning differences, which is proven to enhance parental engagement in a child’s learning. They: · Provide teachers/support staff with key milestones in typically developing young children. · Demonstrate not only linear but also lateral progress – perfect for children with complex support needs. · Enable parents to explore and understand their child’s learning through a unique Cherry Orchard visualisation. If you are a setting that uses Tapestry then you can enable the Cherry Garden framework by following this tutorial. There are also tutorials on the Cherry Garden Orchard, Strand Scores, Cherry Garden Term Progress, and Cherry Garden Targets Progress. For any further tutorials, take a look at our Tutorials Page. You can download the Branch Maps free of charge from the links below: The branch maps must not be used for commercial purposes or included in digital software other than Tapestry. Copyright remains with Cherry Garden School and The Foundation Stage Forum. PSED Branch Map Feb 2022.pd CLL Branch Map Feb 22.pdf CLL and English Bridging Map Feb 2022.pdf MD Branch Map Feb 22.pdf Mathematical Development Bridging Map Feb 2022.pdf PD Branch Map Feb 2022.pdf UW Branch Map Feb 2022.pdf EAD Branch Map Feb 2022.pdf Communication Book Branch Map Feb 2022.pdf Symbol Exchange Branch Map Feb 2022.pdf Transition Branch Map Feb 2022.pdf This document shows how the Branch Maps correlate with the EYFS and P Scales: Cherry Garden Branch Map Assessments Conversions.docx
