The 10 skills give me confidence!

One afternoon, I was due to take a communication session with a student called Millie. The session incorporated some new activities which could either be successful or unsuccessful, but I was optimistic about actually delivering the session!

Whenever I deliver sessions, I always have the key facilitation skills from the Great Interactions book, in my mind, as I believe they are the key to successful communication and positive interactions.

Millie has a cheeky sense of humour which means we have a common ground to start from! She is often very 'bubbly' and loves to make people laugh or share a joke.

This session revolved around using a smart board. The outline of the session was for Millie to use her hand to rub off a coloured pen mark, in order to reveal a picture. Millie would look at the picture and use the corresponding Makaton sign to communicate this to me. I would then sign back and we would move onto the next picture.

Millie has really loved this session and her confidence in signing has increased tenfold since September. Not only this, but it has also helped her to simultaneously develop her vocalisation of words, which is fantastic to hear. By supporting Millie with these opportunities to practice and develop her skills, Millie is now interacting and initialising conversations with her peers and staff on a regular basis. This is real progress, a huge achievement from when she first attended college, where she appeared timid, shy and unresponsive to many things. Taking time to get to know Millie and making the session interesting for her has really paid off.

I also believe that it is just as important to remember that each person we support is different and unique, as we are as support staff. This means that there are many rules but also many exceptions to each session... what works for one person may not work for another, so of course, if at first you don't succeed, try, try again!

There are breakthroughs.

There are setbacks.

That's life, and I love being a part of both because each presents their own rewards and challenges.

Emily Wheeler

Curriculum Co-ordinator, MAP College

MacIntyre Roadshows 2011

Wow! What an amazing year!

Roadshows are about celebrating success, sharing best practice and new ideas, making new friends and spending time with old ones.

This year we took our two Skills for Care Accolades, won for our Great Interactions work, on tour to every Roadshow, enabling everyone to feel a real sense of achievement.

Great Interactions is a key theme that runs throughout the whole day. It is an integral part of everything we do from the minute we welcome people right through to our accessible and interactive stands and workshops, which are based on diverse themes ranging from ‘My Volunteer’ to showing staff how to just spend time with someone in our sensory space.

Thank you to everyone who helped to make the MacIntyre Roadshows a success. Whether you helped someone to share their story, had a stand or joined in on the day, your support is very much appreciated.

I hope you enjoy the film.

Jenny Monaghan
Practice Development Facilitator

AND THEN........

Approaching the end of a very busy day... you know the kind I mean... so much to do and it still feels like you have had little impact on the to do list! Not as much time engaging with people as you would like...

AND THEN... John needs support with his personal care before he gets his transport home. You and a colleague assist him to get up from his chair. John starts conversing in his own special way... bup, bup, bup - you respond, repeating exactly what he has said, he looks at you, beams, reaches up and puts his arms around you. You reach out and do the same. You are both looking at each other, arms remaining in place... bup, bup, bup - He smiles, you smile, linked together.

AND THEN...... you realise why you love doing what you do, why there is very little that can beat this feeling.

John... Thanks for reminding me of what is really important. You are the best teacher I will ever have!

It’s these little moments that are really big!

Jayne MacKinder

Senior Learning Support Worker, Chesterfield

It’s the way that we do it, in Family Footings

The Family Footings project is all about empowering families to use person centred approaches but to ensure success we know that we have to be facilitative; we have to have Great Interactions.

Sometimes, in order for the people we support to experience really Great Interactions from a larger number of people, we may have to take a step back. By stopping and thinking we may learn more about the person, and by recording that learning, using person centred thinking tools, we enable other people involved in the person’s life to interact with them in a great way also.

I have been supporting families to write one page profiles with their children who are about to start at a new school. This is a daunting time for all parents but when your son or daughter has a track record of being bullied because of their disability, that becomes something to really worry about.

The one page profiles will not give every detail of how to have Great Interactions with each of the children, but it will provide a solid foundation to be able to learn about them and continuously improve on the quality of interactions.

In order to have Great Interactions with each individual person that we work with, we need to have a culture of really listening to their words and behaviour, learning, and responding on a continual basis. That’s what we do in Family Footings.

Lowri Bartrum

Family Footings Facilitator