The ‘content’ or information transferred during Intensive Interaction exchanges

For this week's blog I will yet again unashamedly copy an extract straight from a book*, and it concerns what might actually be communicated between the participants during a often non-verbal Intensive Interaction exchange i.e. its 'content'. I have tried to translate the social aspect of the communication into symbolic words ... to give greater clarity to the co-constructed meaning. It may be one thing that is being said, or it may be a combination of many things, and perhaps you might like to comment on this blog to add your own views on this II 'content' issue.  

'The content or information that is transferred between people during a communicative exchange is often quite basic and (generally, although not always) uncontentious: how healthy we currently are; comments about a period of inclement weather; news of mutual friends or acquaintances; comments about last night’s TV or a sports contest; family or work related issues; where we would rather be at any precise moment, rather than where we are now! 

During such a seemingly mundane and commonplace communication there is an overt verbal exchange going on (e.g. the stuff about the weather), but also such an exchange can serve a more important ‘covert’ purpose – the most important thing not being the information conveyed about the weather, but instead perhaps it is about feeling connected with someone, re-affirming our relationship with that person, and possibly feeling validated by the person’s attention and response.

When engaged in a period of Intensive Interaction that is mainly or entirely non-symbolic, I often ask myself: ‘what are we actually communicating to each other?’, that is, what is the ‘content’ of such an interactive exchange? When I have asked this question, I have thought that, at various times during an Intensive Interaction, the content of such an exchange might be some combination of the following statements (although this is  by no means an exhaustive list):

‘I am listening to you – you have my full attention.’

‘Your behaviour or activity is interesting/important/significant and/or fun.’

‘You are interesting/important to be with.’

‘You are fun to be with and I am enjoying doing this with you.’

‘I want to be with you.’

‘I want to know you better/find out more about you.’

‘You can lead me, I will follow you during this interaction.’

‘You know what you are doing and I would like to know what you are doing as well.’

I also think that during an interactive exchange you are also implicitly asking questions of the person with a social impairment. These questions might be some combination of the following (although again this is by no means an exhaustive list):

‘What are you doing now?’

‘Can I do that with you?’

‘Do you want me to spend some time with you?’

‘Would you like to spend some time with me?’

‘Do you have something you wish to share with me/show me?’

‘Do you like it when I do this, or when I do that?’

‘What do you want me to do now?’

These questions will probably be asked in differing combinations at various points across an interactive episode, and in my opinion, they might well be viewed as the most significant content of the exchange.'

(* Firth, G., Berry, R. & Irvine, C. (2010) Understanding Intensive Interaction: context & concepts for professionals and families. JKP: London.)