The art of interaction

Timing, precision, direction of your attention are all part of communicating. Yet when things are challenging, your ability as an individual to regulate the speed of your language, to alter your words, your tone of voice and to maintain your physical presence / stability whist reducing your gestures or expressions can support an individual to calm substantially more quickly. Being able to provide detailed information in a manner where you remain calm and focused whilst still being able to alter and bring attention to certain words or parts of what you are saying is a highly valuable skill for supporting comprehension when someone is dysregulated and not listening to what you are saying. The ability to shift your physical and emotional tone between calm quiet to active engaged requires significant shifts in all of the bodies expressional ability. Being able to do this…whilst being able to maintain immediate urgent attention about what is happening around you physically…whilst being able to answer questions of high detail is an extremely complex skill. The ability for carers to follow through during complex situations to imitate the language used, the tone of voice used and the speed of interaction whilst maintaining their own calm is challenging to develop. Those with confidence in their own conversational and physical skills frequently find it easier as a skill to learn and adjust as they need to. Knowing how to grade your own individual movements requires good physical stability and the ability to recognise your own behaviour and its impact on others and to be able to grade that as needed for the others benefit whilst maintaining your own health and safety.

The ability to mimic or imitate someone requires a high attention to level of detail but it is also a conversational skill. It it knowledge of turn taking and sequencing of ‘when’ to perform the action. Learning how to work in pairs to complete jobs or complex skills involves a high degree of awareness of your own movements through space as well as the others. One person may have more skills and need to slow down to work at the others pace or one may need to support the other through opportunities to practice previously learnt skills that have been used across different environments but not in these exact circumstances.. e.t.c.