Health and Wellbeing
Developing Friendships with Young People with PMLD
Friendships are possible for young people with PMLD, and they start with noticing each other and sharing something fun.
- 39 minutes
- 6 modules
- 0.5 CPD hours
- Certificate
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14 days free, then £70 a year or £7 a month.
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What you'll learn
- Read the small signals a young person with PMLD uses to communicate
- Build response, anticipation and turn-taking through predictable routines
- Use mirroring and Intensive Interaction to develop early interaction skills
- See, copy and celebrate a learner's offer, as rapport-based communication suggests
- Plan shared activities that help two learners become aware of each other
About this course
One pupil loved pressing the switch for the disco light. Another loved watching it. Sat together, the first pressed and the second giggled, so the first pressed again to hear the giggle. It took a few years of repetition, but those two became friends.
Friendships like that need planning for young people with PMLD, who often communicate through a tensed hand, a sudden breath or a turn of the head. You'll learn to read those signals and build them into turn-taking, first with you and then with a peer. There's an introduction to Intensive Interaction and to rapport-based communication's "see, copy, celebrate the offer". And there are plenty of ideas for sharing the fun, from the parachute and bubbles to call-and-response games and story massage.
The presenter has taught young people with PMLD for 26 years, and the ideas come straight from her classroom.
- For early career teachers, support staff and 2 other roles. Early years and special.
6 modules
Open in order
- 4 min
Introduction
- 9 min
Module 1: What does communication look like?
- 7 min
Module 2: What does being social look like?
- 13 min
Module 3: Interaction and mirroring
- 6 min
Module 4: Sharing the fun
- 3 min
Wrap up