VERVEing in Schools: The 'Reflective Practitioner'
VERVE child interaction is a unique approach that focuses on using every interaction opportunity to develop each child's learning self identity, communication and well being, through fusing the expertise and knowledge of the setting staff (Early Years, Primary and Secondary TA's, Teachers) with that of the Speech and Language therapist.
VERVE child interaction uses video over a period of four sessions to place professional self-reflection and collaboration at the centre of the learning process whilst providing clear visual evidence of each child's developing skills.
Why use VERVE child interaction in schools:
Children presenting with communication delays and differences are often not perceived to be as consistent, clear, efficient or as effective in their signals. This can lead to frequent misunderstandings making it difficult to know just how to support their general development, motivation, confidence, independence and resilience.
In the classroom they may:
Appear not to be interested in interacting with other children
Find it difficult to focus on an activity or task
Seem to not listen to or understand what is being asked of them
Be unclear in their intentions, words, word order, and actions.
Present as having low motivation for 'learning'
Struggle with boundaries, rules, behaviours and group/class expectations.
Look 'quiet', 'silent' and 'withdrawn' or 'attention seeking' and 'disruptive'
VERVE focuses on supporting children in developing their :
Self-regulation -Remaining calm and focused and having confidence in having a go.
Face watching - to monitor others, initiate, manage communication and synchronise ideas and feedback.
Attention – remaining with one activity both on their own and with others
Listening – following requests one to one and in a group context
Exploration and experimentation with a variety of equipment and tasks within play and across the curriculum.
Resilience in seeing activities through to completion and managing impulses and emotions.
Communicative intent - Interest and confidence in Interacting and communicating with adults and peers.
Understanding of what is being said to and requested of them (individually and within a group context).
Use of language in terms of vocabulary, sentence structures and engagement in dialogue and conversation.
Underlying phonological development for speech and literacy.
Rate of learning.
Peer interaction, social confidence and group participation.
Learning self identity -believing in their own abilities
general well-being.
VERVE Focuses on supporting practitioners in:
Being explicit about :
Where a child is in relation to their development of self-regulation, communication and learning.
Each child’s developing and emerging skills.
The importance of positive perception, Silence, Body watching, Feedback and Repair.
Supporting each child in developing their :
Self regulation
Rapidity, consistency, clarity and efficiency of communicative signals
Communicative independence and ‘self learning identity’
Confidence in interaction and learning in a one to one situation, within the classroom, across the curriculum and in a range of social situations.
Ability to ease themselves out of ‘challenging’ moments of behaviour.
Perseverence and resilience in both communication and learning
Reflecting and analysing their own skills and impact on each child’s developing abilities
Monitoring their own and each child’s developing skills week on week.
Maintaining a visual record of each child’s development over time.
Evaluating their own impact on the individual child and generalising those skills to others.
As a core element of CPD
VERVE child interaction supports the developing skills of all children regardless of their perceived differences e.g. behavioural, communication, language speech, fluency, learning, literacy.
The focus is on supporting the adult in observing and facilitating the emerging skills of the individual child rather than focusing on the ‘diagnosis’ or ‘symptoms’.
A VERVE child interaction course consists of:
An introductory half hour session to clarify what exactly VERVE is
Four sessions over a period of six weeks.
Two practitioners share a session of one hour (or a single set of parents) facilitated by the SLT.
12 members of staff may participate in a day, 6 members of staff in half a day.
The practitioner brings a short video of the child and themselves at play or doing a task/activity they would normally be involved in.
Each video is analysed in terms of the practitioner’s innate interaction skills.
The timing of the child’s communication is explored and the practitioner invited to exaggerate a specific element of their own interaction, experimenting with it over the next week, during daily five minute‘quiet times’
At the end of the week the practitioner takes a new video of themselves with the child and brings it for reflection. They discuss and observe the exaggerated skill they have been applying, and use freeze frame to analyse the impact it is having on the child’s evolving skills, scaffolding on an additional adult focus for the upcoming daily five minute ‘quiet times’ .
The next two sessions gradually extend on the preceding sessions responding to the specific developments in the individual child..
Following the six -week course a staff meeting may be arranged in which each course participant presents their first and last video sharing visual evidence of the developing skills of the child and how best to support them.
What practitioners have to say about the VERVEing process:
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"Transformational"
"The best training I've had in my teaching career of 25 years"
"Fascinating"
"The concepts sound so simple and yet are really difficult to apply at first. The video makes all the difference"
"The video is essential- so many things happen in such a short space of time"
"It's really opened my eyes"
"I'm stunned by just what he can do"
"I can't believe he now really likes doing his English work - he used to hate it".
"Such a different, refreshing way of looking at things - which make an enormous difference"
"I found videoing myself at the beginning embarrassing but it is so worth it"
"It's really tricky at first but it's fascinating how helping her to 'regulate' has helped her in all areas of her language and learning" .
" I'ts amazing how now that he is regulating himself and face watching - all those other symptoms that appeared unusual are getting less and less'"
"I can really hear and see what she is trying to say to me. She makes it easy for me to know what to do"
"I can really see the difference not just in his face watching, communication development and learning but his confidence in having a go and keeping going'"
'He's using the skills he developed with me in lots of different situations. In the staff room people are commenting on just how much he has changed'.
"I can now see how important responding and being consistent is to helping each child to resource and use their own skills".
"Once you've got used to the video -it's really exciting to see the changes in the child, subtle at first and hugely significant"
"The impact of Face watching is mind-blowing"
Continued Reading:
