VERVEing

VERVE child interaction about supporting each child’s whole developing system not about treating individual symptoms.  It is recommended for all children coming to therapy because it is about supporting the individual child in knowing how to become calm in difficult situations, how to develop the ability to read one another, to see the meaning in communication and underneath words and to know how to get others to hear and see you.
VERVE is always through video because the subtle signals of communication can easily be lost in the speed of everyday life. The video picks them up and proves them.

VERVE IS ABOUT:

• Having fun, seeing the pleasure on one another's faces. 
• Letting your child feel that they have chosen what to do.
• Letting them feel that they are needed. That we can learn from them.
• Experimenting with silence, whilst being in the listening space.
• Letting our child Concentrate on what they want to. Giving them time to do things and experiment
• Waiting for them to invite us in by looking at our faces (which light up when they look)
• Saying a word only when we have been invited by their eyes.
• Repeating, Recasting or adding a word on to what they have said (when they are still looking)
• Stopping talking when they look away. Listening to their signal to stop.
• Showing them how helpful reading the feedback on faces is.
• Giving time to check we have understood each other and repair any misunderstandings

The concepts sound simple and are hugely challenging to apply.
Each one of us is learning to tame our own skills and then show by example, the power of a smile, how to use silence to think and explore and communicate when we want, when to speak and when to stop and how to watch others for feedback to check their understanding so that we can build ideas together together. 
The therapy takes time and moves at each child's pace 
It's all in a smile which reassures them to keep on experimenting, exploring  and giving and looking for feedback.

By our child becoming tuned in to interaction, face watching and repair with us, they become confident in making connections and communicating with other children and adults and develop the self regulation skills to support their own independent learning, understanding, speech and interaction.