Tracy sat there with her right index finger tapping her left hand, between index finger and thumb, ignoring me. I stayed quiet and observed closely. Tracy did 3 taps, then 5 taps, then 8 taps. I repeated what she had done trying to get the same pace. When I stopped Tracy repeated the pattern, and again I copied. Tracy stopped and looked at me. She was now interested in me.
After a while I asked Tracy if she could do one tap for ‘no’ and two taps for ‘yes’. Tracy stood up walked to the door and laughed, I thought I had ruined the moment, but she then returned to me. I asked her again; “Can you do one tap for ‘no’ and two taps for ‘yes’”. Tracy did 2 taps. I asked her if she could do that again and she did. It was a great start.
I thought I would try to encourage Tracy to build on her tapping skills so on another day I offered Tracy 3 different options:
1. To do some musical rhyme
2. To do flower arranging
3. To look at a book
I asked Tracy, two taps for ’yes’ and one tap for ‘no’ for each of the items individually. I also changed around the way I asked the question, in case she always did the last thing I said: 1 tap for ‘no’, 2 taps for ‘yes’. Tracy responded, ‘yes’ to the rhymes and ‘no’ to the flowers and the book.
When Tracy had had enough she stopped tapping and she moved her head to the right. I stepped back to enable her to relax.
Tracy seemed to really enjoy the interaction, and at lunch time I asked Tracy if she was ready for her lunch and Tracy tapped twice for ‘yes’.
Some of the staff around us were amazed and excited. I was so uplifted by this experience and encouraged; I feel I have made real progress and found a way to engage with Tracy and support better communication between us all. I can’t wait to spend more time with Tracy and support her to build on her skills, while developing my own.
Pat Campbell
Learning Support Worker, Haslands