In 2010 a young man moved into our Argyll House service in Swindon,Wiltshire, who had previously experienced particularly difficult placements.

On arrival, he was extremely distrusting of staff, not allowing them totouch him or even get too close. He spent a lot of time engaging inself-stimulatory behaviours, including rocking on the spot while staring at hisfingers. He showed no interest in others and staff found it very difficult toinvolve him in daily activities. As a result, they decided to try and engagehim with Intensive Interaction.

After ten weeks of Intensive interaction at Argyll House, the young man’spresentation had changed completely. He no longer exhibited self-stimulatorybehaviour, started showing more interest in what was happening around him and wasable to make brilliant eye contact with staff. He began making happy vocalisationsand could also tolerate staff touching him and would put his hands into theirs.During some interactions he would even follow staff direction and touch therelevant body parts during ‘Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes’.

It was incredible to see how far he had come in such a short time atArgyll House.