Table 1 Video interaction guidance - the intervention
VIG is delivered by a trained facilitator (hereafter referred to as a ‘Guider’) working with an individual staff member. Delivering the intervention requires non-specialist video technology such as a simple video camera available from any high street retailer, and basic video editing software available as standard on most PCs. There are five main steps undertaken in the delivery of VIG: | |
|---|---|
Step 1 | The Guider and staff member negotiate the goals that the staff member wishes to work towards (e.g. a support worker might wish to understand how better to help a service user to communicate with them more in classroom activities). |
Step 2 | The Guider films a brief video (10–20 min) of the staff member engaged in typical interaction with the service user (e.g. the support worker and the service user engaged in a classroom activity together). |
Step 3 | The Guider reviews and edits the video to extract moments of successful interaction between the staff member and service user. This step involves application of a set of interactional behavioural principles founded upon the psychological concept of intersubjectivity (how people are innately receptive to subjective states in others), which at their most basic include behaviours such as shared eye gaze and mirroring of posture [44, 45]. |
Step 4 | The Guider feeds back the edited moments to the staff member, with emphasis placed on giving the staff member space to reflect upon what they are seeing in relation to their own emotions, beliefs, and contextual knowledge. This discursive style is grounded in established constructivist pedagogical approaches of Zone of Proximal Development [46] and Scaffolding [47]. |
Step 5 | The Guider and staff member repeat steps 1–4 until the staff member feels satisfied that they have achieved their goal. Usually three to four repetitions are sufficient. |