ABSTRACT
This chapter describes a study of intensive interactive teaching at a school for pupils with severe or very severe learning difficulties, many of them with additional physical or sensory impairments. It focuses on two staff-pupil pairs. The first nursery nurse is referred to as Carol, and the pupil as Ross for the purpose of this report. During normal activities in rather a noisy classroom with many distractions, Ross's language was described as being repetitive, apparently without communicative function, nonsocial, and consisting largely of phrases from television cartoons, often said by Ross in front of a large mirror. Ross's language is more focused during play activities involving toys, and more expressive during gross motor play. Johnnie at 19 was the oldest pupil in the school and one of the least able and least active. He had frequent fits and was reported before the study began to be less well and less alert than formerly.
