The Concept of Basic Communication:
Basic Communication has been developed by me, Winfried Mall. It describes a specific way to create communication with persons who cannot communicate via verbal language or other ways using gestures, signs, symbols, etc.:
Persons
- with a severe cognitve handicap
-
with pronounced autistic
behaviour
and limited verbal ability - with apallic syndrome or similar conditions
- with severe geronto-psychiatric conditions like dementia
This way to communicate can also be utilized with persons without handicaps as a way of psycho-somatic self and partner experience.
It
is characterized by the use of all the multiple bodily behaviours of
the addressed person - particularly her/his rhythm of breath - as
means of communication, by picking them up, mirroring or varying
them, or by offering similar behaviour to stimulate communication,
comparable to the development of communication during the first
months of a non-handicapped infant.
This way to communicate is applied by parents or relatives of these persons, as well as by people with training in the fields of education, psychology or nursing.
An exemplary encounter by Basic Communication with a blind autistic person with mental retardation:
Basic Communication with Bruno
