Processing time
We use the phrase Processing Time in UIAB to describe the time an individual needs to process sensory information, an action from us, speech and or changes within our session time spent together. Processing time can be quite similar from week to week, or it can fluctuate on the day or even within the space of a session, depending on which factors influence it.
Factors that could influence it: sensory processing disorder, impairment of one or more senses, side effects from medication, fatigue due to pain and/or seizure activity or due to experiencing post seizure fatigue, a lower-than-average intellectual capacity to just name a few.
As the specific, inherent mix of factors that influence their processing time often isn’t known, it needs to be recorded so that everyone interacting with them does so in a way that recognises the observations and experiences of others regarding processing time, as well as using their intuition. It is likely that individuals become unintentionally overwhelmed with external sensory stimuli from their environment and/or people, multiple times a day. The inherent factors of their bodies as well as the input from their environment influence each other and create their capacity for interaction at any given time.
While able bodied peoples processing time can also fluctuate and be impacted by tiredness for example, those effects are usually much smaller than for people with disabilities/complex needs and they are usually still able to follow their day-to-day tasks and communications.
While using Intensive Interaction there will be continuous thoughts regarding interpreting what’s being observed and directly changing the approach accordingly. One thought could be: “I think we might be too fast paced as the person we are seeing seems disconnected”; The action to follow is to slow our own responses/pace and observe what happens next.
If this results in the person responding to us and seeming more connected, sticking with the revised pace, unless their responsiveness lessens e.g., they might get bored.
We always try to stay within the balance of building a stimulating and interesting interaction but not breaching into overstimulating and possibly overwhelming.
Here are a variety of strategies to try and find in my examples for establishing this balance within interactions.
- Slowing everything down
- Leaving (longer) gaps
- Focusing on responding to just one thing
- Just one person responds at any time (can be achieved by letting the person know they can choose with the direction of glance/head turn). Creates predictability and choice for self-empowered sensory breaks if they choose to look down or in the middle instead.
- Focusing on quiet interactions to avoid multiple levels of sensory input
- Focusing on using just one piece of equipment, or just us.
- Acknowledging the equipment item which seems to make them feel safe (and/or they use for self-regulating/ a comfort item). Either let them keep it safe or if they are happy to share it, use in creative ways to establish playful connections. This is a valuable alternative to bringing in something new to process, especially at the beginning of a journey together, where processing of people, the session and maybe intensive interaction itself are all still new and take a lot of thinking about.
- Keeping Interaction Practitioners and their positioning consistent throughout the weeks especially if the person has a visual impairment
- Keep chatting to a minimum if the person themselves does not engage by using speech and seems not to respond to it. Speech takes a lot of processing capacity, especially if the person is not using speech themselves regularly.
10 Observe and Acknowledge what is needed for them to feel safe in their environment, and either adapt their session space to fulfil these as best as possible, or do the session while they sit in their favourite space/chair/room etc. - Please keep these different ways of adapting in mind or come back to them while reading the case studies over the next few days and see where and how we have incorporated these strategies.
All the following people described have learning disabilities and other complex needs. Details are mentioned if they are deemed necessary for the specific/and added delay of processing.
Luca Grys October 2025
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