Blog

Christine D, Advanced Practitioner, ‘Entry-level Preparation for Life and Work’, Royal College Manchester at Seashell Trust

The concept of ‘speed-dating slowly’ was first introduced to the Royal College Manchester curriculum three years ago and was inspired by an Oxfordshire-based initiative led by adults with learning disabilities who reported that they had limited opportunities to meet others with similar interests, develop a social life and build friendships and relationships. The Mates ‘n’ Dates service has been developed to support adults with learning disabilities to exercise their right to socialise, make friends and potentially date.

The structure of speed-dating brings people together in interactions designed to facilitate sharing information about themselves, asking questions of others, finding common interests and deciding whether they are interested in spending more time with the people they meet. As all our students have significant communication difficulties, our young people need additional support to learn and practice these skills and exercise their right to a social life. The speed-dating model enables students to learn social skills – including how to introduce themselves to others, how to discuss their interests and ask questions of others and how to attend to other people’s communication, all of which are vital skills in any context – and practice them repeatedly in short, meaningful peer-led interactive episodes.

“It’s a very empowering activity for our young people and it recognises their status as young adults,” said Bernie White, Director of Education. “As well as meeting their learning needs, it recognises their right to develop socially.”

The concept is simple: students sit with partners and hold short conversations about themselves and their interests, using whichever variety of communication tools that individual finds most useful. Our students are all exposed to a wide variety of communication tools (including speech, sign, symbols, switches and VOCA) in their tutor groups and around the college but the focus on student-led interaction enables them to problem-solve and explore other ways of expressing themselves and understanding their peers. When the conversation is over, students indicate their opinions on the interaction before moving on to another conversation partner. Learning about mutual interest in building friendships enables students to explore appropriate interaction, develop their confidence and skills in interacting with others on a social level and making decisions about the relationships they want.

Following the structured ‘speed-dating’ activity in the morning, students attended the ‘One World, One Love’ Valentine’s disco. The social environment of the disco enabled them to put their new learning to use in a practical context immediately.

The event is a great learning opportunity for students to share their different communication skills with one another. One young man who uses Grid software on his iPad to communicate with others used preloaded grids of appropriate symbols and photographs during the event, demonstrating the ability to make choices about conversation topics he finds interesting. Elliott was highly motivated to share these with his peers and learn about their interests in turn.

The level of engagement across all student groups was very high, and ‘speed-dating’ to learn social skills also offers an amazing opportunity for students to gain insight into one another’s communication styles.