Practical Jokes - a therapy bag favourite!!

Practical Joke therapy - Jude Philip

The practical joke "tin of nuts" is back in my communication therapy bag!I rediscovered these last week for a non-verbal teen (who has a fab sense of humour and loves to be around banter - but gets limited chances to be an agent in that humour herself). She was delighted to go round the building - working hard to press the message on her switch to offer people some nuts - then laughing her head off to see them jump out their skin when the snakes shot out at them!

This prank came out of thinking about Intrinsic Motivation in relation to the Speech, Language and Communication Therapy that I offer. After all, communication is fundamentally about intrinsic motivation - finding what we deeply desire to communicate about and building the skills from there. Sometimes it's about sheer daftness (like a tin of nuts and sharing a laugh) - sometimes its about a deep connection shared. Whatever, the topic communication is amazing.

Off to the joke shop again ...."Intrinsic motivation refers to behavior that is driven by internal rewards. In other words, the motivation to engage in a behavior arises from within the individual because it is intrinsically rewarding. This contrasts with extrinsic motivation, which involves engaging in a behavior in order to earn external rewards or avoid punishments."