For our final session with the students within this process, we have selected a number of new materials but also changed some of those we have previously tried.

• The tent has been given a new pink fabric with an additional loose fabric to shape as one wants. In the tent we have placed a lamp that looks like a large white stone or an egg.

• A large crinkling blanket with soft fabric around it.

• A smaller crinkling rectangle with strong pink fluffy fabric on one side and a thick silver-like plastic material on the other. In between, a crinkling rescue blanket.

• A large cardboard tube with holes filled with filter pieces, which have found new shapes by us blowing on them with a heat gun. The filter pieces can be taken out and explored in the light.

• 3 x 8 red tube sticks in 3 sizes and with three different wool yarns wrapped around them.

• Coconut baskets, one with holes in it.

• A long red-white elastic with many different pieces of fabric and other materials attached with clothespins.

• Extra clothespins.

• Magnifying sheets.

• A small metal tube with holes to shine through.

• The space lamp.

As before, we have talked about trying different approaches to the students and the materials in the room before we meet the students. We had initially thought that we would be engaged in something when the student comes in, be in our own exploration with the materials, so as not to be too intrusive in our attempt to seek communication with the student.

When the day actually begins, it is never as we have imagined. Two students come into the room very briefly. Each for around 1 minute. Then out again. We just have to go with it. Keep open what is happening and what could happen. Let it take time. Wait in. Listen in. Perhaps surprise. Seek communicative entry points. Try.

As the class has a staff shortage this day, we instead visit two of the other students in a small classroom together with a substitute. It becomes a long time together that lasts the whole morning until lunch. The students sit on the sofa in the room and we gather around them with the materials we have brought with us.

One pupil, G, stays with the tube sticks, which are fun to throw but also to put in the mouth. The same goes for the clothespins and the pieces of filter. The elastic is nice to swing, shake, feel the vibration against the hand, and taste. G loves Lisbeth’s clear reactions when the objects move through the room, fast and slow, repeated reactions again and again but with some variation. G follows attentively what is happening and laughs from the heart at the whole situation.

The other student, F, stays with the filters and how the movement of the material feels and sounds in a repetitive motion that I try to tune into and be in together. Tearing the filter pieces apart and exploring the small pieces in movement and sound is also something that interests F. Everything takes place in a swaying movement back and forth. We exchange filter pieces with each other in the movement. On a few occasions, F stands up and we become two swaying bodies holding each other. Up from the sofa, embrace, back to the filters in movement and sitting on the sofa swaying. This bodily exploration develops a bit later into sitting and feeling the hair, the face, the hands. Fingertips against hands, sensitive and careful.

A third student enters. V is more interested in us as people and our reactions rather than the materials. The energy is turned up considerably with V in the room and it becomes a show for all of us. Lisbeth interacts with V physically and verbally, falls, makes sounds and laughs. We all laugh.

Then V takes me into the adjacent room to read stories. One book after another is flipped through at a high pace. I give verbal feedback even if I do not understand. Meike comes in with magnifying sheets. Could this be of interest? Or coloured light in the book? But the magnifying sheet goes straight down onto the floor. The lamp is of no interest. The educator tries to get V to pick up and put the books back in order on the bookshelf.

After lunch, D comes into the classroom that we have prepared. The elastic has been stretched across the whole room in a long line and we try, with the elastic, to bring D into its movement when they enter the room. D sways back and forth with half-straight legs, like being in a large step forward and back. A nice movement with the elastic back and forth, an ongoing swaying. The elastic helps to catch the rhythm in the movement. The whole room moves. Stamping, clapping and banging on the floor at times. D lies down on the floor, looks into the lamps. Lisbeth and Meike place objects between D and the lamp. The magnifying sheet is especially exciting.

The tubes, the large one with the filter pieces, are rolled across the room between us. The same with the small metal tube. D follows attentively the light from one of the lamps in the ceiling that creates shadows. They are in with full energy for 20–30 minutes. Then it is over.

E comes in and takes a seat on the rolling desk chair that we had actually placed in the small room next door. The elastic helps us move the chair with E into the room. Clothespins are interesting to take apart and throw but also to attach the fabric with. The elastic jumps and shakes over the head and at times perhaps creates a bit of confusion.

Lisbeth gives E the soft crinkling rectangle, which E places over the stomach. I come with the large pink fabric that spreads out from E and over the room in wave movements. Back and forth.

This is our final session with the students. Now we need to gather our experiences and select the materials that we believe have the greatest potential to create encounters. The idea is that we will soon be able to meet more students with this format – one pupil at a time.

Photo: Johan Danielsson

Text: Ellen Spens