Facilitating Participation of Children with DeafBlindness

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Facilitating Participation of Children with
Deaf/Blindness
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What is Deafblindness?

• No vision or hearing
• No hearing, but some useful vision
• No vision, but some useful hearing
• Some useful hearing and vision
• Cortical vision impairment and central auditory
  processing disorder

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Federal Definition

• means children who have auditory and visual
  disabilities, the combination of which causes
  such severe communication and other developmental
  and educational problems that they cannot
  properly be accommodated in special education
  programs solely for the deaf or blind child.

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• If an individual has combined hearing and vision
  problems that are significant enough to require
  considerations (such as specialized adaptations,
  modifications, and strategies) when presenting
  information to or otherwise interacting with the
  child

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• This does not mean that the child must be
  legally blind or have a specific decibel loss.
• The child
• May have difficulty with central auditory and/or
  visual processing
• May be reported as severely/profoundly disabled
  or multi-disabled
• Must have a deficit in both vision and hearing

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• Deficit in both hearing and vision
• Can be clinical or functional or both
• Assessed by Medical, Educational, and/or Related
  Service Specialist
• Functional Vision Hearing Assessments mean a
  non-clinical assessment carried out by a trained
  vision or hearing specialist using commonly
  accepted assessment tools, checklists and
  measures for the purpose of making educated
  judgments about the functional use of vision or
  hearing

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Cortical Sensory Impairment

• Children with sensory impairments that are
  cortical in nature, such as cortical visual
  impairment and/or central auditory processing
  disorder (CAPD), should be placed on the census.
  These students usually require adaptations and
  modifications to their educational program. In
  addition, the hearing and vision problems must be
  considered when developing effective
  communication programs for these individuals.

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What Do Children with Sensory and Additional
Impairments Need

• Attachment
• Communication
• Access
• Consistency
• Motivation
• Responsiveness
• Facilitation/Intervention
• Balance

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Social/Emotional Development

• Isolation Vulnerability
• Mindfulness Interdependence

Ryan, P., McGinnity, B., Jacobs, L. Psychosocial
aspects of deafblindness. In Alsop, L. (ed.)
Understanding deafblindness Issues,
perspectives, and strategies. Vol.1. Logan UT
Ski Hi Institute.
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Isolation

• Isolation can be reduced by
• Offering continuous enriched communication
• Enhancing the environment
• Providing the child with feedback about others
  reactions and actions

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Vulnerability

• The bond of trust should be understood,
  respected, valued, and earned
• The way a child is approached sets the tone for
  the whole interaction
• Children must have time to understand and
  experience an activity if it is to be meaningful
• Self-stimulation may be communication or an
  effort to order the world

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Mindfulness

• Openness, flexible thinking, awareness of
  possibilities, and openness to information all
  come from and are aspects of mindfulness
• Concrete background information, supplemental
  learning experiences, and full experience of all
  aspects of daily life are required
• Success can be measured by the extent of the
  childs mindfulness

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Interdependence

• We all need aid or support in life
• Caregivers and friends provide opportunity for
  full and dignified participation in daily life
• Interdependence may be heightened, but it is not
  unique to the child with deaf/blindness

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Concepts and Skills

• We often teach skills but neglect concepts
• Concepts must be taught
• Concept development
• Things (objects, people, etc.) exist
• Things have permanence
• Things differ from each other
• Things have names
• Things have characteristics
• Things (including people) have use and functions

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Building Concepts

• Use activities that are meaningful and enjoyable
• Attach communication and language to all efforts
  to teach concepts and skills
• Build on communications that are known to the
  child, using total communication (touch, concrete
  objects, spoken language, signs, pictures, and
  symbols)
• Remove variables
• Generalize to a variety of situations

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Communication
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Getting the Message Across

• Communication Cues
• Environmental
• Object
• Touch/Tactile
• Movement
• Gesture
• Picture
• Signs
• Verbal Language

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Stages of Interaction

• The Learner
• RESISTS THE INTERACTION
• TOLERATES THE INTERACTION
• COOPERATES PASSIVELY ENJOYS
• RESPONDS
• LEADS
• TAKES TURNS
• IMITATES
• INITIATES

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Communication Levels

• Preintentional Intentional
• Presymbolic Symbolic
• Symbolic

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Communication Forms

• Pre-intentional Actions
• Intentional Actions
• Purposeful Actions or Vocalizations
• Reference

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What you need

• Relationships
• Routines
• Language
• Communication Approaches
• Behavioral Supports
• Routines, routines, routines

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The Language Environment

• Developing nurturance (physical informal
  contact)
• Enhancing sensitivity
• Structuring activities
• Increasing opportunities (number, range,
  functions)
• Utilizing movement

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Guiding Questions

• Is this troubling or troubled behavior?
• What are they saying?

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Communicative Intent

• When looking at the communicative function, look
  at the
• interpersonal context (antecedent)
• the behavior
• the social reaction (communicative consequences

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Facilitation/Intervention

• The term intervention means to go between or to
  mediate between. With regards to persons who are
  deafblind, intervention is the process which
  allows an individual who is deafblind to receive
  non-distorted information such that he or she can
  interact with his or her environment.

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Intervenor

• An intervenor is a person who mediates between
  the person who is deafblind and his or her
  environment to enable him or her to communicate
  effectively with and receive non-distorted
  information from the world around them. An
  intervenor acts as the eyes and ears of the
  person with deafblindness.

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Part of the Partnership Supporting Students with
Deafblindness

• Partnering means being clear about what you are
  learning as well as teaching or getting as well
  as giving
• Context is the framework for goals and approaches
• Family culture and styles rule
• If necessary negotiate culture

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Approaches

• Maps and Portraits
• Ecological and Environmental
• Personal
• Visioning
• Miracle Questions
• Scaling Questions
• Baby Steps
• Liaison
• Information and Referral
• Reciprocal Coaching