But My Child is So Involved, Where do We Begin?!?!

1. But My Child is So Involved, Where do We Begin?!?! Presented by theVirginia Project for Children and Youth with Dual Sensory Impairments/Deaf-Blindness:

2. Who does this workshop apply to? Anyone who is not communicating to you or understanding you through an abstract form of communication (ex: language).

3. Today’s Goal • (to gain knowledge of) • Significance of DBness & DSI • Instructional Strategies & Materials

4. Census Count 2004 The December 1 count from the National Technical Assistance Consortium (NTAC) identified 8,999 individuals between the ages of 3 to 21 as having deafblindess. However the federal census count (state DOE counts) only showed 1,977 students with deafblindness. Why the difference? Where are these individuals?

5. 1999 Deafblind International; 85% of the total deafblind population additional impairments additional disabilities.2004 December 1 count from the NTAC 63% of these individuals had cognitive impairments 56% had physical disabilities 38% had complex health care needs 9% had behavioral disorder. (behavioral issues are typically a misinterpretation of communicative needs being acted out physically) Keep in that these “other” disabilities could be in any number of combinations of other disabilities combined with their deafblindness.

6. Partner up with someone One person put on the blindfold Only rules: NO SIGNING & NO TALKING

7. Have your partner: • 1) Stand up • 2) Turn around • 3) Sit down • Please remember • NO SIGNING • & • NO TALKING

8. Switch roles NO SIGNING & NO TALKING

9. Tell your partner that you have hurt your finger and you are angry about it. Please remember: NO SIGNING & NO TALKING

10. Group Process Exercise 1 To stand up, turn around & sit down Exercise 2 Tell your partner that you have hurt your finger and you are angry about it.

12. Conversation= Directive = Language = Basics of Communication COMMUNICATION

13. Conversation or …

14. Levels of Communication Development Pre-intentional Behavior * reaction, reflex, no attempt at continuation Intentional Behavior * purposeful, self focused, Unconventional Communication * not socially accepted, not universally understood, beginning of dual orientation Conventional Communication * typical, common, socially accepted, dual orientation Abstract *not related, cannot make clear connection Language * syntax, rules, structure

15. Techniques Cue: Communication used by an adult to let a child know what is expected of him/her in a given situation. Cues are a type of receptive communication (for the child). Designing and using a consistent routine is the beginning of teaching cues. Given time in this type of the routine, the child will first begin to anticipate his/her part in the routine. Given more experience with the routine, the child may begin to anticipate the routine from some part of the routine.

16. When deciding what cues to use with a child, it is important to remember to select cues that the child can easily discriminate one from the other. Otherwise the cues may be confusing to the child. Touch cues are ways an adult can touch a child to communicate a desired action. For example, an adult may gently pull a child's arm upward with a grasp at the wrist to cue the child to lift arm during a dressing routine. Object cues are some concrete piece of a routine that is used to represent that routine. For example, a diaper may be an object cue for diaper changing.

17. Techniques Symbols are representations of an event, action, object, person, or place that can be used to communicate about the event, action, object, person, or place. Symbols can be used for both receptive and expressive communication. The more a symbol resembles what it represents, the more concrete that symbol is. The less a symbol resembles what it represents, the more abstract that symbol is. An example of a concrete symbol would be a spoon, used during mealtimes, to represent mealtime. A less concrete (or more abstract) symbol would be a small line drawing of a person eating.

20. Ripple Affect Academic Lrng Cognition Intellect Daily Living Activities Behavior Auditory Lang. Skills Visual- Spacial Perception Attention Center Functions Perceptual Motor Ocular Motor Control Eye-hand Coordination Postual Adjustment Body Scheme Reflex Maturity Ability to Screen Input Sensory Motor Postural Security Awareness of 2 sides of body Motor Planning Sensory Systems Olfactory Visual Auditory Gustatory Tactile Proprioception Vestibular CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM

21. Introduction to a few More Techniques WAIT TIME Allows time for their brain to process: what’s happening, theirreaction to it process their response and then get their bodies todo what they want Develop self awareness and empowerment Helps prevent Learned Helplessness

22. Patterns/Mental Mapping (types to avoid/potential “mis”mapping) Learned Helplessness

24. Auditory ~ ~ ~

25. ~ ~ ~ Auditory

26. How does Deaf-Blindness and/or Dual Sensory Impairment impact learning? • CHILD WILL HAVE DIFFICULTING COMMUNICATING. • Child may not feel safe to explore the environment. • Child may have distorted perceptions based on incomplete information. • Child may not learn incidentally. • Child may perceive the world as random and frightening. • Children will have to learn to maximize strongest modalities, including touch.

27. Stress Hormones Stress hormones have wide-ranging effects on the body. They are released into the body when the brain receives the signal that perceived danger is near. (fight or flight – startle response) One of these stress hormones is cortisol. Cortisol gets glucose (energy) into our bodies and also helps rev up the sympathetic nervous system (heart rate), increase our vigilance and attention to threat, and decrease our attention for other things. Once you get this stress response going, you have to be able to turn it off. Here is where the hippocampus comes in. This is really important because chronic stress with too high cortisol levels decreases memory and the ability to control behavior and focus attention. It also slows the immune system. 27

28. Mini Modules On Deaf-blindness “Little Room Adaptations” SENSE OF SELF Mini Modules On Deaf-blindness “Pass to Act Lrng Materials” Mini Modules On Deaf-blindness “Literacy & Deaf-Blindness” http://www.dblink.org/lib/topics/modules.htm

29. Adaptations of Passive to Active learning Equipment Scratch Board Activity Board Examples Triangle Board Baggie Book Pegboard Book Vest Resonance Board

30. Crucial Interventions • Provide experiences that use the child’s likes and access their strongest sensory input channels. • The whole team needs to interact and follow through on routines as consistently as possible to make life a little more predictable. (replacing incidental learning with physical memory) • Provide adequate wait time for the child to process information. They have to figure out what it is, what it means to them, what to do and how to do it. Their perception of time and ours are very different.

31. If you suspect . . . • Contact project staff and have a discussion with the family. • Project staff will contact the service providers and the family. • Based on needs identified, project will provide appropriate types of levels of support.