DEAF-BLINDNESS

By: Carmen Willings
teachingvisuallyimpaired.com

Deafblindness refers to a combination of hearing and vision loss. Most students who are deafblind are not completely deaf or blind, but have some degree of hearing and vision loss. The combined effects of the two sensory losses can have a very significant affect on the student's learning.

There is an added challenge for students who are deafblind to make sense of their world. As with other areas of visual impairments, it is essential to maximize the students use of their remaining hearing and vision, along with other senses and provide concrete methods of communicating in order to help them gain information and learn about their world.

Types of Auditory Impairments

1. Hearing loss is the loss of sound sensitivity (partial or complete) produced by abnormality anywhere in the auditory system.
2. Central auditory processing impairment occurs when there is no loss of sound sensitivity but sensory information is processed inadequately or not at all.

Degrees of hearing loss

• Normal (0-15 decibels and the student is able to detect and discriminate all speech sounds)
• Borderline Normal (the loss is 16-25 decibels and the student has some difficulty hearing conversational speech)
• Mild (the loss is 26-40 decibels and the student may have difficulty hearing quiet speech/sounds),
• Moderate (the loss of 41-55 decibels and the student may have difficulty hearing normal conversations),
• Moderate to Severe (the loss of 56-70 decibels and the student has difficulty understanding speech in most situations),
• Severe (the loss of 71-90 decibels and the student may be able to identify environmental sounds, but is unable to hear conversational speech), and
• Profound (the loss of 91+ decibels and the student may hear loud sounds and feel vibrations).

Forms of Communication

There are different forms of communication that a student who is deafblind may use. The Hearing Impairment Teacher and/or Speech and Language Pathologist will provide input in selecting a method for communication. The method may be modified over time as the student's developmental level changes or if there is a change in the students hearing or vision. The following are the primary communication options:

Sign Communication

• Manually Coded English. This type of sign communication uses signs in exact English word order.
• Simultaneous-Communication. This type of sign involves the simultaneous use of speech and manually coded English.
• American Sign Language (ASL). This manual language has its own syntax and grammar. It consists of hand signs, body movements, facial expressions and gestures.
• Contact Signing. This sign system uses ASL signs in approximate English word order and is used as a form of communication between users of ASL and English.
• Bi-Lingual & Bi-Cultural Communication. This uses a combination of ASL and spoken/written English and Cued Speech.

Aural Modes

• Auditory-Oral. This method maximizes a students use of hearing through amplification (hearing aids; cochlear implant). Speech reading (deciphering lip, cheek and throat movements along with gestures and context clues to understand spoken communication) is encouraged in this method.
• Cued Speech. This method combines speech reading with a system of hand shapes placed near the mouth to help students differentiate words that look similar on the lips or are hidden from view.

Total Communication

Total communication includes the use of any form of communication that is appropriate in meeting the unique needs of the student in a given situation, including signs, finger spelling, speech, speech reading, and amplification. If the student demonstrates strengths in using hearing and/or touch to communicate, the following are options:

• Auditory-Verbal. This emphasizes auditory skills and listening for communication, with aided hearing alone; no manual communication is used and the use of visual cues is discouraged.
• Tactile Signing. This uses signing under a student's hands or on a student's body so the signs can be felt by the student.
• Tadoma. In this technique, the student uses their hands to feel another person's mouth and throat in order to understand spoken language.

Amplification Options

• Ear-level aids fit behind the ear and are attached to a soft earmold placed in the bowl of the ear.
• Body aids are used with students with limited head control.
• Cochlear implants are electronic hearing devices that are implanted in a student's inner ear. They are designed to produce useful hearing sensations to those with severe to profound nerve deafness by electrically stimulating nerves inside the cochlea of the inner ear.

Signing Savvy is a great web resource to use with students who are learning sign. It provides a searchable web dictionary and a video of how to sign the word or phrase!

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TVI's Guide to Teaching the ECC: An Activities Based Curriculum for Teaching Students who are Blind or Visually Impaired

$50.00

Written specifically for fellow itinerant Teachers of Students with Visual Impairments (TVI’s), this book consists of over 400 activities and topic areas of discussion for instructing students in the Expanded Core Curriculum. The activities are age-neutral and multi-sensory and therefore can meet the needs of the broad range of students served on an itinerant caseload serving. The activities can be individualized to the students various learning modalities and scaffold in order to challenge students but ensure success. Select those activities that align with the student’s learning objects based on the student’s unique visual needs and academic and developmental level.

The core activities listed in the Activity section can be adapted to each thematic unit. These include:

• Object Characteristic Activities
• Quantity & Number Concepts
• Time Concept Activities
• Environment & Job Awareness Activities
• Listening Skills Activities
• Reading Foundation Activities
• Reading Fluency Activities
• Braille Basics Activities
• Writing Activities
• Tactual Efficiency Activities
• Developing Skillful Hands Activities
• Visual Efficiency Activities
• Optical Device Instruction Activities
• Recipe Activities

In addition to the core activity areas, each of the 32 Thematic Units incorporates additional unique ECC concepts and skills providing you with a years’ worth of activities. These units are cyclical and can be used repeatedly to help students build on prior knowledge and develop a deeper understanding of concepts. Each unit includes suggestions for activity adaptation associated with the unit. These include lists of objects, possible community based experiences, environmental print, poems, children & young reader books, children's songs, pop culture songs, movies, and websites.

Unique Concepts within the Units include:

• Self Advocacy Activities (e.g. advocating for safe classroom, presenting to class on visual impairment, requesting help and more)
• Social Skills Activities (e.g. Being bullied or teased, giving and receiving compliments, body language, "I" messages when upset and more)
• Recreation & Leisure Activities (e.g. exploring interest areas, getting involved in clubs and sports, playing games, and more)
• O&M Support Activities (e.g. Suggestions for community based experiences, dog guide information, locations in the school, bioptics, ride sharing, traffic signs, and more)
• Independent Living Skill Activities (e.g. chores, being responsible, using tools, recipe suggestions, hygiene, staying healthy, labeling foods and products, and more)
• Sensory Efficiency Activities (e.g. unique sensory experiences related to the unit, unique optical device activities, and more)
• Compensatory Activities (e.g. organizing materials, study habits, and many unique concepts related to the unit)
• Career & Vocational Activities (e.g. job awareness, completing applications, job task suggestions, and more)

Although the intended audience of this resource is fellow Teachers of Students with Visual Impairments, special education teachers may find these activities beneficial to the students in their classrooms as the activities are multisensory and include life skills and concepts needed by all students. This resource, however, is not intended to take the place of a Teacher of Students with Visual Impairments (TVI). Readers are advised to consult their own TVI’s regarding instruction in the ECC and the unique visual needs of the student’s served in their programs.

Note: This curriculum is a digital pdf download. Once you make your purchase you will be directed to an order confirmation page where you will find the download link. This download will also be included on the receipt sent to the email address you provide. The pdf download can be found directly under the order number.

Each download is intended for single instructor use per copyright. Thank you for helping me preserve the content and not distributing copies to third parties.

Product details

Digital pdf download: 364 pages (11 pt font)

Publisher: Teaching Students with Visual Impairments

Author: Carmen Willings

Language: English

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Visual Efficiency & Magnifier Fluency Grab & Go ECC Supplements

$20.00

This workbook is a pdf download that can be printed on demand for use with students. It contains five different types of worksheets for developing visual motor skills and near magnifier fluency skills particularly with the use of a video magnifier. As a supplement to the TVI’s Guide to the ECC, the worksheets correspond to each of the 32 ECC Thematic units. The worksheets, along with a list of environmental print for each thematic unit, are designed to help students refine their visual motor skills while reinforcing ECC concepts presented in the thematic units.  

Visual Efficiency & Near Magnifier Fluency Worksheet Details:

Digital pdf download: 210 pages

Publisher: Teaching Students with Visual Impairments

Author: Carmen Willings

Language: English

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