Deaf-Blindness

Definition

"A combination of hearing and visual impairments causing such severe communication, develop-mental, and educational problems that the child cannot be accommodated in either a program specifically for the deaf or a program specifically for the blind."-IDEA

Causes
Causes of deaf-blindness include: Rubella, premature birth, genetic conditions, Usher syndrome, or a combination of unrelated conditions. 

Incidence
About 70,00 to 100,000 people have some form of deaf-blindness in the United States.

Resources
http://nichcy.org/disability/specific/deafblindness
http://www.necdbp.org/
http://www.deafblindinternational.org/homepage.html
http://www.deafblindinfo.org/
http://www.nfadb.org/home.html
http://www.pdb.hawaii.edu/downloads/newsletters/pdf/ChildrenWhoAreDeafBlind.pdf
*http://www.projectidealonline.org/deafBlindness.php

Teaching Strategies

• Individuals who are deafblind will often need touch in order for them to be sure that their partner shares their focus of attention.
• Exploring objects should be done in a "nondirective" way, allowing the individual who is deafblind to have control
• The individual may have very slow response times. Therefore, the teacher should allow time for the student to respond.
• Symbolic communication can be utilized by individuals who are deafblind. The principal communication systems include:
  • Touch cues
  • Object symbols
  • Sign language
  • Gestures
  • Picture symbols
  • Fingerspelling
  • Signed English
  • Braille
  • American Sign Language
  • Lip-reading speech
  • Pidgin Signed English
  • Tadoma method of speech reading
  • Large print*