BC POPDB

Best Practices When Supporting Learners With Deafblindness

THE RESPONSIVE ENVIRONMENT

A responsive environment refers to a setting that responds to the learner, in which the learner has some influence over the things he or she does.

The Responsive Environment is characterized by 6 key elements:

1. Establishing a trust bond with the individual who is deafblind, as a basis for motivation to learn and communicate, and ultimately to establish social connections.

2. Acting as a communication partner with the learner who is deafblind, in order to provide clear, non-distorted information, and to ensure that the child has control over their world by being an expressive communicator.

3. Ensuring that the learner is an active participant in every activity, and that he/she has the information needed to be an informed participant.

The Intervenors’ Motto is “Do with, not for!”.

4. Helping the learner to explore, and communicate about the things that interest them by following their lead and sharing in a two way conversation about these interests.

5. Challenging the learner to think for themselves, to problem solve.

6. Providing a constantly increasing range of experiences in an evolving and growing environment.

CREATING A RESPONSIVE ENVIRONMENT

1. Motivate the learner to want to interact with the environment and with you. Establish a trust connection.

2. Establish a connection with the learner by participating together in activities that are fun and enjoyable. The individual will soon realize that he/she can have an influence on the world through you.

3. Create a need to communicate. The person you support will communicate only if there is a reason.

4. Provide motivation - a reason to communicate. A toy car may not be of interest to the child but the way in which you interact with it will be. Use lots of facial expressions, enthusiasm and at times exaggerate your actions. Don’t be shy!

5. Be sure someone is always there to receive all attempts at communication and to respond appropriately.

6. Provide opportunities for Problem Solving — this acts an an incentive to communicate and doesn’t “routinize” the learner.

7. Take time to help the learner become familiar with his environment.

8. Encourage the learner to develop problem-solving skills and to think for themselves.

9. Structure for success and provide feedback to the learner.

10. Be consistent with your expectations and procedures.

11. Repetition and consistency are critical elements as they provide security, safety and predictability for the learner.

12. Teach the learner how to play - have fun.

13. Be mindful of the visual, auditory and tactile cues you are sending.

Each student with deafblindness has his or her own unique learning style. How an individual student gathers and processes information will depend greatly on their own specific combination of visual and auditory abilities, as well as a number of other factors such as age of onset, etiology, personality, etc.. In order to design an effective and appropriate program for the student, it is important that all members of an interdisciplinary team be involved in assessing how the student learns and through what channels he or she gathers information. Through direct observation and interactions with the student, informal and formal assessment, and discussions with parents and/or primary care givers, each team member will be able to come up with a set of goals that reflect the individual student’s needs in their area of speciality.

Once each member of the team has assessed their area of speciality, the team must determine how each piece of information fits together to reflect the needs of the whole child. Addressing only one aspect of the child’s world, such as looking at his or her vision in isolation from the auditory ability, will often lead to frustration for both the student and the team.

Establishing Trust

The definition of a bond is “A feeling of trust and mutual respect”. Motivation from external stimuli is often limited or nonexistent for a child living with deafblindness. The establishment of trust between the someone living with deafblindness and the key people in his or her life is essential to enable him or her to reach out and want to interact with the world. It is through this trust bond that the learner becomes motivated to communicate and learn. Initially, this bond can often be established through physical contact and movement. Find ways to become a part of the learner’s world, gradually expanding their experiences and interactions. Have fun together.

Routines are very important to the learner with deafblindness as a basis for trust and security and in helping the student learn. By presenting activities in a consistent order the learner can begin to anticipate what is coming and what is expected. The establishment of routines should take place in as natural a setting as possible. lt is important to build flexibility into routines to help the learner learn how to cope and respond to changes.

Involve the Learner in the Whole Process of Any Activity

Learners with deafblindness need to be involved in the whole process of any activity. For example, if the learner is playing with a certain toy, they should help to get it and put it away when finished. This way the student learns where things come from and that he or she has responsibility for their care. Initially, the learner may need hand over hand assistance for much of this, but this can be faded as the learners are encouraged to do more things on their own. The important aspect is that all learners living with deafblindness should be involved in all parts of their daily routine.

Utilizing All of the Senses

Encourage learners to become aware of different textures, vibrations, smells, sounds and visual cues. Help them open their eyes and ears and use other senses to pick up small bits of information that may help them to gain knowledge of their surroundings and relate to people in their environment.

The learner must be taught to use whatever residual vision and hearing is available, along with the senses of touch, taste, smell, and kinesthetic movement. Be careful not to overload the learner with too much sensory input - observe what the individual is able to tolerate, interpret, & integrate and work from there. Remember the learner may be receiving only bits and pieces of sensory information that he has to sort through and try to make sense of. For some learners it may be easier to stop attending than to attempt to figure out what is going on. Our goal is to help the student learn to cope with sensory input and interpret it to the best of their ability.

The Student Learns by Doing

The learner will often respond to and remember an activity or object by how it feels and by how the body interacts with it. The motor activity involved in any action is a very important part of learning for the student with deafblindness. Remember the student with deafblindness learns best by doing, not by watching or listening, therefore motor programming should be incorporated into as many objectives as possible.

Hand-under-hand / Hand-over-hand Techniques

The use of hand-under-hand or hand-over-hand techniques allows the learner to develop a feel for the sequence of movement throughout an activity. With this approach the learner is actively involved while learning valuable lessons about motor planning and how the body and hands relate to the activity. (It is important to avoid creating problems with learned dependency. Initially, act as one with the learner and gradually withdraw support as the learner is able to do more on their own).

For more information:

Talking the Language of the Hands to the Hands - Barbara Miles

Hand Over Hand Guidance - What Lessons Do We Teach - Andrea Story

Generalizing Skills

Many learners may learn the cues specific to one situation but have trouble generalizing them to other situations. Students with deafblindness need to learn using a variety of objects, experiences, and settings to help in transferring skills from one situation to another.

Feedback / Confirmation

Students with deafblindness do not always learn from trial and error because of the difficulty they have getting accurate feedback about the effect their actions have on the environment. They need to be told when they have been successful with an activity. Provide encouragement and support, and be honest. If the learner’s behavior is inappropriate, let him know through your body language, facial expressions and mannerisms as well as through sign and voice.

It takes the learner with deafblindness longer than their peers to gather information and accurately process it. Therefore they often need more time to learn new skills and implement those already acquired.

Organization and Environmental Management

lt is very important for the learner with deafblindness to organize the environment in order to maintain some control over it. This may include organizing the work area, calendar system, desk, locker, kitchen area, personal belongings, etc. in an neat and orderly fashion so items can be easily located as needed.

Encouraging Self-Reliance

Learners may need encouragement to try new things, and to gain increasing independence with familiar tasks. lt may be easier for the learners to let someone else do things for them. Begin fading support and prompts as soon the learner shows signs of understanding what is expected.