Conference Details

Orientation and mobility (O&M) training addresses the impact of deafblindness on the development of movement and travel skills, including orientation. This course explores how O&M looks different for each child. A team approach, led by an O&M specialist, will help a child learn faster.

Objectives

Participants will:

• Critique the role of the intervener in supporting a student´s orientation and mobility.
• Describe the role of the orientation and mobility specialist.
• Identify basic roles and principles of OT and PT
• Identify basic O&M tools and techniques.
• Describe the 5 levels of the Spatiotemporal Development Framework as it relates to students who are deaf-blind.
• List ways to support students who are deaf-blind within the 5 levels of development.

Target Audience

Teams and Individuals working with and/or interested in professional development regarding students who are deaf-blind, such as parents, teachers, paraprofessionals, administrators, and other service providers, including those who are not seeking to become interveners.

Individuals attending this course must arrive on time and stay the duration of the course in order to receive Act 48 Professional Education hours. Requests for exceptions are to be brought to the attention of the individual´s Superintendent or IU Director prior to the course.

This course covers the 10 guiding principles which are the foundation of an effective travel routine. We will review the responsibility of an O&M specialist to design suitable routes and routines to facilitate skill development. Travel routines embed skill development and should be practiced consistently in the context of daily routines. The course will highlight the benefits of an intervener knowing about orientation and mobility, therefore, the greater benefit to the student.

Objectives

Participants will:

• Review how an effective travel routine can support a student´s practice of O&M skills.
• Explain the "10 Principles of Effective Travel Routines" and how to apply intervener strategies to support student learning related to each principle.
• Describe how environmental features help a student learn about the concepts of space and distance.
• Analyze how environmental features can be sequenced to help a student know where he or she is in space (orientation).
• List the skills a student acquires in the context of travel routines have a direct, positive impact on his or her inclusion in family, school, and community life.
• Identify the skills acquired in the context of travel routines that lead to higher levels of safe, efficient, and independent travel.

Target Audience

Teams and Individuals working with and/or interested in professional development regarding students who are deaf-blind, such as parents, teachers, paraprofessionals, administrators, and other service providers, including those who are not seeking to become interveners.

Individuals attending this course must arrive on time and stay the duration of the course in order to receive Act 48 Professional Education hours. Requests for exceptions are to be brought to the attention of the individual´s Superintendent or IU Director prior to the course.

This course reviews the sense of self and how it is a complicated, multifaceted set of layers that define an individual. Knowing how these layers interact, and what is required to make each layer within a child thrive, will increase the quality of interaction between the individual with deaf-blindness and the intervener.

Objectives

Participants will

• Describe four components of self-determination as they relate to the specific needs of students who are deaf-blind.
• Define basic vocabulary, as it relates to self-determination.
• Learners will identify opportunities for self-determination within video-based case studies.
• Conduct environmental analyses to determine what opportunities there are for students with deaf-blindness to develop self-determination skills with partners in actual school settings.

Target Audience

Teams and Individuals working with and/or interested in professional development regarding students who are deaf-blind, such as parents, teachers, paraprofessionals, administrators, and other service providers, including those who are not seeking to become interveners.

Individuals attending this course must arrive on time and stay the duration of the course in order to receive Act 48 Professional Education hours. Requests for exceptions are to be brought to the attention of the individual´s Superintendent or IU Director prior to the course.

This course will provide participants each individual circle of the model allows for a more in-depth analysis of what each student needs and how to facilitate that without becoming too involved to the point of disrupting natural connections being made. Through evaluating your own personal circle of friends, a student with deaf-blindness’ own circle of friends is better understood.

Objectives

Participants will:

• Review the important role that social skills play in school and post-school success.
• Compare how deaf-blindness and decreased opportunities for incidental learning can impact the development of social skills.
• Describe how to support natural social interactions based on shared activities and interests within the framework of family culture and local norms.
• Describe how the intervener can facilitate friendships and interactions between the student and others in the school and community.
• Examine how Circle of Friends process can be used to identify challenges and strategies to support social connections.

Target Audience

Teams and Individuals working with and/or interested in professional development regarding students who are deaf-blind, such as parents, teachers, paraprofessionals, administrators, and other service providers, including those who are not seeking to become interveners.

Individuals attending this course must arrive on time and stay the duration of the course in order to receive Act 48 Professional Education hours. Requests for exceptions are to be brought to the attention of the individual´s Superintendent or IU Director prior to the course.

This course will provide insights into how a child with deaf-blindness has different experiences of everyday situations than other individuals in the same environment. By identifying some of the impacts of deaf-blindness, an intervener or communication partner can begin to interpret a child´s responses to the environment in new ways and provide supports to the child based on that understanding. This understanding is the vital key to enable the student to become a more proficient communicator.

Objectives

Participants will:

• Explain the importance of clear communication for the team dynamic.
• Describe strategies to support good team communication.
• Identify the role and responsibilities of each member of the team, including the family.
• Understand the importance of role release.
• Describe strategies for conflict resolution.

Target Audience

Teams and Individuals working with and/or interested in professional development regarding students who are deaf-blind, such as parents, teachers, paraprofessionals, administrators, and other service providers, including those who are not seeking to become interveners.

Individuals attending this course must arrive on time and stay the duration of the course in order to receive Act 48 Professional Education hours. Requests for exceptions are to be brought to the attention of the individual´s Superintendent or IU Director prior to the course.

Intervener support is one form of accommodation under supplementary aids and services. This course will review how interveners provide one to one support to address the educational need of accessing information for students with deaf-blindness. Also reviews is assistive technology devices that help students access the curriculum in the classroom and at home.

Objectives

Participants will:

• Examine the role of the intervener in the assessment process and ongoing decision-making practice for assistive technology.
• Review components of both the general education and expanded core curriculum.
• List factors that challenge access to curricula for students with deaf-blindness.
• Identify materials, equipment and strategies that provide physical access for students with deaf-blindness and physical challenges.
• Describe modifications and accommodations that support access needed for students with deaf-blindness and intellectual disability.
• Review the range of equipment used to provide communication access and the factors that influence choices to use/not use specific equipment materials
• Describe how and why assistive communication provides access (communication. learning, socialization, etc.) at school and at home.
• Describe the collaborative nature between family and school team members to ensure access to curriculum.

Target Audience

Teams and Individuals working with and/or interested in professional development regarding students who are deaf-blind, such as parents, teachers, paraprofessionals, administrators, and other service providers, including those who are not seeking to become interveners.

Individuals attending this course must arrive on time and stay the duration of the course in order to receive Act 48 Professional Education hours. Requests for exceptions are to be brought to the attention of the individual´s Superintendent or IU Director prior to the course.

The goal of this course is to provide basic information about deaf-blindness and insight into how deaf-blindness affects learning. Content will highlight key instructional principals and strategies that are effective in educating and interacting with children with deaf-blindness. Examples will be given of the array of supports and resources on deaf-blindness that are available for families and school districts. With this understanding, an intervener can begin to interpret a student´s responses to the environment in new ways

Objectives

• Identify important facts that can be learned from the National Child Count of Children and Youth Who Are Deaf-Blind.
• Understand the importance of gathering information about a student´s etiology to guide the development of an effective educational plan.
• Recognize that deaf-blindness is a disability of access to information that results in significant challenges in interactions and learning.
• Describe key instructional principals and strategies that are effective in educating and interacting with these learners.
• Provide examples of the array of supports and resources on deaf-blindness that are available for families and school districts.

This course presents information and strategies on how to help the student access information and learning. All students who are deaf-blind experience different levels of access to both visual and auditory information, as well as other sensory input. It is essential to understand the types of sensory information to which a student has access, as well as the environmental conditions that support the student’s access to information.

Objectives

Participants will:

• Explain the importance of each of the seven senses.
• Review the brain-senses connection and its impact on learning.
• Identify some general strategies for supporting a student´s learning.
• Describe basic information about all seven senses.
• Know how to identify additional resources to learn more

For the student, the intervener plays an important role in developing a trusting relationship, offering the student greater access to environmental information, and supporting the student´s communication development. This course provides participants with an introduction to the role of the intervener and how interveners help the students connect with others in the environment including peers and other educational team members. Participants will experience a simulation of deaf-blindness to assist them with understanding this complex, dual sensory disability. Also, this course will highlight the intervener as the person who works most closely with the student at school and can provide the educational team with valuable information for planning the student´s educational program.

Objectives

Participants will:

• Explain the role of an intervener.
• Identify the Principles of Intervention.
• Describe intervention as team process.
• Review basic team dynamics.

This course offers a framework and a process for systematically affirming and supporting the student in everyday interactions. For students who are deaf-blind, there is nothing more important for interveners or other communication partners to understand than how to build a trusting and supportive relationship with students. Establishing a trusting, safe relationship is a foundation for all intervention and teaching approaches with students who are deaf-blind.

Objectives

Participants will:

• Explain why trusted relationships and a positive self-image are the foundation for well-being and development.
• Describe key strategies to create reciprocal interactions from a deaf-blind perspective.
• List patterns in turn-exchanges for starting, maintaining, and ending interactions.
• Predict indicators of a student’s processing time.
• Match observations of a student with strategies to share emotions with him or her.
• Describe specific strategies for establishing joint attention.

In this course, focus is on how to tell if students are "available to learn" and to create conditions that will help them become available to learn. Availability to learn means being emotionally and physically ready to engage with people, absorb information, and pay attention to what is occurring around them. Students who are available to learn are alert, attentive, interested and not over-stimulated. Recognizing these states in students who are deaf-blind can be challenging, but approaching instruction with the skills to identify the students’ readiness will dramatically increase learning outcomes.

Objectives

Participants will:

• Recognize the internal and external factors that influence a student’s availability to learn.
• Identify a student’s state of arousal and how to influence it so the student is available to communicate and learn.
• Document a student’s likes and dislikes and know how to use those preferences to support the student‘s availability to learn.
• Identify the strongest sensory channels for a student and describe how to adapt activities and actions in ways that take advantage of those channels.
• Categorize a student’s stress level and identify strategies that can support the student’s availability for communicating and learning.

A key role of the intervener is to provide access to communication and assist in the development of a student´s communication skills. This course and the next one (Module 7) are designed to help you begin to gain the knowledge and skills you need to carry out this important role. Together, the two courses provide an introduction to emergent communicators who are deaf-blind. "Emergence" means a gradual beginning or coming forth. A rising to the surface. The focus of these modules is how to help communication emerge in students who are deaf-blind. They build on information provided in Module 4 - Building Trusted Relationships.

Objectives

Participants will:

• Define and demonstrate the terms “communication form,” “sensory mode,” “communication function,” “expressive and receptive communication.”
• Examine the role of the intervener as a competent communication partner for students who are deaf-blind and be able to identify strategies that encourage communication.
• Identify students with deaf-blindness as always expressing themselves in meaningful, concrete, and purposeful ways from their deaf-blind perspective and that this expression is the starting point for communication development.
• Critique how the presence of an intervener alters the intent of a student’s behavior.
• Use video analysis forms to gather information about a student’s communication, develop insight into a student’s communication, and assist other educational team members with communication assessment and IEP development.

This course is a companion to Module 6 ("Basic Communication Principles"). Together they introduce emergent communication. As you learned in Module 6, "emergence" means a gradual beginning or coming forth; a rising to the surface. These courses are about how to help communication emerge in students who are deaf-blind. The information presented in this course builds gradually. The concepts in each learning activity build on those presented in prior learning activities. It is extremely important that you complete the activities in order.

Objectives

Participants will:

• Classify "movements," "sounds," and "touching objects," and recognize them as meaningful, concrete, purposeful behaviors.
• Design and demonstrate "shared experiences" with a student.
• Review how experiences leave bodily-emotional traces in the memory and how students express these memory traces in their behavior.
• Identify strategies that can be used to co-create shared meaning of a student’s expressions and develop gestures, meaningful sounds, and objects of reference (object cues).
• Explain strategies that can be used to develop gestures, meaningful sounds, and objects of reference (object cues) based on the intervener´s forms of communication.
• List the steps that need to be taken to expand concrete communication forms before moving on to abstract communication forms.

This course will address the intensive instruction and support needed to assist students to develop communication skills. Content includes strategies identified by experts and researchers on how to provide this instruction and support. Access to communication and helping a student develop communication skills is a key role of the intervener when applying these strategies.

Objectives

Participants will:

• Identify the value of observation in determining where a person who is deaf-blind is on the communication continuum.
• Describe communication modes used by students who are deaf-blind.
• Define strategies to support a student to become a more proficient communicator.
• Review strategies to support a student to develop complex language skills.