[ Post a Response | AAC, Special Education, and Inclusion ]
Posted by Krista
on 2/4/2003, 1:39 am, in reply to "DeafBlind"
142.59.133.91
I have had some experience with a deaf-blind child who is three years old and wears hearing aids. As far as where to start,I have found the website www.tangiblesymbols.com very helpful. As far as where we have started with this little boy, we are using lots of hand-over-hand sign (American Sign Language) as we work on building his hand exploration with toys, labelling the toy names repeatedly. Also important is to establish what motivates the child by completeing a list of likes/dislikes as a stepping point for building some intentional communication for asking for "more" or signing "please" to request continuation or "stop" if something is not liked. I've found its very helpful to work with an Occupational Therapist to offer ideas for providing opportunity for sensory input through movement, smells and touch. This little boy was very tactile defensive initially so much of our work was focused on working towards getting him to accept that objects be placed in his hands and encouraging hand exploration. Again, lots of guidance is given in the above named website. Equally important is to help the child develop a sense of routine and to help him learn to anticipate what is going to happen through the use of object -based actcivity calenders. Let me know if you want more information about this particular strategy as it has been very effective with this child. Progress has been slow, but he is now signing "more", "please", "mom", "book", "socks" and "shoes" in purposeful situations.
This is a very challenging area. Hope you can find the help you need.
Message Thread:
« Back to thread