Harmonious Interactions
Describes the importance of teaching families and educators the techniques to create and maintain the quality interactions most needed to establish relationships with children who are deaf-blind

Developing Concepts with Children Who Are Deaf-Blind
Concepts are the ideas that give meaning to our world. This fact sheet discusses the necessity of providing experiences to maximize a child's opportunity to develop concepts and the critical element of relationship in providing meaning.

Appropriate Touch
It is important that the child who is deaf-blind understands how to employ the sense of touch for appropriate interactions and to develop friendships with others.

One parent shares how her son's Circle of Friends has worked for them in creating community.

Positive Behavioral Supports and Social Relationships
Discusses briefly, the theory of Positive Behavioral Support and examines a method for supporting children who are deaf-blind in their development of behavioral and social competence.

Social Skills for Children & Youth With Visual Impairments
This Webcast demonstrates how to analyze and adapt teaching strategies to teach social skills to students who are visually impaired or deaf-blind.

Facilitating Friendships and Interactions
Provides strategies that parents, teachers, and others can implement to facilitate interactions between individuals with and without disabilities.

Conversations without Language: Building Quality Interactions with Children Who are Deaf-Blind
Discusses common problems encountered when developing conversations with the child who has limited language skills and strategies to address barriers.

Elements of a Good Conversation
Describes 10 considerations and strategies necessary for developing conversation and furthering communication skills.

Conversations: A Personal Reflection About Deafblindness - Communicating & Learning with Persons who are Deafblind by Babara Miles
In this webcast, Barbara Miles, a well-know as an author and lecturer, discusses her approach to engaging in conversations with students who are deaf-blind and the importance of the social-emotional components of communication.

Overview on Deaf-Blindness
It may seem that deaf-blindness refers to a total inability to see or hear. Read More
This NCDB publication by Barbara Miles provides excellent information, fundamental to understanding the unique considerations of children who are deaf-blind.

Children Who Are Deaf-Blind
This NCDB publication provides details about the population of children who are deaf-blind, including the classification of vision and hearing loss, the types of additional disabilities that may be present, and the causes of deafblindness.

There a many different phrases used to describe deaf-blindness. Among those are combined vision and hearing loss, dual sensory impaired, concomitant vision and hearing loss, deaf-blind, blind-deaf, deaf/blind, DeafBlind, and deafblind. Over the past two decades, with the growth of the disability rights movement, there has been an effort to use person first language when referring to a person with a disability and many people prefer the term "person who is deaf-blind". The term "deafblind", no hyphen, has also gained momentum in the United States. In the early 1990's, Salvatore Lagati of the Servizio di Consulenza Pedagogica in Italy proposed international acceptance of the single word "deafblind" in place of the hyphenated version. The intent was to indicate that deafblindness is a unique condition that is not simply the addition of deafness and blindness and that impact of dual losses is multiplicative rather than additive. This version is prominently in use in European countries. In the United States, practitioners, service providers and agencies still chose between the two versions. Both of the national consumer organizations, the American Association of the Deaf-Blind (AADB) and the National Family Association of Deaf-Blind (NFADB) and the federal government are represented by the hyphenated term.

What are the Legal Definitions for Learners with Deafblindness?
From Indiana State University's training module Introduction to Learners with Deafblindness

Federal and state definitions

Etiologies Related to Deaf-Blindness
This list from Washington details syndromes and conditions that may cause a combined vision and hearing loss.

What are the Most Common Conditions that Cause Deafblindness
From Indiana State University's training module Introduction to Learners with Deafblindness. Includes detailed information about some of the syndromes more commonly associated with deaf-blindness.

Being Born Early Means More Than You Think
This chart provides an overview of sensory development and some of the effects that an early birth can have on child development.

Overview of Deafblindness and Implications
This information from the Minnesota state project succinctly addresses the implications of hearing and vision loss.

What Impact does both Hearing and Vision Losses have on Learners?
From Indiana State University's training module Introduction to Learners with Deafblindness. The critical components of how vision and hearing losses can impact the way a learner functions, communicates, travels, and acquires knowledge are covered.

NCDB Selected Topics

Causes of Deaf-Blindness
Deaf-Blindness Overview
Demographics

Training Resources

NCDB Tools for TA section contains materials, including handouts and power points, developed by state projects for outreach and training activities.

Online courses
Many organizations and educational institutions offer coursework in deaf-blindness. For a comprehensive list check out this section of the NCDB website.