Your Child: Education
Children who are called deaf-blind are singled out educationally because impairments of sight and hearing require thoughtful and unique educational approaches in order to ensure that children with this disability have the opportunity to reach their full potential.
~ B. Miles, Overview on Deaf-Blindness
As parents, we are central to our children’s lives. We want the best for them and have high hopes for their education. For families that include a child or children with disabilities, planning for a child’s education can be a different experience. Families new to special education often find themselves in uncharted territory.
What is special education?
Why deaf-blind?
What does a program look like for a deaf-blind child? (opens new page)
Resources for developing an IEP (opens new page)
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What is Special Education?
Since 1975 Congress has passed legislation intended to provide quality education for children with disabilities. The current version of the law, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA, guarantees that each child with a disability has the right to have a public education that is appropriate to his or her educational needs.
Why Deaf-Blind?
I have to say it has been the consultations with the deaf-blind specialists, and training opportunities they provided, that have made it possible for the Intervener and the two teachers to create an effective plan for Dylan. HI teachers are great and VI teachers are great, but deaf-blindness is a unique disability that I feel requires a person with expertise in that field to be involved in the educational plan at some level.
~ Kim Lauger, Parent.
Parents often feel that a label limits or defines perceptions of their child, but in special education the nature of the disability determines the services a child will receive. A child who is deaf-blind needs an educational program that considers the combined hearing and vision loss. Interventions that promote access to the environment and communication development are needed. Strategies that are used to teach children who are deaf often rely on vision and strategies for teaching children who are blind often rely on hearing and neither may be effective for the deaf-blind child. Strategies used to teach children labeled multiply disabled may fail to recognize the sensory losses at all. Children who are deaf-blind need individualized strategies and access to the resources that support those strategies.
- Two Texas practitioners discuss critical nature of hearing and vision to development.
- Have you located your state deaf-blind project?
- Find the national group supporting learners with unique needs and communication styles.
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