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The National Consortium on Deaf-Blindness |
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NCDB
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NCDB HIGHLIGHTS |
Technical AssistanceArea 1 Projects have identified ten collaborative activities to work on over the next five years. Those related to families include: an Area 1 family directory and listserv; a bi-annual Area 1 family specialist training; support and training for Spanish speaking and Native American families; and a survey to collect information on the effectiveness of transition services. Service provider and system activities involve the development of promotion and training materials to: improve identification of children; increase the use of the Communication Matrix to document positive child outcomes; and to facilitate the use of Response to Intervention in service delivery. Finally, short video vignettes of effective child/student practices will be collected, edited and disseminated. Area 2 NCDB is partnering with Susan Bashinski, Director of the Inclusive Network of Kansas (INKS), to deliver technical assistance to LEAs in Kansas that request help in teaching students with multiple disabilities, including deaf-blindness. A workshop, to be held in June 2008, will focus on components of effective TA and utilizing strategies that will result in improved child outcomes. Gail McGregor, Project Director from the Rural Institute in Montana, will be the lead presenter for the 2 day workshop. Representatives from the Kansas State School for the Blind will be participating in the workshop, and NCDB will be partnering with these agencies to evaluate the effectiveness of the program. Area 3 Nine states from Area 3 and one state from Area 2 are involved in a series of webinars on Customized Employment with Michael Callahan. Each of the 10 states has two teams serving transition aged students participating in the webinars. It is exciting that many of the young adults are active participants in their own plan! Area 4 At the request of the New York State Transition Partnership and the New York State Deafblind Project, NCDB will facilitate a series of strategic planning sessions that will revisit the conceptual framework of the Partnership’s model of interagency collaboration and generate recommendations on how to improve the effectiveness of the model. This effort will initially focus on regional and local teams located in the downstate area, with a long term goal of replicating these recommendations throughout the state. Personnel TrainingMembers of NCDB’s Personnel Training Consortium will be at the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) Conference in April. Mary Jean Sanspree and Linda Alsop will be submitting competencies for teachers of students who are deaf-blind, along with competencies for interveners, to the CEC board. The review and approval of these competencies by CEC will create what is known as a Specialized Professional Association (SPA) in the area of deaf-blindness. These competencies become a step in the establishment of national standards in deaf-blindness and can be used both in collaborative efforts in personnel training as well as by national accreditation bodies in special education. |
NEWS & EVENTS |
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OSEP announces RFA for State Deaf-Blind projects Upcoming Trainings |
PRODUCTS & PUBLICATIONS |
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New Research Articles Communication in the Early Stage of Language Development in Children with Charge Syndrome details a pilot study in Finland. Findings show that the children studied mainly used gestures, but also some vocalizations and signs. They used shared attention with their mothers most of the time and intentional communication covered 15% to 18% of the communicative acts. In British Journal of Visual Impairment, 2008, Volume 26, 1, pp.24-49. Authors Amy Parker, Roseanna Davidson and Devender Banda have published Emerging Evidence from Single-Subject Research in the Field of Deaf-Blindness. Single-subject design is examined as a form of research that assists in substantiating practice. In a review of the literature, the authors identified 54 single-subject studies from 1969 to 2006 that provided emerging evidence for practitioners. In JVIB, November 2007, Volume 101, 11, pp.690-700. AADB American Association of the Deaf-Blind (AADB) announces new email newsletter. Read the inaugural issue of AADB Today. NCDB Products Find all NCDB products, including those produced by both DB-LINK and NTAC on our website at NCDB Products Photo Courtesy of Perkins School for the Blind E-News Subscription infoWould you like to receive the NCDB e-News? Send a blank message to; ncdb_e-news-subscribe-request@tr.wou.edu or contact Randy Klumph klumphr@wou.edu for assistance. NCDB e-News is also available online. Contact information |
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Funded through award #H326T060002 by the U.S. Department of Education, OSERS, OSEP. The opinions and policies expressed by this publication do not necessarily reflect those of The Teaching Research Institute, or the U.S. Department of Education. |