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VIDBE-Q Volume 64 Issue 2
Kristi M. Probst, Ed.D., National Center on Deaf-Blindness,
Initiative Lead, Interveners & Qualified Personnel and
Assessment, Planning, & Instruction, kristi.probst@hknc.org
Deaf-blindness
Deaf-blindness causes profound sensory deprivation, creating a
"disability of access" to visual and auditory information about the
environment (people, things, events) that is an obstacle to learning,
communication, and development (Alsop, Robinson, Goehl, Lace, Belote, &
Rodriguez-Gil, 2007). Without consistent and responsive specialized
support, environmental information and concepts are distorted, incomplete,
and confusing to children with deaf-blindness, who have limited or no
means to predict events or communicate their needs. They struggle to
learn from typical formative experiences that children with vision and
hearing experience incidentally, and without a sense of safety and the
ability to trust that others will respond to their needs, their readiness to
learn is compromised.
A Collaborative Model of Intervener Training
