Division on Visual Impairments

VIDBE-Q 65.1 Winter 2020

A quarterly newsletter from the Council for Exceptional Children's Division on Visual Impairments containing practitioner tips for Teachers of Students with Visual Impairments, Certified Orientation and Mobility Specialists, and other professionals.

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VIDBE-Q Volume 65 Issue 1 Teacher of the Deafblind (TDB) and the paraprofessional Intervener (Parker & Nelson, 2016; What Every Special Educator Should Know, 2015). While currently recognized in few states, the TDB fulfills many important roles in the education of children who are deafblind. The TDB can serve as a classroom teacher or as an itinerant teacher who visits many classes containing children who are deafblind. The TDB is charged with collaboratively assessing the needs of children who are deafblind and then making sure that the assessments are appropriately used in the development of individual education programs (IEPs). The TDB also helps to coach other team members to understand the interplay of deafblindness with each of the other disabilities so that educational opportunities can be maximized (Parker & Nelson, 2016). An intervener is typically a paraprofessional who has received specific training in deafblindness but who works under the direction of a licensed professional to help provide the child with access to the environment that he or she cannot hear and/or see, provide access to communication, provide experiences that lead to concept development, provide emotional support and help others interact with the child who is deafblind. In some instances, interveners who have earned professional credentials as interpreters are recruited to meet the specific communication needs of students who are deafblind (National Consortium

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