VIDBE-Q Volume 65 Issue 2
33
Educational teams have struggled for years to adequately measure both
academic and communication skills in this population of students. For this reason,
a study was conducted to examine the communication development over time of
individuals who were deafblind (DB) through the use of the Communication
Matrix (CM). The purpose of this study was to record and compare the longitudinal
communication development of students who were CDB by coding data using a
structure based on the CM (Rowland, 2019). Educational teams (e.g., teachers,
interveners, related service providers) and other professionals may find this study
useful in that it provides one favorable avenue that could be used to assess the
communication development of learners who are DB across time (Probst &
Borders, in preparation).
Study Information
Participants included families and/or teachers of individuals who met the
diagnostic criteria for congenital deafblindness (both a hearing impairment
determined by a documented loss resulting in ongoing hearing services and
continued hearing services as stated in the IEP and visual impairment, VI, defined
as having a vision loss of 20/200 or worse in the better eye with best correction)
were included. To participate in the study, these individuals completed informed
consent documents and then contributed all available comprehensive educational
files (e.g., student individualized family service plans, IFSPs; individualized
