Experiences that occur during the earliest years of life critically impact children's
abilities to learn, move, and interact with others. This is especially true for children
with severe sensory and multiple disabilities, for whom bonding, communication,
incidental learning, social interaction, motor development and mobility are
particularly challenging (Malloy et al., 2009). A National Deaf-Blind Technical
Assistance Network, comprised of individual and multi-state deaf-blind projects and
the National Center on Deaf-Blindness, exists to help families of these children
improve early developmental outcomes. However, the expertise and resources
available through this network are not often accessed during the first three years of
life.
For the past 30 years, the National Center on Deaf-Blindness (NCDB) and its
predecessors have conducted an annual count of children birth through 21 years of
age with deaf-blindness. Over the five year span (2009-2013) the average number of
children identified with combined vision and hearing loss under age three across all
states and territories has been 582, which represents 6.2% of the total number. Even
more significant is that on average only 76 infants under one year of age have been
identified across all states and territories. This represents less than 1% of the total of
children, birth through 21, identified in the National Deaf-Blind Child Count. During
Using Evidence-based Strategies and Technical Assistance to
Improve Identification of Infants and Toddlers with
Combined Vision and Hearing Loss
Barbara Purvis, National Center on Deaf-Blindness, Project Specialist
Barbara.purvis@hknc.org
Mark Schalock, National Center on Deaf-Blindness, Data and
Evaluation Coordinator
schalom@wou.edu
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