Communication Strategies for Young Children with Combined Vision and Hearing Loss

This website was designed to provide strategies and resources for teams working with young children with combined vision and hearing loss, and complex motor needs. In my work on the I-Team and I-Team Early Intervention Project, at the Center on Disability and Community Inclusion at the University of Vermont, I provide consultation and training to educational teams working with children with complex communication needs. In my consultation with teams working with children identified as deafblind I created a 5-step process regarding creation of collaborative communication programs. Within each of the five areas ("Laying the Foundation", "Gathering Communication Information", "Enhancing Language Comprehension", "Supporting Expressive Communication" and "Creating a Communication Plan") I created a variety of documents to support data collection, strategy implementation and team collaboration. Those documents are the foundation of this website and are provided wherever you see a button with a label of a document referenced.