Teaching children who are deafblind in physical education, physical activity and recreation
John Ravenscroft in The Routledge Handbook of Visual Impairment, 2019
As can be seen in the above scenario, it is not difficult to ensure a child who is deafblind is fully included in all aspects of his school. It is important, however, to be connected to the multidisciplinary team and work together on all aspects of the educational programme to ensure the student can access all areas of education. Therefore, the purpose of this chapter is to do the following: Define and describe deafblindness.Describe some causes of deafblindness and characteristics that may be seen with children who are deafblind.Describe communication methods that may be used with children who are deafblind.Describe important modification considerations for physical activity for children who are deafblind.Ensure team multidisciplinary team collaboration throughout the school year.Review strategies to help increase socialisation for children who are deafblind.Lastly, share some role models who are deafblind who are involved in physical activity, sports and recreation.
Disability
Liam J. Donaldson, Paul D. Rutter in Donaldsons' Essential Public Health, 2017
Causes of deafblindness vary, as does the point in life when a person becomes deafblind. Until recently, the most common cause of deafblindness among newborn babies was rubella contracted by the mother during pregnancy. Vaccination has reduced the incidence of rubella, but congenital deafblindness can also result from premature birth and birth trauma. Many of those who are deafblind from birth also have other disabilities, particularly learning disabilities. Some genetic conditions mean that people will become deafblind by the time they are young adults. Usher’s syndrome, for example, results in deafness from birth and gradual loss of sight in late childhood. As the population ages, the number of people who are deafblind because of age-related visual and hearing impairment is growing.
Does the community care?
Anthony Douglas, Terry Philpot in Caring and coping, 2002
People with a sensory impairment need specialist social services in addition to general services such as information and advice, advocacy, home care, day care and supported housing which are standard requirements across social services. A care package to a deaf person might include transport to a deaf club, a minicom and a pager. A blind person might be given a braille system, possibly a braille textphone, a radio, a guide dog and a talking book. Deaf people will need an interpreting or signing service for people who use Makaton or British Sign Language, and communication services such as Typetalk (via a minicom) and the NationalTelephone Relay Service. Interpreters for blind people, induction loops and deafblind communicator-guides are also available. For profoundly deafblind people, a fingerspelling interpreter may be needed. Deafblindness is more than the sum of its parts and is a disability in its own right. For instance, a minicom to use Typetalk costs about £200 for a sighted deaf person. A deafblind person needs about £5,000 of computer equipment to use the service. Often, if such expensive equipment is not provided, a person with dual sensory loss may be unnecessarily placed in residential care.
Systematic review: Investigating the effectiveness of assistive technology to enable internet access for individuals with deafblindness
Published in Assistive Technology, 2019
Erin Perfect, Atul Jaiswal, T. Claire Davies
Deafblindness is a health condition characterized by a combination of visual and hearing impairment, which affects communication, mobility, and access to information (Deafblind International, 2014; McInnes, 1999; Murdoch, 2004). Deafblindness is also widely referred as “dual sensory impairment/loss” by many agencies across the world to highlight the spectrum of this condition (Wittich, Southall, Sikora, Watanabe, & Gagné, 2013). Individuals with deafblindness are a heterogeneous population and can be classified into three groups: Group 1 consists of individuals with congenital deafblindness (e.g., Congenital Rubella Syndrome), Group 2 consists of individuals with acquired deafblindness – single sensory impairment (vision or hearing) by birth and then subsequent acquisition of another (vision or hearing) impairment (e.g., Ushers Syndrome), and Group 3 consists of older adults with dual sensory loss who are able to hear or see for most their lives but later develop impairment of vision and hearing due to age-related changes/diseases to senses (e.g., age-related macular degeneration) (Brennan & Bally, 2007; Dammeyer, 2014; Wittich, Watanabe, & Gagne, 2012).
Horseback riding therapy for a deafblind individual enabled by a haptic interface
Published in Assistive Technology, 2018
Matjaž Ogrinc, Ildar Farkhatdinov, Rich Walker, Etienne Burdet
Depending on the age of onset sensory loss, deafblindness can be congenital or acquired. In the case of the former, the impairment occurs before age of two and is also known as prelingual deafblindness. Only around one in five cases of deafblindess is congenital. The common causes are CHARGE syndrome and prematurity (Dammeyer, 2012). On the other hand, the most common cause of acquired deafblindness is an extremely rare genetic disorder known as Usher syndrome. This is the case in approximately half of the people with the impairment—excluding the cases related to aging (Moller, 2003). An accurate identification of congenital impairment is difficult as it requires cooperation of the examined person at a very young age, who may also be affected by severe motor, cognitive, and behavioral impairments.
GoCC4All a pervasive technology to provide access to TV to the deafblind community
Published in Assistive Technology, 2022
Juanita Rodríguez, María V. Díaz, Olga Collazos, Ángel García-Crespo
Counting persons living with deafblindness in the U.S. and around the world is difficult as deafblindness is often accompanied by other disabilities, leading to this population being included in the “catch-all” category of multiple disabilities. The most comprehensive study currently conducted on the prevalence of deafblindness worldwide includes data from 22 countries; however, these data have not been collected under the same conditions, which makes them difficult to compare (World Federation of the Deafblind, 2018). Similarly, the authors conducted an analysis of the data considering the different levels of deafblindness studied in each of the countries. Among the results obtained by the authors, it is indicated that the weighted prevalence of deafness in the 22 countries was 0.21%; however, this result ignores many people with mild deafblindness. Therefore, in the study they consider the prevalence of deafblindness worldwide to be around 2%. The results also indicate that elderly people are more likely to have some degree of deafblindness; however, deafness and blindness in children and young adults often mean greater discrimination in daily life (in education, employment, social participation, and increased risk of poverty).
Related Knowledge Centers
- Hearing
- Visual Impairment
- Visual Perception
- Rubella
- Preterm Birth
- Deafness
- Deaf Culture
- Blind Culture
- Stimulus Modality
- Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder