Author: Lauren Taylor

To celebrate Deafblind Awareness Week, our Seashell Sensory team have crafted a series of blogs, delving into different aspects of understanding and supporting someone with deafblindness.

This blog, written by Deafblind Specialist, Heather Colson-Osbourne explains the meaning and uses of Tactile Communication.

“Congenital deafblindness or multi-sensory impairment (MSI) is a unique disability and affects the person’s ability to communicate, access information and mobility. Professionals working with children and young adults with MSI will need to receive specialist training that allows them to become effective and responsive communication partners.

Communication for children and young adults with MSI will look quite different to typical communication that is based on hearing and seeing. Very often, their mode of expressive communication will be tactile, even if they have residual hearing and vision. This is because the way they experience activities will be through the tactile sense. This different from the way seeing and hearing people experience and remember activities. This can create a mismatch in communication between sighted and hearing communication partners and the child who is deafblind. The communication partner will be using cultural conventional sign language which may not mean a huge amount to the child who has MSI, particularly if they are in the early stages of communication. It may also be the case that the child does receptively understand a conventional sign but still chooses to express themselves in a tactile way, as it is what they experienced during a meaningful activity. These expressions are very unique to the person and are generally not based on any cultural signs.

There is ongoing research on these unique communicative expressions. They have been described by the Deafblind International Communication Network as Bodily Emotional Traces or BETS for short. These are unique, spontaneous recreations of memories that come from people with deafblindness themselves, rather than cultural language. An example could be the feeling the movement of a boat, the feeling of breeze through hair or the feel of sand between toes. These recreations may not be recognised by their communication partners as they have ‘low readability’ and thus may not be responded to or missed completely. We as communication partners need to be fully tuned into the person and their communication styles in order to capture these expressions and respond meaningfully to them.”

To celebrate Deafblind Awareness Week, our Seashell Sensory team have crafted a series of blogs, delving into different aspects of understanding and supporting someone with deafblindness.

This blog, written by MSI Teacher, Claire Harrison explains the benefits of using Calendar Systems to support deafblind learners to develop communication, provide emotional support and power, as well as teaching abstract time concepts and vocabulary. Claire has a background in teaching and has 20 years of experience understanding Multi-Sensory Impairments.

“Calendar systems are a series of items, placed in a particular order to physically represent events or activities that will be happening over the course of time. Depending on the individual’s needs, this can be from picture or symbol cards displayed on a Velcro board, to objects of reference placed in baskets.

Calendar systems can be a great tool to help MSI learners develop communication skills about mutually understood topics and events that have happened in the past or will happen in the future. When used effectively, calendar systems help provide emotional support to deafblind learners, as they can anticipate activities that are going to happen, whether that is a feeling of excitement ahead of an activity that they particularly enjoy, or easing anxiety and stress by preparing for a change in routine. This system also empowers learners to participate in decision making, and make choices about what happens during their day.

The key to a successful calendar system is using objects that are meaningful to the deafblind learner – this is not a ‘one size fits all’ process! Objects or symbols must be used consistently in connection to the activities they resemble in order for the deafblind learner to distinguish their meaning. The objects used can be real objects specifically used in the activity such as a shopping bag to go shopping or more abstract objects, such as the handle of a shopping bag that is held when shopping.   

Consistency is also key with the presentation of objects to the learner – divisions between each activity need to be clear and represented in a sequence from left to right e.g. first it is bike, then it is drink and so on. It also needs to represent the past by putting objects into a ‘finish’ box and represent the future showing objects to the right of the present object. This system can provide a clear way to represent the passage of time and aid more advanced time vocabulary such as ‘morning’, ‘afternoon’, ‘day’, ‘night’, ‘wait’ and ‘later’.

The calendar schedule needs to be easily accessible by the deafblind learner so they can use it as a communication tool. Once understood, it can be extended by increasing the number of activities discussed at one time, however it is important not to make the calendar system longer than the learners arm span so they can access it easily. After an extended period, choices can be developed so the learner can choose a preferred activity and place this on their schedule.

An example of the impact a calendar system can have is with student, Aidan – who has recently been introduced to a ‘now and next’ system using baskets. He clearly understands that the baskets are used to indicate which activities are upcoming and is beginning to understand the left to right system. He is also learning that he must complete the first activity before the second, with some prompting and support from staff.

Prior to the introduction of this system, Aidan found it hard to accept that he had to wait for an activity to start, but he is now able to transition to, attend to and complete the ‘now’ activity before the ‘next’ activity – even where the second activity is something very motivating…such as dinner!

Aidan is also beginning to use his objects of reference in conjunction with the baskets to communicate timetable preferences to staff. Recently when he was shown his swimming wetsuit as the ‘now’ activity, Aidan took the wetsuit and put it back in his swimming bag and pushed the bag away to show that he didn’t want the activity. Staff then offered Aidan a choice of his swimming object of reference or his ‘desk work’ object of reference to clarify what he was communicating. Aidan took the desk work object of reference and, with support, put this in the ‘now’ basket. He then independently transitioned to his workstation and engaged well in his chosen change of timetable.”

To celebrate Deafblind Awareness Week, our Seashell Sensory team have crafted a series of blogs, delving into different aspects of understanding and supporting someone with deafblindness.

This blog, written by Advanced Practitioner MSI –Sensory Course, Debra Lally and MSI Teacher, Liz Shawe explains the benefits of using sensory stories.

“We all learn from our senses every day. Sensory stories can be a great way to support children and young people with special educational needs. For young people with multi-sensory impairments (MSI) the world can be a daunting place. A young person with multi-sensory impairments or physical disabilities may face practical barriers to this learning: they can’t see the picture; they can’t reach the toy. Young people who experience sensory processing difficulties as part of their condition can struggle with sensory processing and may need support in learning to regulate their reaction to sensory stimuli. Sensory stories are a fun way of providing this support and of simply sharing a story together in a fun situation.

Sensory stories use repetition to build the young person’s confidence as they learn from stimuli. Through helping to build their confidence with encountering new stimuli. There is a security to be found in familiarity.

Sensory stories give individuals with MSI, who do not necessarily communicate with language, the opportunity to share in the journey of a story by appealing to senses beyond language alone. As professionals, we can also observe their reactions to build a picture of their sensory preferences, which can be used to personalise their needs and wants.

At Seashell we use sensory stories to help students to prepare for and reflect on specific experiences, for example a trip to the park. We also use them to teach new communication skills, by providing a wide range of motivating sensory experiences; from here we can give students the opportunity to express whether they want more or to finish. Whether it’s in a group or on a 1:1 basis, sharing a sensory story always benefits from an attentive and responsive storyteller who is able to interpret the communication attempts of the listener and just enjoy spending quality time with them.”

To celebrate Deafblind Awareness Week, our Seashell Sensory team have crafted a series of blogs, delving into different aspects of understanding and supporting someone with deafblindness.

This blog, written by Lead MSI Practitioner, Veena Ramrakhiani explains the benefits of supporting deafblind learners with the concept of closure to reduce high levels of stress and anxiety and increase active engagement.

“Many individuals who are deafblind operate on high levels of stress, and because of this they are not available for learning or active engagement. They are faced with many ambiguities such as Where am I?; Why am I here?; What’s happening?; Where did you go?; When will this be over?.

Added to such questions are ambiguities around communication e.g. Why don’t you understand me?

Deafblind individuals require structure and predictability in their day to day functioning, as the information they receive is fragmented and distorted which can lead to uncertainties about their world.  The unknown leads to stress and anxiety and hence there is an increased need for closure. 

So, what can we do to support our deafblind learners?

1.  Structure, routines and mini-routines so there is predictability

2. In all the routines we have a clear structure of a clear beginning, middle and end

3. The use of FINISH boxes and pouches so every activity in the routine is finished by placing the object or symbol into the finished box/pouch.  This is concrete and the learner knows it has ended

4. All activities are meaningful for the learner and when the skills have been mastered and generalized move on to new activity or bring in new things.  Do not carry on repeating an activity for no reason, there is an end point and we need to move on to new learning!

5. The symbol for the day of the week is finished when the day ends and the next day we start with the new day

6. At the end of the school day classroom  or school symbol goes in the finished box/pouch

7.  When there is an end to the school year actively engage the deafblind learner to pack their belongings so they learn the school year is ended.  Then when the new school year starts actively involve learners to unpack these belongings.  Active participation is meaningful teaching such concepts of closure.

8. When staff are no longer going to be supporting their personal identifier or photo is finished in the finish box/pouch.

These strategies may support to reduce the anxieties they face around events and activities ending reducing their ambiguities and uncertainty.

Please check the presentation on COGNITIVE CLOSURE by Maurice Belote if you are interested in this topic: – The Impact of Cognitive Closure (tsbvi.edu)