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Understanding Deafblindness: The Foundation for Successful Communication Intervention.
Christopher Brum1, Susan M Bruce2
1Department of Special Education, San Diego State University, CA.
Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools
|July 15, 2026
Summary
This tutorial equips speech-language pathologists (SLPs) with knowledge for supporting children with deafblindness. Effective interventions focus on multimodal communication, considering individual needs and fostering learning through direct experiences.
Area of Science:
- Pediatrics
- Communication Sciences and Disorders
- Special Education
Background:
- Deafblindness is a complex disability impacting observational and incidental learning.
- Most children with deafblindness have some residual vision/hearing and additional disabilities.
- Sensory interaction in deafblindness necessitates tailored learning approaches.
Purpose of the Study:
- To provide speech-language pathologists (SLPs) with foundational knowledge for supporting children with deafblindness.
- To offer guidance on communication interventions for this unique population.
- To emphasize the importance of understanding the multifaceted nature of deafblindness.
Main Methods:
- The tutorial covers learning, cognitive, and communication development in deafblind children.
- It includes information on communication assessment, literacy, and evidence-based practices.
- An interprofessional collaborative practice (IPCP) framework is presented.
Main Results:
- Children who are deafblind learn best through a parts-to-whole approach with guided meaning-making.
- Receptive and expressive communication are often multimodal.
- Interventions must address the four key aspects of communication: form, function, content, and context.
Conclusions:
- Communication interventions must be individualized to the child's development and symbol understanding.
- Interprofessional collaboration is crucial for sharing expertise and supporting the child.
- SLPs play a vital role in developing effective communication strategies for children with deafblindness.
Related Concept Videos
01:21Barriers to Effective Communication II
The barriers to effective communication also include cultural barriers, semantic barriers, gender barriers, and time constraints.
Cultural barriers:
Differences in values, beliefs, religion, knowledge, and tradition can significantly impact communication. Awareness of nonverbal cues is critical, especially when conversing with a patient from a different culture. What appears appropriate in one culture may be inappropriate in another.
Semantic barriers:
As a result of their tendency to use...
Cultural barriers:
Differences in values, beliefs, religion, knowledge, and tradition can significantly impact communication. Awareness of nonverbal cues is critical, especially when conversing with a patient from a different culture. What appears appropriate in one culture may be inappropriate in another.
Semantic barriers:
As a result of their tendency to use...
01:30Barriers to Effective Communication I
A communication barrier is any distortion or interruption during a conversation, resulting in miscommunication of the message. A good communicator should know these barriers and continuously check for the listener's understanding by obtaining feedback.
Communication barriers include the following:
Physiological barriers: They are limitations caused by a person's health condition or disability, such as hearing loss, poor eyesight, illness, or unconsciousness. An example to overcome this barrier...
Communication barriers include the following:
Physiological barriers: They are limitations caused by a person's health condition or disability, such as hearing loss, poor eyesight, illness, or unconsciousness. An example to overcome this barrier...
01:25Learning Disabilities
Learning disabilities are cognitive disorders caused by neurological impairments that affect cognitive functions like language and reading, without indicating overall intellectual or developmental challenges. These disabilities differ from global intellectual or developmental disabilities as they are limited to distinct cognitive functions. Common learning disabilities include dysgraphia, dyslexia, and dyscalculia, each of which impacts unique aspects of learning.
Dyslexia
Dyslexia is a...
Dyslexia
Dyslexia is a...
01:31Hearing
When we hear a sound, our nervous system is detecting sound waves—pressure waves of mechanical energy traveling through a medium. The frequency of the wave is perceived as pitch, while the amplitude is perceived as loudness.
02:07Blind Procedures
Ideally, the people who observe and record the children’s behavior are unaware of who was assigned to the experimental or control group, in order to control for experimenter bias. Experimenter bias refers to the possibility that a researcher’s expectations might skew the results of the study. Remember, conducting an experiment requires a lot of planning, and the people involved in the research project have a vested interest in supporting their hypotheses. If the observers knew which child was...
01:19Autism Spectrum Disorder
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental condition marked by persistent deficits in social communication and interaction alongside restrictive and repetitive behaviors or interests. ASD is sometimes accompanied by intellectual impairment.
These core symptoms manifest differently among individuals, ranging from mild to severe. The disorder's complexity extends beyond its clinical presentation, encompassing a diverse range of biological, cognitive, and sociocultural influences.
These core symptoms manifest differently among individuals, ranging from mild to severe. The disorder's complexity extends beyond its clinical presentation, encompassing a diverse range of biological, cognitive, and sociocultural influences.