Teaching Strategies for Learners with Deafblindness
Dates: September 5, 12, & 26
Presenter: Chris Montgomery
Location: Virtual
No Cost
Click here to access the event flyer and registration link.
Questions?
Contact Jodi Dowell, TVI, Research Associate, OCDBE, at dowelljr@ucmail.uc.edu
Series description: This series will focus on teaching strategies for learners with deafblindness These strategies can also be applied to students who are blind or visually impaired with additional impairments. Topics covered will include: experiencing the world through the sense of touch, how to initiate interaction, share meanin gful experiences, and co create formal language with learners who are deafblind Classroom strategies for developing and evaluating calendars and functional routines that work together to form a holistic system of communication and literacy will also be discussed
Guest speaker: Chris Montgomery has worked in the field of deafblind education and visual impairment since 1996. He has been a classroom teacher working with a wide range of students who are visually impaired, blind and deafblind, from emerging language children to those transitioning to an independent adulthood. In 2006, he began work as a Deafblind Education Consultant for the Texas Deafblind Project at the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired (TSBVI). Most recently, Chris served as the Education Director for Deafblind Programs at Perkins School for the Blind, in Watertown, Massachusetts.
Chris co-developed the Informal Functional Hearing Evaluation (IFHE), and led development of Texas educator standards for TDB. He has authored numerous other papers, journal articles, and websites including his most recent; Interaction and Communication for Children who are Deafblind. Other current work includes, co-leading the development of The Functional Vision Evaluation, Learning Media Assessment, Functional Tactile, and Communication Evaluation for students who are Deafblind (ETT-DB). He has served on the board of Deafblind International (DbI) and as chair of DbI Network of the Americas.
Chris holds a Master’s degree in Special Education and is a certified Teacher of Students who are Visually Impaired.
September 5
Workshop 1: Interaction, Communication, and Formal Language with Students who are Congenitally Deafblind
Learning Objectives: Participants will gain an understanding of the tactile learner’s perspective – typical vs. sensorially impaired learners.
- The Five Steps of Interaction – Participants will gain an understanding of our student’s language vs. our sighted/hearing formal language – How does my student communicate? Am I noticing and affirming? How do I start and maintain a conversation? How do we build a common, co-created language?
Registration link for session 1 »
September 12
Workshop 2: Developing Functional Routines for Student (and Teacher) Learning
Learning Objectives:
- Routines for conceptualization: a framework for life – Participants will gain a conceptual understanding of functional routines that are language rich and meaningful for their students as a concrete teaching tool.
- The Routine Worksheet/Task analysis tool – participants will learn the basics of creating functional classroom routines based on student IEP and Expanded core curriculum. Organizational and conceptual tools will be shared.
Registration link for session 2 »
September 26
Workshop 3: Designing Calendars as a Holistic System for Communication, Literacy, and Concept Development in the Classroom and Home
Learning Objectives:
- Participants will gain an understanding of the importance of developing a calendar system as tool for literacy, and concept development; how calendars work as part of a dynamic interactive communication model.
- The Calendar Evaluation, Guide to Selecting Time frames, and Summary Sheet for Planning, from Robbie Blaha’s “Calendars for students with Multiple Impairments and Deafblindness” – participants will gain an understanding of how to apply these tools to help teams develop meaningful calendar systems for the classroom and home
