| (a) DeafBlind Standards. The standards identified in
this section are targeted for teachers of students who are DeafBlind.
The standards address the discipline associated with the theory and
practice of teaching students who are DeafBlind. The standards inform
appropriate teaching techniques, methods, and teacher actions, judgments,
and decisions by taking into consideration philosophical, historical,
and legal foundations of DeafBlind education, characteristics of students
who are DeafBlind, understandings of the needs and strengths of students
who are DeafBlind, and the backgrounds and interests of individual
students.
(b) Foundations. The teacher of students who are DeafBlind
understands the philosophical, historical, and legal foundations of
DeafBlind education. The teacher of students who are DeafBlind:
(1) understands interaction, communication, and language
theories, approaches, and research that are applicable to teaching
learners who are DeafBlind;
(2) understands the history of the practices, people,
and events that have impacted people who are DeafBlind (congenital
and acquired) and the relevance of those histories to educational
practices;
(3) understands access and inclusion from the visual,
auditory, and tactile perspective of a person who is DeafBlind;
(4) understands specialized roles and responsibilities
of the educational team members, including learners who are DeafBlind,
teachers of students who are DeafBlind, other educators, related service
personnel, and family members;
(5) understands the rights of learners who are DeafBlind
and their family members;
(6) understands clinical, functional, and legal definitions
for eligibility of services as students who are DeafBlind/Blind/Visually
Impaired/Deaf/Hard of Hearing;
(7) accesses and evaluates current related research
and practices in the field of DeafBlindness for their relevance in
educational practices;
(8) educates, facilitates, and collaborates with all
educational team members, including family members, to ensure that
the student's unique needs are being supported by all necessary team
members during evaluation and instruction in home, school, and/or
community settings;
(9) ensures that the educational team considers proper
eligibility criteria for the student who is DeafBlind;
(10) establishes reciprocal interactions with learners
who are DeafBlind; and
(11) advocates for effective individualized interaction,
communication, and language development.
(c) Learner Characteristics. The teacher of students
who are DeafBlind demonstrates understanding of the complex and unique
effects of the combined vision and hearing loss as well as the strengths
of the tactile sense of learners who are DeafBlind. The teacher of
students who are DeafBlind:
(1) understands the positive perspective of the learner
who is DeafBlind, including functional hearing and vision as well
as the experience of touch;
(2) understands typical child development and methods
for supporting a child who is DeafBlind throughout the various stages
of development;
(3) understands the critical roles of vision, hearing,
and touch in learning;
(4) understands the range of vision and hearing loss
of learners who are DeafBlind;
(5) understands the diversity within the culture of
learners who are DeafBlind;
(6) understands the implications of combined sensory
loss and the importance of the tactile sense on access to information
and the environment;
(7) understands the potential isolating effects of
combined hearing and vision loss upon the learner who is DeafBlind;
(8) understands the potential impact of the combined
effects of hearing and vision loss upon the learner's opportunities
for incidental learning;
(9) understands the potential emotional implications
of combined hearing and vision loss upon the learner who is DeafBlind,
including the biological impact of stress;
(10) understands the potential impact of the combined
effects of hearing and vision loss and the tactile experience upon
the learner's personal relationships with others, including the importance
of sensory-attuned reciprocal interactions, on bonding, attachment,
inclusion, and friendships;
(11) understands the potential and complex effects
of additional disabilities upon learners who are DeafBlind;
(12) understands the potential and complex effects
of additional sensory disabilities (e.g., touch, vestibular, proprioception,
taste, smell) upon learners who are DeafBlind;
(13) understands the potential effects of the age of
onset (congenital vs. acquired), degrees, and/or progression of hearing
and vision loss upon learners who are DeafBlind;
(14) understands the major etiologies of DeafBlindness
and the possible implications on the learner who is DeafBlind;
(15) understands the potential impact of the combined
effects of vision and hearing loss and tactile accessibility upon
the development of concrete and abstract concepts;
(16) understands dynamic forms/modes of communication
used by learners who are DeafBlind (i.e., body movements, gestures,
bodily emotional traces (BETS), Visual American Sign Language (VASL),
VASL adaptations, Signing Exact English (SEE), Tactile American Sign
Language (TASL), speech, other manual modes);
(17) understands static forms/modes of literacy, including
real objects, tactile symbols, pictures, print, braille, and digital
technology;
(18) understands the structure and function of the
auditory, visual, and tactile systems;
(19) understands impairments in the structure and functions
of the auditory and visual systems;
(20) understands the influence of vision and hearing
loss on tactile and sensorimotor development;
(21) understands the learner's social history and its
impact on the learner's current biology and physiology;
(22) effectively explains the impact of the combined
effects of hearing and vision loss and tactile accessibility to the
educational team in relation to typical development; and
(23) guides the educational team to ensure the development
of communication-rich environments that support sensory-appropriate
modes of social engagement within the context of developmentally-,
age-, and grade-appropriate functional and meaningful activities.
(d) Evaluation and Assessment. The teacher of students
who are DeafBlind understands the educational evaluation and assessment
processes to identify learner strengths and needs and applies appropriate
formal and informal evaluation strategies to support the continuous
development of all students, from birth through age 22. The teacher
of students who are DeafBlind:
(1) understands the legal protocol for administering
evaluations relative to his or her certification as a teacher of students
with visual impairments and/or teacher of students who are Deaf/hard
of hearing;
(2) understands evaluation of communication modes/forms
along a continuum from pre-intentional and pre-symbolic to formal
communication and language used by learners who are DeafBlind;
(3) understands the importance of a functional sensory
evaluation as a foundation for accommodations, adaptations, and strategies;
(4) understands how to interpret functional evaluations
and clinical assessments of vision, hearing, and medical/neurological
information with reference to etiology;
(5) understands the specialized tools needed to perform
evaluations of hearing and vision;
(6) understands the child-guided approach for evaluation
of learners who are DeafBlind;
(7) understands the evaluation of the Expanded Core
Curriculum (ECC) for learners who have visual impairment, including
those learners who are DeafBlind and with additional disabilities;
(8) understands how to identify a learner's preferred
mode of communication;
(9) understands strategies for supporting the learner's
educational team in determining appropriate modifications and accommodations
of evaluations and state-mandated assessments and interpreting the
assessment results based on individual learning characteristics;
(10) collaborates with the educational team using learner-centered
evaluations and planning processes to determine appropriate program
planning, instruction, and setting;
(11) conducts evaluations and ensures evaluations/assessments
conducted by others are in the preferred mode(s) of communication
for the individual learner who is DeafBlind;
(12) evaluates in co-active, child-guided, functional
routines and motor sequences, as appropriate for the learner who is
DeafBlind;
Cont'd... |
