Children With Vision Impairment and Multiple Disabilities: Issues of Communication Skills and Professionals’ Challenges

Abstract

People with vision impairment and multiple disabilities (MDVI) constitute a population with an enormous heterogeneity due to the combination of various disabilities. Education of children with MDVI concerns different domains and it is considered one of the most demanding fields in Special Education as each student with MDVI has different needs and entails unique educational challenges. In specific, the development of communication skills of children with MDVI is a fundamental domain of their education which affects their learning and active participation in all sectors of life. As a result, professionals are very concerned in which way they can design and develop effective intervention programmes, in order to assess accurately children's communication levels and in turn set realistic goals to consolidate and advance them. The present paper refers to an Erasmus+ project entitled "Promoting effective communication for Individuals with a Vision Impairment and Multiple Disabilities" (PrECIVIM) which acknowledges the need to train teachers in this field and bridges assessment and intervention for the development of communication skills for children with MDVI. The authors present and describe in this paper the following: a. the structure and the content of a training manual for the enhancement of teachers' and professionals' competences in communication skills of children with MDVI, and b. the training process, based on the developed training manual, in three countries (Greece, Cyprus and Romania) in different educational settings for children with MDVI. The obtained data regarding teachers' and professionals' feedback from the training process and their corresponding intervention programmes, revealed a range of good practices as well as concerns and challenges confirming the need of more focused training programmes regarding the education of children with MDVI. The authors conclude that the implementation of intervention programmes, when it comes to communication and levels of communication, depends significantly by a number of factors such as diagnosis, early intervention, system of support for professionals and families, assessment, teachers and professionals' competences, effective use of technology, alternative and augmentative communication, environment, and so on. Finally, it is argued that the aforementioned issues, should be an integral part of a systematic educational policy for the provision of educational opportunities in terms of equality and inclusion for all children including children with MDVI.

Training Programs Based on Reflective Strategies in the Context of MDVI

“…All the professionals have indicated that they found in the manual reflection-based assignments, tasks and examples that have guided them through their learning process. The chapters of the training manual were designed to support the specialists in their learning process about communication strategies and resources for the children with MDVI and also to offer these professionals the opportunity to plan supervised specific interventions for the MDVI children in their praxis (Argyropoulos et al, 2020).…”

Penerapan Teknologi Augmentatif Alternative Communication/Aac Pada Disabilitas Netra Ganda: Tantangan Keterlibatan Saudara Kandung

“…global, populasi keseluruhan penyandang tunanetra terdiri dari penyandang disabilitas netra ganda/multiple disability with visual impairment/MDVI dengan variasi angka antara 30% dan 70% (Kyriacou et al, 2015). Penyandang disabilitas netra ganda diketahui sebagai bagian penyandang disabilitas dengan populasi heterogen dengan kombinasi disabilitas yang kompleks (Argyropoulos et al, 2020). Kondisi tersebut mengakibatkan sering terjadi keterlambatan perkembangan dan kesulitan pada anak tunanetra dan disabilitas ganda.…”

“…Sebagian besar program intervensi penyandang disabilitas ganda didasarkan pada komunikasi yang bertujuan untuk mengonsolidasikan dan memajukan kompetensi komunikasi. Faktanya, seringkali pembelajaran keterampilan komunikasi bagi penyandang disabilitas ganda yang dilakukan di sekolah hanya berfokus pada anak (Argyropoulos et al, 2020). Program pembelajaran dirancang lebih banyak berfokus pada siswa untuk mencapai tujuan pembelajaran yang diinginkan.…”

“…Jika hanya terfokus pada anak, akan mengakibatkan kerjasama antara sekolah dan orang tua untuk mendorong peningkatan komunikasi siswa disabilitas netra ganda menjadi tidak maksimal. Faktor yang mempengaruhi bukan hanya pada kompetensi guru dan profesional lainnya tetapi dukungan dari keluarga dan lingkungan sekitar (Argyropoulos et al, 2020;Samek, 2015;Tönsing & Dada, 2016). Tidak adanya pelatihan atau pendampingan oleh sekolah, namun keterlibatan anggota keluarga juga merupakan tantangan bagi keluarga (Hanley et al, 2022).…”

Media Information, Flood Images, and Perceptions in Times of Flood

“…Data collected from the observation were recorded in the field notes. In qualitative methodology, field notes are used for documenting contextual information [24]. Moreover, information gathered in the field can be used to analyze the current situation and triangulate with the information reported on social media.…”