Communication and language profiles of children with congenital deafblindness

Abstract

To be born deaf and blind creates both communicative and language acquisition barriers for a child. Although case studies, research, and practical reports have described the severe communicative delay that children with congenital deafblindness (CDB) often experience, to date, no population studies have given a systematic overview of the characteristics of communication, language use, and language acquisition. This study investigates modes of communication and level of language acquisition among 71 children with CDB using the Rowland Communication Matrix and a questionnaire form. Results show heterogeneity in use of communication mode, vocabulary, and level of language development. Communication was distributed across modalities with 23% using tactile language, 32% oral language, and 39% visual sign language. With regard to the level of language acquisition, 41% used pre-verbal communication, 42% verbal communication (tactile, visual, or oral) but with delay, and 18% verbal communication (tactile, visual, or oral) without any delay. Similar heterogeneity was reflected on vocabulary count and score on the Rowland Communication Matrix. Children with CDB are not a uniform group, and more research is needed in order to map out the diversity found.

Editorial

“…Studies on the needs of families with a child with deafblindness have shown that intensive support is needed for both the child and his or her family members (see Correa-Torres & Bowen, 2016, for a review). Dammeyer and Ask Larsen (2016) reported in this journal that there appears to be a lack of individual language support for people with congenital deafblindness by their social partners.…”

Tactile Communication System for the Interaction between Deafblind and Robots

“…While some of the deafblind people are born with this condition, a majority of them acquire deaf blindness at later stage in their life and therefore they are likely to have learnt some language (English, for instance) [1]. A number of deafblind people in this category generally use the English block letters to communicate [5]. The English block letter is a tactile deafblind communication method in which the deafblind person brings out the palm and the sender writes letters on it to communicate ( Fig.…”

“…1. The method involves deafblind person writing the English block letters with their finger on to the palm of the receiving person [5]. Here, the haptic feedback substitutes the impaired vision and auditory sensory modalities.…”

Program of Intervention Referred To the Social-Emotional Development of Deaf-Blind Students

“…The deaf blind child is not exposed in visual information gained from the body language and the facial expressions. [9,10,11,12]Additionally, the child does not perceive and experience the auditory stimulation from the parents' voice intonation. Moreover the self-awareness, selfconcept development and body awareness, often, may only be perceived during structured locomotion activities and through tactile stimulation and exploration.…”