Author: Peggy Malloy

Publisher:

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 21

ISBN-13:

Experiences that occur during the earliest years of life critically impact children's abilities to learn, move, and interact with others. This is especially true for children with severe sensory and multiple disabilities, for whom physical, communicative, cognitive, social, and emotional developmental domains are deeply intertwined. In recognition of the importance of appropriate early learning experiences for children who are deaf-blind, the National Consortium on Deaf-Blindness (NCDB) selected early childhood identification and intervention as one of five focus areas for the formation of partnerships to promote initiatives aligned with federal priorities to meet the most frequently identified needs of children and youth who are deaf-blind and their families and service providers. In July 2007, an NCDB work group was established to lead activities in the early childhood identification and intervention focus area. The initial tasks of the group were to gather information about current needs and practices and to identify potential state and national entities interested in forming partnerships with NCDB on early childhood initiatives. The following three primary activities were conducted to accomplish these tasks: (a) a survey of state deaf-blind project directors; (b) focus group interviews with state deaf-blind project personnel in eight states; and (c) an extensive literature review. Collectively, the findings from these activities indicate a need for new strategies to improve early identification of infants and young children who are deaf-blind and increase referrals of them to state deaf-blind projects. As a result, the work group, now called the Early Identification Work Group (EIWG), narrowed its focus to efforts designed to promote early identification and referral. This report describes the findings that led to this decision and discusses future directions for NCDB as it forms partnerships to develop and evaluate initiatives to improve early identification of children who are deaf-blind.