Virtual Summer Institute 2020 

 Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) and Cortical Visual Impairment (CVI)

5-Part Series

Cortical visual impairment (CVI) is the leading cause of vision impairment in children. CVI is an impairment where the eyes are healthy but the child has difficulties with interpretation of visual information. Most children with CVI have additional disabilities including motor, intellectual, hearing, and communication challenges. These issues often result in the need for Augmentative and Alternative communication support. Children with CVI have unique vision characteristics that affect how they can access AAC. This presentation will provide some examples of how a vision and AT specialist/Speech Language Pathologist can work together with children with CVI to support their communication needs and find the right fit for AAC devices. Presentation will include video examples of successful AAC use by students with CVI.

 Learning objectives:

• Participants will describe the 10 unique visual characteristics of children with cortical visual impairment.
• Participants will identify 5 ways that vision characteristics of CVI affect the choice and design of AAC devices.
• Participants will describe how to design the layout of an AAC device to address the unique vision needs of children with CVI.

 *** THIS IS NOT AN INTRODUCTORY COURSE ON CORTICAL VISUAL IMPAIRMENT ***

Workshop attendees are expected to come to the training with a foundational knowledge of CVI the 10 characteristics and how they impact functional vision use.

Space is limited   Registration Fee $50.00 per person

Meet Your Presenters:

Debbie Perry, Speech Language Pathologist and Assistive Technology Professional

Debbie Perry is co-owner of Eat, Speak, Play!, an in-home speech and OT practice in northern VA, and is an employee at The HSC Pediatric Center in the assistive technology clinic where she works with children with complex communication needs.  She has 15 years of experience as a speech language pathologist with 10 of those specializing in AT.  Approximately 6 years ago she began learning more about CVI and deaf blindness and continues to learn how to best help chlidren with CVI and deaf blindness access communication.  Debbie has presented on alternative assessment methods and AAC to various professional groups and students.  She is a certified Assistive Technology Professional and is trained in Language Acquisition Through Motor Planning (LAMP), DIR/Floortime, and The Play Project. She is well versed in programming and implementation of all major AAC devices, as well as alternative access methods. Debbie is also the mother of two vibrant kiddos.

 Dr. Sandra Newcomb

Dr. Newcomb is a Faculty Associate at the University of Maryland, College Park  in the Department of Counseling, Higher Education, and Special Education. She has 30+ years of experience teaching infants and toddlers with disabilities, including 13 years providing technical assistance to young children with deaf-blindness, their families and service providers through Connections Beyond Sight and Sound, the MD and DC deaf-blind project. Dr. Newcomb earned her Ph.D. at the University of Maryland in 2009, and holds certification in Early Childhood Special Education and in Visual Impairment, as well as the Perkins/Roman CVI Range Endorsement. Her dissertation topic was assessment of children with CVI. She has had teaching experience in North Carolina, Maryland, District of Columbia, and Virginia. Her teaching experience includes classroom instruction, early intervention home-based services and private consultation. In addition to her work with children and families, Dr. Newcomb has coordinated a number of grants at the University of Maryland including family support projects and personnel preparation grants in early intervention. Dr. Newcomb is currently in private practices and specializes in deaf-blindness and cortical visual impairment.

Christopher Russell, MS. Ed., TVI

Chris has worked as a classroom teacher for children with severe and multiple disabilities, blindness and visual impairment, and combined vision and hearing loss. He is certified as a Teacher of the Blind and Visually Impaired (TVI), and holds dual certification in Childhood Education and Childhood Special Education with an annotation in Severe and Multiple Disabilities including Deaf-Blindness. He has also been a Helen Keller Fellow, and brings to the project a passion for promoting best practices in educational and communication approaches for students with dual sensory impairments.

Jennifer Willis, MS

Jennifer Willis has worked with children who have dual sensory impairment since 2003. While working on her teaching degree, she served as a 1-to-1 aide and intervener, working at the Maryland School for the Blind for five years. Once she earned her degree, she spent nine years teaching in the Family Education Department at the Maryland School for the Deaf, serving children in the birth-to-5 years population and their families, with a special focus on children with deafblindness and multiple disabilities.  Jen earned her BS in Deaf Studies from Towson University, and her MS in Deaf Education from McDaniel College. She also holds a certification in special education and early childhood education, and has extensive training related to supporting children who are deaf or hard of hearing. In addition, she has many years of experience working with children who have cortical visual impairment and recently earned a Perkins/Roman CVI Range Endorsement.  In her role as Project Coordinator for CBSS, Jen will work closely with the Project Director and other team members to achieve the outcomes targeted by the grant activities. Her specific role includes being responsible for coordinating the training and technical assistance components of grant activities to ensure both are delivered effectively and efficiently. She also shares responsibility for delivering training, technical assistance, and coaching to individuals receiving training to ensure that consumers of project services are better able to support their students with deafblindness achieve improved outcomes.

Program Schedule

August 4, 2020   3:00 - 5:00 pm EST    Phase I and AAC - Children with limited ability to use vision in communication.

Brief review of children in Phase 1.  What are their vision characteristics?  What are their communication needs?  As an SLP, what do I do when the child cannot see or does not use his vision?  As a TVI, what do I do to support vision to prepare the child to use vision in communication?  Session includes case studies including video and photos to demonstrate strategies to use when intervention involves vision and  communication separately.

August 6, 2020  3:00 - 5:00 pm EST     Children in Early Phase II  - Children who are beginning to be able to use vision in communication.

Brief review of funcational vision of children in early Phase II.  Expectatiion of use of vision in communication exchanges.  The use of visual symbols.  Connecting language and communication.  As an SLP, what do I do when the child can use their vision, but they have so much more to say than their vision will allow?  As a TVI, what can I do to help the child develop functional vision in preparatiion for possible use of AAC device?  Session includes case studies including video and photos to demonstrate strategies to use for children who are beginning to use vision in communication.

August 11, 2020   3:00 - 5:00 pm EST     Children in late Phase II and Phase III - Children who are able to use vision to access 2-D communication symbol systems (Part 1)

Brief review of functional vision of children in late Phase II and Phase III.  Making meaning of 2-D symbols.  Hierarchy of sumbols.  CVI characteristics and how they guide decisions around choosing and designing AAC devices.  As an SLP, how does the child's vision characteristics affect how I choose and design an AAC device?  As a TVI, how do I help the child use her device and how do I support further understanding of 2-D information?  Session includes case studies with videos and photos to demonstrate the use of AAC for children with CVI including an in-depth look at each CVI characteristic and implications for AAC.

August 13, 2020   3:00 - 5:00 pm EST     Children in late Phase II and Phase III - Children who are able to use vision to access 2-D communication symbol systems (Part 2)

(Continued from August 11, 2020) Brief review of functional vision of children in late Phase II and Phase III.  Making meaning of 2-D symbols.  Hierarchy of sumbols.  CVI characteristics and how they guide decisions around choosing and designing AAC devices.  As an SLP, how does the child's vision characteristics affect how I choose and design an AAC device?  As a TVI, how do I help the child use her device and how do I support further understanding of 2-D information?  Session includes case studies with videos and photos to demonstrate the use of AAC for children with CVI including an in-depth look at each CVI characteristic and implications for AAC.

August 18, 2020   3:00 - 5:00 pm EST     Student-Centered AAC for Learners with CVI: A Matrix for Design & Implementation

Presenters will give a brief overview on the modalities used to build symbolic communication for learners with complex needs.  Followed by demonstration of a matrix they created to highlight adaptations to communication modalities that aligns the results of the Communication Matrix with the results of the CVI Range Assessment.