Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Sydney, 2006. / Title from title screen (viewed 6 February 2009). Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the School of Occupation and Leisure Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print form.

This research study investigated the relationship between teachers' understanding of the theoretical principles underlying the Van Dijk Curriculum for students labelled deaf-blind and teachers' implementation of related instructional strategies. This study was conducted at the Rafael School located on the campus of the Instituut voor Doven, a school for deaf children, in The Netherlands. Six teachers who were specifically trained for at least three years in the Van Dijk Curriculum at the Rafael School were observed and interviewed during an academic school year. A comprehensive system was developed to examine the dynamic relationship between teachers' understanding and implementation. Using qualitative research methodology, teacher implementation was documented through observations and teacher understanding was documented through interviews. A systematic coding procedure was used to analyze the data. In general, the findings indicated that a relatively consistent relationship was found between teacher understanding and implementation for five of the six teachers. The one exception was a teacher who demonstrated that she understood the theory underlying the curriculum but was not a high implementor of the related instructional strategies. Possible explanations regarding this particular teacher's incongruent relationship of understanding and implementation are presented. This study demonstrates that a systematic procedure can be developed to investigate the relationship of a curricular theory applied to practice. Furthermore, this study provides insight into how teachers' understanding of theory translates into practice. The particular conditions and circumstances under which the relationship of teachers' understanding and implementation was investigated in this study suggest that a shared philosophy, a theory-based curricular model with integrated strategies, and ongoing staff collaboration and administrative support seem to impact this dynamic relationship.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1981. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaf 52).

Group-level differences in classroom language environments were analyzed to better understand implementation of best practices with learners with deafblindness (DB), and whether state certification practices, student characteristics or specialized training related to differences in adult language modeling. Participants came from four states with three distinct teacher certification policies. Data was collected from 15 teacher-student dyads through behavioral coding of videotaped language samples from classrooms, teacher surveys and Communication Matrix assessments. In our sample, teachers used verbal communication significantly more than additional classroom staff. Teachers in a state that required a severe/ profound certification used significantly higher rates of visual communication. These teachers were also the most likely to match their students’ expected receptive modalities. Classroom staff in a state with interveners used significantly more tactile communication with learners. Overall, teachers were more likely to match their students’ expected receptive modalities when the students had higher levels of communication. The students with DB were highly heterogeneous and there was no association between level of dual sensory loss and students’ expressive communication levels. Discussion focused on whether our current use of communication modalities are sufficient, or whether more diverse language modeling (i.e., augmented input) would be beneficial in classrooms with learners with DB. These quantitative results can empower teachers to advocate for the use of specific communication modalities, such as American Sign Language, and trained personnel, such as interveners, in their districts.

Abstract: Identification of, and responsiveness to, the communicative attempts of children with developmental delays’ is essential to developing intentional, symbolic communication. The current study was a replication of Keen, Sigafoos, and Woodyatt’s 2005 study titled Teacher Responses to the Communicative Attempts of Children With Autism, with modifications to the participants used in the study. The Inventory of Potential Communicative Acts (IPCA; Sigafoos et al, 2000) was used with three teachers of three children with deafblindness to determine if teachers were able to identify potential communicative acts (PCAs) of their students using the IPCA during an interview session. Additionally, analysis of teacher responsiveness to student PCAs took place during a 30-minute classroom observation session. All three teachers identified a wide range of student PCAs during the IPCA interview and showed high levels of responsiveness to those PCAs during the naturalistic, classroom observation. Low interobserver agreement, clinical implications, and directions for future research are discussed. / text

Doctor of Philosophy / This study addresses the situation of adults who become deafblind. To date, their everday lives have received little attention in the research literature. Of the few studies conducted many involve surveys, the findings of which present the characteristics of people who are deafblind such as their rates of employment, need for support, or use of equipment. There are also a small number of qualitative studies that have explored the effects of having dual sensory impairment, and particularly in relation to communication and psycho-social wellbeing. Important as these research efforts have been, there is little empirical information available about the everyday lives of people who become deafblind and their concerns, nor any systematic attempt to theorise their experiences. There are however many personal anecdotes typically presented at conferences or through community publications and newsletters. This project aimed to redress the gap in the literature by developing a theoretical framework to explain the everyday experiences of adult who become deafblind. In doing so, it built upon the research and anecdotal literature with an overall purpose of presenting, through rigorous research, the experiences of adults who become deafblind and to do so within the broader discourse on disability and disablism. The study was informed by the social relational understanding of disability developed within the Nordic countries. Grounded theory was the method of choice to examine the lives of adults who become deafblind from their own perspective.Participant observation was employed through direct engagement in shared experiences with adults who have become deafblind both at a social group and via an e-mail list group. Mulitple in-depth interviews were undertaken both face to face and by e-mail with a smaller group of eight participants.The core finding from this study is that people who become deafblind are rendered interactionally powerless in a society predicated on seeing and hearing. The powerlessness that they experience comes from having this dual impairment in a world in which being able to see and hear are expected both in the physical and social environment. The inability of people who become deafblind to 'know and be' in the world in the same way as others results in them feeling, and experienceing, interactional powerlessness. In response, people who become deafblind actively engage in trying to minimise or remove their powerlessness. They do so by working to negotiate a place in this hostile world. They adopt four interrelated strategies, namely, doing things differently, managing support relationships, survivings others' perceptions and presenting sides of self.This study, with its central tenet that interactional powerlessness drives ongoing attempts to negotiate a place makes a theoretical contribution to understanding the experience of becoming deafblind. The findings support the concept of disbaility as social relational. Disability is not the same as the sensory impairment, rather it is expressed in the organisation of personal relations in society which render some more powerful than others and in this case, some less powerful due to their inability to use the natural means of communication of hearing and sight. Moreover, the study findings propose that professionals working with people with this dual sensory impairment must endeavour to reduce their part in the hostile world by providing information about options and support available; recognising the complexity of these adults support requirements; and considering the link between psycho-emotional issues and disablism. Further research is needed to understand empirically and theoretically the relative contribution of personal relationships vis a vis organisational or structural relationships in disabling people who become deafblind.

Doctor of Philosophy / This study addresses the situation of adults who become deafblind. To date, their everday lives have received little attention in the research literature. Of the few studies conducted many involve surveys, the findings of which present the characteristics of people who are deafblind such as their rates of employment, need for support, or use of equipment. There are also a small number of qualitative studies that have explored the effects of having dual sensory impairment, and particularly in relation to communication and psycho-social wellbeing. Important as these research efforts have been, there is little empirical information available about the everyday lives of people who become deafblind and their concerns, nor any systematic attempt to theorise their experiences. There are however many personal anecdotes typically presented at conferences or through community publications and newsletters. This project aimed to redress the gap in the literature by developing a theoretical framework to explain the everyday experiences of adult who become deafblind. In doing so, it built upon the research and anecdotal literature with an overall purpose of presenting, through rigorous research, the experiences of adults who become deafblind and to do so within the broader discourse on disability and disablism. The study was informed by the social relational understanding of disability developed within the Nordic countries. Grounded theory was the method of choice to examine the lives of adults who become deafblind from their own perspective.Participant observation was employed through direct engagement in shared experiences with adults who have become deafblind both at a social group and via an e-mail list group. Mulitple in-depth interviews were undertaken both face to face and by e-mail with a smaller group of eight participants.The core finding from this study is that people who become deafblind are rendered interactionally powerless in a society predicated on seeing and hearing. The powerlessness that they experience comes from having this dual impairment in a world in which being able to see and hear are expected both in the physical and social environment. The inability of people who become deafblind to 'know and be' in the world in the same way as others results in them feeling, and experienceing, interactional powerlessness. In response, people who become deafblind actively engage in trying to minimise or remove their powerlessness. They do so by working to negotiate a place in this hostile world. They adopt four interrelated strategies, namely, doing things differently, managing support relationships, survivings others' perceptions and presenting sides of self.This study, with its central tenet that interactional powerlessness drives ongoing attempts to negotiate a place makes a theoretical contribution to understanding the experience of becoming deafblind. The findings support the concept of disbaility as social relational. Disability is not the same as the sensory impairment, rather it is expressed in the organisation of personal relations in society which render some more powerful than others and in this case, some less powerful due to their inability to use the natural means of communication of hearing and sight. Moreover, the study findings propose that professionals working with people with this dual sensory impairment must endeavour to reduce their part in the hostile world by providing information about options and support available; recognising the complexity of these adults support requirements; and considering the link between psycho-emotional issues and disablism. Further research is needed to understand empirically and theoretically the relative contribution of personal relationships vis a vis organisational or structural relationships in disabling people who become deafblind.

Rehabilitation and education are faced with the growing need for adequate and appropriate assessment tools for over 9,000 congenitally deaf-blind persons in this country. These tools are needed to help form the basis for evaluation of these clients/students so that programs appropriate to their specific needs can be determined. In the past, assessment of the functional development of this population has been based on tests standardized on populations of non-handicapped individuals. These measuring primarily language abilities, and experiential factors. Observational procedures can examine the spontaneous behavior of subjects over a long period of time. This is an alternative to standardized instruments. One of these in current use is the Basic Life Skills Screening Inventory. This instrument was developed in 1982 for the purpose of assisting educators and counselors in establishing the readiness of deaf-blind, developmentally disabled clients/students for vocational and life skills training. Though useful in its original form, this instrument has two major limitations. One is the fact that the rater is given only limited choices, resulting in a ceiling effect and a pronounced skew of many of its scales. Another limitation is its lengthy 283 item format, requiring too much administration time to be practical on a daily basis. The present study focused on making needed modifications in this instrument that would help alleviate these limitations, and continue to maintain high psychometric properties within the instrument. In doing this, rater choices were expanded from three (3) to five (5) column headings, and the instrument was reduced from 283 items to 145 items. This study was designed to answer the following questions: (1) Can the Basic Life Skills Screening Inventory be modified in such a way as to give the rater a greater response choice, thus allowing for a more refined assessment? (2) Can the 283 item, Basic Life Skills Screening Inventory be shortened by approximately 50%, to allow for an easier and more practical administration, and continue to maintain high psychometric properties? Results indicate that, despite the modifications, a very high overall consistency among the items was maintained with a total average alpha of 9935.5.

O objetivo deste estudo foi analisar um programa de Orientação e Mobilidade para pessoas surdocegas, sugerindo caminhos para a inclusão na escola, no trabalho, e em outros ambientes; promovendo recursos para o desenvolvimento de autonomia e acessibilidade e sugerir diretrizes para novos programas, bem como, resgatar a auto-estima, a autonomia e, principalmente, a qualidade de vida para esta população. A pesquisa aponta a importância do protocolo de avaliação para o desenvolvimento do programa Passo a Passo de Orientação e Mobilidade para pessoas surdocegas visando realizar as adaptações necessárias nas técnicas de guia-vidente, bengala longa e a criação de recursos para favorecer um deslocamento orientado e seguro. / The objective of this study was to analyze an Orientation and Mobility program for deafblind people, suggesting paths to inclusion at school, work, and other environments; promoting resources for the development of autonomy and accessibility and suggest guidelines to new programs, as well as, to recover self-esteem, autonomy and, mainly, the quality of life of this population. The research points out the importance of the assessment procedure for the development of the Orientation and Mobility Step-by-Step Program for deafblind people, which aims the realization of necessary adaptations in the long cane and sighted-guide techniques, and the creation of resources to favor a safe and oriented travel.

Traditionally vocational rehabilitation has as its goal providing services to support individuals with disabilities to achieve outcomes that relate to employment and independent functioning so that they may live self-sufficient and empowered lives. The current research discusses models of empowerment among varied marginalized groups identifying its components and dimensions, but little is known about how learners perceive and experience empowerment. This qualitative case study brought the voices of 18 adult learners who are deaf-blind into the conversation and examined the instructional practices and experiences that were reportedly empowering among learners while participating in vocational rehabilitation. The study revealed learners’ interpretations of their experiences, motivations, insights, and challenges during their vocational rehabilitation journey. The study illuminated how learners perceived empowerment and identified six elements of the experience. In addition, learners shed light on six elements of the learning context that were worthy of consideration among learners and practitioners for optimizing the learning experience. Emergent themes surfaced regarding the relationship between empowerment-based practice and transformative learning. The change reportedly undergone by learners encompassed the whole person: affective, cultural, social, practical, political, and spiritual domains. Preliminary investigation into the distinctive pathways to empowerment among deaf-blind adult learners provided a unique perspective by learners on how they made meaning and navigated their new reality of combined vision and hearing loss. Recommendations to practitioners and learners are derived from the 18 voices of learners who participated in the study. The study also revealed a need to further investigate the link between transformative learning and empowerment-based practice and how these two theoretical frameworks might inform one another with implications for practice.