Maurice: Great new intervener training resource available

In addition to the CDBS Online Introduction to Interveners, which is the new learning module available on this website, another important new training product related to interveners is now available for loan from the CDBS professional reference library. This new resource, titled Deafblindness and the Role of the Intervener in Educational Settings, includes a comprehensive PowerPoint presentation with embedded video clips and a script that follows the PowerPoint slides that can be used—if desired—when presenting this content.

The PowerPoint and script were developed by members of the National Intervener Task Force and the package is published by the SKI-HI Institute of Utah State University. The training package includes an introduction with general information about children who are deaf-blind and the impact of these sensory losses on learning, communication, and social and emotional development. This introduction includes video clips that simulate deaf-blindness in typical activities of daily living. This is followed by information about interveners, their roles serving children who are deaf-blind, and their roles as members of educational teams. This section includes video clips of interveners, a young adult who is deaf-blind, a teacher and an administrator.

The entire package includes a number of supporting documents, including the briefing paper titled The Intervener in Early Intervention and Educational Settings for Children and Youth with Deafblindness, and the nationally recognized standards for interveners included in the Council for Exceptional Children’s publication What Every Special Educator Must Know (often referred to in the field of teacher preparation as the “Red Book”).

The PowerPoint presentation can be delivered in about one hour—slightly more or less depending on the level of discussion, additional examples, etc. Contact anyone at California Deaf-Blind Services to borrow this training package or to make arrangements for a CDBS staff member to provide this training to your family organization, school, district, county office, and/or early intervention agency.

Alsop, L., Ayer, L., Belote, M., Harding, J., Kelly, D., Payne, F., & Robinson, C. (2010). Deafblindness and the role of the intervener in educational settings. Logan, UT: SKI-HI Institute.