PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Hand In Hand: Understanding Deafblindness

Registration Now Open!

Register Here:Hand in Hand

September 18-20, 2024

October 2-4, 2024

Location: Missouri School for the Blind
3815 Magnolia Avenue
Saint Louis, MO 63110

This course provides instructional strategies and practices specific to the education of students with combined vision and hearing loss with or without additional disabilities. The course is taught by specialists in the field of DeafBlindness and contains two sessions. Session one, includes information on such topics as common causes of DeafBlindness, assessments specific to students with DeafBlindness, and instructional strategies shown to be most impactful for this population of learners. Session two, dives deep into the communication needs of learners with DeafBlindness and the specific application of materials from part one for the individual students being served by participants. Follow-up coaching and mentoring is available from MoDBTAP Project staff to deepen comfort levels with real-world application.


The target audience for this course includes any members of the educational team serving a student with combined vision and hearing loss inclusive of those with multiple disabilities. We welcome all teachers (general or special ed.), the learner’s caregivers/parents, paraprofessionals, related service providers, or post-secondary students intending to work with learners with combined vision and hearing differences.

FALL PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT WEEK 2024!

REGISTER HERE for Fall Professional Development Week 2024

When: October 14-18, 2024

Where: Missouri School for the Blind

3815 Magnolia Avenue, St. Louis MO 63110

Day One/Monday October 14: Hearing Differences and Visually Impaired: Interpreting for Students With DeafBlindness

Interpreters, parents, paraprofessionals, interveners will increase their knowledge about deafblindness and beginning insight into how deafblindness affects learning, with this understanding, the interpreter and/or intervener can begin to interpret a student's responses to the environment in new ways. Simulation is to make people think, not to recreate the experience of someone who lives each day with deafblindness.

Day Two/Tuesday October 15: Emergent Literacy for Students with Severe Cognitive Disabilities

This day is for educators of students with severe cognitive challanges and who are not yet reading and writing. We will find IEP goals, develop literacy strategies, and experience materials and technology that support students with significant cognitive disabilities.

Day Three/Wednesday October 16 : Routines and Calendars for Increased Communication and Quality of Life

Empower your student with independence and communication! Calendars can serve many functions regarding the development of time concepts and language acquisition. A calendar can function as a timepiece providing structure to the days events, as well as providing a static form of communication that can be referred to beyond the context of the current moment. Calendars can also give opportunities for social interaction by providing topics for conversation.

Day Four/Thursday October 17: APH Presents: Assistive Technology: From Assessment through Implementation

Stephanie Walker, your APH Outreach Specialist for the Southcentral Region, will be here to guide you into the world of assistive technology. Together, let's dive into the fascinating realm of evaluating and utilizing assistive technology for students with visual impairments in a day filled with exciting discoveries and hands on learning. Through this engaging experience, you will become skilled at identifying the specific assistive technology a student with a visual impairment will need based on thorough evaluation. We will demystify the process of using service intensity scales (VISSIT) to identify the appropriate type and amount of support for each student. In the end, we will examine the data to build outcomes that will enable students to seamlessly integrate assistive technology into their educational day. Get ready for a day that promises to be both enlightening and empowering!

Day Five/Friday October 18: Welcoming Students To Your School Who are Visually Impaired/Blind/DeafBlind

This day supports all educators working with a new student to your school who has a visual impairment. How to procure equipment, where to get braille materials, how to empower your student, how to support the staff-everything you need to know, we cover it on this day!

Registration and ADA requests closes October 1, 2024. See you this Fall!

VIISA Course 2: Working with Preschoolers who are Blind or Visually Impaired (BVI) in Center-based Preschools

The purpose of this course is for participants to gain and develop skills in understanding the unique needs of preschoolers who are blind or visually impaired in the center-based setting. The focus will be on working with these children in the preschool setting as well as in collaboration with the family and other members of the service delivery team. Transitioning from the preschool to the elementary school setting will also be addressed.

Register Here:VIISA COURSE 2

Dates: Session I: November 6-8, 2024

Session II: April 2-4, 2025

Location: Missouri School for the Blind
3815 Magnolia Avenue
Saint Louis, MO 63110

Register:

For more information contact:

Becky Romine
rebecca.romine@msb.dese.mo.gov
314 633 3945

Open Hands Open Access Training

The program, Open Hands Open Access (OHOA) is an online, work at your own pace training program that offers modules designed to increase knowledge and encourage the use of best practices for supporting children with combined vision and hearing loss. OHOA/ DeafBlind Intervener Learning Modules are a national resource designed to increase awareness, knowledge, and skills related to intervention for students (ages 3 through 21) who are deafblind and being served in educational settings. If you are currently working with a student with dual sensory loss, you may be eligible for a stipend for every successful completion of modules and monthly consultation from our DeafBlind Project staff.
For more information, see https://www.nationaldb.org/products/modules/ohoa/

 

For more information, contact:
Dena Molen
School Support Specialist
Dena.molen@msb.dese.mo.gov
314 633 1553

INSITE: In-Home Sensory Intervention Training and Education

When: July 15-19, 2024

Location: Missouri School for the Blind
3815 Magnolia Avenue
Saint Louis, MO 63110

A curriculum model of home intervention for infants, toddlers, and preschool aged children who have a visual impairment and may have other multiple disabilities, including DeafBlind.  The INSITE model and training is for Parent Advisors for MoSPIN (Statewide Parent Involvement Network) home visits.  This curriculum includes the following areas: communication, hearing, vision, cognition, motor impairments, and developmental resources.

You Could Be A PA!

Contact:

Melissa Moore

MoSPIN Coordinator/Lead Parent Advisor

314-663-1591

Melissa.Moore@msb.dese.mo.gov

 

Intervener Certification

In the United States, state deafblind projects and university certificate programs are the primary sources of intervener training. Coaching and supervision, in addition to coursework, are essential. MoDBTAP is your source for intervener training. For intervener training and for certification, contact dena.molen@msb.dese.mo.gov. MoDBTAP can provide tuition assistance to support your certification. (However, you must be working with a student with deafblindness!)

Considering becoming an Intervener?

Start with MoDBTAP, and explore these certification programs:

  • Central Michigan DeafBlind Intervener Certification
  • Utah Intervener Program
  • San Francisco State University
  • Shawnee State (Ohio)Intervener Program

    • Unified English Braille Code

    To find more information on Unified English Braille Code, please visit the BANA UEB webpage.

    Coursework Leading to Certification as Teacher of the Visually Impaired

    TVI and OM programs breakdown

    Training and Certification (undergraduate and graduate)

    Considering a degree program?

    The following college and university programs have successfully completed the accreditation process and have earned the distinction of “AER Accredited.” Each of these personnel preparation programs has demonstrated adherence to high quality standards that lead to a valuable academic experience; and the competencies needed for employment and certifications.


     

    Lighthouse for the Blind-St. Louis Tuition Reimbursement Program

    The Tuition Reimbursement Program was developed for individuals who are specializing in the field of service to persons who are blind or legally blind. This program is for college students in their senior year in an undergraduate program, OR a graduate student OR a paraprofessional that is currently employed and working in the field.

    So you want to be a TVI/OM?

     

    AER Accredited Orientation & Mobility (O&M) Programs

     

    AER Accredited Vision Rehabilitation Therapy (VRT) Programs

     

    AER Accredited Teacher of the Visually Impaired (TVI) Programs

     

    DeafBlindness Programs