Many professionals in health, education and social care will only occasionally meet a family who have a child with multi-sensory impairments and may be uncertain how best to support their MSI needs.  Sense works with these families every day and are ideally placed to help you support them. 

We can support you in a number of ways:

• Working in partnership with you 
• Providing training and consultancy support
• Producing practical information that you can signpost families to
• Producing information and resources aimed directly at professionals which are outlined below

Deafblindness and multi-sensory impairment affects children's development in many ways, and these effects may be increased by hospitalisation and the demands of medical treatment. Other people, especially families, can help deafblind children to understand the world around them by using key approaches. These approaches will also help the child to develop relationships with others.

General resources

• Deafblindness and the other senses - information about the senses and how they are affected by deafblindness
• Key approaches for professionals who work with children who are deafblind. Information about six key approaches to help a child learn
• Observational asessments - information about understanding behaviour, including observational assessments, what and how to observe, and factors affecting behaviour
• Information on communicating with people who are deafblind, including communication modes and aides, developing communication and further resources of information
• Information for teaching professionals, including key approaches, teaching strategies, communication with and understanding deafblindness and how it affects the education of a child with multi-sensory impairments
• Support for professionals - Working with deafblind children, young people and their families - this leaflet describes how the Sense Children Specialist Services team can assist you in supporting and working with families who have children who are deafblind or multi-sensory impaired
• Training and consultancy - explains how Sense offers specialist assessments, advice and training to individuals and groups working with deafblind children, young people and their families
• Further sources of information for professionals

Resources for teaching professionals

Deafblind children often behave differently to sighted hearing children. Children who are multi-sensory-impaired get very little information about the world around them, and so find it difficult to understand.

This does not mean that they have cognitive learning difficulties, although some children do. Similarly, many deafblind children show difficulties with communication and social relationships, without having autistic spectrum disorders.

• Learning environment - information about adapting the environment to suit development and learning
• Information about the curriculum, including how to modify it for deafblind children
• Teaching strategies - information to help teachers effectively work with children and young adults who are deafblind
• MSI Curriculum - download a copy of the curriculum document for multi-sensory-impaired children, which was created in 2009 by Heather Murdoch and the MSI unit at Victoria School, Birmingham, and published by Sense
• Training opportunities - information on training courses for teaching professionals working with deafblind children