Course Description

This course will look at the various etiologies of deafblindness, including the anatomy and physiology of the eye and the ear. The impact of losses in these areas will be discussed along with strategies to encourage learners with deafblindness to learn to effectively use whatever vision and hearing they do have.

Participants will receive a transcript from Richmond Continuing Education upon completion of the course.
 

Prerequisites

• Participants must be currently supporting a student with deafblindness under an education authority in the province of British Columbia
• Participants must have completed both Introduction to Deafblindness and Introduction to Intervention

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this course, the student will be able to:

• Describe visual acuity loss, field loss, contrast sensitivity, processing problems, and oculomotor problems
• Describe the different types of hearing loss and environmental issues
• Describe the impact of combined vision and hearing loss on learning, communication, social/emotional development
• Describe strategies and techniques for encouraging visual and auditory development

Instructional Methods

This course has been developed into a 5 week online course utilizing online readings, web searches, and multimedia for course instruction. Students must participate in online discussion forums. Written assignments are to be submitted as Word documents. Participants will need access to a high speed Internet connection to view streamed documentaries in a QuickTime format.

Course Hours: 15