Strategies and resources
The following strategies are based upon a curriculum for multi-sensory impaired children from MSI unit, Victoria School Birmingham, (Murdoch H et all, Sense 2009)
- routines to be consistent with appropriate cues used to develop learners understanding of anticipation, communication and control.
- once established mis matches or deliberate mistakes can be introduced to encourage spontaneous communication from the learner.
- a familiar and stable environment is required. This includes both the adults supporting the learner and the physical environment.
- learning through movement and shared experiences will be essential. For example, acknowledging an action, reflecting the learner’s movement, modelling the next step. Intensive interaction will be a key part of this process.
- communication may include, sign, speech, symbols and pictures, gesture and nonverbal communication. Expressive and receptive methods may be different and varied.
- learner’s behaviour should be regarded as communication, even if it’s not seen as intentional.
- learner’s receiving distorted sensory information through their vision and hearing will take longer to process interaction. Ensuring the pace of learning matches each learners’ sensory needs will be essential.
- the environment both physical and social will need to consider the best possible auditory and visual conditions. Older learners will need support to recognise and make changes to support this.
- opportunities across the curriculum to generalise concepts in a range of ways. This will include a high level of repetition and variety but will support a reduction in dependency on prompts and context.
The success of these strategies is supported by:
- high staffing ratios from a small consistent group of key adults who are able to develop trusted relationships with effective communication.
- a multi agency approach to support from across health, therapy and education services will be essential to meeting the complex needs of individual learners.