Human Resource Development through a one-year intensive program for professionals to impart educational services to Deafblind through different service delivery models

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Human Resource Development through a one-year
intensive program for professionals to impart
educational services to Deafblind through
different service delivery models

• Presented by
• Ms. Anuradha Bagchi
• Helen Keller Institute for Deaf and Deafblind,
  Mumbai

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PURPOSE OF THE TEACHER TRAINING COURSE

• A greater number of children with Deafblindness
  are being identified
• There has been an increase in the number of
  services available for Deafblind in India
• This has led to a need for trained professionals
  in the field

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PURPOSE OF THE TEACHER TRAINING COURSE-Cont

• Existing training centres in India offered
  courses for single disability training
• Till the year 2000, the only training programmes
  available for Deafblind were outside of India
• This limited the number of people trained every
  year

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PURPOSE OF THE TEACHER TRAINING COURSE-Cont

• A need was felt to develop local capacity and
  train professionals in and within India to deal
  effectively with children with Deafblindness
• It was felt that a training programme based in
  India would also be more sensitive to the
  cultural needs and situation

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PREPARATION FOR THE TEACHER TRAINING COURSE

• A team of professionals representing
  organizations from all over India, providing
  services to children with Dealblindness, was
  formulated
• This team was chaired by the Director of Sense
  International (India),Mr.Akhil Paul
• A curriculum was thus developed, which was
  approved by the Rehabilitation Council of India

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PREPARATION FOR THE TEACHER TRAINING COURSE-Cont

• It was decided that this course would be
  initiated in the Helen Keller Institute for Deaf
  and Deafblind, in Mumbai, which is the pioneering
  institute for Deafblind in Asia
• It would receive support from Sense International
  (India), a leading organization working towards
  developing and sustaining Deafblind programs in
  India

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PREPARATION FOR THE TEACHER TRAINING COURSE-Cont

• The course would receive funding from the
  Rangoonwala Foundation(UK)
• The candidates selected for the training were all
  teachers with experience of teaching in a special
  school
• They would then go back to their organizations
  and would support the existing Deafblind
  programmes

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PREPARATION FOR THE TEACHER TRAINING COURSE-Cont

• Some of the candidates would also go back and
  support their programmes in assessing children
  with Deafblindness and starting programmes for
  them
• The training course started in the year 2000 with
  eight teachers from all over India

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THEORY PAPERS

• 1) Introduction to Deafblindness
• 2) Assessment and Evaluation
• 3) Communication
• 4) Instructional Strategies and Intervention
• 5) Deafblindness-Perspectives and practices

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PRACTICALS

• ASSESSMENT
• Assessment is done in the classrooms as well as
  in the hostel
• An assessment report is then formulated

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ORIENTATION AND MOBILITY

• Simulation sessions
• Different techniques for indoor and outdoor
  mobility
• Adaptations for children with Deafblindness

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COMMUNICATION

• Manual communication classes
• Sign language and finger spelling

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BRAILLE

• Braille in English and Hindi is introduced
• Trainees are assigned different assignments in
  Braille

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PRACTICE TEACHING

• The trainees do practice teaching for two hours
  everyday in the school with an individual child

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PRACTICE TEACHING

• Practice teaching involves planning programs for
  the children involving different areas of
  instruction

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PLACEMENT IN HOME BASED PROGRAM

• Keeping in mind the educational services received
  by Deafblind children in India, it was felt that
  exposure to service delivery models other than
  center based should be a component of the
  training
• Hence the placement for a month in the Home Based
  program run by NAB, Mumbai was started from the
  year 2004

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CASE STUDY

• Functional Assessment of the student
• Details about the clinical assessment
• Details about the educational background
• Areas of concern
• The childs communication profile
• A home visit to the students house for a parent
  interview
• Recommendations

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USE OF SPECIAL AIDS AND APPLIANCES

• Abacus
• Taylor frame,
• Brailler
• Braille Slate
• Braille watch

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TECHNIQUES USED FOR TRAINING

• Simulation sessions
• In school and in the community
• Projects

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WAKE UP DUTY

• Hostel duty with one child each
• Different areas of Daily Living skills

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GROUP DISCUSSIONS

• Topics related to Special Education and Education
  of children with Deafblindness

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WORKSHOPS

• Workshops on different topics such as
  communication, art, low vision, parents workshop

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INTERNSHIP

• All trainees after the completion of the course
  have to undergo an internship for 60 days in an
  organization having a program for Deafblind
  children
• This enables them to transfer the theoritical and
  practical inputs gained throughout the year into
  actual teaching learning situations

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OUTCOME

• The training center has so far created a pool of
  26 trained professionals in the area of
  Deafblindness in India, which also includes
  teachers from Nepal, Sri Lanka and Malaysia

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The teacher training project being a pioneering
one, we continue to learn from all our
experiences and also continue our efforts to
improve on the quality of training every year.
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THANK YOU