This article by Joan Graham explains what an intervenor does and what makes a good intervenor.
What is an intervenor?
An intervenor acts as the eyes and ears of a deafblind child.
Intervenors help deafblind children to pick up information about their surroundings. They also motivate them to communicate with others, move around, and make sense of the world.
What makes intervenors different?
Intervenors are significantly different from other support staff with a more general role in an educational setting.
Intervenors have specific training in understanding the needs of deafblind children. They are trained to understand the sensory abilities of a child, and to implement activities to develop these abilities.
The idea of using intervenors with deafblind/multi-sensory impaired (MSI) individuals was first introduced by J. McInnes in Canada in the 1980s.
Understanding deafblindness
Children who are deafblind have great difficulty acquiring information from their environment unless someone is there to intervene for them. All verbal messages are likely to be distorted, which will at best cause confusion. If a child also becomes stressed, this may lead to more extreme withdrawal or aggressive behaviours. It is to be expected that development will be delayed and conventional communication modes will be seriously affected.
For deafblind children, clear visual or auditory information may be distorted or absent. The other senses of touch, taste, and smell will give very limited information and a distorted perception of objects. For some children, these remaining senses may also be impaired. They may give very different signals from those experienced by non-impaired individuals.
In short, deafblindness is a unique disability, not a combination of single sensory impairments.
Areas of development
Deafblind children benefit from specific strategies to support development in a number of areas, including:
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communication
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mobility
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conceptual development.
Communication
Communication is one of the most significant areas of difficulty and yet is the most significant for development.
If the child's communications cannot be interpreted, this can have an impact on both the child and the caregiver.
If a caregiver finds it difficult to interpret subtle and idiosyncratic communications from a deafblind child, then they may become less responsive and be more likely to give directions when interacting with the child.
If the child finds that their wishes and preferences aren't being responded to correctly, they may become less involved with people and activities.
Mobility
Deafblind children are less likely to be motivated to move around in order to explore their environment.
If a child is unable to see much beyond their personal space, then there is little reason to explore it. If they are unable to see the impact of their own actions on objects, motivation to use fine motor strategies may be reduced. Why knock over a tower of bricks when you can neither see nor hear the result of your actions?
Conceptual development
Conceptual development relies on an understanding of how activities impact on one another. If a child has difficulty accessing information, they will find it harder to grasp skills. Actions learned in each setting may not be built upon and generalised to others.
With limited information about their environment and reduced communication abilities, deafblind children find it difficult to anticipate events and control them. Incidental learning, which is so significant for hearing/sighted children, is not accessible to deafblind children. They can only access those interactions and activities that are brought directly to them.
Why intervenors are needed
To help with these difficulties, a deafblind child needs assistance and routine. It is important to keep the number of people interacting with the child to a minimum. That is the only way that a trusting relationship can be established and communications be acknowledged, understood and responded to, which will give the child the opportunity to feel secure and move forward.
Without focused one-to-one intervention, small idiosyncratic communication signals will be missed. A lack of appropriate awareness and responses to communication will understandably result in negative behaviours.
Because of their knowledge of the learner's abilities and disabilities, an intervenor can provide information in an accessible format, and at an appropriate level, about what is happening in their environment. They can interpret and respond appropriately to the child's communications.
What does an intervenor do?
Intervenors give deafblind children access to what is happening in their near and distant environment.
Exploring
Intervenors support a deafblind child in investigating their surroundings, making the world a safer, more exciting place. This encourages a deafblind child to explore and experiment. Deafblind children need to be helped to have the confidence to be active learners; however, it takes imaginative adaptations to make this possible.
Intervenors also need to ensure that the deafblind child is able to anticipate and understand what is about to happen.
Learning active communication
Intervenors also need to ensure that the deafblind child can be an active communicative partner - not just responding to instructions, but being given opportunities to express their opinions and wishes. It must be remembered that communication is a two-way process.
How do I affect my environment?
Deafblind children are rarely aware of the effects of their actions on others or the environment. It is for the Intervenor to convey this information.
An Intervenor is not there to make everything easy and straightforward. They need to create situations where the deafblind child needs to think for him or herself to solve problems - not to jump in too soon.
Being aware of others
It is important to reduce isolation and egocentricity. Deafblind children may not be aware of others. An intervenor can be instrumental in ensuring that they become aware of the presence of others and in time be able to engage in interaction with them.
What makes good intervention?
A group of experienced Intervenors in Canada put together a list of attributes that result in good intervention.
These include:
Summary of the intervenor's role
An intervenor will become the person who is the most knowledgeable about all aspects of the deafblind child's abilities, disabilities, communications and skills. They need to share this with others in order to increase the understanding and empathy of others who will encounter the deafblind child.
All this will necessitate an open mind, a willingness to be adaptable and flexible, plus a sense of humour.
An Intervenor is not there to impose inappropriate strategies on the deafblind child. They are there to "do with, not for".
The role of an Intervenor is demanding, challenging and difficult. However, it is also very rewarding as relationships are established and progress is made. It should be remembered that the role should reduce dependence and allow the deafblind child to learn, grow and blossom as an ever-increasingly independent member of society.
References
Grose S., Cushway R., Roberts L. & Bond D.E. (1990). Intervention: The Way forward for Deafblind Children. In Talking Sense; Autumn 1990.
McInnes J. & Treffry J. (1982). Deafblind Infants and Children. Open University Press, Milton Keynes.
Sense Leaflet (undated). Working as an Intervenor with Deafblind People; Sense, London.
Bond D.E. (1994). Intervention. In Talking Sense; Spring 1994
Olson J. (Ed.) (2002). Intervention - A Guide to Getting Started. British Columbia Provincial Outreach programme; Richmond B.C.
About the author
Joan Graham trained as a Teacher of the Deaf, working in Oxford and Farnborough, Kent then with Language Disordered pupils in Portsmouth. This was followed by peripatetic work with deaf children and their families in Worcestershire and North Yorkshire.
Joan qualified in MSI education at Birmingham University in 1991. She worked as a Visiting Teacher and in the MSI provision in Birmingham, then as Communication/MSI Consultant at RNIB Condover Hall School and at Green Park School in Wolverhampton.
Joan is presently MSI Consultant for Sense Cymru, supporting deafblind children and their families throughout Wales, and is a Regional Tutor for the University of Birmingham Distance Learning degree courses in MSI education.