SOCIAL INCLUSION –CHECK LIST TO ASSESS THE SOCIAL SKILLS OF DEAFBLIND/MSI CHILDREN

Presenter : LEELA AGNES

Co presenter : Prof. Dr. Thiruvalluvar

: Prof .Dr. Prabakar Immanual

DEAFBLINDNESS/MSIDeafblindness

  Deafblindness is a unique disability   The term deafblindness means a person who

cannot see and cannot hear Is a combination of both vision and hearing loss

Multi Sensory Impairment

When children have severe developmental problems in addition to their deadblindness they are known to have multi-sensory impairment. Many of these children will also have a wide range of other disabilities/Challenges – such as learning difficulties, epilepsy, feeding problems and severe disabilities.

EFFECTS OF DEAFBLINDNESS

• Difficulties in finding out information

• Difficulties in communicating

•  Difficulties in moving around

DEAFBLINDNESS Heterogeneous condition

No two deafblind children are identical

Each child needs individual based assessment and remedial plan

SATHIYA- DEAFBLINDNESS, BALANCE PROBLEM

IMPACT OF DEAFBLINDNESS/MSI ON SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT Children learn their social skills mainly

through vision and hearing Human beings enjoy being part of social

world Children understand social world around

them and decide the quality and content of social life

Emotional behaviour and personality traits are mostly molded by the experiences gained by the child

SOCIAL COGNITION Children learn, think about and

interpret experience. This is based on self, family and surroundings

This process of learning leads to cognitive functioning and is called social cognition

SOCIAL COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT: Proceeds from concrete to abstract Grows and gets organized with age Learned by children when they

associate their behavior to the behavior of significant others

Learned by children as they gain skills to communicate and develop interacting relationships

ACCESSING SOCIAL SKILLS OF DEAFBLIND/MSI CHILDREN:

Presently not much is done to assess the social skills and social cognition of deafblind/MSI children

Hence we have taken a research study to assess the social skills of deafblind/MSI children

UNDERSTANDING OF SOCIAL FACTORS: Self esteem Achievement motivation Feeling of helplessness Attribution retraining Self definition based on self-image

Understanding social situation Social problem solving Social behaviour Pro social responses

These are big challenges to deafblind/MSI children

TOOL FOR ASSESSING SOCIAL SKILLS: Tool is developed using literature survey Using existing tools for non-disabled Listing the factors indicating social skills

functioning Interrelating challenges faced by

deafblind/MSI children in gaining social skills

FACTORS INDICATING SOCIAL SKILLS INCLUDE Peer relationships Self management Compliance skills Communication and language

skills Academic related skills

CHECK LIST Functions as if no one is around Functions as if she is in his own world Do only things that pleases herself Do activities that result make her meet

her own needs Fails to follow social procedures while

other in the same age follow the same May behave as if unaware that care

giver is in the same room or place

Become quite, withdrawn or reserved if some one else get sad ,upset or cries

Offers comfort to others when they appear sad or upset or crying

Smiles and looks pleased to verbal praise or praise

When praised, can do an activity When reprimanded shows interest to

repeat an activity.

Uninterested in trying to do new things just to earn approval of others

Does not copy actions or attitude of others

Does not readily learn by being shown by others

Low level of interest in peers Do not show interest to participate in

group games Doesn’t show interest to learn

somethings from surroundings/ peers

Stops an action when you shake the head no (or )tell no (or )tactually indicate no

Stops an action, seeing others or listening to others or getting an indication

Stops action when a serious no is said or stern look is given or strongly communicated through tactual action

Knows a head nod of yes is an indication of acceptance

Uses fingers/ hands to indicate or point what he wants

Knows to use smile to indicate happiness, joy and acceptance

Can use spoken language for social needs

Can use sign language for social needs Can use tactual communication for

social needs

Understand nouns (names) than Verbs (actions)

Has difficulty to comprehend in context of social situations

Can figure out social situation and express appropriately

Use words to meet his immediate needs Doesn’t use words to comment on

interesting things or social events.

Can use words-but do not converse as part of social functioning

Can look at while communicating Reciprocate to some of the words-to

indicate clarity of understanding of conversation

Use unrelated words while communicating

Very Positive response to touch and movement

Do not show interest in tactile communication

Likes to touch every things before knowing what it is

Shows fear of something-having impact on social needs

Show interest to play with others Looks for opportunities to play Likes to play with toys ,materials

suitable to his age Willing to share toys or go to peers for

play

OUTCOME: This check list is now went through the

process of pilot study The check list will now assist the

researcher to measure the social skills of at least 30 deafblind/MSI children

The researcher will also assess the language/speech/communication levels of these children

OUTCOME: Correlation between scores of social

skills and language/speech/communication will guide us to measure the impact of language/speech/communication skills on social functioning

Such a correlation will guide teachers, parents and service deliverers to know the needs of deafblind/MSI children and then plan appropriate individual based services to deafblind/MSI children to gain social skills and live a successful social life

FINALLY: Social skill assessment is a continuation

of the total assessment It only help parents/teachers to focus on

the social skills as part of academic and individual based intervention

Hence the researcher hopes special educators, SSA educators,programme planners, therapists and parents can gain valuable information of the social skills needs of deafblind/MSI children

THANK YOU