Communication needs of a deaf child with cerebral palsy and how to support these: A case study

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this case study was to explore the communication needs of a child with deafness and cerebral palsy (DCP) and how these needs can be supported by interventions targeting the use of communication approaches and strategies. One semi-structured interview with the child’s parents and five observations of the child in different contexts before and after the interventions took place. A rating scale “Checklist of Identified Needs”, deriving from the observation data, the “Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) Development Matters” assessment and a British Sign Language (BSL) receptive and expressive skills assessment were used to explore the child’s communication strategies before and after the intervention. The child completed two parallel school-based interventions lasting seven weeks, (i) one delivered daily which focused on BSL usage and Augmentative Alternative Communication (AAC) and (ii) one targeting communication strategies such as initiating and maintaining eye contact using a weekly “social story” and play-based sessions. Our results indicated that the combined use of sign and AAC technology to target key areas of communication use and a targeted approach using social stories to support communication strategies can be effective in enhancing communication skills of children with DCP. Implications for practice are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Deaf
• cerebral palsy
• communication
• sign
• AAC
• social stories

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the family, school and pupil that were involved in this case study (no names given due to confidentiality). The authors would also like to thank Stevie Mayhook for proofreading the article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 For confidentiality purposes, a pseudonym has been used.

2 This name has been anonymised using a pseudonym.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Amy Lanphere

Amy Lanphere is a Qualified Teacher of the Deaf who undertook her Master’s research on the communication needs of a deaf child with cerebral palsy. Amy now works as the Lead Teacher of the Deaf at a Deaf unit in Oxford.

Emmanouela Terlektsi

Emmanouela Terlektsi, PhD, is an Associate Professor in Deaf Education and the director of the teachers of deaf children and young people postgraduate courses providing training for teachers who wish to gain the mandatory qualification to teach deaf children and for other professionals who work with deaf children and young people.