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Hiya! People with deafblindness or multi-sensory impairment are challenged with a combination
of visual and hearing difficulties, and their complex needs mean that it may be difficult
to acertain their intellectual abilities. Everyone with deafblindness experienced it
in different ways, but they're likely to need help communicating, learning, and moving about
independently. The concept of the intervenor, a trained professional who can as a one-to-one
bridge between the deafblind person and the world around them, has developed over the
last thirty years. Intervenors work to establish trusting relationships with deafblind people,
to help them access information and develop their independence. My role as an intervenor
is to support the service user to access different activities that may not be possible without
the support of an actual intervenor. An intervenor is someone who will support that child, and
help them access the same things as any other child, regardless of their disability. An
intervenor is someone with very specialist training whose role is to interpret the environment
for a child with multi-sensory impairment. The role of an intervenor is in my eyes, in
a sense, becoming the eyes and ears of a deafblind individual. Purely from a parent's perspective,
I would say an intervenor is someone who can in a sense be an advocate for your child at
times, but who can also interpret their communication and help them purely with their communication
really. Five green speckles.... No, I want to sing the elephant song. You want to sing
the elephant song - which one was that? The relationship between the child and the intervenor
is crucial to the support. On dear. Oh dear, doesn't matter, pick it up. But it's more
than that as well because the intervenor need definite skills in assessment, in observation,
in communication. That's it, round we go, good wheeling Vanessa, excellent! The intervenor
needs to be able to understand the communication methods, any additional disabilities they
may have, what their care plans are, what kind of needs they've got. I know what kind
of things they like and enjoy, and can read their gestures when they're telling me that
this is an activity I really like or want to try. That's it, hands on, good! Excellent.
Cheese and beans OK, yeah, you sure? I support him to do whatever he wants to do basically,
so there's any barriers in the way of him participating in something, we look to overcome
them together. Building relationships as well, with peers, and with people out in the community,
I think it's very important. Good man, come on. One, two, three, that's it. Go on Ness,
sit yourself on. Big pull, big pull. That's it. As Vanessa's intervenor, Vanessa requires
for me to help her participate in different activities, to give her encouragement, so
that she feels that she's involved in sessions, and to give her praise when she's doing really
well, and give her guidance. Sam, I'm going to hold the blue end, you can hold the yellow
end. I think Sam's really happy, because he gets the chance to play with things, whereas
here Sam just wrecks all of his toys, but when Khalil's there, Khalil can stop Sam from
wrecking them, and calm him down, and tell him to do different things and stuff, and
Sam listens, so I think he's really happy. Steady, you gonna kick them legs? Reassurance
the whole time is obviously very important with George, because building the trust together,
if you say something's gonna happen, or you're going to do something with George, you need
to follow through with that so he knows each and every time, that something you've promised
is going to happen afterwards. Good man, now go down...well done! What's that a picture
of? What is it? Being his intervenor, I count myself very fortunate just to give him opportunities
that he wouldn't necessarily have. What sound does a pig make? Hoinc! Hoinc! That's right!
Let's do a little bit more - on your back? On your front! The more life skills, as well,
I can support him with, and just, yeah, basically, building his confidence, and self-esteem to
go and try a new activity, and just giving him a sense of achievement as well with some
of the activities, which is great. Here she is! Hi Amelie...hi! Anna comes in here and
supports her here at Thomas Wolsey, and works with her on a one-to-one basis for the duration
of her time here. But Anna's also available to go into nursery, to work with her there
as well. And to be honest with you, Anna has been really flexible. There's been occassions
where Amelie's not been in nursery for some reason, or not come in here, so Anna will
work with Amelie in the home setting. They're really adaptable, and they will just do the
work with Amelie in whatever setting she needs, just basically to be able to meet her needs.
Are we closing? Are we closing? Are we closing? oh! It's gone! Through building a relationship
with her, and actually spending time monitoring her and watching the different body language
she produces, you get to really understand Vanessa, and what her communication is, and
how she's trying to express herself, and how receptively she takes in information as well,
and what part she's understood and what piece of information she may need again. The membership
organisation that represents intervenors and supports their recruitment and continuing
professional development around the country, is the National Organisation of Intervenors.
We have teachers' organisations or organisations for speech and language therapists, or physiotherapists,
and we felt that intervenors should have their own organisation, their own opportunity to
meet, to be recognised as a profession. And every year we have a network day, an intervenor
network day, a sort of conference for intervenors, and we have people coming from all over the
country, and that's really successful. You're trying to go to sleep, aren't you? A Deafblind
Guidance assessment determines the needs of a deafblind person outside school or work.
During this assessment a deafblind person's need for intervenor hours will be ascertained,
and the time with the intervenor will be funded by the local authority, either directly, or
through Personal Budgets. it is quite incredible when the intervenor goes in and works with
Amelie at nursery, and equally when she works with her here, purely from the fact that Amelie
will come home and you can tell that she's just absorbed so much information. She'll
come home signing a lot more, speaking a lot more, and it's really clear when she comes
home, just what a good day that she's had with them. Don't brush Anna's hair, thank
you - brush Amelie's hair! Aww - beautiful.