Children with significant deficits in both hearing and vision are considered deaf-blind, even though some may have useful residual vision and/ or hearing. There are two major causes of deaf-blindness.

Science Direct, Pubmed, (2010 through 2017) were searched for English-language studies using a list of keywords. The books about speech therapy and medicine were studied too.

Thanks to widespread immunization for Rubella, deaf-blindness attributable to this syndrome has been greatly reduced. The second majors cause is Usher’s syndrome, a disease transmitted genetically. Because of the multisensory deprivation that children with deaf-blindness experience, Nelson recommends using contextualized and dynamic assessment techniques to evaluate skills and identify communicative needs in this population.

It is remember, too, that although these children have complex and severe disabilities, they may have normal cognition. When accurate cognitive assessment is not available or feasible, it is best to set aside questions of basic intelligence and work to expand conceptual, social, and communicative skill as far as possible. Some form of AAC is almost always useful in these cases.