Additional training and awareness institutes are offered at various locations across the state and are available for any individual interested in obtaining general information about children with deaf-blindness. An assistive technology loan bank provides no cost loans of assistive technology and augmentative communication equipment. Project resources are available for children or young adults up to age 21, their families, and support staff in child care programs and public schools. Contact one of the individuals below if you have concerns about a child with possible hearing and vision loss or if you want to know more about this unique partnership. It is clear that you value sensory play or you would not have an area devoted to it.
Children learn by doing.
If you just read the book aloud, you are encouraging hearing. By giving each child something mentioned in the book like a crown or a leaf or a piece of cut-up apple, you have given them the opportunity to hear, see, touch, smell, and even taste what you are reading to them about, all by making simple additions to the activity. While tasting is pretty much confined to snack or meal time, there is no end to the ways you can use the other four senses across your play environment. Sensory play areas offer children one place to go to experience learning through their senses. When you embed sensory experiences in many different learning activities throughout the environment, you open up a whole world of learning through the senses.