To download the AARC/CEEHI/VISIT Fall 2009 Newsletter in PDF, click here.

What is in it:

• What is Autism?
• Cortical Visual Impairment
• Serving Babies with Hearing Loss Birth to Three Years of Age

By Andrea Story, VISIT Program Coordinator

What is it?

In order for a person to see, there has to be three visual systems in place. This illustration shows the three systems (eye, optic nerve, and visual processing parts of the brain).

Cortical visual impairment (CVI) is one of the names used to describe vision impairment that is caused by a problem with the visual processing parts of the brain (i.e., the occipital lobes or some other part of the visual pathways). CVI is not caused by a problem with either the eye itself or the optic nerve. Other names used to describe the same visual impairment are cerebral blindness, cortical blindness, central visual disturbances, and neurological vision impairment. Continue Reading

Autism is one of a family of pervasive developmental disorders. It is often referred to as autism spectrum disorders, or ASD. It is characterized by difficulties in social interaction, communication, and restricted, repetitve, and stereotyped patterns of behaviors. Asperger’s syndrome is another condition on the autism spectrum, but children with this diagnosis may have less obvious symptoms and may not be diagnosed unil later in childhood. The Center for Disease Control estimates that as many as 1 in every 150 children is diagnosed with ASD and it is four times more liekly to occur in boys than in girls. Until recently, autism was sledom detected before the age of three years. Today, indentification of children with autism can begin as early as 18 months of age. The good news is, the earlier the diagnosis, the sooner the child can receive services known as early intervention. Continue Reading

By Mandi Morgan, CEEHI Program Coordinator

Alaska recently passed HB 109. This mandates that the Department of Health and Social Services shall implement the program requiring 100% of all newborns and infants in the state be screened for hearing loss. A hearing screen should occur with all babies prior to discharge from the hospital after birth. The results of this screening is shared with the Alaska Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (AK EHDI) program. They maintain a database and check on children who have received a fail on their newborn hearing screen.

The AK EHDI program and audiologists in Alaska follow new guidelines on the One-Three-Six Program. This program requires all babies receive a hearing screen in the first month of life. If the child fails the newborn hearing screen, then the child should have an audiological assessment prior to reaching three months of age. If the child has a confirmed hearing loss of 30 dB loss in one ear (unilateral loss) or 40 dB in both ears (bilateral loss), a team will provide services to this baby no later than the child reaching six months of age. The audiologist is required to contact the local Infant Learning Program within two days of confirming a baby has a hearing loss. Continue Reading

To download the AARC/CEEHI/VISIT Spring 2009 Newsletter in PDF, click here.

What is in it:

• Spring Greetings
• Developing Social Communication with Children on the Autism Spectrum
• Simple Play Leads to Communication Skills
• I Smell my Mommy’s Shirt
• Back Page: Summer Time and Deaf Chat Coffee

Spring really is coming, even in Alaska! Now is the time to begin planning and preparing for different activities for your young children as the sun comes out and the temperature warms. Summer guests, family vacations, and other changes come as the seasons change.

One change that we will have at SESA is that Merle Birnbaum, Early Intervention Coordinator and Vision Consultant for the VISIT Program, is leaving us and retiring to her home state of New York. She has been helpful to so many families and young children. She has been a wonderful friend and colleague! We wish her well and will miss her greatly! Good luck and farewell Merle!

By Betsy Kruth, AARC Program Coordinator

As we know, not all communication is verbal. A great deal of information is shared non-verbally. Communication begins long before speech is acquired and is an important developmental time. Through gestures, eye contact, and facial expressions, a lot of communication takes place. Just as two people who speak different languages can communicate, babies learn to communicate long before they learn to speak. People communicate for many reasons: to get someone’s attention, make a request or refusal, or to greet someone or say good-bye. In young children with autism, we see early deficits in these areas of social communication. Continue Reading

By Mandi Morgan, CEEHI Program Coordinator

Spring has arrived and the weather is getting warmer. More and more people are getting involved in fun activities. It is a time to get the little ones up and playing. Playing can lead to great communication skills. It can provide the child with new vocabulary, a chance to babble or create new words or sentences of their own, and it provides a way to develop skills in communicating with others.

Babies from birth to 8 months old enjoy playing through touching, seeing, and hearing. However, if your child is autistic, has a vision impairment, or a hearing loss, it may be hard for them to engage in play naturally. It will take effort from the parent to help the child engage in play and draw attention to the child’s surroundings. You can give your baby at this age safe items to mouth to explore their world. You can vocalize or use sign language and provide names of objects when the baby is engaged in a specific activity. If your baby gazes at a certain object, provide the baby with the proper name of that object. As the baby gets older, he or she will be able to tell others the name of the object. Continue Reading

By Denis Cook, Preschool Teacher for the Visually Impaired

Thursday was a half-day at school. I was working on assessment for the upcoming end-of-the-year reports. I had extra volunteers, so I pulled one child and one volunteer and we tag-teamed him with assessment items. This little guy was Jacob, my very verbal, cherub-faced young man. His older sister, who is also bind, went to the doctor with their parents. When the appointment was finished, they decided to pick up Jacob and have a family lunch. Jacob was at the table working on a verbal task of counting. His mother came in the room and stood quietly by the bookcase that was eight to ten feet away. Jacob finished his task and we were getting another one for him to work on when he turned his head slightly to the right and raised his nose upward. He got a wide-eyed look and said, “I smell my mommy’s shirt!”

I said, “You do?” Continue Reading