TRANSCRIPT - Deafblind Expanded Core Curriculum Considerations Ð 12/18/23 

>>Kaycee: We are super excited to talk to you today about the Expanded Core Curriculum considerations for students who are Deafblind. I will introduce myself first. My name is Kaycee Bennett. I am one of the education consultants on the Texas Deafblind Project and I'm also one of the authors of the publication where this tool came out of, which we'll talk a little bit more about in a moment. My background is a teacher of the deaf and itinerant teacher for students who are Deafblind. And then I've been in the education consultant role for five years now. And then there's three pictures of my personal life on the screen right now. On the far left is a picture of me walking down a trail with my 4-year-old on my shoulders. And he's getting so big. He's a little wild man. And then a picture in the middle is me and my husband and my son in Oklahoma. We went camping for a week at Beaver's Bend state park in Broken Bow, Oklahoma. That was also in the summer. On the right is a picture of my two greyhounds. There's one on the floor behind me. You can kind of see him. They are with me most of the time and always sleeping. And they are retired racers and they take their retirement very seriously. They just relax all the time. That's just a little bit about me. Hope to get to know you guys today through the chat as we go through this together. 

>>Sarah: I am Sarah Mossberger and I am manning the slide show, so I apologize in advance because I'm sure technology is not my strong suit and I will mess it up at least once. This is pictures of myself, from my personal life. Like Kaycee, I am a Deafblind educational consultant for the Project and this is my first year in that role but prior to that I was in special ed for 17 years. I was a teacher and itinerant VI. And then I specialized in students that are Deafblind for my district. I'm excited for this role. And you can see by my pictures there's three. I am outdoorsy. There's one of my in my kayak with my little dog, Max. He loves to go everywhere with me. We were hoping to go camping over break but it looks like today is the last day of nice weather where I'm at. That's not going to happen. In the middle picture I'm holding a red fish. I love to fish and I grew up fishing in rivers. I'm from the midwest. And the last picture is me in Big Bend. This was taken about this time last year. We went camping in Big Bend over break. I had hiked to the top of the last mine trail. I'm sitting up there and there's some mountains in Texas behind me. All right. Let's see. Kaycee is up first. 

>>Kaycee: All right. On the screen is a picture of the publication called essential tools of the trade for teachers of students who are Deafblind. A how-to guide for completing evaluations. That is the title of the book and it is really long. We refer to it as ETT DB, essential tools of the trade Deafblind. If you do not have this publication and you would like to check it out, you can get that in our store, which is tsbvi.edu/store. There's a link to that on your handout as well if you want to check that out. And the reason that this is on the screen is because the guide, the tool that we're talking about today, the Expanded Core Curriculum Considerations for Students who are Deafblind was published as part of a chapter of this book. And after this book was published, we decided as a team that we really wanted the Expanded Core Curriculum Considerations to also live as a free standalone document so that it was accessible to everybody. And so that's what we're going to be talking about today. But if you want to look at the whole picture of evaluating students who are Deafblind, this is the tool for you. This is where you can look at that. And we'll show you next where to get just the standalone version for free as well as it being on your handout. 

>>Sarah: Okay. Sorry, y'all, I'm clicking around because I was trying to prepare for this moment. All right. I'm going to -- here we go. I'm going to show you how to navigate to the document. So make that small. This little guy up here is my problem. It's blocking -- we practiced this and everything. This little guy is in my way. Kaycee, how do I get it to move? The tool bar at the top? There we go. Perfect. That's all we needed, guys. If you go to our project website, txdeafblindproject.org, you will see a tab, resources. If you click on "resources" -- hold on. I got to scooch that over. Drag down and click on "resources" you will see topical resources. If you click there and you scroll down to "educational considerations." I'm trying not to scroll too fast and make y'all sick. You will find it right here. The Expanded Core Curriculum Considerations for Students who are Deafblind. That's where you can find just the ECC document. Okay. Now I've got to navigate that. Look at that, guys. Look at that. 

>>Kaycee: You did it. 

>>Sarah: Okay. Here we go. 

>>Kaycee: There you go. There's a direct link on your handout. So you can get to that. But we wanted to show you and have the steps here so that you know where to find it later when you don't have the handout handy to click from. That is where you can find that and a bajillion other things, as you can kind of see. As she's scrolling there's so much on our resources page. Stuff that we put out, stuff that we love that other people put out. Definitely check that out. And now we'll talk a little bit before we get into what's actually in the ECC and talk about how to use it. How it was designed to be used. This is not a standalone document, meaning that you still need to do, look at completely the VI and the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Expanded Core Curriculum. So you need to be looking at all the areas from both of those. And then this is the what's missing. These are just the additional things to consider and to think about. It is not the end all, be all. Y'all can even imagine how big it would be if it was everything. It is just the things that the authors -- that we thought were important to consider. In addition to the VI and the Deaf and Hard of Hearing ECCs. Here in Texas, the VI ECC is mandated. It's required. I know it's not necessarily everywhere but it's best practice to use everywhere. And the Deaf and Hard of Hearing ECC is best practice to use here and elsewhere. There are some to choose from Deaf and Hard of Hearing ECC. The one that we used to develop this tool was a version up in Canada, Atlantic provinces. It is no longer on their website so if you have the publication, the ETT DB publication, we actually stored it. They gave us permission to store it, so you have that tool. If you don't have the book, we put in the handout a link to Iowa's DHH ECC, and they're very, very similar. So it won't line up with the chart exactly but it is very close. So we want to make sure that both of those are done fully and completely. And then use the edition. It's not meant for one person to review and think about. It's meant for the whole team to sit down and discuss. They are questions for consideration. They're written in question format and they are for the team to consider. The ECC is the VI and DHH ECCs were extensively researched and peer reviewed and all of those things. And this is not that. These are just considerations that were put out as part of this publication. I want to make that super clear. These are just the authors, those of us that wrote this, this is our thoughts on additional things to consider for students who are Deafblind. The purpose is to determine if the student needs instruction or support in these areas. And then the team can determine who the best provider or providers are to support these areas. And there's a chart in the back that we'll look at to help you think about that and think about which providers might be most appropriate in the certain areas. And then if you have the full publication, you can review the sample reports that are in the publication. There's three of them, to see examples of how this information can be recorded. And they're in a full FIE. However you can absolutely do this annually and use it to show progress and current levels for our students who are Deafblind. 

>>Sarah: Okay. So with that we are going to look at the seven areas. So the first area is using hearing for orientation and travel. And as Kaycee said when you look at the actual document, there are some questions and then underneath those questions are some more leading questions. And so we just pulled kind of the main questions, main considerations to talk about with y'all today. If y'all have any thoughts as we're going through this, feel free to chime in in the chat and let us know. We would love to hear your thoughts. And I was going to mention earlier and then I forgot, one of the reasons Kaycee asked me to join her on this because as an itinerant TVI/TVB, I use it with my students and the caseload. When we talk about the areas that I'll be leading the discussion on, I'll kind of mention how I worked them into my PLAAFP. So the main consideration that I wanted to point out on the first one with using hearing for orientation and travel is, like Kaycee said, this is intended to be a team discussion and this is a great way to pull in your orientation and mobility specialist. As y'all know, as TVIs we're really used looking at vision and so is your COMS. This is a great way to make sure they're considering the hearing as they look at programming, when you are doing your evaluations as they're evalling. It's a great way to bring in your teacher of Deaf and Hard of Hearing as well as your educational audiologist to make sure you really have the full team looking at it and it's not just you and the TVI and the COMS trying to address that. One of the other things that Kaycee and I wanted to kind of mention as we go through this are resources. They are in the ETT DB but I want to point out sound travels. They have down Coffee Hours on it so if you look at archives there's more information you can find there. But it's a great tool to help look at this exact area of the ECC and to do it as a team and to really make sure that you're considering hearing when you think about those orientation and mobility skills. But as you see in the questions, just thinking about does the student demonstrate skills for their environmental sounds, the intelligibility of speech during travel. The side questions looks at do they know how to use an interpreter during their O&M lesson. Do they know how to make sure that their hearing tech is appropriate for their travel. So taking some of those skills that the teacher of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing is likely already teaching but make sure that everyone knows how to incorporate that in. They might be skills that the student already has but do they know how to use them when they are on their orientation and mobility lesson. Kaycee, did I miss anything? Do you have anything to add? 

>>Kaycee: I don't think so. Just working as a team through that is really important and making sure that, you know, it's very likely the teacher of the Deaf and the audiologist don't have any idea what the orientation and mobility specialist does. So getting everybody on the same page can be huge. And this area really looks at those things. 

>>Sarah: Okay. 

>>Kaycee: All right. The next one is self-determination and advocacy, which of course is not a new topic to think about. But there's a lot under here that look at some Deafblind-specific needs. And just some of them that we've highlighted here. Does the student understand their etiology and are they able to explain the implications? Does the student understand how interpreting is different from support service provider or conavigator services and intervener services. If you're unfamiliar with the term "co-navigator," here in Texas we call SSP services. And does the student understand the isolating effects of being Deafblind and how to become more included. And we look more heavily in that on the section on stress. Does the student express a sense of self and a sense of others in the world? And can the student self-advocate for access and explain their needs related to access? It also looks at how the student can explain how some of these services that they may use in schools can be different from community services under the same name. So we know intervener services at school can look really different from intervener in the community services. Also looks at if the student has access to people outside of their reach and the ability to connect with them. Sometimes something we don't think about in the classroom setting is do they know how to text. Do they know how to connect with those that they don't have physical contact with. That will be really important. If the student has visual or auditory access to know what the topic of conversation has shifted to. That can be really important and have them know how to ask for that information. Looking at whether the student or family has access to make connections with Deafblind advocacy organizations, family organizations, to connect with other families. And if the student can advocate for and explain the need for appropriate programming for their hearing technology. Can certain relate to what Sarah was just talking about with hearing technology for travel. Oftentimes the programming, they need a different program for their hearing aids or cochlear implants in order to have access to that environmental sound. And so having them understand that need and how to talk about that with the professionals who do that programming. And then explaining the need for visual and/or environmental cues to be communicated in realtime by their staff members. Every single person who is Deafblind that I have ever met likes this information to be given in a different way. And so it's really important for them to get that information in the way that works best for them. And for them to be able to explain that to new staff that come in, especially as they get ready to transition into home and community services. So they may have different providers all the time. So they'll need to be able to, you know, concisely explain those things. So working on those things. Those would be the self-determination and advocacy pieces, just some of them. There's more in the actual document. But that are specific for students who are Deafblind. Again, just to reiterate, this would be in addition to the self-advocacy and self-determination pieces that come with the VI, ECC, and the DHH ECC. 

>>Sarah: Okay. So the next area is stress management and the effects of stress. And when I was using the DB ECC with my group, I felt like this was one that was really important with my teams. Because a lot of times we're used to looking at, you know, how our student with a visual impairment is handling stress. But we have to remember with our students that are Deafblind that there is a dual sensory impairment and so that's different. And a lot of times we're navigating the world as a hearing and sighted people and we're unaware of how much stress can be in a student who is Deafblind's day. Particularly our students that have CHARGE. They're working all day in less than ideal settings. They're under a lot of stress all day and it's very tiring. A lot of our kids might be good at handling and hiding that stress. Some of our kids not so much. But some of our kids are and so just really making sure that the team is aware of what stress might look like for that student. Perhaps, you know, the student has an intervener and they're very familiar with the student and familiar with what some of those tells are and making sure the whole team is aware. Looking at stress and what that looks like for the student but also the family, making sure that the family understands -- and the family likely has insightly information about what that stress looks like at home and how they handle it at home. Making sure the whole team is on the page if the student is able to advocate for themselves that they can describe it. And then is there a strategy. And if there's not a stress management strategy, what can the team do together to create that strategy and to help the students deal with that stress. Again, I feel like this is one that really came up a lot and I really often found a lot of needs to support the student as a team and make sure that we were all on the same page about what stress looked like and why stress is so common in our students who are Deafblind. 

>>Kaycee: Absolutely. And if you'll jump back -- 

>>Sarah: Sorry, Kaycee. 

>>Kaycee: You're good. Kate put in the chat I especially love this in the context of, quote, behavior. These questions should always be part of supporting Deafblind students' behavior needs. And I think that's so, so true. And, you know, we really have shifted as an organization into talking about -- instead of talking about behavior, talking about the student being in distress. And I think that's especially true for our students who are Deafblind. So often the effects of this toxic stress over a long time really starts to look like -- can look at self-injurious behavior, injuring others, things like that that can look like, quote, behavior issues. But really that's the externalizing the stress that they're living in. And something to think about in stress, if you have -- if you're thinking about this and you're thinking how can I know if my student is stressed, thinking about times in their day where you might feel anxious if that was you. So in thinking about do they know when this activity will end. Do they know who was here. Do they know -- do they have access to all of that information? Do they have access to what's about to happen, what's coming next? And thinking about how you might feel if you didn't have that information about you and your schedule and your safety. And so thinking about those things and thinking about, you know, how do we prevent that long-term stress, that toxic stress and ensuring they have what they need. And oftentimes it can be related to thinking about things like that. We're going to have a whole month on behavior. It's going to be so great. And the behavior guidance tool that Kate just put in the chat will be heavily discussed. Come back for that. Okay. The next one is communication and language. Obviously communication and language are hit really hard in the Deaf and Hard of Hearing ECC. However, there were still lots of things that were specific to our students who are Deafblind. So this is a really hefty, long section. We've got the major bullet points on the screen, which include how the student uses their tactile-bodily sense within communication and conversation. If that term is new to you, tactile-bodily sense, what we're talking about is how the student is expressing themselves and gathering information receptively using their entire body. A lot of times when we say the word "tactile," people think about just their hands or fingers. And we mean every square inch, every piece of skin. Oftentimes our students are using just their whole body to gather information. And so we're looking at how they use that within communication and conversation. If they're formal spoken language users, looking at how that formal speech is developed and modeled without the full sense of vision and hearing. Oftentimes when we're modeling speech for our students we are modeling where our lips go, where our teeth go, where our tongue goes and how we're doing that. The student doesn't have that full sense of vision and full sense of hearing. What accommodations might be needed for the student to access sign language. And then there's lots under that, mainly things that are pulled from a resource called the Adam LS, which is a free resource on our website that you can find, which you're looking at adaptations to manual sign language, manual language. That's looking at modifications to the rate or the location of sign. If they need hand tracking where they put their hands on your wrists and follow your wrists while you're signing. Or if they need tactile sign. If they need a accommodations for touch cues, to make facial expressions manual. If they need or are using gestures. If they're using tadoma, we don't see a whole lot anymore, where they put their fingers on your lips and jawline to speech read tactilely. They may need that if they were speech readers and losing vision or what have you, that may be something that they need access to. Also looks at how does the student demonstrate the use of non-formal expressions of language. So looking at not just the formal but also the non-formal. How the -- within that, how the student is using gestures, bodily horrible traces can fit under that and some more of that whole tactile-bodily language piece. And if the staff need training on recognizing those forms of language and knowing how to respond in a shared mode. It's not something that everybody just knows how to do. And so it may be something that staff -- new staff need training on or staff that are new to serving students who are Deafblind, especially, may need training on in order to not only understand the students' expressions but respond in a way that's meaningful to the student. Does the student need an alternate to the phonetic approach to Braille? Do they need to use uncontracted Braille longer? Is English their first language? They may have ASL as a first language or another first language. So all things to think about for -- under that section. If you guys have others, feel free to put them in the chat. And know that there's more as well. We're just kind of picking and choosing ones to share but there's lots in the full document that you have access to on your handout. 

>>Sarah: Okay. So the fifth point is planning for the future. And obviously we consider transition for all of our special ed students, right? And then planning for the future is also parts of the VI ECC. But really making sure again that we're looking at those needs that may be more specific to our students and their family. So have they developed a person-centered career plan? Do they have pre-work skills that are needed? But then, as Kaycee has mentioned before, do they understand how services in skills are going to be different from the community services. A lot of times the family may be familiar with how, you know, the intervener is supporting their student in school but do they understand how that's going to work once their student graduates? Does the student know the roles of the support service provider or the co-navigator, intervener, interpreter, and how that works in their job and within the community. And what kind of job exploration have they been exposed to. Again, if you have questions regarding transition specifically, obviously, as Kaycee said, there's more information within the document but we also have Heather Withrow and Belinda Fayard through the outreach department that deals specifically with those transition needs and are also available to help and answer any questions that you might have specifically to Texas and how those transitions work. 

>>Kaycee: All right. The next area is concept development. Obviously this is a massive one for our students who are Deafblind. Looking at is the student able to access environmental information that gives context in meaning. And do they need this information, this environmental information, to be given tactilely? And there's some examples listed in the document. But this is a huge one. If they do need it tactilely, how do they prefer this information? There's lots of ways to go about doing that. So that will be an important one to look at. How is the student filling in concept gaps? Do they need intensive direct instruction for this? Many of our students do. They could also need intensive direct instruction in learning concepts that are beyond an arm's reach, which is the next bullet point. You know, oftentimes if our students who are Deafblind can't touch it, it's really abstract, it's really difficult and it may need more than just a quick rundown when those are the topics that are going to be covered in the curriculum. Does the student require the use of concrete objects and/or full-scale models for instruction? Does the student require description and direct instruction in order to participate or be an active spectator of games, sports, and social aspects to these events? This one always makes me think of that awesome video that went viral years ago of the man with his family who loves soccer and they built this little model for him with a ball and in realtime, while the family is watching the game, they're moving the players and ball around so he can in realtime experience, not only the game, but the feeling of cheering in realtime with his family, who was also super into soccer, and standing up and cheering for his team. It was such an awesome example of not just turning and saying we scored. [Laughter] It's not the same access. He had access to what plays, you know, the whole nine yards. I don't know if they're called plays in soccer. I know nothing about soccer. [Laughter] But everything that happened. And to be an active spectator for him. He wasn't out there playing soccer. That was him quote, unquote watching soccer. And so that may be something that our students would really enjoy and it doesn't have to look exactly like that. But making sure that we're doing that work to figure out how we can help them be either participate in the games and play these games, play these sports, do these social activities, or be active spectators of those. Just an example of what that one makes me think of every time I read it. 

>>Sarah: Okay. So the last one is access. I don't know, Kaycee, I would argue this one might be even bigger than concepts. Like, I feel like this is the heavy hitter. And I feel like I have said this about all of the ones I talked about but I'm going to say it again. I feel like this one, we as a team, this and the stress, we really talked about a lot as a team. Again, as a TVI I was used to thinking about how do I need to accommodate for vision, right? And my teacher of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing was used to accommodating for the hearing loss but now we have to look at the two together. And so this definitely always brought up some good questions. And this was always one that, as Kaycee said, you know, I like to put mine in the PLAAFP. You can put the data in the PLAAFP and I like to maybe and include the DB ECC where I put my VI information and have it in the PLAAFP. Obviously you don't want to be redundant in your documentation with an IEP, but definitely all of this information is really critical to have in the IEP, right? And I feel like this one, especially. And I'm going to pick a couple of the bullet points to talk about a little more in depth but the first one, the strategies and accommodations to address the combined effects. Again, this is a great place for teaming and making sure we're considering all of the areas of access. If you skip down, does the student have tactile components within their calendar and use them appropriately? As Kaycee was mentioning, a lot of our students are very tactile even when they do have some usable vision. So really making sure that we're honoring that and looking at that and really supporting those tactile needs. And making sure that it's accessible. That our students know where they are. They know where their calendar lives. They're able to access it. It's not just something that kind of shows up and then magically disappears again. Making sure they know how to properly use their technology. And that the team knows how to support the technology. Some of the stuff that our students use for access isn't maybe something that the classroom teacher or even, you know, the SLP, if this is the first time they have had a Deafblind student on their caseload, they may not know how to support the student. Does the student properly know how to use their technology? And also does the classroom staff and service providers. And I feel like the last one is really important. Does the student know how other conversations happen around them? Kaycee touched on this when she talked about communication. But I'm really looking again as a team and being aware, especially if conversations happen for that student tactually. Are they aware that other people are having conversations and it's not just one person comes and talks to me. So often our student's language maybe happens to them and it's not something they're invited to experience other people participating in. And a lot of times we might see that some of our students become kind of passive and they wait for language to happen to them. So encouraging that they can begin a conversation. They can initiate. Do they know how to do that? Do they know what that looks like with others? This is obviously a great place when we're thinking of teaming as the TVI or DB, I can team with my SLP and look at communication and does the student have access. It's not just access to that academic curriculum piece but about the socialness that's happening around them within the classroom setting. And do they have the skills to access that? And, if not, how do we address it? Did I forget anything? I made my little bullet points but I get excited and I forget to look. [Laughter] 

>>Kaycee: Talk about the second to last one, the one about development of their strength in tactile cognition. 

>>Sarah: Yeah, also, thinking about the tactile working memory scale as well -- which that's a whole other rabbit hole. Feel free to reach out to Kaycee and I if that's something that you would like more information about. And there is information on the Project website. But, yeah. It's definitely important. Again, when we're thinking about our students to look at how -- let me pause and think about how I want to say this. Sorry. That it's really important to recognize that, again, kind of what I said earlier. If you're a tactile learner, you're experiencing the world in a way that looks different, then myself as a hearing and sighted person. Recognizing there is a whole skill set. There is a whole level of cognition that may look different. That doesn't mean that it's any less when you are a tactile learner, a tactile communicator. And so I think it's really important for the team to have an understanding of that, to recognize that and to respect it. And then to know how to apply that to the student. Because there may be some ways that that student is functioning in your classroom but their awareness is different. And so it's going to look different. That doesn't mean that cognition is any less. Also, thinking about the meaningful experiences that your student who is Deafblind, if they are truly a tactile learner, that they need to experience. The skills we want to target to build that are going to look different than the skills I might use with a sighted and hearing child. Those might not be skills I need to target with this child. Making sure they have those skills and that we understand as a team how to develop them along the way. Okay. 

>>Kaycee: Perfect. We have a question that came up and Kate answered it but I would love for us to talk about it. Brenda asked does the ECC continue into college or does it stop once they graduate? And Kate added in the chat that is a great question and that the hope is that students will always continue to receive instruction in areas that they need. But we know that doesn't always happen. So we look at the ECC as tools that help get students ready for adulthood. Yeah. It was such a good question. When I read it I was like, wow. That is an awesome question. And Kate answered beautifully. The needs are still there and there are areas that will hopefully be worked on. But, you know, we know once they leave public school, that's not an easy thing to find, somebody who provide those services, especially on a regular basis. As much as we can hit all these areas while we have them in, you know, EC12 that we're preparing them to hopefully need less of that instruction as they're out as adults. Do you have anything to add to that, Sarah? 

>>Sarah: No. Well, other than just to -- I think that's also why it's really important that the ECC isn't just something that, oh, it's my turn to talk really fast in this ARD meeting and I'm going to state this to the family and hope they get it. While it's also important that when we talk about considering all the areas, that we do include the family and that the family does understand what skills and that we're supporting the family and how to support their students. So that way when the student is done in the public education part of their experience, the family also knows how to support those needs and knows how to continue that learning. And if they don't feel comfortable or don't know how or it's outside their skill set, they know how to find resources to support them. 

>>Kaycee: I'm so glad you said that. Absolutely. Absolutely. Okay. So on the screen now is a picture of a chart. I know many of you and you probably are not surprised that there's a chart. I love a chart. So we put this at the back to look at -- so the seven areas are listed out on the left-hand-side. Deafblind ECC area. And then in the next column next to that is the team member to target those areas. So possible team members that might be appropriate to target those areas. If when you looked at the considerations with your team you found areas that the student needed some direct instruction. And so like in that first one, for example, using hearing for orientation and travel, the O&M specialist is listed, the teacher of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing is listed. The educational audiologist and the teacher for students who are Deafblind. Which I know not every state has. We do here in Texas have that. Like, happening right now. And then the next column is for instructional resources. If you're teaching skills, places to pull from. I'll warn you. There is not a whole lot for these sections in instructional resources and evaluation resources because there's just not a whole lot that's Deafblind specific or necessarily appropriate for our kiddos. When we do have something that might be appropriate, we have those listed here. Under the evaluation resources, the next one, sound travels of course is listed, which Sarah mentioned, and you can find for free on our website. And then the last two columns are the VI area connection and ECC area of connection. Some of these areas connect to existing VI/ECC areas or DHH areas. For example, using hearing for orientation and travel area could be connected to the O&M area in the VI ECC or could be connected to the listening skills development area in the Deaf and Hard of Hearing ECC. So those are listed there. There are some that don't really directly connect to any of them and there's some that's just one and not the other. Those are listed there. Depending on how you and your district decide to report out this information, it could be helpful in where you decide to put these things in your reporting. Margaret asked if this chart is in the ETT DB. It is but it's also available for free in the standalone document. And so by standalone -- that's not a good word for that. It shouldn't be used by itself. But the part not in the book that you can download. 

>>Sarah: The PDF part. 

>>Kaycee: PDF. It's part of it. So whenever you click on that link where Sarah showed you how to get that, this will be at the back of that tool. 

>>Sarah: And it's also -- Kaycee already said this so I'm kind of repeating her. Sorry. Also, if you're not sure, like if perhaps you're kind of new and you're not sure like what are those skills, like how do I know. Because the document itself is questions for consideration. Again, seeing that tie-in part -- in the next slide -- I can come back, Kaycee, if I'm cutting you off. But on your handout we did list the resources and so if you aren't familiar and you don't know, we do have, obviously, a ton of Expanded Core Curriculum stuff through TSBVI available related to the VI ECC. So you can refer to the VI ECC to kind of get some skills to get you started. So we do have the links here and they are included in the handout. That can be a great place as well as the DHH ECC, to kind of take a look at what those specific skills might look like and apply them to your student. 

>>Kaycee: Absolutely. 

>>Sarah: Go ahead. Sorry. 

>>Kaycee: No, you go ahead. 

>>Sarah: I was going to say if you aren't aware -- I'm sure most of you are -- but the EVALS is a great hit to help you get started with the VI ECC. It's three books of charts that will really help you look and see skills and how to use them and take them with the team and use those for consideration. 

>>Kaycee: Awesome. I was just going to reiterate that the top bullet here is Iowa's Expanded Core Curriculum for students who are Deaf or hard of hearing. If you didn't know that there was an ECC for students who are Deaf and Hard of Hearing, this is a really great place to start. This one directly connects to Iowa's version. Several states have taken Iowa's version. They were the first ones to put it out. And make their own version for their state. If you are in one of those states, feel free to use your own version. I really loved Appcia's version. If you have the publication, you're able to access Appcia's. But the information is very, very similar from Iowa's and many of the other states that are out there as well. I was just in Pennsylvania a few weeks ago and they just came out with their own that, again, started with Iowa's and branched. Look through them. Figure out what you think works best for your district and your students and the important thing is that we're using one of them, not necessarily which one that you pick. So there's that. And then, let's see. We have just a few minutes. Do you want to open up the Project website and show a little bit about what is there? If you go to the orientation and mobility tab at the top, we can show you where to find those sound travels tools. If the first year, using hearing for orientation and travel is something you feel like you need to learn more about, on the right-hand side of this menu, after she clicks on O&M, it says about sound travels. All of those bullets that are below there, six things, are all part of a tool called Sound Travels. They're free and they're really fabulous. And we did, like Sarah said, did a Coffee Hour on it, so you can find that in the archives if you want to learn more about how to use those tools. That is on the website for you. Those are all free. And then if you want to scroll back up, we'll show you -- let's see. Let's go to products and then books, publications, and newsletters. And this is where you can find all of the publications that our team has published. If you want to scroll down. The AdamLS is the one on the left. That's free and available for download there. If you want to scroll down a little bit, we've got determining the need for an intervener in educational settings, that can be helpful, especially looking at the access pieces. The essential tools of the trade for teachers of students who are Deafblind. That will link you to that part of the store. The one next to it is the guidance for planning behavior intervention for children and young adults who are Deafblind or have visual and multiple impairments. We like our long titles around here. [Laughter] That one is available for direct download. Again, we'll have a Coffee Hour coming up on that in the coming months. IEP quality indicators is here. We did revise that recently, so if you haven't checked it out recently, you can grab that and download it. If you don't have the IEP supplement for students who are Deafblind, we've got that posted here on the website. The informal functional hearing evaluation is here. It's a great tool for students who are Deafblind. There is the introduction to sexuality. It looks at a lot of great concept development stuff. That that's an area you need to check out, that's a real great place to look. Sound travels is linked here as well. For those of you that have been looking for the tactile symbols at TSBVI, they're here. So you can find all of those things. And then Sarah gave us a quick glance -- with two minutes, Sarah, let's look at the topical resources page real quick and just look at some of the headings that are there so people know where they can find all these great resources. We've got stuff on Active Learning, stuff on assessment tools. Lots and lots of them. General info. Early childhood. If you're serving babies and young children, this is a great place to look. Educational considerations. Which, again, that fourth bullet is this document we've been showing you today. So you can find that. So many things there. Fact sheets, which is a new project we're working on. 

>>Sarah: Yes, yes. 

>>Kaycee: This is exciting. We have one posted now and we'll have more coming. We're working on more fact sheets all the time. Family engagement. Especially if you're here in Texas, definitely check this out. Edgenie's got all kinds of great information. Some of it's specific to Texas and some of it national, if you're outside of Texas. Feel free to check that out as well. Some general info on hearing. We've got IEP development tools. This section that's fairly new, individual and family perspectives, which is really cool. It's storytelling. Individuals who are Deafblind and their families telling their story. Some of it's videos. Some of it's articles. We've got all kinds of different stuff so check that out. It's awesome. Orientation and mobility. Our own Heather Withrow made a video of ASL signs for O&M terms, if you need that. There's a section on proficient communicators, if you're serving those students who are on or near grade level, there's a lot of great information there and it's growing all the time. And then qualified personnel. That's obviously a huge topic right now here in Texas as we're moving towards teachers of students who are Deafblind. And we've got lots of great information on interveners and co-navigators. Sexuality education. Tactile learning and tactile language. If that tactile-bodily stuff that we mentioned was interesting to you, all of that comes from the Nordic welfare center and so lots of links are here. Sarah mentioned the tactile working memory scale. It's here. There's a book called if you can see it, you can support it, which we do a study on, which I'm obsessed with. I have it here. 

>>Sarah: It will change your life. 

>>Kaycee: And it's free. And there's a section on transition planning in Texas. And then a section on just some vision, general vision information. All of that is on our website. And if there's anything that you are looking for and can't find or if there's anything that we can answer, as you start to use this Expanded Core Curriculum Considerations document, please reach out to us. We're absolutely happy to talk to you about that and help you through any of that. Our e-mail addresses are on the screen. Last name, first initial @tsbvi.edu.