2026 Early Hearing Detection & Intervention Conference
March 15-17, 2026 • Jacksonville, FL
3/10/2025 | 11:25 AM - 11:55 AM | Touch as the Key to Unlocking Communication for Learners with Hearing & Vision Loss | 321
Touch as the Key to Unlocking Communication for Learners with Hearing & Vision Loss
Young learners with compromised auditory and visual access need a comprehensive approach to communication development that includes the critical sense of touch. Establishing consistent practices that include developing a sense of ‘co-presence’ combined with respectful hand use, such as hand-under-hand communication is essential for young learners. The literature often speaks of the ‘tactile defensiveness’ in deafblind children without exploring the developing cause of the defensiveness in the first place. Research in the field of DeafBlind education has indicated for decades the critical aspect of touch in early cognitive and communication development (Nicholas, Jude. “From Active Touch to Tactile Communication: What’s Tactile Cognition Got To Do With It?” DBI Review Number 45 (2010), Moss, Kate. “Some Things to Learn from Learning Through Touch” SEE/HEAR Newsletter (2005) and Miles, Barbara “Talking the Language of Hands to the Hands” DB-LINK (2003).) This presentation will address the important connection between neuroscience, touch and the successful acquisition of tactile communication strategies as demonstrated by DeafBlind adults.
- Participants will identify the benefits of touch at an early age to encourage the development of trust, social awareness and rapport.
- Participants will learn how the emotional and distinctive aspects of touch cannot be separated in the processing of information.
- Participants will associate how successful "non-traditional" touch strategies, as modeled by DeafBlind adults, should be applied to young learners with hearing and vision loss..
Presentation:
3545975_18229SusanneMorrow.pdf
Handouts:
Handout is not Available
Transcripts:
CART transcripts are NOT YET available, but will be posted shortly after the conference
Presenters/Authors
Susanne Morrow
(Primary Presenter), New York DeafBlind Collaborative, susanne.morrow@qc.cuny.edu;
Susanne Morgan Morrow, MA, CI, CT has almost 30 years of experience in the fields of deafness and deafblindness. She earned a masters degree at Gallaudet University in Rehabilitation Counseling for the Deaf and then began her career at Helen Keller National Center and then with the National Technical Assistance Consortium on Deaf-Blindness. In her early career, she obtained national certification as a sign language interpreter and provided extensive training on DeafBlind interpreting strategies. Today, Susanne is the Project Director of the New York DeafBlind Collaborative, a federally funded grant for NYS. Susanne’s work aims to bring the lessons learned from adults who are DeafBlind with lived-experiences to young learners who are DeafBlind to enhance communication access and rapport with the world.
ASHA DISCLOSURE:
Financial -
No relevant financial relationship exists.
Nonfinancial -
No relevant nonfinancial relationship exists.
AAA DISCLOSURE:
Financial -
Financial relationship with New York DeafBlind Collaborative.
Nature: Funded by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs.
Nonfinancial -
No relevant nonfinancial relationship exists.