2026 Early Hearing Detection & Intervention Conference
March 15-17, 2026 • Jacksonville, FL
3/11/2025 | 9:40 AM - 10:10 AM | Collaboration & High-Quality Practices for Students with Extensive Support Needs | 302
Collaboration & High-Quality Practices for Students with Extensive Support Needs
This session will review the population of students with extensive support needs and address the challenges in program planning for their unique needs. Young children with extensive support needs, including those who are deaf/hard of hearing with additional disabilities, deafblind, and/or have complex medical needs, require individualized and intensive early intervention and educational programming. Current data from the National Center on Deafblindness indicates that almost 11,000 children nationally are identified as deafblind, and of those, nearly 90% were identified as having one or more additional disabilities. More than half of children identified as deafblind have complex health care needs and 45% have four or more additional disabilities, a more than 30% increase since 2005. (National Center on Deafblindness. (2023). 2022 National deafblind child count report. https://ncdb-childcount-2022.netlify.app). Early intervention providers and early childhood educators often have little or no experience in developing and implementing programs and strategies to support the learning needs of these children.
Session content will discuss program planning challenges facing early intervention and educational teams along with potential solutions and High-Quality Practices. Presenters will share an example of an effective state implementation model to provide High-Quality Practices for students with combined vision and hearing differences, highlighting how such a model can lead to increased early identification, training, and support for families, early intervention, and educational teams.
- Participants will describe the population of children with extensive support needs, including recognizing the importance of combined hearing and vision differences.
- Participants will identify at least 3 challenges facing early childhood teams when working with children with extensive support needs and at least 2 possible solutions.
- Participants will review one example of an effective state implementation plan and consider potential opportunities for similar plans within their own state(s).
Presentation:
3545975_18256BrendaAllair.pdf
Handouts:
Handout is not Available
Transcripts:
CART transcripts are NOT YET available, but will be posted shortly after the conference
Presenters/Authors
Brenda Allair
(Co-Presenter), New England Consortium on Deafblindness, brenda.allair@perkins.org;
Brenda Allair, Assistant Director at NEC, received her Masters in Special Education, Teacher of Students with Visual Impairments (TVI) from University of Massachusetts Boston and has a strong focus on early childhood and family support. In her nearly 20 years in the field of Early Education, Brenda has worked to provide families and educational teams with the skills and knowledge they need to not only allow children to access the world but to also become active, involved members of their chosen communities. Brenda is the Assistant Director at the New England Consortium on Deafblindness (NEC) where she provides training and support to families and professionals around the unique learning needs of deafblind learners. Her areas of interest include communication for deafblind learners and strategies for working with students with Extensive Support Needs. Brenda has been an advisor on several state and national projects to engage families of children with complex health care needs, especially those with additional disabilities, to become active in the systems that provide services and supports to their children.
ASHA DISCLOSURE:
Financial -
• Receives Salary,Grants for Employment from New England Consortium on Deafblindness.
Nonfinancial -
No relevant nonfinancial relationship exists.
AAA DISCLOSURE:
Financial -
Financial relationship with New England Consortium on Deafblindness, located at Perkins School for the Blind.
Nature: OSEP Funding, employed by Perkins School for the Blind.
Nonfinancial -
No relevant nonfinancial relationship exists.
Tracy Evans Luiselli
(Primary Presenter), New England Consortium on Deafblindness, tracy.luiselli@perkins.org;
Tracy Evans Luiselli, Ed.D., NEC Director, received her Masters in Severe Special Needs/Deafblind Education from Boston College and Doctorate in Early Childhood Special Education from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, with certifications in Vision, Moderate Special Needs, and Severe Special Needs. She has successfully coordinated and implemented a multistate OSEP grant since 1999. Dr. Evans Luiselli has extensive consulting and training experience with schools and agencies serving children who are deafblind, and her academic activity has included adjunct faculty appointments at Boston College, Simmons College, and Granite State College. With over thirty-five years of experience in the field of deafblindness, Tracy presents frequently at local, state, and national levels. Her areas of interest include assessment and instruction for children who are deafblind, increasing awareness about the impact of congenital cytomegalovirus, brain-based visual impairment, and organizational leadership and management. As well, she emphasizes the importance of supporting family engagement in all aspects of educational programming, including helping parents develop home-based routines that support their children’s communication and independence.
ASHA DISCLOSURE:
Financial -
• Receives Salary for Employment from New England Consortium on Deafblindness.
Nonfinancial -
No relevant nonfinancial relationship exists.
AAA DISCLOSURE:
Financial -
Financial relationship with New England Consortium on Deafblindness (OSEP-funded Grant)
Perkins School for the Blind
Member of MA cCMV Coalition .
Nature: employed as Project Director.
Nonfinancial -
No relevant nonfinancial relationship exists.