Advice for parents and carers - multi-sensory impairment

Communication

For a lot of the children we support, we will be advising that their communication is developed using tactile information such as hand under hand signing or on-body cues as their sense of touch is crucial in helping them to compensate for their visual and hearing difficulties. We will work alongside your child’s Speech and Language Therapist to develop individualised communication plans. If you would like to learn a little more, we advise that you read resources only developed by specialists of MSI. We have included some below to help you;

• Sense have a free to download alphabet chart for ‘Deafblind* Manual’ which is an adapted form of finger spelling. This is something that we may look at for our older MSI pupils.
• Barbara Miles is an American author and lecturer who has written many fantastic articles in relation to MSI and Communication. This is a link to an article entitled ‘Talking the Language of the Hands to the Hands’. There are also a number of videos and further articles.

*the term Deafblind may often be used alongside Multisensory Impairment and is the same meaning to describe someone who has difficulties with their hearing and their vision – it does not mean that a child has no hearing or no vision at all.

Story time

For a child with MSI, story time needs to allow for multisensory experiences to ensure that they can access the magic of stories with their family. The SISS MSI team have prepared the following guide;

• A Guide to Multisensory Stories

We have also prepared a guide for the story ‘Pig in the Pond’ – prepare to get very wet! Please follow this link for more details;

• The Pig in the Pond by Jill Barton and Martin Waddell

We have developed a useful guide that we hope will support you in understanding ways to support your child’s communication;

• Strategies to support developing communication

Useful Organisations

• sense.org.uk (support for children and adults with multisensory impairment)
• newlifecharity.co.uk (provide loans of sensory toys/ loans of specialist equipment)

Music Ideas

• soundabout.org.uk (a musical organisation developing inclusive music projects across the UK)
• The BBC have put together some great video full of sensory music ideas;