The Tuning In project has been designed to help parents and carers to develop effective ways of communicating with their child. 

In this exciting project we work with
families of deafblind children, helping them to explore and develop ways to communicate with their children.

Making eye contact, watching expressions on the faces of others and listening to voices are important steps in early communication development. When young children have difficulties with their sight and hearing their attempts to communicate may not be recognised so easily by parents and carers as they may use different methods.

Physical closeness and touch become increasingly important ways to communicate where a child’s vision and hearing are limited. Helping to encourage this requires skills that might not come naturally but which can easily be learned.

Aim of the project

Our Tuning In project aims to support parents and carers to become more confident in communicating with their deafblind or multi-sensory impaired child and to help them to find new ways in which they can 'tune in' to what their child is trying to tell them.

Objectives

By the end of the project parents or carers will have:

• Been shown how to be more effective in communicating with their child
• Considered that how they communicate might have an impact on how their child is able to communicate
• Talked to our team about which strategies might be the most effective in developing communication
• Thought about their own style of communication and how that can best be used to support communication with their child. To help us to do this effectively we will make and use videos of parents and children interacting
• Identified ongoing support, either locally or from Sense

What the project involves

• An initial one-day workshop where parents and carers meet our team and start to discover the different ways in which young deafblind children may communicate and how they can use that knowledge when with their own child
• Home visits before and following the workshop to support parents to find effective ways to communicate with their child.

As this is a new initiative it is currently only available in some areas - but we are working to make it more widely available over the next few years.

Getting in touch

If you think you would like some support in communicating with your child, contact your identified Sense worker.
If you are new to Sense then please contact Sense’s Information and Advice service  who will ensure that you are put in touch with the right person:

Email: info@sense.org.uk

Tel: 0845 127 0066 or 020 7520 0972

Textphone: 0845 127 0066 or 020 7520 0972

Fax: 0845 127 0061

Our other packages of support are:

• Opening Doors – support for when a child has recently received an identification of deafblindness or multi-sensory impairment.
• Multi-sensory impaired children in hospital – supporting families by helping hospital staff to understand the needs of deafblind and multi-sensory impaired children.
• Getting a Result – helping young people to make the move into adult life.
• Direct Support – for when you are experiencing particular problems relating to your child’s deafblindness or multi-sensory impairment.

Related links

Siblings network