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Multisensory impairment team

The multisensory impairment team supports children and young people aged 0-25 who have combined hearing and vision loss (are deafblind).

Who do we support?

The service supports pre-school children at home or in pre-school services, and supports children and young people in schools, mainstream and special.

Children who are referred to the service will have a loss of both vision AND hearing – and usually we will need evidence from hospital eye and audiology departments.

What can you expect from the service?

We:

  • provide advice and support to parents
  • give advice around EHC assessments and the right time to request one
  • provide assessments for children and young people, focusing on vision, hearing, communication and development
  • give parents and professionals strategies to support the child in the best way
  • work with the hearing impairment and visual impairment teams to provide assistive technology and additional support in school
  • support your child to learn independent life skills.

Examples of young people we have helped

All children who have combined vision and hearing difficulty will have needs associated with communication, moving about and ensuring they understand the world but they will also be very different from each other. They will be helped by many different ways of supporting, matched to individuals.

Here are some short outlines of the help the service can provide.  

Elias is 15.  He attends a school for deaf children and uses sign language. When he was 12, his vision started to get worse. He has Usher syndrome. 

The MSI service have helped him to adapt to vision loss and helped the school to adapt for his needs.

This has included; using low vision technology, training staff in adapting sign language and using other approaches, discussing positive role models of dual sensory impaired people, providing training in independence and mobility, and assisting in planning for his move to college and his future.  

Jeffrey has CHARGE syndrome, and is profoundly deaf and has poor vision. Although he is only 4 years old he has spent a lot of time in hospital because he has a range of other difficulties. 

The MSI service have worked to support his development and his access to learning. This has included supporting parents as they made a decision about cochlear implants, helping to develop a signing vocabulary, helping parents with a Developmental Journal record for their child and working then completing advice for an Education Health and Care plan and supporting access into school.  

Jamil has many multiple difficulties including profound learning disability and severe physical disability.  His vision and hearing are difficult to assess but his responses to vision and hearing suggest that is having huge difficulty seeing and hearing.

 Although he has many difficulties, this doesn’t make his vision and hearing impairment less important.  The MSI service have worked with his school to provide programmes of vision development and listening skills, to help to assess the responses he makes to sound and light and to help support the development of communication skills at early levels, using tactile sign cues. 

Sarah is 6 months old and her parents knew she was deaf but have just found out she has a vision impairment as well.

The MSI service visited at home to help parents understand what Sarah can see and hear, to provide support for her wearing hearing aids. Advice is given about developing communication, which works with both difficulties, and about learning about the world around her. Parents and the specialist teacher work together to see what Sarah can do now and what to work on next. The specialist teacher linked the family to other services and support, such as specialist baby and pre-school groups.  

How to refer

Needs are often identified from birth or very early, so referrals often come from medical professionals. However, we can also accept a request for involvement from schools or parents:

Complete a service request form

Baseline Assessment Form for School Staff only

All referrals must have signed parental consent.

What needs to be included in the referral?

When making a referral, you should provide a range of evidence about your child’s needs so that the ISL team can identify which service is most appropriate.

The referral should include copies of any related medical reports along with details about what support your child already has in place. It may also be useful to note down your child's communication method.

If your child is of school or preschool age, you should work together with your Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCos) to provide this evidence.

What happens after the referral is submitted?

Once you have submitted your referral the service will contact you or the school. This might be to find out more information, or to understand what specific support the child needs.

They will then arrange a visit to either the education setting or to the home.

Can any organisations support me?

Sense

Information on the condition of deafblindness from national charity Sense, who support those with complex disabilities, who are deafblind.

Deafblind UK

A national charity that helps people with hearing and sight loss to live their lives as independently as possible.

CHARGE family support group

The UK's registered charity for people with CHARGE syndrome and their families. Run by individuals with CHARGE, their families and professionals.

Usher Kids

Supporting and connecting families of children with Usher Syndrome across the UK.

Page was last updated on: 18/03/2025 10:14:52

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