Meet student Amy
Amy is a second year student on the Engaging with the World pathway at National Star. She has Charge Syndrome and is Deafblind. Read about her story.
Amy is a second year student on the Engaging with the World pathway at National Star. She has Charge Syndrome and is Deafblind. Charge Syndrome has impacted all of Amy’s senses, including her hearing, taste, and smell. Amy is also severely sight impaired, although she does have some patches of vision in her left eye.
In addition, she has multiple medical needs and uses a wheelchair. Amy accesses the world through touch with the support of specialist support, an ‘Intervenor’ who supports her multi–sensory impairment needs ensuring she develops new skills, communicates, and does as much for herself as possible. Within classroom settings, they act as Amy’s eyes and ears to provide her with access to her learning, communication, and environment.
The focus for her first year was settling into new environments whether that be the aquatic therapy pool, rebound therapy, or her classroom.
Amy has built up trusting relationships with her team of staff and is beginning to show awareness of her peers when supported by her Intervenor.
Staff supporting Amy wear personal identifiers so that Amy knows who is supporting her. Staff also use multi–sensory cues including on body signs and objects of reference to let her know what is happening next, for example; giving time for Amy to feel her swimming costume to know that her next session is swimming or feeling a piece of hammock for aerial dance.
A team of multi–sensory impairment specialists, including the college’s specialist tutor in vision impairments, advises the ‘multi–disciplinary’ teams on how to make Amy’s world accessible to her.
This involves textures to feel, contrasting colours, use of a lightbox and spotlighting which enable her to understand her environment. It also includes strategies such as hand under–hand support and adapted signing, use of object cues, repetition, and routine, focusing on what motivates her.
Amy hears by vibrations through her skull. By using a speaker held close to her head or a resonance board, Amy can feel and distinguish sounds and is included in activities. Music plays a central role in all her college sessions.
Amy was able to experience music through a haptic floor which allowed her to feel vibrations and movements at the Cheltenham Jazz Festival. Community access is something that Amy takes part in weekly. Recently she has been going to accessible cycling in Gloucester. Her keyworker gave Amy time to feel the helmet that she would be wearing and time to feel the handle bars and the seat and then Amy initiated sitting on the seat and she was away!
National Star is proud to welcome students with a wide range of disabilities, constantly training staff to ensure we offer the best possible care for future students.
