Educational Partnerships

Early Intervention and School Age Services (Birth-22)

The Educational Partnership Program brings together our expert educators with parents, early intervention providers, school based personnel, and other agencies to provide specialized services to children who are blind, deafblind, or visually impaired with or without multiple disabilities. Together, we can enable these children with visual impairments or deafblindness to reach their greatest potential.

Learn more about the services that can best help your child:

• Early Intervention: The Infant/Toddler Program (0-3 years)
  We provide a three-tiered approach to helping families from the very beginning: on-campus education, parent support groups, and services to infants and toddlers in the home and community settings.
• The Preschool at Perkins (3-6 years): Specialized services in a specialized place
  We provide a comprehensive preschool/kindergarten readiness designed to prepare children with visual impairments with and without additional disabilities with the foundational skills essential for learning.
• Community-based Support (3-22 years)
  We can bring our expertise to your child's school. We partner with New England school systems, early intervention agencies, families and educators to ensure your child is receiving the specialized services he or she needs.

Our Mission and Philosophy

We provide developmental and educational services in schools, homes and community-based settings to address the unique learning needs of children with visual impairments or deafblindness. Our goal is to help students at varying levels of development reach their maximum level of independence. Regular academics are a priority, but the Perkins staff also has an expertise in teaching an expanded core curriculum that includes the use of adaptive/assistive technologies; orientation and mobility; communication and literacy skills; independent living skills; recreation and leisure skill; social skills and career education.

Partnering with Parents

Our programs rely on close relationships between our educators and each child's parents. Parents are fully involved in partnering with Perkins as their child grows, whether they choose to attend Perkins or a school in the community. We also conduct workshops, seminars and other courses to help parents address the development and education of their children.

Partnering with Experts: Participating Perkins Staff

Because each child is unique and each educational partnership is different, our staff will be selected on an individual basis to best deliver the appropriate services. All staff members have been specifically trained in their areas of expertise. We employ:

• Teachers of the Visually Impaired: Certified professional educators teach children how to compensate for vision loss, as well as help them, their families and teachers to understand how vision disabilities affect their overall development and learning styles.
• Teachers of the Deafblind: Experts on the effects of vision and hearing loss on learning and program development.
• Certified Orientation and Mobility Specialists (COMSs): Certified by the Academy for the Certification of Vision Rehabilitation and Educational Professionals (ACVREP), these professionals assess the impact of children's visual impairments or blindness on their motor skills, safe movement abilities, independence and orientation skills, and then develop instructional programming to enhance safety and independence.

To find out how we can help you improve or develop customized services for your child, contact:

Tom Miller, Supervisor
The Perkins Educational Partnership Program
Phone: 617-972-7331
Fax: 617-972-7231
tom.miller@perkins.org