This year we have Paul Hart coming to us from Scotland to share his expertise about communication, communication partnerships and tactile interaction.
Paul has worked for Sense Scotland since 1987, starting as a support worker two years after completing a Bachelor of Music degree. In the past twenty five years, he has held a number of posts with Sense, including supportworker, manager of residential services, manager of day services, Principal Officer (Practice Development) and now as Head of Research and Practice he spends much of his time developing resources around assessment, communication, activity design and support planning. He is a member of Sense Scotland’s Leadership Team.
Paul speaks regularly at conferences and seminars, including Deafblind International (DbI) World and European conferences, on the themes of assessment, communication, staff development and sex education. In 1994, Paul gained his teaching qualification (PGCE - Primary) and in 2002, he completed a Masters Degree in Education, where much of the focus was on communication with people who are deafblind and implications for staff development. In 2010 he completed his PhD at Dundee University, with a research focus on communication and language development for congenitally deafblind people.
Paul is currently a member of the DbI Communication Network and also the Tactile Communication Network and in these capacities, he lectures at a number of universities, including the Masters in Communication and Congenital Deafblindness course at Groningen University in The Netherlands. He has written some influential articles and books in the field such as "Using Imitation with Congenitally DeafBlind Adults; establishing meaningful communication partners", "Dialogicalilty in Culture: response from the perspective of congenital DeafBlindness, and "Moving beyond the common touchpoint - discovering language with congenitally deafblind people". He will be sharing his expertise with us on these topics, and more!