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It may be a child who is deafblind. Deafblindness is a complex disability, which is characterized by a combined loss of vision and hearing. The vision and hearing loss is compounded exponentially when there are additional disabilities to create extreme challenges in the areas of communication, development of interpersonal relationships, behavior, sensory integration, and motor and cognitive development.

A person who can consistently bridge the gap of sensory deprivation so that the child can receive information and become linked to the world around her is needed. This person is called intervener. The intervener can provide information to child so that she may better understand her environment and act appropriately within it. The intervener serves to interpret information from the child and also acts as a conduit for communication between the child and others. An intervener could be described as a consistent filter, communication cable, facilitator, or bridge.
An intervener does not control, create dependency, make decisions for the child, or stand as a barrier between the child and others.

The intervener must learn all about the child who is deafblind and appreciate her uniqueness. This person should have a secure understanding of the child's vision and hearing and how information is received. Much time will be spent learning about the child's personal system for information exchange. These things will be the basis for building a communication system that will eventually link the child to her environment and the people who are active within it.

A monitor and keyboard are cabled to a CPU of a computer so that information can be entered and returned. These pieces are not unlike the relationship between an intervener and the child with combined vision and hearing loss. The child, like the CPU, is a full of power but can only make an impact with the proper access pieces, otherwise, it will be left in the corner and the potential to positively impact the environment will be left undiscovered.

The child will gravitate toward her peers through learning. Curiosity equals learning and the intervener can fuel the child's motivation for curiosity. The intervener will help the child understand concepts and facilitate this transfer from the home environment so that concepts may be generalized to a variety of situations. The intervener ensures that the child has access to the results her trial and error learning so that education can occur. The constancy of the intervener will discourage stress in the child and allow her to learn more easily.

An intervener can chart behavior so that it can be understood as a means of communicating why the child is frustrated, hurt, etc. "Inappropriate" behavior is generally due to lack of information. Once the behavior is understood and communication systems are established then the proper information can be conveyed to the child.

An intervener can include a child with combined vision and hearing loss in class activities and limit problems of isolation by providing information to child and allowing her to interact with classmates. The intervener plays an important role in facilitating introductions of new people to the deafblind child and, over time, can release child to the new person. An overwhelming portion of learning is tertiary (comes from simple observation) and this incidental learning does not occur in individuals with sensory deprivation unless an intervener is constantly present to inform the child about who or what is around her and what is occurring with these people, situations, or objects.