Marleen Janssen

Marleen has been Professor at the Department of Special Needs Education at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands since 2008. She specialises in congenital (like with CdLS) and acquired deafblindness. Her research is mainly focused on intervention studies in children and adults who are congenital deafblind, which impact communication, language acquisition, development and learning. 

Innovative instructional methods are used to coach teachers, parents and support workers, improving their insights and skills for better interaction and tactile communication. Theories from developmental psychology on attachment, intersubjectivity and self-determination form the basis of these investigations which are performed in classrooms, homes and group home settings.

She has a structural collaboration with Royal Dutch Kentalis, where she worked for 25 years at the school Kentalis-Rafaël, for children with deafblindness.