visual impairment

Visual Impairment

The terms partially sighted, low vision, legally blind, and totally blind are used in the educational context to describe students with visual impairments. They are defined as follows:

"Partially sighted" indicates some type of visual problem has resulted in a need for special
education

"Low vision" generally refers to a severe visual impairment, not necessarily limited to
distance vision. Low vision applies to all individuals with sight who are unable to read the newspaper at a normal viewing distance, even with the aid of eyeglasses or contact lenses. They use a combination of vision and other senses to learn, although they may require adaptations in lighting or the size of print, and, sometimes, braille.

"Legally blind" indicates that a person has less than 20/200 vision in the better eye or a very limited field of vision (20 degrees at its widest point)

Totally blind students learn via braille or other non-visual media.

Visual impairment is the consequence of a functional loss of vision, rather than the eye disorder itself. Eye disorders which can lead to visual impairments can include retinal degeneration, albinism, cataracts, glaucoma, muscular problems that result in visual disturbances, corneal disorders, diabetic retinopathy, congenital disorders, and infection.

The effect of visual problems on a child's development depends on the severity, type of loss, age at which the condition appears, and overall functioning level of the child. Many children who have multiple disabilities may also have visual impairments resulting in motor, cognitive, and/or social developmental delays.

A young child with visual impairments has little reason to explore interesting objects in the environment and, thus, may miss opportunities to have experiences and to learn. This lack of exploration may continue until learning becomes motivating or until intervention begins. Early intervention has been able to minimize these delays in many cases.

Fine motor skills may develop more slowly for visually impaired children, since vision allows both imitation and refinement of skills. Grasp patterns may progress more slowly (inhibiting the use of spoons, crayons, etc.), and "school skills" such as block building, pasting, coloring, and using scissors may appear to be delayed. The lack of these skills should not be used as an indicator of retardation, however, since such delays might be expected (especially of blind children); these skills are usually acquired satisfactorily, although somewhat later.

Self-help skills (e.g., eating, dressing, grooming, toileting) are primarily imitated skills. When vision is impaired, a child does not have the ability to observe how others behave or care for their own needs. Most self-help skills must be specifically taught to visually impaired children, and blind children require the most time and attention given to these skills. Since independence is always a primary goal for visually impaired children, attention to self-help skills at the preschool level is an urgent consideration.

Social skills are a particular challenge for children with visual impairments. One aspect of social skills is often overlooked - that of play. Visually impaired children may not know how to play because they do not observe how objects are used by others or what models of objects (e.g., cars, dolls, miniature tools) mean.

modifications

Speak to the class upon entering and leaving the room or site.

Call the student with a vision impairment by name if you want his/her attention.

Seat the student away from glaring lights

Describe, in detail, pertinent visual occurrences of the learning activities.

Give verbal notice of room changes,

Identify yourself by name,

If you are asked to guide a student with a visual impairment, identify yourself, offer your services and, if accepted, offer your arm to the student's hand. Tell them if they have to step up or step down, let them know if the door is to their left or right, and warn them of possible hazards.

Orally, let the student know if you need to move or leave or need to end a conversation.

If a student with a visual impairment is in class, routinely check the instructional environment to be sure it is adequate and ready for use.

Large Print books are made available

raised line drawings, or
thermoforms

tape books

Technology

wide selection of
magnifying devicesare available that can be used by visually impaired students to assist in reading or working with objects that need to be observed.

A screen reader, low vision projection screen, or an item like outSPOKEN or a similar system can be used to read a computer screens.

A screen magnifier may be used to enlarge print on a computer screen.

Make equipment available that the student with a vision impairment can access in interpreting and understanding the results of laboratory exercise (e.g. , calculators, talking thermometers, magnifiers, etc.

When using a computer, the student with a visual disability can use a remote voice system to verbally enter commands.

Teaching strategies

modeling clay, collage materials, fabric, sensory experiences

much vocal instruction

music activities

encouraged social activities - show and tell etc.

pin the tail on the donkey and other games which would allow all the children to experience
visual impairment

syllable clapping

feely bags

buddy system when walking to and from classroom

hands on counting games rather than visual

tactile letters cut from sandpaper and glued onto tagboard or pieces of wood

Annotations
http://www.kidsource.com/NICHCY/visual.html in a nutshell definition and characteristics

http://www.viguide.com/products.htm lots of assistive products available through this company

http://www.as.wvu.edu/~scidis/vision.html good strategies for teaching visually impaired

http://www.navh.org/ You can order paper and writing products from this company

http://www.readingrockets.org/ There are some wonderful phonemic awareness activities here that I’m anxious to try