Expanded Core Curriculum for Adventitiously Blinded Children

1. Expanded Core Curriculum for Adventitiously Blinded Children

2. There are two terms generally used to describe when a person first lost his or her vision. -Congenital Blindness -Adventitious Blindness

3. Congenital Blindness • Refers to loss of vision before birth, at birth or before visual memory is established.

4. Possible causes of Congenital Blindness • Infections from the mother such as CMV, Syphilis or Rubella. • Genetic problems or diseases such as Leber’s Congenital Amaurosis. • Fetal Alcohol Syndrome • Strokes in utero

5. Adventitious Blindness • Adventitious blindness means that the impairment or condition was acquired after birth and generally as a result of an accident or disease. • It refers to vision loss after visual memory has occurred.

6. Possible Causes of Adventitious Blindness • Traumatic Brain Injury/Post Trauma Syndrome • Progressive or Sudden Eye Disease • Medication Reaction/Error • Eye Injury Related Problems • …and many more

7. Students with Congenital Blindness will rely more on their others senses for their learning techniques.Students with Adventitious Blindness will rely more on their visual memories for their learning techniques incorporating other senses with their memories.

8. Motor Control and Gait • Adventitiously blinded students generally do not present with the posture, balance and gait problems that congenitally blinded students do.

9. Cognitive • Research has found no noted Cognitive differences between sighted individuals and those that are visually impaired. • The difference lies primarily with the limitations of teaching without the benefit of sight, the way information is processed , the time it takes to process it and get a “big picture” and the source of the information received.

10. Cognitive • Congenitally blinded children must be taught through touch and audition which is very concrete so they may have a difficult time with Spatial and Organizational concepts and connecting sounds to their sources. • Adventitiously blinded children have their visual memories to help them “connect the dots” and visualize spaces while adding in the information received from other senses.

11. Psychological Differences • Congenital- Generally more adjusted..they have always been that way so they do not grieve the loss… they may deal with issues of self image and lack of driving /being like others in teenage years etc. • Adventitious- More psychological problems due to dealing with the loss of what they once had...depends on age and possibly how/why vision loss occured...slowly/accident…they must go through the grieving process.

12. Expanded Core Curriculum The Expanded Core Curriculum (ECC) is the body of knowledge and skills that are needed by students with visual impairments due to their unique disability-specific needs. These skills will aid them in accessing the Core Curriculum and with Independent Living Skills.

13. Compensatory and Functional Academic Skills * The skills needed for the visually impaired to access all areas of the core curriculum. * Examples include: regular print, Braille, large print, use of optical devices, tactile symbols, calendar system, sign language and recorded materials.

14. Compensatory and Functional Academic Skills for the Adventitiously Blinded Depending on the reason for the onset of blindness the students needs in this area will vary.

15. Compensatory and Functional Academic Skills for the Adventitiously Blinded • TBI – overlays/clutter/spacing/tactile • Sudden onset –Must meet immediate needs with recorded material/reader while learning Braille and other technology. • Progressive Loss- to teach Braille and/or technology early while some vision is intact to be able to progress to using it as vision decreases.

16. Orientation and Mobility for the Adventitiously Blinded • Adventitiously Blinded children have immediate needs for Orientation and Mobility/Travel Skills • Concept and Spatial Orientation are easier for the adventitiously blinded because of their “visual memory”, which is the ability to remember what objects, places and people look like.

17. Social Interaction Skills for the Adventitiously Blinded • Social skills are incorporated by the sighted through everyday interactions with peers. • The visually impaired have to be taught these skills that are missed without the incidental learning benefit of sight.

18. Social Interaction Skills for the Adventitiously Blinded • The age of the child when vision is lost will determine the amount of need for teaching in this area. • Even early sighted interactions help cue children in to the acceptability of their actions by verbal cues, facial expressions, body language and observation of others actions.

19. Independent Living Skills for the Adventitiously Blinded The term independent living skills is a broad label that encompasses every skill that an individual needs to have at sometime in their life to be as independent as possible.

20. Independent Living Skills for the Adventitiously Blinded Children who are sighted typically learn what to do and how to act by watching others and then imitating what they observe such as watching others eat , cutting food, imitating motions and manners, using buttons and zippers , putting on clothing and tying shoes

21. Independent Living Skills for the Adventitiously Blinded • Congenital – children with visual impairments must learn these skills without the benefit of observing others and learning from their behaviors. • Adventitious-These children have the prior experience /motor memory and visual memory of these tasks being performed and “know” how they are supposed look and feel.

22. Recreation and Leisure Skills for the Adventitiously Blinded • Recreation and Leisure activities are those in which one chooses to engage in during free time. • Sighted children are exposed to a variety of these activities with incidental learning through observation of peers, parents and siblings, watching activities on Television, books and even stores.

23. Recreation and Leisure Skills for the Adventitiously Blinded • Congenital - will have to be exposed to activities and directly and sequentially taught the skills to participate in and choose activities that best meet their individual interests. • Adventitious – depending on the age of onset of visual loss, will have had some exposure to activities and will have mental maps of how activities work, how you need to move your body and the areas that activities are performed in.

24. Career Education for the Adventitiously Blinded • Sighted children develop interest in various careers through observing what others do in daily life. Children are exposed to many different occupations early in life • Congenitally blind children have the disadvantage of not seeing the every day world and its people in action. Often they are only exposed to people/careers that impact their every day life.

25. Career Education for the Adventitiously Blinded Adventitiously blinded students, depending on the age they were when vision loss occurs, have this same advantage from the exposure to every day life and having seen people perform tasks throughout the day. They might not remember all the people and careers they have seen in the past but memory buildings blocks are in place to build concepts and have a basic understanding when exposed again.

26. Technologyfor the Adventitiously Blinded • The effective use of technology and assistive devices provides the visually impaired student with the same kinds of information as their sighted peers.

27. Technologyfor the Adventitiously Blinded • Sighted children are exposed to technology from a very early age and learn how things work by watching, listening and interacting with their world. • We start with light up interactive toys in the crib and quickly move on to stand up toys with push buttons, hand held games and computers designed for children.

28. Technologyfor the Adventitiously Blinded • Adventitiously blinded children have the advantage of being exposed early in life to technology through the passive learning of interacting with their world. • They also have the basic memories of how devices look and the way certain actions bring about the cause and effect when using devices that the congenitally blind do not have.

29. Visual Efficiency Skillsfor the Adventitiously Blinded Visual Efficiency Skill are the degree to which specific visual tasks can be performed with ease, comfort and efficient time frame

30. Visual Efficiency Skillsfor the Adventitiously Blinded • Students that are born with low vision may not spontaneously learn to use and become efficient in using their available vision and need to systematically taught those skills. • Those with adventitious low vision may need to learn visual skills to retain visual approaches to carrying out day to day activities that were previously used prior to vision loss.

31. Self Determination for the Adventitiously Blinded This area of ECC stresses the importance of the child believing in themselves, while still understanding their realistic abilities and limitations.

32. Self Determination for the Adventitiously Blinded • The adventitiously blinded child might have trouble in this area depending on when the blindness occurred as they may not have accepted the blindness or the changed self image it brings with it. • They may also have to deal with, depending on their age, future goals they held while they still had their vision that they can not obtain. ie: being in the military, airplane pilot, nurse or a doctor etc… therefore feeling like they have no worth now. 

33. Self Determination for the Adventitiously Blinded These students may need more teaching in this area and possible psychological intervention to make sure that they can go through the phases of grief, accept their disability and discover new realistic goals of what they can accomplish in the future.

34. Adventitious children may be able to acquire skills faster that congenitally blinded children due to their previous experiences and prior knowledge depending on their age but be aware that they may be more difficult to teach due their emotional and psychological issues in relation to the onset of their visual impairment