Understanding the Impact of Vision Loss on Young Children

1. Looking Beyond Vision Impact of Vision Loss on Young Children Pretoria, South Africa February 13, 2017 Kay Alicyn Ferrell, PhD Kay.Ferrell@unco.edu North American/Caribbean Chair, ICEVI

2. What’s Different About Visual Impairment? • Sensory inputs altered • Discrete • Fragmented • Intermittent • Passive • Incidental learning opportunities • Inductive learning

3. Learning, generally

4. Learning with Visual Impairment

5. Teaching is different: • More than adjustments to the learning environment; • More than modifications of instructional methods; • More than adaptation of curricula; • More than use of positive behavioral supports and interventions; • More than accommodations . . .

6. General Observations • Development determined by multiple factors • Developmental change supported, facilitated, or impeded by environmental influences • Social and cultural influences mediated by parents • Family plays unique role • Parenting is developmental

7. Impact of Visual Impairment on Development

8. The Impact of Visual Impairment • Blindness imposes three basic limitations on the individual: • Range and variety of experiences; • Ability to get about; and • Interaction with the environment. Lowenfeld, B. (1973). The visually handicapped child in school. New York: Day Publishers.

9. Impact on Sensory Development • Information may not be consistent, coordinated, nor verifiable: • Intermittent input in inconsistent, discrete, and generally unverified fragments. • Sense of distance affected: • Issue of control -- Vision a distance sense that is under the control of the individual. • Hearing a distance sense, too, but has no way to control the presence or absence of sound in the environment.

10. Impact on Sensory Development, continued • Sound without visual verification is only noise coming from nowhere. • Acquires meaning only after sustained tactual, motor, and auditory interaction. • Sound has to acquire meaning before it can provide information about location, cause, or source.

11. Impact on Sensory Development, continued • Self-initiated environmental exploration may not be motivated. • You see something, you want to know what it is. • Possibly no incentive for tactile exploration: • Stimulated by visual dimensions, such as color, pattern, shape, and location. • Tactile activity may be minimal without these incentives, and the environment will remain unknown and uninviting.

12. Impact on Cognitive Development • Little ability to coordinate and organize discretefragmentsof information into something meaningful: • No way to verify the accuracy of the information. • Characteristics of objects are difficult to define. • Object permanence may be delayed until meaning can be attached to sound.

13. Impact on Cognitive Development, continued • Results of actions cannot be observed: • May not understand the ability to cause things to happen, • May be less motivated to repeat purposeful actions. • Objects have different orientations in space: • Look different when visually perceived. • Placement of objects in various orientations has no meaning.

14. Impact on Cognitive Development, continued • Lack of spontaneous exploration of objects: • Can lead to a failure to note likenesses, differences, and similarities • Categorization  Symbolization  Reading • Associations between and among objects and generalizing to other uses achieved only through continuous repetition of actions with the objects themselves.

15. Impact on Movement and Motor Control • Reason for movement. • Continuous contact with the environment. • Gives an estimation of space without body movement or contact. • Stimulates coordination and control.

16. Impact on Movement and Motor Control, continued • Feedback for intentionality and refinement of movement patterns. • Vicarious participation in movement. • With vision, you don't have to do an activity to be part of it (e.g., football).

17. Impact on Movement and Motor Control, continued • Sequence and totality of movement patterns in progress: • Whole process is visible. • Model for motor skill and manipulation through feedback of the end result. • Facilitates body image and perception. • Learning body parts is easier ifyou can see your own, and ifyou can see them on others.

18. Impact on Social Development • Subtle visual cues and facial expressions not available to aid in the attachment process. • May foster a more restricted world: • May be difficult to understand the relationship or separation between self, the environment, and other individuals in it. • Establishment of individuality or separateness from others dependent upon gaining some control over and feeling some comfort in the world outside the self.

19. Impact on Social Development, continued • Independence achieved only with a feeling of control of self, one's actions, and the environment. • Emotional security and recognition of self as separate from others necessary before interaction and play with peers can be meaningful and pleasurable.

20. Impact on Social Development, continued • Grooming and personal care learned by imitation. • In the absence of imitation, must be systematically planned and taught. • Language needs to reflect knowledge and understanding of the world, • Not just a mimic of the language of others. • Sensory experiences must be coded into meaningful language.

21. Instructional Approaches • Deliberate not incidental • Parts to wholes • Inductive vs. deductive • Concrete experiences

22. Developmental Hurdles • Sensory information • Intersensory coordination • Imitation • Motor development • Object permanence • Communication • Classification • Symbolization National Center on Severe and Sensory Disabilities 2007

23. Teaching Guidelines • Best learning occurs in the home. • Make opportunities for learning. • Use coactive movements. • Work from behind. • Use descriptive language. • Give feedback. • Use common sense.

24. Teaching Guidelines, cont’d • Try it yourself. • Be prepared. • Be spontaneous. • Be consistent. • Give less and less help. • Let the child help. • Give enough time.

25. Teaching Guidelines, cont’d • Use child’s name. • Make no assumptions. • Point out sensory qualities of people, objects, events. • Challenge the child equally. • Use language effectively. • Look for signs of confusion. • Look for contrast.

26. Teaching Guidelines, cont’d • Different times of day, different weather conditions create different light and therefore different behavior. • Use directional words/prepositions. • Use touch. • Mediate interaction with peers. • Encourage socialisms.

27. Make child a do-er,not a done-to-er

28. Teaching Guidelines, cont’d • When possible, help older children to identify his or her own visual limitations while encouraging problem solving. • Trial and error can be just as effective in determining effective adaptations as textbook recommendations. • Generally, it is better to expect more than to expect less.

29. Impact does not mean Inevitable Take-Aways

30. Take-Aways, continued: • For children receiving services, degree of visual loss may not have as great an impact on early development as the literature suggests • Greatest impact may occur with the presence of additional disabilities • The more severe, the greater the impact

31. Thank You Dankie Ngiyathokoza Enkosi Ngiyabonga Ke A Leboga Ke A Leboha Ke A Leboga Ngiyabonga Ndi A Livhuha Ndza Khensa

32. Kay Alicyn Ferrell, PhD North American/Caribbean Regional Chair, ICEVI kay.ferrell@unco.edu