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Chapter 15

Chapter 15. Understanding Students with Visual Impairments. Chapter 15 Objectives. At the end of this chapter you should be able to: Identify and define visual impairments and the degrees and limitations of visual impairments.

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Chapter 15

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  1. Chapter 15 Understanding Students with Visual Impairments

  2. Chapter 15 Objectives At the end of this chapter you should be able to: • Identify and define visual impairments and the degrees and limitations of visual impairments. • Describe specially designed instruction and supplementary aids and services for students with visual impairments. • Explain the teaching and planning of daily living skills, orientation training and mobility, and self-determination for students with visual impairments. • Explain accommodations needed for students with visual impairments.

  3. Defining Visual Impairments • Two different definitions • Legal definition • Based on acuity and field of vision • IDEA definition • Low vision • Functionally blind • Totally blind

  4. Prevalence of Visual Impairments • Various measures used, so it is difficult to get an accurate count • In 2006, 25, 661 students (0.04%) of the special education population

  5. Characteristics • Incidental learning • The way sighted children naturally learn about their environment • Lack of incidental learning skills can impact the development of motor, language, cognitive, and social skills • Limitations in range and variety of experiences • Limitations in the ability to get around • Limitations in interactions with the environment

  6. Determining the Causes • Congenital vision impairments • Occur at birth or before vision memories have been established • Adventitious vision impairments • When a person has had normal vision but then acquires a vision loss

  7. Anatomy of the Eye (Figure 15–2)

  8. Determining the Presence • Determining how a student uses vision • Functional vision assessment (FVA) • Provides more concrete information about a student’s vision that may help in making IEP decisions • Determining the appropriate reading medium • Finding the appropriate learning medium (learning media assessment) • Braille, print, audiotapes, and access technology • Allows the IEP team to know needed accommodations

  9. Determining the Nature of Specially Designed Instruction and Services • Expanded Core Curriculum • Compensatory and Communication Skills • Social and interaction skills • Orientation and Mobility skills • Informal assessments should include the student’s ability to function independently • Assessments should include the age-appropriateness of tasks • What are the student’s peers doing? • Determine skills typically learned through incidental learning, analyze task involvement, and begin teaching these tasks earlier • Avoid making assumptions about a student’s previously acquired learning

  10. Partnering for Special Education and Related Services • Over 71% spend most of their day in the general education classroom • In planning an IEP, team members must consider: • Provision of instruction to support the child’s success in the general education curriculum • Non-academic priorities on which the special education will focus • Location of special education and related services • Ways in which they will communicate to meet the student’s needs

  11. Partnering for Special Education and Related Services • Providing Specialized Instruction • Slate and stylus • Abacus • Reading instruction • Braille • Braille contractions • Issues for second language learners • Determination of non-academic priorities • Determining the location of services • Communicating to meet student’s needs

  12. Determining Supplementary Aids and Services • Providing adapted materials • Print materials: American Printing House for the Blind • Authentic materials • Optical devices • Assistive technology • Planning for Universal Design for Learning • Direct experience and increased experiential activities

  13. Planning for Other Educational Needs • Daily living skills • Orientation and mobility • Self-determination • Partnering is key

  14. Early Childhood Students • Programming that Focuses on Real Experiences • BEGIN Foundation, Center for the Visually Impaired in Atlanta • Benefits and involvement of parents • Skills and strategies that are developed • Emphasis on activities that are hands-on, meaningful, and related to real life

  15. Elementary and Middle School Students • Accommodations to Develop Basic Skills • Reinforce concepts presented in class • Emphasize career-awareness skills, social skills, knowledge of human sexuality, self-help skills, knowledge of one’s impairment, and early advocacy skills

  16. Secondary and Transition Students • Preparing for Adult Life • Secondary and transition programs focus on daily living skills • Students work with O&M specialists • Learn to navigate safely through new and unfamiliar environments • Crucial to develop independent living skills

  17. Measuring Students’ Progress • Many students take the same math, social studies, language arts, and science tests as others • Transcribe print materials into Braille • Allow use of a magnifier when reading the test • When students prepare Braille answers, the specialist interlines their work for the general educator (writes in print exactly what is written in Braille above the Braille) • For Braille spelling tests, students spell the words both with and without the Braille contractions

  18. Progress in Addressing Other Educational Needs • Students’ skill levels are determined through informal measures such as teacher observation, evaluation of needed prompt levels, and curriculum-based tests • Teachers must have knowledge of the kinds of skill development influenced by the visual impairment and the related limitations in incidental learning

  19. Making Accommodations for Assessments • Additional time is needed • Braille and/or magnifiers • Reader • Scribe or computer • Quiet testing area • Frequent breaks

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