Depending on the level of vision loss, they may not be able to get any information at all from the way typically sighted children pick up on how things work, that is, by incidental learning experiences that rely on seeing what goes on around them. Rather than learning occurring incidentally, for children with visual impairments, it must take place directly. Use these guidelines to ensure your instruction is truly reaching your students with visual limitations.
1. Active Learning
These kids benefit most from actively experiencing the task to be performed. This starts with guided completion of individual components of it at first with verbal descriptions of the parts they are working towards being ready to perform themselves. This way, they are made fully aware of what the task is and what it involves.
2. Immersion
VI students need significant and repeated exposure and opportunities to experience any given activity to be learned. In other words, the student must be actively and directly engaged rather than a passive observer.
3. Demonstration
Demonstration means more than having the student present while an activity is performed. They will not benefit from that. To be made aware of the process, they need direct instruction both through verbal description and physically being guided through the motions as they reenact the task step by step. Writing about the process of a task and rereading it later may also help some students internalize the information more effectively.
4. Engagement
To engage with an activity, students must view themselves as capable of succeeding with the task and have a reason to perform it. They must perceive first that they can do something safely and also that doing so has a purpose relevant to them that gives them a reason to want to learn it. Help students connect what they are learning to a personal goal. Give them an incentive to want to complete the task independently. Show them how mastering the task will be rewarding in itself by linking it to something they want to do. For example, if they enjoy going out to eat, promise them a trip to a steakhouse as a reward for learning to use a knife to cut their own food neatly.
5. Purposeful Experiences
When teaching a task or skill, start by helping the student understand why they need to accomplish it. Consider the matter from the perspective of the overall goal of the ECC, to help each student become a productive and capable citizen to the greatest extent possible. Why does the student need to be able to do the given task to accomplish their larger goals? Show the student what’s in it for them both in the short term and in the long term. For example, learning to unpack their own clothes from a suitcase and organize into a dresser neatly on move-in day at summer camp. You should ensure they first understand why you are expecting this behavior of them and how doing so will benefit them in the present. It’s easiest for them to just keep letting Mom do it for them, give them a reason to change their mind. In this case, reasons include: they will be able to find their clothes independently and choose what they want to wear for themselves, they will be ready for breakfast on time, they will be proving they can keep up with and do the same things as the sighted kids, etc. They also should be made aware that all the other kids are expected to do so and that their disability should not be used as an excuse. In the long term, learning organization now will make their life easier in so many ways. It seems like a small task now, but it is preparing them to be independent when they get older and spend time away from home such as at sleep-away camp, slumber parties at friends houses, an over-night band competition event, or even college.