Vision is the sense that provides us with knowledge
about space and offers us the highest amount of information which people
perceive from the environment. However, this is not the fundamental role of the
vision sense; its main function is the integration of the stimulation received
from all the senses. The visual impairment has close relationship regarding low
vision, residual vision and other terms referred to visual acuity or partial
loss of the visual field which is produced by a cerebral or ocular pathologic
process (Consejeria de Educacion Ciencia y
Tecnologia, 2001).
Children with limited visual skills present an
alteration that decreases their ability to perceive colors, shapes,
three-dimensional images, and distances. A visual deficit can vary from low
vision to total blindness. Children with blindness or low vision have
difficulty for acquiring the representation of the world since their imitation
capacity is limited.
Blind children must learn that when they are moving
they have to keep their other senses in state of constant alert in order to
gather all the possible information and interpret that information from the
environment in which they are living. They can do the majority of actions that
a sighted person can, but they need a particular type of learning which demands
from them a major effort and obviously the support, accompaniment and
dedication on the part of their teachers to potentiate their tactile, auditory
and kinesthetic perceptions.
Below, we present some general recommendations for
working with blind and partially sighted children with Special Educational
Needs S.E.N referred to the vision in the classroom. Those recommendations are
intended to enrich the pedagogical work and the relationship between teacher
and the students with visual impairment according to the characteristics and
specific needs of each of the students within their particular contexts.
It is necessary that the teacher knows the
implications from the ophthalmological diagnostic of their students in order to
identify the visual resources they have and the difficulties which can make
their learning difficult. In the light of those results the teacher can involve
planed and intentioned pedagogical interventions with the purpose of obtaining
better and meaningful learning.
GENERAL
RECOMMENDATIONS
Teachers should use an articulated, clear, simple,
precise and direct language with a tone of voice which can be projected within
the classroom in such a way that children can receive the information. This
language should be descriptive, explicative and it is advisable for the teacher
to constantly make questions to the students in order to check their
understanding. So it is not necessary to gesture if spoken language replacement
is needed.
The teachers should avoid words like “here”, “there”,
“that” and exclamations that can cause anxiety to the students like “care”,
“ay”, ouch! Conversely, teachers should not hesitate to use words like see,
look, blind, and if for some reason the teacher has to leave the classroom it
is important to announce that fact before leaving it and doing the same when
the teacher return to the classroom.
When teachers are planning their classes it is
important to emphasize on educational experiences that encourage them to
develop their tactile, auditory, gustatory and olfactory abilities since those
skills help them to improve their mental representation of the world. It is
important to help them to develop their sensory-perceptual skills through their
own experience and interaction with the world around them. Any sound, image,
taste, smell or roughness stimulates the child's senses. In this way, the
sensory nerves send messages to the central nervous system, especially the
brain, these messages have meaning, so the perception begins. Later, the
perceptions of the world start are remembered and thus learning arises (Consejeria de Educacion Ciencia y Tecnologia, 2001) .
For improving their motor and kinesthetic perceptions
teachers should plan educational experiences with which they use materials with
diverse features regarding to relief, form, size and sound in such a way that
those children can distinguish properties from the objects, contrast and
classify them. Teachers should facilitate their spatial orientations and
mobility within their environment with the purpose of achieving right movements
and transportation as well as the identification of places within the school.
Also, it is necessary to stimulate their visual perceptions
and teach them to correctly interpret the visual sensations they can perceive.
The degree of blindness gives two types of students, total blind, that means,
those students who have minimal visual remains, and therefore unusable, and the
partially blind with traces of vision which can be used, in this case, it is
very important that the teacher knows this possibility in order to collaborate
on visual stimulation to visually impaired student as a good visual
rehabilitation. In this case some interventions are for example the use of
texts with large prints, and attractive colors for materials in order to
stimulate the use of such visual remains.
Additionally, reading and writing are the two basic
skills which are developed in teaching. They are two pillars that will support
school life. The importance of these learning, reading and writing defines the
importance for children with low vision for correctly interpreting the code
(ink or Braille) they will use, thus it is fundamental to encourage the
students for getting involved in the world of reading and writing through all
the optical resources available and existing material such as Braille system
and technological devices. A blind child must fulfill a set of requirements
before learning reading and writing, they are specific aspects such as the
development of tactile perception, independence of the fingers, correct hand
position and movements to be performed and postural adjustment.
METHODOLOGICAL ORIENTATIONS
Students with visual deficit receive little
information from their environment. Teachers should select activities that
result really representative for the basic repertoire students should acquire;
here it is important to begin the lessons from the concrete and particular to
the global and general.
It is mandatory for the teacher to facilitate the
students with visual remains optimal conditions regarding light, contrast and
optical devices that allow them to stimulate their low vision. The amount of
light that is needed in order to the visual sense to function adequately varies
depending on the eye condition. In general, increasing the lighting enhances
visual resolution, color perception, discrimination and depth perception. Therefore,
it is important to consider that the shiny materials can dazzle in certain
positions, a general suggestion is to be sure of having the as much contrast as
possible, to choose lights that emit light uniformly, use matte surfaces, and
in that way, to avoid glare.
Blind students need to explore the material by
sections until they can discover and know them. This analytic character of the
tactile exploration implies learning a little bit slow. The experiential
learning results essential. It is not recommendable to use the experiences
already known by them. The child needs to experience personally, to learn by
doing, in order to represent those experiences in their minds, and therefore,
make them more important and significant for the students themselves.
Learning which is acquired by direct imitation is out
of the reach of a blind student. Then, if there is no imitation, it is
necessary to physically guide them until they achieve such learning.
RECOMMENDATIONS
FOR DESIGNING AND ADAPTING MATERIAL
Use material that represents no harm to student
manipulation, thus the importance of revising the material for no sharp edges.
Teachers should try the material they have created or adapted before they use
it regularly. Teachers should test the material even with the students; it is beneficial
for them to get familiar to it.
Teachers should orally describe the material guiding
the students’ hands; the idea is that the students explore the tactile
information and make this information meaningful to them. At this point, it is
essential to promote the students’ participation with visual limitations regarding
the material design. Students and their families are part of this process.
It is important to place a guide to indicate the right
side of the material, for example, a sign generator written in the upper right
corner of the sheet, or even, rounding out the bottom right corner of the
sheet, or any sign that tells the students which side of the sheet he or she
should start working.
Materials used with blind and partially sighted
students should be attractive and catch the students’ attention. As teachers
create and adapt materials they will learn to select better and more functional
techniques.
ORIENTATIONS
FOR TEACHING ENGLISH
Oral communication for people with visual limitations
it is being given equal treatment with regard to sighted students.
Consequently, it is necessary to guide the students for the enrichment of
English vocabulary in order to acquire a more fluent speaking at the moment of
facing a real conversation. One way to do it is by asking questions or
answering those questions which are posed according to the topic of the lesson.
Students with visual limitation learn to use the sense
of hearing better due to the need for supplying their lack of visual stimulus,
therefore teachers should emphasize on developing the auditory skill taking
advantage of the different auditory devices or even through a good reading on the
part of the teacher by using, descriptions of the images or photographs using a
clear, specific and well pronounced English according to the level of the
students.
Make sure that the students with visual limitations
are located in a place where they can clearly hear the audios and the teacher’s
speech, preferably, they should seat in the first place of the row. This
position will surely help to stimulate the concentration of blind students
which will be favored through activities that call their attention like for
example those related to readings using precise descriptions that allow them to
recognize images which they cannot perceive visually.
It is probable that the students listen to the
pronunciation of the words and sentences for activities of word completion, but
it sometimes happens, that they do not know the way of writing them, so if the
teacher decides to write words on the board,, they must not forget to spell the
words as he writes, which will help the students to spell the words correctly
as well.
From those suggestions and recommendations it is
possible to say that in benefit for the psychosocial development of the
children, whether they have a disability or not, it is important that the teacher
satisfies in a sensitive way and on time their needs, telling them their
strengths and weaknesses, cultivating on them acceptation and respect about
themselves, demanding them according to their particular characteristics and
encouraging them to work in a context full of positive interactions.
WRITING IN BRAILLE
Writing in braille is faster than reading and it tends
to show less difficulty. A text in braille can be made by handwriting or
typing.
BRAILLE HANDWRITING
In order to write by hand, it is necessary to use a
lead, a punch and a piece of bond paper.
PRINCIPLES FOR BRAILLE
HANDWRITING
a) Reading is usually carried out from left to right,
so it is necessary to write the opposite way, that is, to write from right to
left, inverting the numbering of the point numbers inside the cells. Through
this way, the mark produced during writing, may be read as a relief point when
the piece of paper is turned upside down.
b) Before starting, it is convenient to acquire
mechanic precision in marking the points inside the cells, in order to develop
this skill, it is important to practice by making point series, this way, the
student will get used to the cells in each box.
c) All the point marks must have the exact same
relief, this means, it is required to develop a mechanic precision.
BRAILLE TYPEWRITING
The PERKINS – BRAILLER, which is the most commonly
used typing machine, contains 6 keys, one for each one of the points inside the
boxes, it also contains a space bar, a backspace key and another one for moving
through lines.
These keys can be used separately or simultaneously,
which allows the combinations that allow the student to type all the braille
symbols at once.
Each button must be pushed with a certain finger, so
that writing can be made as fast as possible and with a minimum effort. This
must be done by making the position of the fingers be the most comfortable and
effective possible.
As with any child, a blind student needs an
appropriate degree of previous preparation in different areas of knowledge.
This preparation introduces the student in the basic skills necessary for
reading and writing.
Touch training in blind or visually impaired students
must be tremendously superior to the sighted students, although both need to
acquire concepts through their motion development, the blind student should not
only use their motion skills to handle the writing instruments, but also the
touch is their only source of information in the reading skills acquisition
process.
Every blind or visually impaired student must acquire
skills and concepts in different areas of knowledge before getting started on
writing and reading in braille.
1. Motor skills
2. Sensory and perceptual development
3. Memory, attention and observation development.
TEACHING SUGGESTIONS TO
DEVELOP READING – WRITING SKILLS
Some exercises are advisable to learn and practice
braille reading and writing, for example, the use of egg boxes, which after
being cut off, can be reduced to six spaces. The size makes it attractive for
young learners, and in order to practice, students should use tennis balls,
marbles or small rocks to fill the spaces inside the boxes, first freely and
after following sequences or a specific order.
The yellow lead, the starter lead and the pre-writing
board are some of the commonly used instruments in Braille. The yellow lead is
a wooden or plastic template that contains a line with boxes. These boxes are
big enough to the kid to insert a set of small wooden or plastic sticks without
any difficulty. The braille board is a wooden table containing several lines of
boxes similar to the ones in the yellow lead.
THE ABACUS
The abacus (plural abaci or abacuses), also called a
counting frame, is a calculating tool used primarily in parts of Asia for
performing arithmetic processes. Today, abaci are often constructed as a bamboo
frame with beads sliding on wires, but originally they were beans or stones
moved in grooves in sand or on tablets of wood, stone, or metal. The abacus was
in use centuries before the adoption of the written modern numeral system and
is still widely used by merchants, traders and clerks in Asia, Africa, and
elsewhere. The user of an abacus is called an abacist.
USES OF THE ABACUS IN BLIND
OR VISUALLY IMPAIRED STUDENTS
An
adapted abacus, invented by Tim Cranmer, called a Cranmer abacus is still
commonly used by individuals who are blind. A piece of soft fabric or rubber is
placed behind the beads so that they do not move inadvertently. This keeps the
beads in place while the users feel or manipulate them. They use an abacus to
perform the mathematical functions multiplication, division, addition,
subtraction, square root and cubic root.
Although blind students have benefited from talking
calculators, the abacus is still very often taught to these students in early
grades, both in public schools and state schools for the blind. The abacus
teaches mathematical skills that can never be replaced with talking calculators
and is an important learning tool for blind students.[citation needed] Blind
students also complete mathematical assignments using a braille-writer and
Nemeth code (a type of braille code for mathematics) but large multiplication
and long division problems can be long and difficult. The abacus gives blind
and visually impaired students a tool to compute mathematical problems that
equals the speed and mathematical knowledge required by their sighted peers
using pencil and paper. Many blind people find this number machine a very
useful tool throughout life.
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