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Mary/PA - Welcome to this Teachers.Net meeting about working with the visually impared.
Mary/PA - Hi David
Finally Finished - Oh ok..I work with Deaf children so I probably wouldn't have much to add. I live in Boston so Perkins is right nearby but I don't have much experience....
Dave MontrealCan - Good evening everyone welcome to the session ;0
Mary/PA - David, what do you have planned for this evening?
Dave MontrealCan - Thank you all for coming tonight I am here to assist teachers who will be having sight impaired children in their classrooms
Pinky - I have two students who are seen by the Commision of the blind
Dave MontrealCan - Mary I was thinking about an interactive question answer session for those who wish to ask questions
Mary/PA - OK David
Dave MontrealCan - Pinky where are you located?
Mary/PA - Pinky, is that odd to have two students in one class?
Pinky - What is cortical blindness
Pinky - I teach special Ed I have ten CP students three of which are medically challanged
Pinky - I am in NJ
Dave MontrealCan - Pinky one thing I do is when giving workshops I have a briefcase of simmulator glasses which simmulate varying degrees of visual impairments it gives the teachers a virtual reality experience of what it is like to actually have a specific visual impairment
Mary/PA - There is a definition for cortical blindness at this URL - http://neuro-www.mgh.harvard.edu/forum/VisualImpairmentsF/CorticalBlindness....html
Dave MontrealCan - Pinky do you find that your students do well in your classroom who are sight impaired?
Pinky - Thank you Mary
Mary/PA - Here's another - http://www.tsbvi.edu/Education/anomalies/cortical_blindness.htm
Pinky - The one boy "Freddy" has good days then others not because of his medical challanges
Dave MontrealCan - Pinky does he have adaptive aides to assist him in the classroom?
Pinky - The class room is equipted for his language impairment by using "Cheap Talk". But I not for his visual impairments
Dave MontrealCan - Pinky can you take down a toll free number/
Pinky - yes
Mary/PA - Pinky, is this the child with cortical blindness ?
Dave MontrealCan - Pinky the American Council of the Blind in Washington Dc is accessible across North America the toll free number is 1 800 424 8666
Pinky - Yes he is the other boy "bert" has scanning and visual attention troubles
Pinky - Thank you Dave
Dave MontrealCan - Pinky how does your student take notes in the classroom?
Pinky - The students in my class are working on skills like color ID, Name ID, Picture ID, they aare able to color with facilation (sp?)
Pinky - color pictures that are predrawn
Dave MontrealCan - Pinky does the sight impaired student take notes from the board using a minature telescope ?
Mary/PA - Dave, since there seems to not be any questions, why don't you list some things that people can do to help students who have visual needs.
Dave MontrealCan - Ok well teachers who have sght impaired children need to be aware of the lighting situation in your classroom example if the sun is shining on the blackboard and making a glare effect you need to either draw the shades slightly or have the student change seats depending on the time of day
Pinky - I usually stump people when I come on this board with a ponderance
Mary/PA - This seems to be true for most people. That glare can be a problem to everyone.
Mary/PA - Yes Pinky, your kids seem to have mutiple problems.
Dave MontrealCan - The sight impaired student needs to be able to participate in all activities with ease and comfort you may wish to assighn a partner to that student to assist them in active participation acitivites
Pinky - With physical and visuall and verbal limitations it is tricky I have found that the students have great receptive understanding
Dave MontrealCan - Also during fire drill it is essential that there be eithe ra student who is responsible or a teacher to guide the student out quickly
Pinky - I speak better that I type sorry about the errors
Mary/PA - Dave, how do you know when the teacher or the child's partner are helping too much, doing things for the student that he/she might be doing for him/herself?
Dave MontrealCan - Another thing for students who are sight ompaired especially in the younger grades is emotional problems feeling left out it is important that these students feel welcome and wanted in the classroom at all time
Pinky - I need to log on when there is a dicussion about acessing the students mind
Linda - Hi, I will have a student in my kindergarten this year who is blind. He will have a fulltime parapro. aide.
Pinky - Thank you for the numbers and the web sights
Linda - Do you think at age 5 he might feel left out?
Linda - Do you think a 5 year old is too young to understand his difference?
Dave MontrealCan - Linda it depends on how the other students respond to him it may be necessary for you to monitor how the other students respond to him to ensure he feels comfortable in the classroom
Linda - I'm worried that the aide will do too much for him. How should I prep her? She has no experience.
Candy... - Dave does the same go for High School or Middle School students or is it different?
Mary/PA - Linda, that's a good question....does a 5 year old realize that he is a bit different
Dave MontrealCan - Mary that can be difficult but it is essential for the teacher to use their own judgement if they see that the students are being over protective of the sight impaired child it is a good idea to encourage some assistance but not to smother the child actually Brackens in Scotland had this problem and she had to encourage her children in her K classroom to help J but not to over smother him
Linda - He will have special instruction for reading, but I don't know what that will be. A special teacher will come in. But I want him to participate in large group activities, songs and other things like that. What do you think?
Dave MontrealCan - Candy in High School it can be the same if other students are over protective although it does not seem to be as often most of the time by High School the sight impaired child has adjusted to their environment and is reasonably independant
Mary/PA - Linda, I think my main concern at this age would be my room arrangement. I taught kinder for the last 8 years and I know the room can change a lot and become cluttered at times. I'd be concerned about controlling that
Linda - Good point about room arrangement! Is it better to have furnitive abutting each other to give him something to grasp as a guide, or to remove a lot of the furnitive to unclutter the room?
Dave MontrealCan - Linda if you notice the sight impaired child hiding off in a corner you may wish to pair them up with a student who is reasponsible and have them guide the sight impaired child through the steps in group participation acitivities you as the teacher may wish to guide the student throught the activity by standign behind themn and guiding them
Linda - Dave, do you think he will need someone to lead him around by the hand, or should I allow him to find his way until he asks for or demonstrates the need for help?
Dave MontrealCan - Linda I think you should let him explore the room let him find out if he can find his own way and always encourage him to be as independant as he can if he needs extra help of course encourage him to not be shy and ask for it but at the same time you need to encourage as much independance as possible
Linda - But I should go around the room with him to explain what everything is, right?
Dave MontrealCan - Yes Linda at the beginning of the school year yes you need to do that
Linda - Do you think it would be a good idea to have him visit the classroom before all the other kids arrive, give him time to get to know the environment that way?
Dave MontrealCan - Yes Linda I believe that would help him to get used to the classroom let him explore and be there for him to assist him at that time if he needs it
Mary/PA - Linda, I think that's a good idea...you have been giving this a lot of thought
Dave MontrealCan - Linda you have been thinking about this a lot you are a very devoted teacher
Linda - It's intimidating to be facing this, wanting to do the best we can for this child, and not having had the experience of being without sight, unsure of how to do that.
Linda - I should be quiet now and let garf talk.
Dave MontrealCan - Linda may i explain somnething here
Linda - Yes, Dave, please do!
Dave MontrealCan - I was mainstreamed as a sight impaired student from K through University I started K in 1972 and was the only sight impaired child at Riverview elementary school at that time, i had the determinatiojn to make it and I had no teacher aid at that time at all I survived on my own qith the adaptive aides i needed to read with
Linda - Dave, you did well!
Dave MontrealCan - Linda at the moment I love giving workshops and inservice to elementayr teachers, i feel i am making a difference and i want to emphasize here that anything is possible if you put your mind to it and you want to succeed you will
Linda - Thank you for sharing your experiences so that we can help our students
Dave MontrealCan - Linda please tell me what you are concerned about for this fall
Linda - My concern is making the little guy feel comfortable and successful. I guess I worry about safety, that he'll trip and fall or something.
Linda - I'm not too worried about what _I_ have to do for him in terms of literacy since a specially trained teacher will come in to do that.
garf/sped/ga - Kids do fall. It is a fact of life
Linda - I'll help him with phonetic skills by including him in all the oral activities we do.
Dave MontrealCan - Linda all you need to do is make sure that the classroom is safe and not dangerous for him, sensitize the other students to his needs it is easy to do in K most of the time the children respond very positively to diversity if taught early
Linda - I wonder whether he might be strong in the area of phonemic awareness since he's had to depend so much on his auditory skills?
garf/sped/ga - explain what you mean by sensitize?
Linda - I agree that K kids are very accepting, that's never been a problem in my groups.
garf/sped/ga - make sure they do not baby him. I had a K student last year and her peers babied her
Dave MontrealCan - well it is 10 pm I would like ot thank teachers net for allowing me to give this session tonight
garf/sped/ga - GN
Linda - garf, good point, that wouldn't help, to have him babied. That's what I worry about with his para
Linda - Dave, thank YOU for being available!
Mary/PA - Thank you David
Linda - goodnight everyone
Mary/PA - Good night
Dave MontrealCan - Night everyone thanks
