Students that are enrolled in the Program for the Visually Impaired often require specialized equipment and tools that are unlike any others utilized in other exceptional education programs. Vision is a distance sense and one that is greatly missed by students with VI. Unlike the popular myths that claim students with VI develop supernatural adaptability from their remaining senses, the reality is that students with VI require guidance in developing skills to help them cope with the loss of incidental observation learning. Although plenty of technological advances have made some mainstream devices capable of providing for some educational needs of students with VI, they cannot fill the gap entirely.
School administrators need to understand that the educational needs of students with VI are not met by just tactile and auditory adaptations. VI students require repeated exposure to direct experiences, as well as extensive, deeply detailed explanations for those experiences. Those are not provided by the usual auditory books available to the general public. Materials that are adapted into tactile and auditory formats are not even close to being equivalent to materials that are presented visually. This makes the impact of VI on the educational experience of students in the VI program more extensive and thus more in need of specialized instruction and equipment unique to VI alone.
Yes, this creates a funding headache for school administrators, however, the needs of VI students are dictated by both state and federal laws and cannot be ignored with the excuse of lack of funding. TVIs must be well-read in translating the impact of IDEA upon what the district must provide for their students with VI. Each state has variations on the federal law and TVIs must know them and help administrators understand why the data that they collect regarding each VI student helps support what specialized equipment and tools are necessary for each student. Every student with VI has unique educational needs that must be met in order to be in compliance with both state and federal laws.
A particularly helpful resource that TVIs should share with administrators is the Administrator's Toolbox, available online through the Texas School for the Blind. Not only does the site provide a variety of materials to TVIs, but it also gives descriptions of services needed and definitions to help administrators advocate for their district funding needs for VI students. The TVI may author the grant writing initiative for the district, however administrator's will need to give an informed statement of approval for the funding grants to be approved. TVIs may also wish to share other published resources with their administrators to help guide them through this process, such as : " Seeing Eye to Eye: An Administrator's Guide to Students", ( Lewis, Allman, & D'Andrea, 2000), and " When You Have A Visually Impaired Student in Your Classroom", ( 2002). Both publications give detailed explainations of Expanded Core Curriculum domains and why they are necessary for VI Students.
Saturday, November 30, 2019
Friday, November 22, 2019
Weekly Blog 13 - ECC Skill Lesson
Creating a lesson involving measurable and observable objectives took some dusting off of the cobwebs for me. I haven't written this way in twenty years and I am not currently in a classroom. I tried to choose something that hopefully is always relevant and got the idea from one of the data collection tools that Marielhi shared with me. This ECC skill involves both social interaction and self-determination. I believe a student in kindergarten could verbally respond to these questions. I would keep the data on a spreadsheet and I would start every lesson verbally questioning the student to make it as routine as possible. In each box next to the corresponding question, I would write either: I= independent, VP=verbal prompt, PP= physical prompt, or X= did not know/complete. The date of when the student practiced the skill would be in the column above the performance box so that it would be evident how often these questions were asked.
Goal: The student will develop appropriate social interaction and self-determination skills when verbally questioned about personal information.
Objective: Student will verbally respond to the following questions with 90% accuracy on 4/5 of the following questions:
1.) What is your date of birth?
2.) What is your home address?
3.) What are/is your parents'/guardian's names?
4.) What is your home phone/parent's phone number?- (Must be able to at least give one full phone number.)
5.) What is the name of the school you attend?
At the beginning of the school year, I would pretest the student to see if he/she knows this information to get a starting point of performance. This would be tested the Spring before we start working on it and after it was included in his/her IEP. I would start a personal safety lesson with the student regarding these questions. The student needs to understand when it is safe to give this information and when it is not appropriate to share it. I would start the unit with exploring books ( audio/braille/ picture/tactile) on the subject matter of professionals that help people (identifying school personnel, doctors, nurses, police, firemen, paramedics, store workers) and talk with them about scenarios that may require them to share this information. safely. I would also add that when I practice these questions with the student, I would approach it as role-play and tell them who I am pretending to be that day- for example- "I'm the school nurse and you're in the clinic, is it okay to share this information?" Again, I would record data on a spreadsheet of how often these questions are asked, performance/accuracy of the answers, and whether or not the student required prompts.
Goal: The student will develop appropriate social interaction and self-determination skills when verbally questioned about personal information.
Objective: Student will verbally respond to the following questions with 90% accuracy on 4/5 of the following questions:
1.) What is your date of birth?
2.) What is your home address?
3.) What are/is your parents'/guardian's names?
4.) What is your home phone/parent's phone number?- (Must be able to at least give one full phone number.)
5.) What is the name of the school you attend?
At the beginning of the school year, I would pretest the student to see if he/she knows this information to get a starting point of performance. This would be tested the Spring before we start working on it and after it was included in his/her IEP. I would start a personal safety lesson with the student regarding these questions. The student needs to understand when it is safe to give this information and when it is not appropriate to share it. I would start the unit with exploring books ( audio/braille/ picture/tactile) on the subject matter of professionals that help people (identifying school personnel, doctors, nurses, police, firemen, paramedics, store workers) and talk with them about scenarios that may require them to share this information. safely. I would also add that when I practice these questions with the student, I would approach it as role-play and tell them who I am pretending to be that day- for example- "I'm the school nurse and you're in the clinic, is it okay to share this information?" Again, I would record data on a spreadsheet of how often these questions are asked, performance/accuracy of the answers, and whether or not the student required prompts.
Friday, November 15, 2019
Week#12- The Benefits of Teaching the ECC in Collaboration
It's extremely easy as a TVI to fall into the trap of thinking that you must teach the Expanded Core Curriculum as the Lone Ranger. Most of the time our job is done independently and it's especially so if you're an itinerant teacher traveling from school to school. Usually, we are the only professionals with full knowledge of the extent of the impact a visual impairment has on the student living with it. The issue of getting all of the ECC goals and objectives effectively covered doesn't have to fall entirely on the TVI. In many cases, given the shortage of TVIs, collaboration with the student's parents and the educational team as a whole is the best approach to making sure that these skills transfer into the real-world needs of the student. Collaboration is the best way to avoid the ECC skills becoming disjointed from the overall educational needs of the student. When done well, the ECC skills enhance the student's ability to thrive in life in spite of the lack of visual input.
When I worked as the vision resource room teacher at a school for students with exceptional needs, collaboration was everything. Our students were dealing with so many exceptional needs that affected every aspect of their lives, it was necessary to work together to get the best possible progress. Life skills, (as they were called at that time), were the majority of the goals and objectives on the IEPs. I am talking about helping students that needed guidance with assistive technology, simple career skills, money management, cooking skills, as well as, basic feeding skills, dressing skills, and hygiene skills. When the educational team met, it included a large number of therapists, and it was necessary for the health and safety of these medically fragile students to understand the full measure of what we were dealing with. In some cases, it was life or death for the student in understanding not only the extent of the student's visual impairment but for example, if your student had a seizure disorder, it was necessary to understand signs of an upcoming seizure event and triggers.
It was necessary for all of us to understand the impact of each exceptionality upon each one of our goals and objectives. I distinctly remember working closely with the speech-language pathologists to help one particular student with retinopathy of prematurity utilize an adaptive speech-language device. This student was wheelchair-bound, so we needed to make sure that wherever the device was attached on her tray, it was within her field of vision for her to optimize the device's features. Each of us had a different goal and objective for the student's use of the device because it was a huge part of empowering the student in her educational environment. However, the goals and objectives worked together to help the student increase her ability to utilize the device efficiently.
Later on, when I became an itinerant TVI, collaboration with the educational team members helped my students to carry over their vision skills to other areas of their education. For example, keyboarding skills that I taught to my student, would be encouraged by the classroom teacher so that the student could keep up with general education demands. I made it a point to not allow myself to become an island and frequently communicated with other teachers and professionals working with my students in order to assure that whatever goal and objective I was working towards with the student was helping that student to make progress in other areas of his/her education. It's not easy when you're already strapped for time, but it is necessary in order to assure the overall progress of the student.
When I worked as the vision resource room teacher at a school for students with exceptional needs, collaboration was everything. Our students were dealing with so many exceptional needs that affected every aspect of their lives, it was necessary to work together to get the best possible progress. Life skills, (as they were called at that time), were the majority of the goals and objectives on the IEPs. I am talking about helping students that needed guidance with assistive technology, simple career skills, money management, cooking skills, as well as, basic feeding skills, dressing skills, and hygiene skills. When the educational team met, it included a large number of therapists, and it was necessary for the health and safety of these medically fragile students to understand the full measure of what we were dealing with. In some cases, it was life or death for the student in understanding not only the extent of the student's visual impairment but for example, if your student had a seizure disorder, it was necessary to understand signs of an upcoming seizure event and triggers.
It was necessary for all of us to understand the impact of each exceptionality upon each one of our goals and objectives. I distinctly remember working closely with the speech-language pathologists to help one particular student with retinopathy of prematurity utilize an adaptive speech-language device. This student was wheelchair-bound, so we needed to make sure that wherever the device was attached on her tray, it was within her field of vision for her to optimize the device's features. Each of us had a different goal and objective for the student's use of the device because it was a huge part of empowering the student in her educational environment. However, the goals and objectives worked together to help the student increase her ability to utilize the device efficiently.
Later on, when I became an itinerant TVI, collaboration with the educational team members helped my students to carry over their vision skills to other areas of their education. For example, keyboarding skills that I taught to my student, would be encouraged by the classroom teacher so that the student could keep up with general education demands. I made it a point to not allow myself to become an island and frequently communicated with other teachers and professionals working with my students in order to assure that whatever goal and objective I was working towards with the student was helping that student to make progress in other areas of his/her education. It's not easy when you're already strapped for time, but it is necessary in order to assure the overall progress of the student.
Sunday, November 10, 2019
Week #11 - Factors to Consider When Determining Delivery of VI Services
This week the focus was on understanding the factors that go into determining the delivery of services to students with visual impairments. After the IEP has been written with specific, measurable goals and objectives, the questions of where, what conditions, and how often must be decided in terms of how services are administered to the student. All decisions are filtered through the already completed assessments that were not only completed by the TVI, but also by all members of the student's educational team, and with the input of the student's family, as well as what the results of those assessments determined the student's most pressing educational needs to be.
Determining what the least restrictive environment for the student should be and yet still accomplish the goals and objectives on the student's IEP is the first factor to be considered. Delivery models for VI are numerous and determining what the least restrictive environment is while meeting the student's educational needs depends on what the level of the student's visual functioning is in correspondence to the need for instruction in the expanded core curriculum. How much support does the student require from the TVI to function in his educational setting? Does the TVI need to allot time for providing adaptation of classroom materials or instruction in assistive technology? How much support does the educational team require from the TVI to provide instruction to the student? These questions and more go into determining the appropriate setting for the student to receive VI services.
Another factor to consider is how stable is the student's eye condition. Is the vision loss progressive and how quick is that progression? How much will it affect his educational needs within his classroom and the school itself? If the condition changes rapidly, will the educational team be able to adapt his needs with the support of the TVI, or will the TVI need to take on more of the instructional needs during that time? For instance, if the student was being served in an itinerant teaching setting, and his vision changed dramatically, he may need to have services changed to a resource room, or even a self-contained setting. If the condition is stable, how well does the student utilize functional vision? There are low vision students that do remarkably well with visual functioning and may do well educationally in a general education classroom with a few VI supports.
To answer the question of what factors are not a consideration when determining delivery of VI services, I would hypothesize the funding and availability of TVIs. Federal funding to provide VI services and support materials are available throughout the US. In areas that are more rural, TVI availability may be a factor, however, districts have access to private contracting companies to provide VI services of contracted vision professionals.
Determining what the least restrictive environment for the student should be and yet still accomplish the goals and objectives on the student's IEP is the first factor to be considered. Delivery models for VI are numerous and determining what the least restrictive environment is while meeting the student's educational needs depends on what the level of the student's visual functioning is in correspondence to the need for instruction in the expanded core curriculum. How much support does the student require from the TVI to function in his educational setting? Does the TVI need to allot time for providing adaptation of classroom materials or instruction in assistive technology? How much support does the educational team require from the TVI to provide instruction to the student? These questions and more go into determining the appropriate setting for the student to receive VI services.
Another factor to consider is how stable is the student's eye condition. Is the vision loss progressive and how quick is that progression? How much will it affect his educational needs within his classroom and the school itself? If the condition changes rapidly, will the educational team be able to adapt his needs with the support of the TVI, or will the TVI need to take on more of the instructional needs during that time? For instance, if the student was being served in an itinerant teaching setting, and his vision changed dramatically, he may need to have services changed to a resource room, or even a self-contained setting. If the condition is stable, how well does the student utilize functional vision? There are low vision students that do remarkably well with visual functioning and may do well educationally in a general education classroom with a few VI supports.
To answer the question of what factors are not a consideration when determining delivery of VI services, I would hypothesize the funding and availability of TVIs. Federal funding to provide VI services and support materials are available throughout the US. In areas that are more rural, TVI availability may be a factor, however, districts have access to private contracting companies to provide VI services of contracted vision professionals.
Saturday, November 2, 2019
Week #10: The IEP Process and How it impacts family members
The IEP ( Individualized Education Plan) is the document that is the result of a lengthy process resulting in its publication. The process starts with the referral of a student for evaluation. The student's parents are then contacted in order to receive permission to evaluate the student to determine if the child is eligible for exceptional education services and what services he/she qualifies for. After all formal evaluations are completed and the child is determined to eligible for services, the IEP meeting is scheduled and involves parents, teachers, therapists, counselors, and administration of the school. During this meeting, specific, measurable, and relevant goals and objectives are written to guide all professionals involved with the student in delivering the most appropriate instructional delivery in the least restrictive environment for that student's educational needs. These goals and objectives are reviewed annually to assure progress is being achieved. However formal re-evaluation of the student is completed at least every three years to assure that if the needs of the student change, the IEP can be adjusted appropriately to their needs.
It is imperative that parents/ guardians understand their due process rights in being a part of the entire process of developing their student's IEP. They do have the right to refer the student to be evaluated, sign written consent for evaluation, and provide a great deal of input in helping to write the goals and objectives of the IEP. They also have the right to dissent to any part of that IEP with a formal written argument. Although their signatures are required for the initial IEP, often parents do not realize that that signature isn't required on subsequent IEP's. They believe that if they disagree with anything, that simply refusing to sign the IEP document is enough to protest. That is an incorrect assumption. It is vital that they read and understand the written due process procedures that they are provided at each IEP meeting so that they understand how to write out what specifically what it is they do not agree with and what it specifically it is that they want for their student. Written documentation is required of both the parents and the district handling the IEP. Nothing is just done verbally.
Consequently, it is also important that parents/guardians have input on what services and how those services are provided to their student. They do have a say on what the least restrictive environment is and how transitional services should be handled regarding post-graduation plans. Because parents and guardians have such a vital role in the process of developing the IEP, it is essential that school districts and all professionals involved keep all communication positive and develop a relationship with the student's family that is cooperative towards helping the student reach his academic and functional life goals. When the relationship turns adversarial, it is the student that is harmed the most. Clear communication and conscious pursuit of mutual understanding among all parties involved with the IEP process provides the student with the best possible scenario to have his/her educational needs met.
It is imperative that parents/ guardians understand their due process rights in being a part of the entire process of developing their student's IEP. They do have the right to refer the student to be evaluated, sign written consent for evaluation, and provide a great deal of input in helping to write the goals and objectives of the IEP. They also have the right to dissent to any part of that IEP with a formal written argument. Although their signatures are required for the initial IEP, often parents do not realize that that signature isn't required on subsequent IEP's. They believe that if they disagree with anything, that simply refusing to sign the IEP document is enough to protest. That is an incorrect assumption. It is vital that they read and understand the written due process procedures that they are provided at each IEP meeting so that they understand how to write out what specifically what it is they do not agree with and what it specifically it is that they want for their student. Written documentation is required of both the parents and the district handling the IEP. Nothing is just done verbally.
Consequently, it is also important that parents/guardians have input on what services and how those services are provided to their student. They do have a say on what the least restrictive environment is and how transitional services should be handled regarding post-graduation plans. Because parents and guardians have such a vital role in the process of developing the IEP, it is essential that school districts and all professionals involved keep all communication positive and develop a relationship with the student's family that is cooperative towards helping the student reach his academic and functional life goals. When the relationship turns adversarial, it is the student that is harmed the most. Clear communication and conscious pursuit of mutual understanding among all parties involved with the IEP process provides the student with the best possible scenario to have his/her educational needs met.
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