How to Teach a Visually Impaired Pupil
With some preparation and imaginative thinking, your lessons can be as engaging for visually impaired pupils as they are for everyone else, says Juno Hollyhock
- by Teachwire
Should all teaching and learning be inclusive? I’d be very surprised if anyone reading this would answer ‘no’. However, inclusive teaching in a class where all students have broadly equal access to all of their senses is one thing.
Inclusive teaching in a class where one or more children are without a critical sense, such as sight, is quite another.
If we’re to provide children who are visually impaired with an inclusive learning experience that doesn’t entail being parked with an LSA at the back of the classroom, then we need to plan carefully.
Preparations
Before the child’s first visit to your school, ensure that you know what you’re dealing with.
1. What is the extent of the visual impairment? Total lack of sight is different to tunnel vision, which is different again to being able to perceive light and darkness. Talk to the parents/ carers of the child and find out as much as you can about the child’s experience of visual impairment.
2. Is the visual impairment acquired or present since birth? This is important, as a child confident with moving around in a sighted world since birth will have different experiences and expectations to one coming to terms with an acquired condition.
3. What techniques are already in use at home and in other settings? Ideally it’s best to initially follow existing tools and forms of communication, rather than introduce a whole new raft of things to learn just for school. This will help the child settle in faster and access the curriculum more easily.
4. Will full vision return, or is this a lifelong condition? If the visual impairment has been acquired recently and is unlikely to improve, school will be a key place in which to set targets around communication skills, confidence and aspirations going forward, in addition to their education targets. These extra targets should all be agreed with the family and the child.
5. What additional support is being put in place? For example, check whether there will be a dedicated LSA who can help the child with integrating.
You can then begin preparing your staff and pupils. It may be that you decide to give them some lived experience of the visually impaired child’s ‘view’ on the world.
This might involve spending an hour with some form of blindfold that mirrors as closely as possible the nature of the child’s visual impairment (such as a full blindfold, netting, old spectacle frames dressed up with cardboard ‘lenses’ that have pinholes, etc) and can be a great way of identifying some of the challenges he or she might face.
You can then build on this by devising scenarios with particular aims in mind, such as the following:
- Helping children and staff to understand what it’s like to be pulled around a space, rather than guided with a hand on the arm
- Experiencing the distraction of non-relevant noises when trying to listen to a lesson – particularly one delivered from the front of the class only
- Finding out how difficult it can be to tell voices apart when people don’t give their names
- Appreciating the importance of tactile resources in giving depth and texture to a learning resource
Impress upon staff and pupils the importance of not making sudden or unannounced changes to the classroom layout, such as moving tables and chairs or leaving bags to be tripped over.
Are there any ‘clues’ around the walls or floor surfaces that might help a child with a visual impairment navigate from their desk to the door, from the door to the whiteboard and the whiteboard to the drawers?
Start a ‘buddy’ scheme among your pupils where the person appointed buddy changes each week, so that the child is interacting with a wide range of peers and getting to know new friends.
The child’s first day
Once they’ve arrived, spend some time in the classroom with the child and their Buddy to help them map certain routes and identify non-visual features.
Make sure that you’ve planned routes to areas such the toilets and the playground. Whilst the Buddy is there to help, the child must be able to develop their confidence and sense of independence.
Talk about the child’s seating plan, who they’ll be sitting with and explain if and how that seating plan may change.
Teaching and learning
High quality teaching and learning for a child with a visual impairment looks very similar to high quality teaching and learning across the board:
- Targets are shared and understood
- Behaviour management is strong
- Questioning is used effectively to test learning outcomes
- Resources are creative, of a high quality and where possible, multi-sensory
As always, behaviour management should be fair and equitable across the board. However, care should be taken with sanctions or restorative measures to ensure that they’re achievable and fair for the visually impaired child.
All learners will enjoy using resources that are multi-sensory. There’s a wide range of such resources on the market, and with a little ingenuity you can convert a visually based lesson to one that uses sounds, touch and taste and even smell to help communicate messages and learning points.
Musical notes or sounds are a great way to communicate with a class. Sound can be used to describe many things, from running water to farm animals, and even colours, with a little imagination. Combining sounds and words together will stretch children’s imagination at story time and in creative writing endeavours.
Pictures can be enhanced with use of texture and loose parts. Stories can be told by preparing a bag of materials illustrating certain parts of the story and pouring them into the hand at the right time.
The biblical parable of the sowing of the seeds is excellent for this, with stones, seeds, earth, water and warmth all able to play a sensory part.
Movement is another good way of embedding learning for the whole class. Different movements for different numbers in maths, for example, can create a fun method of learning that embeds numeracy confidence whether you’re sighted or not.
Outside the classroom
All children benefit from feedback to parents and carers, but this is especially important for a visually impaired child if they’re to thrive within the classroom and successfully complete homework tasks.
- Share any learning or communication techniques you’ve found to be particularly helpful
- Share homework tasks and ensure that parents/ carers understand how they can provide support with these without over-supporting
- Provide any additional tactile resources that might be needed for homework
- Establish contact with any other settings the child attends to ensure that progress is matched across all aspects of their life, where possible
- Make space for regular contact with the family, even if from your point of view there’s nothing specific to discuss
Juno Hollyhock is CEO of The Rose Road Association – a registered charity that provides support services for children and adults with complex and multiple disabilities and health needs.
