Teaching Students with Visual Impairments
  • Home
  • Foundations of VI
  • Professional Practice
  • VI Service
  • Adaptations
  • VI Assistive Tech
  • ECC Instruction
  • About
  • Contact
  • VI Store & Gifts
    • VI Gift Shop >
      • Braille Jewely
      • VI Shirts
      • VI Drinkware
      • Vision Bags & Totes
      • Braille Greeting Cards
      • White Cane Tags/Keyrings
    • ECC Instructional Resources >
      • TVI's Guide Complete Set Bundle
      • TVI's Guide to Teaching the ECC
      • Thematic Keyboarding & Braille Fluency Worksheets
      • Visual Efficiency & Magnifier Fluency
      • Task Box Activities
      • Vocabularky Cards & Checklists
      • Interactive Sensory Stories
      • Interactive Matching Activities
      • Untitled
    • Purchase Recorded Presentations >
      • Presentation Complete Set of 16
      • Foundations of Teaching the ECC
      • Itinerant Teaching Strategies & Tips
      • Strategies & Activities for SIDPID
      • Strategies & Activities for MIMO
      • Job Tasks for Jobs, Career & Life
      • Strategies & Activities for Standard Course of Study
      • Accommodations for BLVI
      • Accessible Content for BLVI
      • Using Themes to Teach the ECC
      • Tips for Being a Physically Fit TVI
      • Conducting a FVLMA
      • Developing SMARTER Goals
      • Determining Service Intensity Using the VISSIT
      • Selecting the Right AT
      • The Art of Teaching the ECC
      • Activities to Teach the ECC
    • Job Postings
    • Product Support
  • Jobs
    • Post a Job
    • TVI, Jersey City, NJ
    • O&M Specialist, Jersey City, NJ
    • Consulting Teacher for Blind/Low Vision, Idaho
    • TVI or Dual TVI/COMS, North Carolina
    • TVI Portland & Brunswick, Maine
    • Assistant Director Edu. Services for Blind & VI, Maine
  • Paid Member Pages
    • Recorded Presentations
    • Complete Set Bonus
    • Interactive Sensory Stories
    • Interactive Matching Activities
    • Interactive Visual Discrimination Activities
  • Free Member Pages
    • Free Program Printables
    • Free FVLMA & Service Printables
    • Free VI AT Printables
    • Compensatory Goals
    • Sensory Efficiency Goals
    • Assistive Technology Goals
    • Social Skills Goals
    • Independent Living Goals
    • Recreation & Leisure Goals
    • Self Determination Goals
    • Career & Vocational Goals

Block Play for Children who are Blind or Visually Impaired

Teaching Students with Visual Impairments LLC logo
Shop Now

Blocks

By: Carmen Willings
teachingvisuallyimpaired.com

Block play is a station that is typically found in classrooms for younger students. It lends itself to so many skills including imagination & creativity, math concepts and even language can be incorporated. Of course when the building is done, it also can be a great place to practice cleaning up!
Block play is an area that naturally incorporates math skills. It can provide opportunities for learning classification; shape, size and color identification; and counting and matching skills. Students count, measure, balance, plan, problem solve, and develop language. It incorporates scientific concepts of balance, space, and gravity. It also can facilitate cooperation development in social relationships. Begin with the basic blocks in the black area and then enhance with theme specific materials.
Common materials in the block area include dollhouses, miniature furniture, toy people, cars and trucks, animals, unit blocks, large wooden blocks, plastic blocks, cardboard blocks (fill to create different weights), bristle blocks, Duplos, Lego's, animals, and road signs. In selecting toys, choose ones with a variety of textures, weights, and sizes.
Picture of a block cabinet with shape labels.
Incorporate concepts into the Blocks Station by: discussing likes and differences of blocks and building materials; size (big/little and small/medium/large) and quantity differences of blocks, cars, etc.; sound differences of train and car race sets or blocks crashing down; and shapes of blocks and building toys. Encourage students with low vision to use their magnifiers to study directions for LEGO assembly, study maps, and study blueprints. Also encourage students with low vision to use their vision during blocks to watch the movement of friction cars or small windup toys. 
 
Provide block outlines (high contrast and raised line for tactual learners) to assist students in putting blocks away. Attach object and print/braille word to the top or front of containers for students who are at a pre-symbolic level.  For students that can understand symbols and will be a future print reader, use picture and word symbols to label containers. 

The block area should be protected on at least two sides, ideally three, to minimize structures getting mistakenly knocked over. This will also help contain the creative area! It is best to have plenty of floor space and low pile carpet that will keep buildings from toppling over and muffle the sounds.

Shop the VI Store

ECC Instructional Resources

Shop

Recorded Presentations

Shop

Braille Jewelry

Shop

Job Posting Service

Shop

White Cane Tags/Zipper Pulls/Keyrings

Shop

Vision Bags & Totes

Shop

VI Drinkware

Shop

VI Shirts

Shop
Thank you for visiting!
The mission of Teaching Students with Visual Impairments is to provide all persons involved in education students who are blind or visually impaired with the necessary resources to help each student become successful members of their communities and to equip those in the visual impairment field with resources to meet the wide range of needs of the students they serve. ​
  • About
  • Contact
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • VI Articles Site Map
  • Privacy Policy
  • Product Support
  • User Agreement
Shop the VI Store for:
  • Instructional Resources
  • Recorded Presentation
  • Braille Jewelry
  • VI Shirts
  • VI Drinkware
  • Vision Bags & Totes
  • Cane Tags & Keyrings
  • Braille Greeting Cards
  • Job Posting
Teaching Students with Visual Impairments LLC
​All Rights Reserved
Home Page of Teaching Students with Visual Impairments
  • Home
  • Foundations of VI
  • Professional Practice
  • VI Service
  • Adaptations
  • VI Assistive Tech
  • ECC Instruction
  • About
  • Contact
  • VI Store & Gifts
    • VI Gift Shop >
      • Braille Jewely
      • VI Shirts
      • VI Drinkware
      • Vision Bags & Totes
      • Braille Greeting Cards
      • White Cane Tags/Keyrings
    • ECC Instructional Resources >
      • TVI's Guide Complete Set Bundle
      • TVI's Guide to Teaching the ECC
      • Thematic Keyboarding & Braille Fluency Worksheets
      • Visual Efficiency & Magnifier Fluency
      • Task Box Activities
      • Vocabularky Cards & Checklists
      • Interactive Sensory Stories
      • Interactive Matching Activities
      • Untitled
    • Purchase Recorded Presentations >
      • Presentation Complete Set of 16
      • Foundations of Teaching the ECC
      • Itinerant Teaching Strategies & Tips
      • Strategies & Activities for SIDPID
      • Strategies & Activities for MIMO
      • Job Tasks for Jobs, Career & Life
      • Strategies & Activities for Standard Course of Study
      • Accommodations for BLVI
      • Accessible Content for BLVI
      • Using Themes to Teach the ECC
      • Tips for Being a Physically Fit TVI
      • Conducting a FVLMA
      • Developing SMARTER Goals
      • Determining Service Intensity Using the VISSIT
      • Selecting the Right AT
      • The Art of Teaching the ECC
      • Activities to Teach the ECC
    • Job Postings
    • Product Support
  • Jobs
    • Post a Job
    • TVI, Jersey City, NJ
    • O&M Specialist, Jersey City, NJ
    • Consulting Teacher for Blind/Low Vision, Idaho
    • TVI or Dual TVI/COMS, North Carolina
    • TVI Portland & Brunswick, Maine
    • Assistant Director Edu. Services for Blind & VI, Maine
  • Paid Member Pages
    • Recorded Presentations
    • Complete Set Bonus
    • Interactive Sensory Stories
    • Interactive Matching Activities
    • Interactive Visual Discrimination Activities
  • Free Member Pages
    • Free Program Printables
    • Free FVLMA & Service Printables
    • Free VI AT Printables
    • Compensatory Goals
    • Sensory Efficiency Goals
    • Assistive Technology Goals
    • Social Skills Goals
    • Independent Living Goals
    • Recreation & Leisure Goals
    • Self Determination Goals
    • Career & Vocational Goals