Concept Development

By: Carmen Willings
teachingvisuallyimpaired.com
October 6, 2025
Concept development is the foundation of all learning. For students who are blind or visually impaired, building accurate and meaningful concepts requires intentional, hands-on experiences and direct instruction. Because these students cannot rely on incidental visual learning, they must actively explore and experience the world through touch, movement, hearing, and other senses to form complete understandings of objects, people, and events.

Body Awareness

Concept development begins with an understanding of one’s own body. Students first learn to identify body parts and understand the relationship of parts—for example, how the hand connects to the arm or how both sides of the body work together. Instruction in body awareness should include positional concepts such as top/bottom, right/left, front/back, and how these terms relate to the student’s own body. Mastering these internal reference points helps students orient themselves in space and prepares them to understand external spatial relationships. Read more in the Body Awareness Article.

Environmental Awareness

As students gain confidence in understanding their own bodies, they begin to develop awareness of their surroundings. This can be introduced in stages:
  • Immediate Environment: The space within arm’s reach—such as objects on a desk or items on a tray.
  • Intermediate Environment: The area within the classroom or home, where the student moves to interact with familiar spaces.
  • Distant Environment: Larger spaces such as playgrounds, neighborhoods, or community areas that require mobility skills and expanded spatial concepts.
Exploring environments systematically helps students make sense of their world and lays the foundation for orientation and mobility. Read more in the Environmental Awareness page.

Spatial Awareness and Relationships

Understanding spatial concepts—such as in, on, under, behind, between, and next to—is essential for both academic learning and daily life. Instruction should connect these spatial terms to the student’s own body first and then to objects in the environment. Students also need to learn about spatial relationships, such as how items are arranged in relation to one another and how they can move or be positioned differently.

Properties of Objects

Through active exploration, students learn to identify and describe the function of objects—what they are used for and how they work. They also develop an understanding of the properties of objects, including:
  • Shape: round, square, triangular
  • Color: described using concrete associations (e.g., “The sun is yellow and feels warm.”)
  • Texture: rough, smooth, soft, bumpy
  • Sound: loud, quiet, high, low
  • Weight and Temperature: heavy/light, hot/cold
Repeated exposure to real objects, rather than models or verbal descriptions alone, strengthens concept understanding.

Quantity & Number Concepts

​Students who are blind or visually impaired must have repeated opportunities to experience quantity concepts such as more/less, full/empty, many/few, and none. Concepts of size, weight, length, and temperature must be explored through direct, hands-on comparison. Measuring with nonstandard and standard tools can help students connect tactile experiences to mathematical ideas.

Time Concepts

​Because time is abstract, it can be challenging for students with visual impairments to grasp. Teaching time concepts—such as before/after, morning/night, yesterday/tomorrow—should be connected to the student’s daily routines and experiences. Linking time and distance relationships (for example, “It takes five minutes to walk from the classroom to the cafeteria”) helps students connect temporal and spatial concepts, building a functional sense of how long activities take.

Living Things and Actions

Exploration of living things—people, animals, and plants—should involve real, multisensory experiences. Students can learn about actions such as running, jumping, crawling, and growing through participation and observation using touch and sound. Understanding that living things move, grow, and change helps students build foundational science and biology concepts.

​Building Meaning Through Experience

For students who are blind or visually impaired, concepts must be experienced, not just explained. Real experiences—touching, smelling, listening, and moving—allow students to build mental representations that are meaningful and accurate. Teachers and family members play an important role by:
  • Providing consistent language and labeling
  • Encouraging active exploration
  • Reinforcing concepts through repetition and real-world application
  • Using comparisons and contrasts to deepen understanding
​Concept development is an ongoing process. By focusing on body awareness, environmental understanding, spatial and quantity concepts, sensory experiences, time, and the properties and functions of objects, educators and families can help students build the concepts needed for independence, academic success, and lifelong learning.

ECC Instruction

Teaching Strategies
Compensatory
Concept Development
Alternative Communication
Emergent Literacy
Beginning Braille​
Braille Code
Braille Fluency & Comprehension
Braillewriter
​​Slate & Stylus
​​Tactile Graphics
​Nemeth Code
Access Classes
​Abacus 
​Organize​
​Study Skills
​Time Management
​​​​Listening Skills
Sensory Efficiency
Support Sensory Needs
​Auditory Efficiency Visual Efficiency Skills ​​Optical Device Use
Tactile Readiness
Assistive Technology
Social Skills
​Non-Verbal Skills​​​​ ​Communicate Cooperative Identity ​Interactions
Self Determination
independent living
Personal Care
Hygiene & Grooming
Personal Health
Eating & Table Manners
Household Skills
Shopping & Consumerism
Clothing Management
Telephone
 Food Preparation
Money & Budget
Services
​Safety
Orientation & Mobility
Recreation & Leisure
Career & Vocational

Learn More  

The following pages provide strategies and activities for teaching concept development: