By: Carmen Willings teachingvisuallyimpaired.com Students who are blind or visually impaired can benefit from involvement in dance. Dance can improve students movement, coordination, independence and can also help the student increase their orientation and mobility skills. The student may have opportunities to participate in dance within the Physical Education program, or may choose to take formal dance lessons.
Dance Instruction
The Arts Education Chapter in Foundations of Education 2nd edition, Volume II written by Donna McNear, makes the following suggestions:
If the student receives O&M services, the O&M specialist can collaborate with the P.E. teacher or dance instructor to determine the students current skills and determine what skills need to be per-taught to provide the student with the skills to participate. The O&M can also help to orient the student to the physical environment whether it's the gym, a classroom or a stage.
Students with low vision may need physical guidance or access to a dance instructor's movements. To do this, the student may need to be in close proximity to the instructor. Students who are blind will need to initially be motored through the movements. To do this, allow the student to place their hands on the teacher to understand the movement.
If a student has a difficult time with a particular movement, have the student practice the skill or each movement separately before putting it all together. Students may need feedback and repetition for new skills and more difficult movements.
Provide the student with verbal prompts or audio prompt (clapping, whistles, music or other sound source) to help the student keep oriented during movement activities.
Fade assistance as the student becomes more comfortable and and increase independent.
Movement Skills
Whole Body Movements: bend backward, bend forward, bend sideways, crawl, hop, jump, lift, lie down, roll, run, shuffle. sit, skate, skip, squat, stand up, stoop, sway, tiptoe, twirl, turn, walk
Lower Body Movements: bend knees, click heels together, kick, stamp, stand on one foot, stand on tiptoe, swing legs, tap toes, tap heels, wiggle toes
Upper Body Movements: bend arm, catch, clap, clutch, fold, grasp, move chin down, move chin up, nod head, pat head, pound, pull, punch, put arm across body, raise arm up, put arm down, reach, rub, shake head, shrug, slouch, straighten arm, stretch, swing arms, throw, tug wave, wind
Ways to Move: loudly, happily, quickly, quietly, sadly, slowly Directions in Which to Move up, down, backward, forward, sideways, in a circle
Move in Relation to an Object over, under, in front of, in back of, between, beside
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TVI's Guide to Teaching the ECC: An Activities Based Curriculum for Teaching Students who are Blind or Visually Impaired
$50.00
Written specifically for fellow itinerant Teachers of Students with Visual Impairments (TVI’s), this book consists of over 400 activities and topic areas of discussion for instructing students in the Expanded Core Curriculum. The activities are age-neutral and multi-sensory and therefore can meet the needs of the broad range of students served on an itinerant caseload serving. The activities can be individualized to the students various learning modalities and scaffold in order to challenge students but ensure success. Select those activities that align with the student’s learning objects based on the student’s unique visual needs and academic and developmental level.
The core activities listed in the Activity section can be adapted to each thematic unit. These include:
Object Characteristic Activities
Quantity & Number Concepts
Time Concept Activities
Environment & Job Awareness Activities
Listening Skills Activities
Reading Foundation Activities
Reading Fluency Activities
Braille Basics Activities
Writing Activities
Tactual Efficiency Activities
Developing Skillful Hands Activities
Visual Efficiency Activities
Optical Device Instruction Activities
Recipe Activities
In addition to the core activity areas, each of the 32 Thematic Units incorporates additional unique ECC concepts and skills providing you with a years’ worth of activities. These units are cyclical and can be used repeatedly to help students build on prior knowledge and develop a deeper understanding of concepts. Each unit includes suggestions for activity adaptation associated with the unit. These include lists of objects, possible community based experiences, environmental print, poems, children & young reader books, children's songs, pop culture songs, movies, and websites.
Unique Concepts within the Units include:
Self Advocacy Activities (e.g. advocating for safe classroom, presenting to class on visual impairment, requesting help and more)
Social Skills Activities (e.g. Being bullied or teased, giving and receiving compliments, body language, "I" messages when upset and more)
Recreation & Leisure Activities (e.g. exploring interest areas, getting involved in clubs and sports, playing games, and more)
O&M Support Activities (e.g. Suggestions for community based experiences, dog guide information, locations in the school, bioptics, ride sharing, traffic signs, and more)
Independent Living Skill Activities (e.g. chores, being responsible, using tools, recipe suggestions, hygiene, staying healthy, labeling foods and products, and more)
Sensory Efficiency Activities (e.g. unique sensory experiences related to the unit, unique optical device activities, and more)
Compensatory Activities (e.g. organizing materials, study habits, and many unique concepts related to the unit)
Career & Vocational Activities (e.g. job awareness, completing applications, job task suggestions, and more)
Although the intended audience of this resource is fellow Teachers of Students with Visual Impairments, special education teachers may find these activities beneficial to the students in their classrooms as the activities are multisensory and include life skills and concepts needed by all students. This resource, however, is not intended to take the place of a Teacher of Students with Visual Impairments (TVI). Readers are advised to consult their own TVI’s regarding instruction in the ECC and the unique visual needs of the student’s served in their programs.
Note: This curriculum is a digital pdf download. Once you make your purchase you will be directed to an order confirmation page where you will find the download link. This download will also be included on the receipt sent to the email address you provide. The pdf download can be found directly under the order number.
Each download is intended for single instructor use per copyright. Thank you for helping me preserve the content and not distributing copies to third parties.
Product details
Digital pdf download: 364 pages (11 pt font)
Publisher: Teaching Students with Visual Impairments
Visual Efficiency & Magnifier Fluency Grab & Go ECC Supplements
$20.00
This workbook is a pdf download that can be printed on demand for use with students. It contains five different types of worksheets for developing visual motor skills and near magnifier fluency skills particularly with the use of a video magnifier. As a supplement to the TVI’s Guide to the ECC, the worksheets correspond to each of the 32 ECC Thematic units. The worksheets, along with a list of environmental print for each thematic unit, are designed to help students refine their visual motor skills while reinforcing ECC concepts presented in the thematic units.
Visual Efficiency & Near Magnifier Fluency Worksheet Details:
Digital pdf download: 210 pages
Publisher: Teaching Students with Visual Impairments
