Developing Concepts

By: Carmen Willings
teachingvisuallyimpaired.com
Updated June 18, 2025
Concept development refers to how a student builds an understanding of objects, their characteristics, and the relationships between them in both spatial and contextual contexts. These foundational understandings are essential for language, problem-solving, mobility, and participation in daily life.
For students who are blind or visually impaired, concept development may be significantly impacted due to limited access to visual information. While sighted students often learn concepts incidentally—by observing people, objects, and activities in their environment, students with visual impairments often miss these unspoken lessons. Instead, they benefit from intentional, hands-on, and multisensory learning experiences.

​Barriers to Concept Development

As discussed in the Impact on Development and Learning section, students with visual impairments face three primary limitations that can hinder their ability to develop concepts:
  1. Reduced range and variety of experiences
    Without visual access, many experiences that contribute to concept development may go unnoticed or unexplored.
  2. Restricted independent movement
    Limited mobility affects not only access to experiences but also the ability to make spontaneous social connections and interact naturally with the environment.
  3. Reduced control over the environment
    When a student is unsure of their surroundings or cannot predict how objects are arranged or used, they may feel disconnected from their environment and less confident in interacting with it.

​Supporting Concept Development Through Experience

​To address these challenges, students with visual impairments must be provided with intentional, meaningful, and repeated exposure to real-world experiences. These should involve real objects that can be touched, heard, smelled, or seen, depending on the student’s sensory access.
Educators and caregivers can support concept development by:
  • Encouraging active participation in daily routines at home and school
  • Offering guided exploration with real objects and materials
  • Providing verbal explanations and descriptive language to name and describe what the student is touching or doing
  • Creating opportunities to compare and contrast objects (e.g., rough vs. smooth, cold vs. warm, large vs. small)
  • Encouraging questions and dialogue during hands-on experiences to build language and cognitive connections
  • Facilitating movement and mobility so the student can experience how they relate to space and to others
For example, rather than just describing a "pumpkin," guide the student to touch the stem, feel the ridges, smell the scent, and compare it to other fruits in terms of weight, size, and texture. Through experiences like these, students begin to construct mental models that support vocabulary development, reasoning, and independence.

​Role of the Educational Team

​Both the Teacher of Students with Visual Impairments (TVI) and the Orientation and Mobility (O&M) Specialist play a critical role in supporting concept development. Together, they help the student:
  • Build understanding of their own body and spatial orientation
  • Navigate environments with increasing confidence
  • Learn how to explore new settings and materials
  • Connect abstract ideas (like left/right, near/far, or seasons) with concrete experiences
O&M instruction, for example, can turn a walk through a neighborhood into a rich lesson about texture (sidewalk vs. grass), temperature (shade vs. sun), and spatial relationships (next to, behind, in front of). TVIs can support this by reinforcing related vocabulary and concepts during classroom lessons and routines.

​Practical Tips

  • Involve the student in everything: Dressing, cooking, setting the table, cleaning, shopping, gardening—these are all rich with sensory and conceptual learning.
  • Repeat experiences in varied contexts: This helps generalize concepts and strengthens cognitive connections.
  • Use consistent, descriptive language: Label spatial relationships (e.g., “The spoon is to the right of your plate”) and object features (e.g., “It feels bumpy like an orange peel”).
  • Encourage peer interactions: Inclusive group activities promote shared experiences and help the student practice social and conceptual language.
  • Document and reflect: Keep notes or recordings of new concepts introduced, and reinforce them through review, games, or songs.

​Final Thoughts

Concept development is the foundation upon which literacy, mobility, independence, and social understanding are built. For students with visual impairments, doing leads to understanding—and it is through touch, sound, movement, and language that they come to understand their world. By being intentional, collaborative, and creative in your instruction, you empower students to build rich, connected knowledge that supports lifelong learning.

ECC Instruction

Teaching Strategies
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Concept Development
Alternative Communication
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Learn More  

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