The dramatic play station provides opportunities for social, language, emotional, and intellectual development. Students have the opportunity to interact with peers in social situation and practice language.
The ability to pretend and to experiment with playthings is necessary for the development of language, reasoning and imagination for sighted and visually impaired students. Through play in the dramatic play station, the students have opportunities to develop an understanding of roles of family members, learn about community helpers and experiment with relationships. Keep in mind that it is especially difficult for students with visual impairments to understand the difference between make-believe and reality. In order to imitate and act out experiences, a student must first have had experiences with and understanding of the roles and actions to be acted out. It is more meaningful to re-enact familiar and real experiences in dramatic play areas. Students with visual impairments need concrete experiences in real-life situations followed by play repetitions. For this reason, it would be beneficial to begin a unit with a trip to a bakery, farm, restaurant, etc. before expecting the student to pretend with the materials.
Incorporate concepts into the drama station by discussing: likes and differences of pots & pans, silverware, clothing; size (big/little and small/medium/large) and quantity differences of people, clothes, food containers; placing spoon/utensils in and out of a pot or oven; placing dolls on top of the bed or underneath the sheets; placing pots on top of a hot pad or placing the hot pad underneath the pot; sound differences of pots and pans rattling; Match towels of the same texture; Discuss if food containers are hard or soft; if clothes are rough or smooth; front and back of food boxes; shapes of boxes and containers; and if boxes or cupboards being empty or full. Include clothing with various fasteners to encourage students to practice dressing skills.
Use a real mailbox to “mail letters” and “deliver” the letters to the right person. Provide household items that can be used in different ways such as pots and pans that fit inside each other, and lids that fit on top. Incorporate objects/materials within the center to make the experiences more meaningful. (ex. a real metal pan with a lid will be more meaningful than a plastic one, broom, iron/ironing board, phone, suitcases, keys and keyholes, dishes, etc.) As the student forms more of an understanding of these real objects, you could introduce pretend and talk about similarities and differences. (Keep in mind that pretend objects often lack interesting textures and smells and may always be too abstract for the visually impaired child!
When planning the dramatic play area, keep in mind that it needs to be a bigger area to accommodate the various furnishings and activities. It is also a loud area, so it is best to have it located near the block center which is another loud area. Create theme boxes using plastic totes or banker boxes. Store theme related materials in the boxes for easy retrieval. Supplement the theme boxes with freebies from business offices, doctor's offices, grocery stores, restaurants, dentists office, post office, etc. Parents may have access to materials for the boxes based on their jobs.
Materials to Incorporate Into Dramatic Play:
Kitchen Items: Silverware to sort Silverware tray Metal pots and pans w/ lids to match Plastic bottles w/ lids or caps Big/little food boxes Dish towels to fold Napkins Pot holders Oven mitt Cook books Aprons to tie Food boxes filled with similar sounding materials & taped Restaurant Menus Measuring cups & spoons to stack & seriate Shopping lists Pencil Note pad Message board
Household Items: Brooms Mops dust pan carpet sweeper soap powder Clothespins (for hanging up clothes) Clothesline or drying rack Telephone scrub brush Feather duster Clothes basket (for sorting & folding)
Furniture Items Clothing racks Chest of drawers Storage boxes Full length mirror Sink & cabinets Table & chairs
Accessories: Scarves Ties Gloves (men's & women's) Socks Belts
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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
