Teaching Students with Visual Impairments
  • Home
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy
    • About
    • FAQs
    • User Agreement
  • VI Store & Gifts
    • VI Gift Shop >
      • Braille Necklaces
      • VI Shirts
      • Badge Holders
      • VI Drinkware
      • Vision Bags & Totes
      • Braille Greeting Cards
      • Keyrings/Zipper Pulls/White Cane Tags
      • Ornaments
    • 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
      • Vocabulary Cards & Checklists
      • Interactive Sensory Stories
      • Interactive Matching Activities
    • 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, Greene Co., Ohio
    • TVI or Dual TVI/COMS, North Carolina
  • Articles
  • Paid Member Pages
  • Member Pages

Shop for Visual Impairment Instructional Resources and Gifts

ECC Instructional Resources

Braille Necklaces

VI Shirts

Braille Greeting Cards

VI Drinkware

Keyrings/Zipper Pulls/White Cane Tags

Vision Bags & Totes

Recorded Presentations

Job Posting Service

Using the APH Lightbox

Picture of a child playing on a lightbox.
By: Carmen Willings
teachingvisuallyimpaired.com
Updated June 6, 2019

The APH Lightbox was designed to help teach basic visual skills as well as more complex visual-motor and visual-perceptual skills. The high contrast background created by the Lightbox’s illuminated surface makes a variety of visual tasks easier to perform. The goal is that using brightly colored items will motivate students to utilize their vision. The following guidelines are from APH:

The lightbox, available through the American Printing House for the Blind (APH) is used to help develop an awareness of light, color, and objects. It can also be used as a tool to facilitate visual tracking, visual scanning, eye-hand coordination, visual discrimination, and visual perceptual skills particularly in students that are interested in light-up objects and sources but will not visual attend to or interact with regularly presented materials. The lightboxes available from APH have a lighted translucent white work surface with variable lighting control.

If your student is not eligible for quota funds or for whatever reason those funds are not available, other light boxes or tables can be purchased or even made by placing a string of lights inside a transparent or opaque storage container. ​Material kits specially designed to use with the APH lightbox can be obtained from APH with quota funds. Although they can be helpful, they don't always meet the unique needs of students and can lack the characteristics that will motivate the student to look or you may just be looking for some variety.  The following are some possible materials that can be used with the lightbox.

​APH's Lightbox Guidelines

  • Use the lightbox in a darkened corner of the room, positioned so that other children will not come in contact with it or its electrical cord.
  • Examine the lightbox for flickering to guard against having a seizure in a seizure-prone student.
  • If a student is seizure-prone, be cautious about presenting items or displays on the lightbox which move in a rhythmic, patterned manner.
  • If a student is sensitive or averse to light, it may be helpful to introduce the lightbox with overhead lights on.
  • Use the lightbox in a variety of positions and place the student in a comfortable posture.
  • Present the lightbox at varying distances and areas in relation to the student’s body and watch to see whether the student demonstrates a preference.
  • When presenting items on the lightbox, put them in different places on the work surface.  Note whether the student responds consistently and accurately to the items.
  • Use the colored acetate sheets and objects and observe whether the student prefers one color over another.
  • Use words like “look,” “see,” and “find” when presenting items on the lightbox work surface.  Encourage the student and describe for him what he is seeing – its shape, size, position, and color.
  • To transfer a skill learned on the lightbox to a normally lit environment, increase room illumination as you gradually decrease the intensity of the lightbox. 

Materials for Developing Eye-Hand Coordination

Present a variety of unit related materials (see dry transfer suggestions) in a clear plastic tray positioned over the lightbox. Have the student trace with their finger or pour the materials in and out of smaller containers or nesting cups. Possible materials to use on the light box: acetate sheets (clear & transparent colored); colored projection markers; colored grease pencils; finger paints in plastic tray; crayons on thin white paper; three-way mirror; colored cellophane; colored tissue paper; thin, boldly patterned or colored wrapping paper; brightly colored plastic lawn chair strapping; tinsel; plexiglass sample squares; brightly colored or patterned fabric; transparent art film (contact paper); black tape; yarn; colored ribbon; doilies; colored buttons; rickrack; colored or patterned wrapping paper.

Materials for Drawing the Student's Attention to Shape & Tracing Around & Copying Shapes

Cookie cutters; coasters; Jell-O molds; stencils; wooden blocks; parquetry pieces; clay or play dough; poster board shapes; Lauri Tactilmat puzzles; Ideal Tactilmat puzzles; Familiar objects with simple contours (a cookie, ball, bar of soap, shoe, or spoon); puzzle pieces; window clings.

Materials to Use with Lightbox to Develop Skills

Colored transparent plastic construction pieces; colored transparent plastic pegs which fit in a pegboard; clear plastic balls with spinning objects inside; brightly colored Teether Ball (projections which make it easy to grasp); rainbow transparent party -ware; Halloween masks; make & bake (colored plastic 'stained glass' ornaments made from simple kit); brightly colored translucent or transparent plastic toys (Easter eggs, pop-beads, etc.); balloons; colored pinwheels; small toy cars; wind-up toys; colored plastic clothespins; plastic Halloween pumpkins; Wikki stick.

Materials to be Sealed in Clear Plastic Bottles

Materials to be sealed in clear plastic bottles to create an interesting object for the student to manipulate over the lightbox: costume jewelry beads; mosaic tiles (transparent plastic squares); marbles; confetti made of colored acetate; colored bath oil beads; fishing "jelly worms" (transparent colors).

APH Material Suggestions for Lightbox

Picture of lightbox materials kit
Lightbox materials Kit, available through APH helps in teaching matching and identification skills, part-whole relationships, sequencing, pattern duplication, spatial relationships, and visual memory skills. It includes brightly-colored transparent and translucent shapes, pictured objects, stencils, and cutouts.

Strategies & Activities for Students with Severe & Profound Disabilities (SIDPID) Recorded Presentation

$25.00

This presentation provides instructional and communication strategies for working with students with severe and profound disabilities (SIDPID) who are functioning between a birth to two-year-old level. It also provides suggestions for setting up sensory environments and creating adapted materials, so the student has activities to interact with no matter what position or area of the room they are in. I share lightbox activities and how to use iPads and computers as instructional tools. Finally, I share functional literacy activities that embed sensory experiences that you can create with your students. The activities are appropriate for the classroom but can also be used during distance learning. This presentation is packed full of activities you can begin using immediately with your students! 


Objectives:



  • Instructional & communication strategies for teaching SIDPID
  • How to create sensory stations and active learning spaces for students
  • Adapted materials for students with severe and profound disabilities
  • Lightbox activities for students
  • Using iPads as instructional tools
  • Using computers as instructional tools
  • Functional literacy activities


Includes:



  • Recorded Video Presentation
  • Transcript
  • Presentation handout for note taking


Request a Certificate of Completion

To receive a certificate of completion for 1 contact hour, complete the short survey on Google Forms. If you have any accessibility issues with the form, please don't hesitate to let me know and we can make other arrangements.  ​


System Requirements:

Presentations are recorded PowerPoint presentations in an MP4 file. Please note that the presentation pages are closed member pages available to individuals who have purchase access to the presentation. 

Shop
History of vi
Timeline of Visual Impairments
Biblical Passages 
​Notable People 
Helen Keller
APH Museum
​
Leaders & Legends
History of Braillewriters  
Legislation ​
Visual Impairments
​Structure & Function of the Eye 
Vision Classifications
​Common Vocabulary  
​Common Visual Impairments
​Cortical Visual Impairment
​
Convergence Insufficiency  
Deaf-Blind
Vi organizations & Agencies
Social Etiquette
​VI Organizations
​US Government Agencies
​​Support Networks
​Deaf-Blind Resources
​​​Online Parent Resources
​
Financial Assistance
Vendors
VI book resources
Children's Books
Young Reader Books
Books on Dog Guides
​Teen & Young Adult Books
Non-Fiction Books
Helen Keller Books
​​Parent Resource Books 
Grief and Suffering
VI Professionals
​Become a Vision Professional
Professional Prep Programs
Teacher of Students with VI
Orientation & Mobility Specialist
Low Vision Specialist  
Rehabilitation Specialists
CATIS
Paraprofessionals & Braillists ​ ​
Professionalism
​Professional Ethics  
​Professional Development 
​Teacher Standards  
Professional Organizations
Certification Organizations
Awards & Recognition
APH Scholar Program
​Collaboration Strategies
Dealing with Challenges
Instructional Planning
VI Program Handbook
Caseload Analysis  
Itinerant Teacher Tips 
Year at a Glance
Role of Classroom Teacher  
​​Simulation Activities 
Organization & Time Management Strategies
Material Preparation
​
Professional Publications
General VI Resource Books
CVI & MD Resources Books
Braille Resource Books
O&M Resource Books
Early Intervention Resource Books
​Journal Resources
Educational Programming
National Agenda
​
The Expanded Core Curriculum
IDEA and Vision 
​Federal Quota Funds
Deaf-Blind Count
​State SpEd Agencies 
​​Schools for the Blind ​
Individual Learning Differences
Language Development
Impact on Development & Learning
Psychological Impact
Strategies for SIDPID
Strategies for MIMO
referrals
​Vision Concerns 
​Referral Process  
Eligibility Guidelines  
Vision Therapy Controversy  ​
When Student Doesn't Qualify
Medical vision exams
​Medical Professionals
Vision Tests & Tools
​
Visual Acuity
Lenses
Visual Fields
fvlma
​What is the FVE
Interpreting the Eye Report  ​
Environmental Observations

FVLMA Observations
Interviews
Assessment Kit Materials
Oculomotor Skills
Near Vision Acuities
Print Comparisons
Distance Acuity 
​
Test Visual Fields
Vision Skills
Learning Media Assessment
Reading Rates
Writing the FVE Report  ​
additional evaluations
Low Vision Evaluation  ​
Orientation & Mobility Evaluation  
Educational Assessments  
Assistive Technology Assessment
service planning
​​ECC Annual Needs 
Unique Visual Needs
​Accommodations & Modification  ​
Service Delivery Models  
Least Restrictive Environment
Early Interventions Services
​Students with Multiple Disabilities
​Student Led IEP's 
504 Plans
​Transition Plans
writing goals
Writing SMART Goals
Blooms Taxonomy  
Compensatory Goals 
Sensory Efficiency Goals 
Assistive Technology Goals 
Social Skills Goals 
Independent Living Goals 
Recreation & Leisure Goals 
Self Determination Goals 
Career & Vocational Goals ​
compensatory skills
Guiding Principles
​
Functional Skills
Community Based Experiences  ​
​​Concepts to Teach 

​Access to Instruction
​
Organization & Study Skills ​​
Time Management  ​​
​
​​​Virtual Instruction
​Movies & Assemblies
Lectures & Instruction
Board Work (Chalk, White, etc.)
​​Daily Schedule 
Morning Meeting 
Weather Check 
Dramatic Play 
Blocks 

Numbers & Counting
Cranmer Abacus Instruction
Algebra
Geometry & Spatial Sense
Measurement & Data ​
Early Literacy Experiences  ​
​Create Tactual Books

Reading Instruction
​Reading Efficiency ​​
Science Adaptations 
Social Studies Adaptations

Communication Modes

​Accessible Educational Materials
​​Individual Schedules & Communication Cards
Adjust Lighting  
Large Print
Optical Devices for Near 
Optical Devices for Distance 
Optical Device Use ​​
​Photocopying
Font Legibility
Increase Contrast
Pictures & Worksheets 
Keyboarding ​Instruction
Word Processing and Shortcuts
​Navigate Computer w/o a Mouse
Braille Code
Braille Instruction 
​Braille Instruction Materials
Writing Braille  
​Summer Reading (braille)
Signature & Handwriting ​​
Nemeth Braille Code
​
Tactile Graphics Guidelines
Creating Tactile Graphics
​Tactile Graphics Instruction
​Teacher Made Materials 
​Labeling System
assistive technology
Overview of Assistive Technology
​
VI AT Resources
​
Non-Optical Low Vision Devices
​
Video Magnifiers  
​Video Magnifier Instruction 
​
Screen Enlargement & Readers 
​Low/Med. Tech Tactual Devices
​​​​Notetaker Instruction 
Braillewriter Repair
Tactile Graphics Technology
Braille Technology
​
Auditory Access Devices 
​Accessing Audio Books
​
​iPads as Instructional Tools
Making iOS Device Accessible
iOS Accessibility Resources
VoiceOver
Apps for VI
​​​Note Taking apps
​Apps for Accessing Books
Identification Apps
​​Navigation & Location Apps
​Braille Apps
​​​Magnifier Apps
Sound Making Apps
​Cause & Effect Apps
Vision Skills Apps
Apps for Early Learning
Read to Me Story Apps
Apps for Communication
Android Apps for VI  ​​​
sensory efficiency
Sensory Input
​
​Encourage Use of Vision
​​Sensory Area & Rooms
​Lightbox Use
​
Sensory Activities for Students with Multiple Disabilities
Sensory Tables
Visual Efficiency Skills 
Visual Attend and Scan Activities
Visual Tracking Activities
​Visual Discrimination Activities
Visual Motor Activities
Tactual Readiness
Developing Skillful Hands
Auditory Readiness  
​​Listening Skill Instruction
independent living
Responsibility & Independence
​
General Home Safety  
Mealtime Independence
Eating Adaptions
Bathroom Adaptations
​
Dressing & Clothing Management
Clothing Management
Medication Adaptations
​Kitchen Adaptations
Food Preparation   
Recipe Activities

Hygiene & Grooming
​
​Money
Housekeeping  ​
orientation & Mobility
​Transition Between Activities
Proper Guide Techniques 
Orienting Student to Environment
Mobility Skills
Travel  
Dog Guides
​​School Campus Adaptations
Classroom Design Tips
career education
Classroom Jobs
​Career & Vocational  ​
Prepare for College & Career
​
Career Exploration
social skills
​Non-Verbal Communication  
Social Interactions  
Self Concept
Icebreakers & Mixers
recreation & Leisure
Recreation & Leisure
​Recreation Adaptations  
Recreation Resources
​
Playground Adaptations
​VI Sports Associations
Camps for VI
Learn to Play
Art Adaptations
Art Materials
Music
Music & Movement
Dance
​Card and Board Games 
Transcribe Playing Cards
Summer Outdoor Activities
​
Rainy Day Activities  ​
self determination
Self Determination Skills  ​
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
Teaching Students with Visual Impairments LLC
​All Rights Reserved
Home Page of Teaching Students with Visual Impairments
  • Home
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy
    • About
    • FAQs
    • User Agreement
  • VI Store & Gifts
    • VI Gift Shop >
      • Braille Necklaces
      • VI Shirts
      • Badge Holders
      • VI Drinkware
      • Vision Bags & Totes
      • Braille Greeting Cards
      • Keyrings/Zipper Pulls/White Cane Tags
      • Ornaments
    • 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
      • Vocabulary Cards & Checklists
      • Interactive Sensory Stories
      • Interactive Matching Activities
    • 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, Greene Co., Ohio
    • TVI or Dual TVI/COMS, North Carolina
  • Articles
  • Paid Member Pages
  • Member Pages