LISTENING SKILLS INSTRUCTION

By: Carmen Willings
teachingvisuallyimpaired.com

Since listening skills will be a major source of information for a student who is blind or visually impaired, it is important to develop good listening skills when the child is young. It is also important to continue to build on those skills as the student progresses through grades. Listening skills will help a child gain information for general learning and understanding of their environment as well as critical safety information needed for safe travel. Listening skills provides information about the immediate and extended environment which can be particularly helpful in developing orientation and mobility skills.

Students may need to be taught the importance of listening. They should be encouraged to not only identify sounds but derive meaning from the sounds they hear and make connections between things they hear including similarities and differences. These skills are important for language development as well as social skill development and good orientation and mobility. Encourage the student to respond to oral instruction in a variety of settings (home environments, classroom, P.E. (e.g., gym, playing fields), outdoors (e.g. playground, yard, concourse), stores (e.g., grocery, mall, department). In the classroom, encourage the student to follow along during oral reading activities.

Present the student with a variety of familiar materials or materials introduced in a lesson. Encourage the student to demonstrate an understanding of words by selecting or touching the item upon request.

Practice repeating back a series of words just heard by playing games where each student adds on a new word and the next person has to repeat the previous words and then add another word. For example, "I went on a trip to the grocery store and bought an apple, a banana, a carrot....." Students can add an item using the alphabet or alternatively, simply add on a theme related item.

Encourage the student to identify a word that is missing. The teacher can orally present a sentence, omitting a key word, and depending on the student's ability, the student selects an appropriate word (from a word bank or group of objects from a topic) to complete the sentence.

Encourage the student to follow directions. There are many fun follow direction games that can be played with students of all ages.

Isolate Sounds/Words/Phrases

Encourage the student to begin isolating sounds, words and phrases by helping them:

• identify dominant sound amongst foreground/background noises.
• follow directions amongst foreground/background noises. This can be challenging for many people, but it is an important skill for students who are blind or visually impaired to learn as they must learn to "weed out" the unimportant sounds and focus on what is important at the moment.

Remember Sounds/Words/Stories ​

Encourage the student to begin remembering sounds, words, and stories by helping them:

• Encourage the student to remember and repeat sound pattern (2 syllable, 2 syllable, 3 syllable, rhythmic pattern) within short intervals and in sequential order. There are commercially available games like Simon or Bop It, but those can be challenging as they are timed and the student must respond quickly. Another way to practice this skill is repeating sounds creating by clapping hands, snapping, stomping feet, or playing instruments or creating noise with different sounding objects. The possibilities are endless!
• Encourage the student to remember and recall facts from information presented during discussion of a topic. Make the activity more challenging by waiting moderate or long time intervals before asking the student if they can recall facts. For instance, a topic could be introduced on Monday. The students are immediately questioned about the facts presented. On Tuesday, the students are asked to recall some of the facts they learned on Monday, and so on.
• Similarly, the student can be encouraged to remember and recall details from a story heard immediately, after a couple of hours or after a day or two.

Compare and Relate Words/Sounds

Encourage the student to begin comparing and relating words and sounds by helping them:

• identify similarities/differences between words/sentences/paragraphs/poems
• isolate an idea from what is heard, summarize it and then compare to another cluster of information.

Expose students early and often to synthesized speech. As students have more opportunities to listen to synthesized speech, they will become more comfortable with this format.

Resources

Learning to Listen/Listening to Learn by Lizbeth A Barclay is published by the American Foundation for the Blind. This text provides a systematic development of skills in listening for and interpreting auditory information. Barclay discusses instruction in listening skills at different ages and it includes a continuum chart and a checklist to use in assessment.

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TVI’s Guide to Teaching the ECC: An Activities Based Curriculum for Teaching Students who are Blind or Visually Impaired
The TVI’s Guide to Teaching the ECC is a digital pdf available for download. It is designed specifically for fellow itinerant Teachers of Students with Visual Impairments (TVI’s), and 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. 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.


In addition to the book, the following two supplements are included:
·      TVI’s Guide to the ECC Concept Checklist
·      TVI’s Guide to the ECC Activities Checklist


For complete product details and additional images, visit the TVI's Guide product page.


TVI's Guide to the ECC Product details
·      Digital pdf download: 346 pages (11 pt font)
·      Publisher: Teaching Students with Visual Impairments
·      Author: Carmen Willings
·      Language: English


Visual Efficiency & Near Magnifier Fluency Worksheets: TVI's Guide to the ECC Grab and Go Supplements
The Near Magnifier Fluency Worksheets is a Grab and Go supplement to the TVI's Guide to Teaching the ECC. 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 companion 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.  


For complete product details and additional images, visit the Visual Efficiency & Near Magnifier Product Page.


Visual Efficiency & Near Magnifier Fluency Worksheet Details:
·      Digital pdf download: 210 pages
·      Publisher: Teaching Students with Visual Impairments
·      Author: Carmen Willings
·      Language: English


Thematic Keyboarding & Braille Fluency and Maintenance Worksheets: A TVI’s Guide to Teaching the ECC Grab & go Supplement
The Thematic Keyboarding & Braille Fluency and Maintenance Grab and Go ECC worksheet packet is a print on demand workbook that contains worksheets in print and simulated braille to use for data collection. Present the student with a hard braille copy and use the worksheets to document accuracy and fluency in reading braille. As a companion to the TVI’s Guide to the ECC, the worksheets correspond to the ECC Thematic activities presented in the curriculum guide. These word lists and sentences will help the student refine their keyboarding or braille reading skills while bridging ECC concepts presented in the thematic units. Although the lists and passages can be produced using a manual braillewriter, you may also copy and paste the passages into any braille translation software for quick production on an embosser. They may also be entered into a typing program such as APH’s Talking Typer to build keyboarding fluency.


For complete product details and additional images, visit the Thematic Keyboarding & Braille Fluency & Maintenance Product Page


Thematic Keyboarding & Braille Fluency Worksheet Details:
·      Digital pdf download: 338-page print and simulated braille worksheets
·      Publisher: Teaching Students with Visual Impairments
·      Author: Carmen Willings
·      Language: English


Thematic Vocabulary Cards and Checklists: Grab & Go ECC Supplement
The Thematic Vocabulary Cards and Checklists Grab and Go ECC supplement is a 446 page pdf downloadable print on demand workbook that includes 2940 vocabulary card on 3 1/2" x 2" templates divided by each of the 32 Thematic Units along with a checklist of each unit words in print and simulated braille. As a companion to the TVI's Guide to the ECC, the vocabulary cards correspond to the ECC Thematic activities presented in the curriculum guide. 


Additional Use:
Teachers of Students with Visual Impairments can have a extremely varied caseloads. It is possible to go several years without having a student on your caseload who requires braille instruction. Like other skills, if you do not practice your braille regularly, it is easy to lose those skills. Use these checklists and cards to maintain your braille skills. Fold the checklist along the line dividing the print from the braille. Choose to either read the print and produce the word in braille using a braillewriter or read the simulated braille and decode it. Finally, these vocabulary cards and checklists may be used with family members or peers who are interested in learning and practicing the braille code.


For complete product details and additional images, visit the Thematic Vocabulary Cards & Checklists Product Page


Thematic Vocabulary Cards and Checklists Details:
·      Digital pdf download: 446-page print on demand resource
·      Publisher: Teaching Students with Visual Impairments
·      Author: Carmen Willings
·      Language: English


BONUS!
Lotto Cards
The LOTTO Cards Grab and Go Supplement includes 37 theme related unit cards along with activity suggestions that support activities within the TVI's Guide to Teaching the ECC.


On My Way File Folder Cards
Print and use these cards to represent locations the student may visit that are related to the current thematic unit. Use these with the On My Way File Folder Game outlined in the TVI's Guide to Teaching the ECC p. 27.

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