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:
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
$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
