Responsibility & Independence

By: Carmen Willings
teachingvisuallyimpaired.com
Updated June 9, 2019

Students who are blind or visually impaired, particularly those with additional disabilities or those who are younger, require much one-on-one attention from staff. It is important for adults to find the balance between assisting the student and creating a learned dependency.

Tips for Teaching Responsibility 

• NEVER do anything for the student that they can do for themselves. Remember, you are not doing the student any favors by teaching them to be dependent on you.
• If the student cannot yet perform a skill or activity independently, "motor" the student through the actions and then gradually fade assistance.
• Avoid creating learned helplessness by encouraging the student to complete activities of daily living independently.
• Consider establishing a fixed sound reference to help students who are blind learn to maintain their orientation in their environment (clock on the wall, fish tank, refrigerator, wind chimes outside, softly playing radio, etc.) It is best to select sound sources that provide ongoing sound so the student can always depend on them.
• When a student does need help, show the student alternative ways of handling a situation rather than providing the support automatically.

Avoid the "Good Fairy Syndrome"

Ensure that the student is part of each action to avoid the idea that coats magically hang themselves up, trash throws itself away, or food magically appears in front of them and disappears when they are done.

Encourage the student to participate in classroom or school jobs, such as taking the attendance list to the office or other information, watering the plants, working in the school office or cafeteria, or assisting a general education teacher with a project.

Encourage the student to be responsible for his or her belongings at school such as lunch money, a backpack, magnifiers, and other optical devices, an adapted computer, and note-taking equipment.

Teaching Search Pattern & Independence at Clean Up ​

Clean up time can be a great opportunity for incorporating concepts, working on upper body strength, following single and multi-step directions in addition to teaching responsibility. Some concepts include: putting toys and materials in and out of boxes/containers; likes and differences in materials as sorting to clean up; placing items on the top or bottom shelves; placing items on top of or underneath other objects; wide and narrow boxes/bins and shelves;bins being empty or full; and clean up by size. Encourage students to lift heavy boxes and filled tray and open cabinet doors to develop hand strength and upper body strength.

Encourage the student to independently or semi-independently put away their own toys, materials, or equipment in familiar locations or storage bins. Clean up time becomes easier when students are provided with clearly labeled bins in the appropriate learning mode (ex. object labels, print labels, braille labels). Refer to suggestions located in the Labeling System page of this website. It is important to teach systematic search patterns to help students that are visually impaired to be able to successfully locate items. This skill teaches spatial awareness and object permanence.  Clean up time is a natural time to work on systematically searching for materials to put away.

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Organizational Skills

It is important for students with visual impairments to develop good organizational skills. Students will not be successful in careers and in life if they can’t locate their possessions or store supplies in an expected manner. Persons with visual impairments must be able to locate ingredients to prepare a meal, locate and care for clothing, pay and file bills. These skills begin with a child learning to locate and put away their belongings. Adults and peers must avoid the temptation to obtain and put away materials for the student. Instead, caregivers and teachers must teach the student where items are stored as well as organizational systems that are used. In addition to learning where toys and supplies belong, students need to learn how to properly store materials and organize closets, cabinets, drawers, and pantries as well as how to use tools used in storage.

Students can practice organizational skills by:

• Systematically searching for requested or desired objects;
• Putting materials back on the shelf or in a basket;
• Putting dirty clothes in a hamper;
• Separating grooming items into a divided tray; 
• Putting a toy away before getting another one out.

     Never do anything for a student that he is capable of doing for himself. If you do you, you’ll make him an educational cripple…a pedagogical paraplegic."
-Howard Hendricks

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TVI's Guide Complete Set Bundle + BONUS Resources

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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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Note:
All products are digital pdf downloads. 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. If you encounter any difficulty, please let me know and I can assist you.

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