SENSORY ACTIVITIES FOR STUDENTS WITH MULTIPLE DISABILITIES
By: Carmen Willings teachingvisuallyimpaired.com October 29, 2017
The Teacher of Students with Visual Impairments can work with a student to help them develop efficient use of their vision for visually attending to their environment, shifting their gaze between materials presented and visual pursuit of objects and people. These skills will help prepare a student for learning as well as prepare them for safe and efficient travel.
Lightbox Activities
Objective: The student will visually fix or briefly gaze at lights. Depending on the student’s abilities, present the following activities for the student.
Display unit related window clings or gel forms on the lightbox.
Fill Ziploc bags with hair gel or other clear gel substance. Add food coloring in a unit related color and/or metallic sequins or other unit related shapes. Be sure to secure bag with strong tape!
Decorate Mobile/Stand
Objective: The student will regard, visually attend to or reach toward objects (ex. Lights, reflective, colorful, etc.). Student will touch a switch to activate an activity (cause & effect).
Decorate the mobile or stand by wrapping miniature lights along the bars in a color the student prefers. Alternate with other colors depending on student’s ability to tolerate complexity. Consider attaching a fan to a switch and encourage student to push the switch to blow the materials that are suspended, play a unit related song or turn on the mini lights.
Possible Materials to Suspend:
metallic pom-poms
old CDs with striped or checkerboard patterns
string of metallic beads
other materials that encourage student to reach (consider qualities that student will attend to)
metallic balloons
Character Play
Objective: The student will attend to and follow the movement of objects.
Obtain a switch activated toy or stuffed animal. Encourage the student to activate the switch to make it move while visually attending to it.
Visual Interest Box or Backdrop
Objective: The student will regard or visually attend to lights and reflective materials. Student will touch a switch to activate an activity (cause & effect).
Decorate the box by drilling holes in the box and attaching miniature lights. Suspend reflective materials. Alternatively, suspend lights to the back of an APH Invisiboard and suspend metallic materials. Consider attaching a fan to a switch and encourage student to push the switch to blow the materials that are suspended and turn on the mini lights.
Free Membership
Sign up for free membership to access the FREE downloadable templates, handbooks and handouts on the Printables page. Simply click on the Log In | Register link in the navigation bar. If you haven't joined yet, you will be prompted to create a password.
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
