Visual motor skills are the skills to coordinate eyes and feet as well as eyes and hands. It is the coordination of vision with the movements of the body. A student with a visual impairment may need assistance in developing and facilitating gross motor movement, pointing to a destination or object, and in performing fine motor activities. Visual motor skills help coordinate eyes and feet as well as eyes and hands.
Be aware that some of these activities can be very visually fatiguing for students with visual impairments. It is important to reserve the student's energy so they will have the stamina for completing required classroom activities. Although frequent practice building visual efficiency skills is important, keep in mind that these skills should be practiced outside of academic performance of these skills. The goal is to work on a student's visual skills to improve their visual efficiency, but the student should not be expected to use these skills to complete academic tasks until they occur with more ease.
Copy drawings, shapes and lines
Copy drawings, shapes and linespresented up close and at a distance. Encourage the student to copy different shaped lines and shapes. You may need to first provide a dotted line and encourage the student to connect the dots to form the shape. For some students, this can present more challenges, so it is important to understand the student's vision. This will provide the student with the skills to copy numbers and letters which will allow them to copy words and sentences. The Doodle Pro can be a fun way for students to practice drawing shapes and lines.
Accurately draw line between two parallel lines, one inch apart
Reduce the width as the student perfects their skills. Make the activity more challenging by presenting different shaped paths and encourage the student to follow the paths. Consider placing a sticker at the end of the path and have the student cut toward the sticker. Provide them with a matching sticker to wear if they are able to stay between the lines! This Highway letter set is another fun option to help students practice drawing between lines.
Cut between lines and on a broad line
Once the student is able to do this successfully, encourage them to cut out simple outlines and pictures. Provide broad lines, if necessary, for the student to cut on. Students may have fun practicing with craft scissors that cut in different designs.
Place an object in an open container or other designated location
You may need to use a sharpie (or other material) to draw around the opening to create high contrast. For younger students, you may choose shape sorters that are paired with sound and lights like this Cookie Shape Sorter by Fisher Price.
Scribble or color within a designated space
Consider placing Wikki stick or creating raised lines using tactile marking devices to provide a tactual border. Alternatively, use a marker to make the lines bolder. If the coloring tasks requires certain areas to be a particular color, create a bold line in a matching color around the space. There are many apps that encourage students to color within a designated area.
Accurately insert string into beads
If the student has difficulty, provide a reinforced string or use pipe cleaner. It is easier to start with larger beads and then gradually reduce the size of beads presented. There are other materials that can be used such as Cheerios or Fruit Loops. These fun colored wooden beads from Melissa and Doug can provide motivation for the student.
Complete form boards, simple puzzles, or peg board designs
You may need to draw with a sharpie marker around the perimeter of the form board to provide high contrast.This Number Puzzle Board from Lauri not only works on the skill of placing pegs in a pegboard, but helps the student learn their numbers too.
Replicate a three-dimensional model through visual imitation
Present a block model or Lego model to the student and provide them with a duplicate set of blocks. Encourage the student to replicate the structure.
Accurately draw line between two parallel lines, one inch apart
Reduce the width as the student perfects their skills. Make the activity more challenging by presenting different shaped paths and encourage the student to follow the paths. Consider placing a sticker at the end of the path and have the student cut toward the sticker. Provide them with a matching sticker to wear if they are able to stay between the lines! This Highway letter set is another fun option to help students practice drawing between lines.
Motor Maze
Create a maze on a tray or in the lid of a box. Tape straws on the surface to create a maze. Provide the student with a marble or a pompomand encourage them to tilt the board follow the maze to get the marble or pompom from the beginning of the maze to the end of the maze.
Color It!
Provide the student with a unit related picture and encourage the student to color within the lines.Some student’s may need you to create bold lines with a sharpie around the area to be colored. If the coloring tasks requires certain areas to be a particular color, create a bold line in a matching color around the space. There are many apps that encourage students to color within a designated area.
Connect The Dots
Provide the student with dot to dot pages of unit related pictures and encourage the student to connect the dots in sequential order.
Gross Motor Movement
Students who are visually impaired may need motivators and assistance in developing movement milestones. Holding their head up may be unnatural to a student who has low vision or is blind. The student should be encouraged to hold their head up and develop a good posture. The student may need visual and auditory cues to develop gross motor skills.
To develop gross motor movement, encourage the student to:
visually locate objects and visually direct hand or foot toward the object.
locate people and objects to be avoided when moving toward a goal, and locate a path visually and move through it. A fun way to work on this goal is to create an "obstacle course" for students to move through.
imitate a variety of body movements.
use their vision to coordinate gross motor activities and make judgments about them.
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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
