Staying at Home: Cook with Your Child

As we think about engaging and learning while at home, cooking provides a multitude of multisensory learning opportunities. Pick one food that your child loves and create an opportunity to cook that food repeatedly throughout the week. Pick a quieter time and quieter place for this activity for optimal visual abilities. Create a non-complex surface with increased spacing of materials. Block distracting light and movement around the activity. This can be a long or very short activity.

Some simple favorites:

• Koolaid
• Eggs
• Smoothies
• Nachos
• Peanut butter and banana sandwiches
• Chex mix
• Ice cream sundaes
• Yogurt parfaits
• Pre-packaged Mac and Cheese
• Chicken Nuggets
• Pizza

Let’s think about what this one activity provides our students with CVI:

Visual Benefits: Remember to engage visual skills at all times. Tell your child what they will see. Show the item to the child without talking. Describe the visual features of the item. Show again without talking. Allow tactile exploration.

• That repeated visual opportunity will provide visual prediction that your child needs to develop visual recognition of the foods, the packaging, the utensils and the storage containers that are regularly and consistently seen.
• Thinking about the support of color, picking packages, utensils and containers of very different colors will help the child discriminate and recognize each based on color.
• That will allow you to describe the visual features: what the food, packaging, utensils and the containers look like.
• Repetition provides opportunities to develop visual memories.
• The movement of the cooking sequence draws and helps maintain visual attention.
• Using these real materials will allow exploration of the different visual perspectives of the visual materials.

Compensatory Skills Benefits:

• Activities engage visual, auditory, olfactory, taste and tactile senses; all of which support visual recognition skills.

Language Benefits:

• Creating foods provides opportunities to develop sequencing and following directions.
• Provides opportunities to use position words: “on top of”, “add to”, “in/out”.
• Provides opportunities to use attribute words for the visual aspects and tactile aspects of the foods.
• Provides opportunities to use cooking vocabulary: “mix”, “fold”, “stir”, “beat”, “add”.

Cognitive Benefits

• Provides opportunities to use concepts: hot/cold
• Provides opportunities to use concepts: more/less
• Provides opportunities to use concepts of attributes: big/little, long/short, curved/straight
• Provides opportunities to use concepts of the appropriate storage of foods (those stored in the cabinets, refrigerator, freezer).
• Provides opportunities to understand the properties of liquids and solids
• Provides opportunities to use for grouping and categorizing
• Provides opportunities to understand parts to whole: sliced banana vs. the whole banana.
• Provides opportunities to for food handling: peeling, cracking

Reading Benefits Reading in print, Braille, symbols, pictures

• Provides opportunities to for reading in print, Braille, symbols, pictures
• Provides opportunities to create lists of things to buy to get ingredients
• Provides opportunities for reading and following directions of the recipes

Mathematics Benefits:

• Provides opportunities to for measuring and weighing
• Provides opportunities to understand one to one correspondence
• Provides opportunities to understand time concepts
• Provides opportunities to understand temperatures
• Provides opportunities to understand size concepts
• Provides opportunities to count
• Provides opportunities to cut into foods into factions
• Provides opportunities to fill and dump
• Provides opportunities to understand portions

Science Benefits

• Provides opportunities to experience cause and effect
• Provides opportunities to use chemistry
• Provides opportunities to understand how foods are different in form: milks require pouring while mayonnaise requires scooping
• Provides opportunities to understand how heating and freezing impacts foods
• Provides opportunities to use force for cutting, separating

Social Benefit

• Provides opportunities for sharing
• Provides opportunities for cooperating

Motor Benefits

• Provides opportunities for opening and closing containers
• Provides opportunities for holding heavy and light materials
• Provides opportunities to use two hands together
• Provides opportunities for stirring different textures with different tools
• Provides opportunities to use pouring, scooping, kneading

Advocacy Benefits

• Provides opportunities to plan
• Provides opportunities to make choices.

Career Benefits

• Provides opportunities to sort needed ingredients and tools
• Provides opportunities for cleaning needed tools
• Provides opportunities to set up for completing a task

Technology Benefits

• Provides opportunities to use recipes on iPads
• Provides opportunities to use blenders, mixers and other kitchen equipment
• Provides opportunities to use the oven, the microwave and to use stovetops

Even if your child is not eating foods, participating in tube formula feeding is also an opportunity for many of these same learning experiences.

Each activity can be easily adapted for the various functioning abilities for each child. Some will be independent with supervision and some might require hand under hand support for participation. Touching, looking at, pushing something into a container is all participation. All levels of abilities can be engaged and learning fruitful for all!

Want more? You can use these to follow up after your cooking. Use again and again!

• Take pictures and make a Powerpoint book of the ingredients or process
• Find a Youtube of a character making the same food. Follow up your activity with this literacy material: Here is one about making pizza https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gX2vQNNC80c
• Make a recipe book
• Make a symbols book for the utensils

Take a Seat!

Watch your children with CVI move to get into a chair. So often I see this done tactilely. They turn and backup slowly until they feel the chair seat against the back of their legs. I believe this is due to the difficulties judging distance, the visual complexity of this task and visual motor difficulties.

I have had great luck working with the PT and OT to help children understand where the chair is in space and how to move their body into the seated position.

Here is one example. Just by placing red tape on one arm of the modified toilet we could teach the child to find the highlighted armrest of the chair, cross midline, hold the red highlighted area to stabilize their body and to turn to sit. As they improved their skills, we were able to reduce the size of the color highlighting and finally remove it. This provided safe and more independent toileting.

 

 

Reading for a Child with CVI

Please watch these important webinars about teaching reading to children with CVI. Pay especially close attention to the fact that the methods are not uniform. They are in consideration of the visual behaviors of CVI of individual children. No reading approach is for every child. That “visual brain” and that “reading brain” are different in every single child.

The first webinar is by a parent of a child with hemianopsia, Monika Jones of the Brain Recovery Project. Although the webinar is not about reading specifically, there are some important considerations for reading presented. Those reading considerations match the visual abilities of the children with CVI impacted by this brain based visual impairment.

https://www.perkinselearning.org/earn-credits/self-paced/vision-after-occipital-lobectomy-and-related-surgeries

The next two webinars are by Judy Endicott. Judy is the grandmother of a child with CVI. Using her expertise in reading and her building understanding of CVI, Judy embarked on a journey to teach her grandson to read. What I love is that Judy was wonderfully diagnostic of her grandson’s abilities and needs.  Her approach to teaching reading followed her grandson’s lead.  She developed each step in the reading journey based on his successes and difficulties. If something didn’t work, she moved on to try something else in partnership with her grandson. Like any great teacher, she has understanding of the different developmental levels of learning, how the child with a neuro-typical brain learns, and that all learners have individual abilities that require instruction matched to those abilities and needs.

Part 1:

https://www.perkinselearning.org/videos/webinar/our-cvi-literacy-journey-phase-iii

Part 2:

https://www.perkinselearning.org/videos/webinar/our-cvi-literacy-journey-phase-iii-part-2

Troubling Misuse of Promising Practice

When a new approach to teaching learners with CVI is suggested, we need to ask ourselves:

• Does this match our understanding of the unique learner’s visual behaviors?
• Is there scientific research to support the use of this strategy?
• If there is no scientific research, is it a “promising practice” that we can carefully try and carefully apply to each unique student’s situation?
• How do we decide to use this “promising practice”?
• How do we use it as it was meant to be used?
• How do we evaluate its effectiveness since not all inventions will be useful for all learners? (I hope the words collect data popped into your mind here!)

Recently I visited a school to consult for a student who was barely using any central vision to access literacy. The TVI had learned about word bubbling in a conference. Word bubbling is a promising practice suggested by Christine Roman in her book Cortical Visual Impairment: Advanced Principles.

This TVI took the app for word bubbling and suggested that all the child’s literacy materials were bubbled.

• This does not match the student’s visual skills. Central vision use would be essential for this intervention.
• This is not the suggested practice from the text: Cortical Visual Impairment: Advanced Principles.
• This was randomly applied with no diagnostic evaluation of the tool as applied to the student.
• The TVI never partnered with the reading specialist who would be the expert about the teaching of reading. That collaboration would be essential.
• There was no data on the effectiveness of this strategy for this unique learner.

Here is just one example of a sentence this poor student is now struggling visually recognize. I couldn’t quickly read it and I have good reading skills already developed.

 

Please:

• Understand your student’s visual behaviors.
• Try promising practices with careful consideration of those visual behaviors.
• Use the strategy as it was meant to be used.
• Collect data on the effectiveness of your trial. (Baseline data then progress data)
• Random application of any strategy is as inaccessible as doing nothing..

Supporting Language for Visual Attribute Understanding

In the CVI world there is great emphasis on understanding visual attributes to support for children with CVI. This is the consistent visual description language based on experience with objects with those attributes that is used to help children with CVI understand what they see.

It is also important to remember that children with visual impairments often lack understanding of the basis of these language concepts.

They lack understanding of the meanings of position/directional words and any adjectives describing size, shape, number and sometimes colors.

Adjectives used in this visual attribute language such as “long”, “tall”, “flat”, round”, “curvy”, “pointy”, “floppy”, “wagging”, or “skinny” may be meaningless without direct teaching of these concepts.

Position words: used in this visual attribute language such as “middle”, “over”, “under”, “top”, “bottom”, or “upside down” are irrelevant without the context for position in space that is taught and directly experienced.

Shapes: used in this visual attribute language such as “rectangle”, square”, “circle”, “triangle”, or “center” lack meaning without tactile and visual exploration directly with real items of those shapes.

Number and Size: used in this visual attribute language such as “two”, “one of each”, “single”, “short”, “large” are not well understood without direct and repeated teaching of number and size that children with typical visual skills understand through everyday incidental visual experiences. Think about this example of everyday incidental interactions that teach number, quantity and size:

Mom has 3 cookies: 2 small and 1 larger one. She gives 1 small cookie to Billy. Billy sees that mom now has 2 cookies: 1 small and 1 larger. Billy, of course, notices that mom still has “more”: the larger one and a small one while he has the other small cookie.

Children must have multiple understanding of words. If the concept is long, the child must learn that there are multiple kinds of long, that is not a narrow meaning.

“Long” can mean:

• A distance
• A length of time
• Many (as in “a long list”)
• Long sounds
• Long hair
• Long item (as in “long ruler”)

Without directly teaching these concepts for essential language and cognitive understanding, visual attribute language is empty language with minimal meaning behind the words.

We must build concepts with direct teaching with hands-on experience with real materials in 3D. Providing learning materials in 2D without this direct teaching will not provide these concepts.

Visual attribute language can not be the support we want for building children’s visual understanding without doing this background work to solidify the understanding of the words and the concepts.

https://www.tsbvi.edu/curriculum-a-publications/3/1069-preschool-children-with-visual-impairments-by-virginia-bishop

Central Focus for CVI: “How Does This Benefit Kids and Families?”

I have the pleasure of working at Perkins School for the Blind as the CVI Program Manager. My supervisor, Ed Bosso, has one central question for me every time we meet:

“How does this benefit kids and families?”

I try to take that question into consideration for everything I do.

• How does this statement benefit kids and families?
• How does this interaction benefit kids and families?
• How does this idea benefit kids and families?
• How does this CVI training benefit kids and families?
• How does this assessment benefit kids and families?
• How does this collaboration benefit kids and families?

There is certainly increasing understanding of CVI since I first learned about it in 2002. Now our task is to stay focused and to use that building energy and building understanding creatively, scientifically and collaboratively to move this field forward in all ways.

To support the medical field, the educational field and research field in understanding CVI, that central question, “How does this benefit kids and families?”, should be the first question we ask ourselves. Absolutely nothing else matters…

Understanding What is Seen

For students with CVI, understanding what is seen is based on previous knowledge and the expanded understanding of visual attributes

This wonderful example is from Judy Endicott who has a family member with CVI.

Judy shares this experience:

I asked Johnny (now 8), in grade 2 “What do you see?”

Note: (Johnny is not “into” football, and doesn’t recognize the Eagles logo, but Judy is always showing him different newspaper or magazine pictures to gain insight into his visual world, and help him use salient features to identify the image.)

Judy asks: “Johnny, what do you see?

Johnny replies: “A guy in jail.” (Johnny connects the helmet bars with the mistaken salient feature of “jail” that is known to him.)

Judy says: “Point to his head.”  (Johnny does this)

Judy asks “What’s on his head?”

Johnny says: “a helmet” (Johnny understands only part of the image).

 

Then Judy showed him the whole picture:

Judy discussed all  visual attribute information more fully.

She talked about body parts, football, uniforms, etc.

Johnny could label all of the parts correctly when Judy pointed to them, but didn’t connect them initially to help him identify a football player wearing a helmet when Judy initially asked, “What do you see?”

The type of questioning that Judy used: “What do you see?”  insured that Johnny truly had access to the visual images and concepts. When it was clear that he truly didn’t have access, Judy knew this was the critical place for more instruction.

Have You Really Controlled the Complexity and Light?

Complexity and access to distracting light and movement can completely overwhelm the student with CVI in the classroom. I have seen teachers work very hard to reduce the complexity of their classrooms. It can be a challenge but well worth every effort for our students with visual impairments due to CVI. Controlling complexity and light effectively creates accessibility to learning.

Take a look at this classroom: (Pinterest)

 

This teacher has covered the shelves that are probably filled with toys and books. The shades are pulled down to control distracting light sources. The floor cover is a nice non-complex background for looking at materials placed on the rug. A nice start!

BUT: look at the shelves in on the left side of the room. The black cover controls the complexity on the shelves but the complexity remains with the many colorful and complex materials stored on top. If those toys were removed, that left side of the room would be a much less complex background against which to learn.  That is, of course, if that is the way the student in facing in the room!

If the student is facing the right side of the room or learning in the middle of the room, that would be completely overwhelming and complex. If the student is facing this way and this is the background, the student would really struggle against this complexity of array. This side of the room is completely inaccessible for learning for the student with CVI.

Here is a challenge for everyone as you return to school from the holiday break. Pick a student in your class who has CVI. Think about every position you place that student throughout the day. Actually sit there. Is the background where the student is facing free of complexity? If not, rethink your adaptations so the whole room is adapted. Would there be a better place to face? Would learning against a wall rather than in the middle of the classroom be best? Accessible learning is from the student’s point of view not from ours.

Color Highlighted Drum for Increased Accuracy

One of my student was having trouble hitting the Paddle Drum with any accuracy. My husband created a red lighted dot in the middle of the paddle with a bright LED light. It worked wonders! The lighted area drew visual attention to the middle of the drum surface and the student could more accurately find and hit the right area. Success was immediate!

         

My husband placed a metal crosspiece across the back of the drum on the outside ring support and placed the LED onto that with a battery pack. It has an on and off switch for ease. Having the structure off the drum surface did not interfere with the created sound. The lighted drum picture example did not transfer so well. In real life, it is a very bright red dot not the white dot in the picture here.

Two Interconnected Expanded Core Curriculum Areas for Children with CVI

As a Teacher of Student with Visual Impairments, I am certainly focused on the improvement of visual skills for my students with CVI. I am also interested in how my students understand everything that is easily understood by their sighted peers due to their incidental learning. These intertwined Expanded Core Curriculum (ECC) areas must be considered for that equal access.

These two important areas of the Expanded Core Curriculum must be considered separately and together. These are:

1. Sensory efficiency skills
2. Compensatory Skills, Functional Academic Skills (Including Communication Modes)

Sensory Efficiency Skills: This area is especially important for the child with CVI but in a totally different way than that considered for a child with ocular impairments. We are expecting improvement for student with CVI. Functional visual assessment provides the baseline for functional visual skills and sets the stage for this improvement using strategies and objectives matched to the assessed needs.

Compensatory Skills, Functional Academic Skills: This area must be considered to support the building functional vision of the student with CVI. Vision is the distance sense that supports what is heard, smelled, felt and tasted.

Think about a classroom where someone drops something. The child with typical visual abilities can turn, look and determine what made the sound and determine that the sound is not a threat. The student with CVI hears the item drop and due to lack of visual location abilities or lack of distance abilities, does not turn, does not understand what made the sound and might remain in a state of stress wondering if this sound is a threat or not. We need to build this understanding of environmental sounds by labeling the sound, bringing the child closer to the sound, bringing the sound to them and allowing them to make the sound themselves for complete understanding. If someone drops a tray in the classroom, I make sure to bring a tray to the child and allow them to see it, feel it and push it off the tray to create the sound. Once understood, the sound will not create stress and allow the child to return to the learning. This approach provides the student with the same access to the visual, auditory, tactile, cognitive/language information enjoyed by their sighted peers.

For functional academics, focus needs to consistently be on ways to create and foster the highest level of independence possible to live and work in the future. These are skills that should be worked on from birth! Think of the value of organizational skills for a child with limited visual abilities. Getting objects from a storage place and returning the item to that store place when completed builds independence and understanding of the student’s environment.

For communication the CVI assessment can help us determine whether we provide tactile sign language to the student with deafblindness or just visually presented sign. If the child is only using peripheral vision, they could never see and understand the small, distinct visual-only sign that requires central vision use. If a communication device is used, the CVI assessment provides information about the accessibility of pictures, the ability to recognize pictures, the number of items that can be seen and recognized at one time (complexity of array), and what size is needed (due to complexity not acuity!). For literacy and communication, the CVI assessment provides information about the unique need for color highlighting, spacing and print size (due to complexity not acuity!)

All students with visual impairments need the ECC considered and provided in their educational programming. Students with CVI have the same educational needs but with consideration that CVI is completely different from ocular impairments.