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An individual education plan (IEP) is normally developed on an annual basis by the student's educational team and is reviewed regularly.
Handouts and reading assignments: For students who need their material Brailled, enlarged or taped, it may be important to furnish the vision resource teacher or Braillist with a copy several days in advance.
Texts and novels: Students may need books enlarged, taped or Brailled. They are available with ordering approximately one month in advance.
Buddy system: Copying from the board, reading small print and collaborating in labs are examples of ways buddies can be very useful. You may find opportunities for the student with visual impairment to provide assistance to other students in the school in areas of his/her strength.
Talk while you teach: Students with visual impairments miss most visual cues and many written instructions. Consider talking through classroom activities, for example, describing non-verbal messages and responses, introducing beginnings, transitions, closures to all activities, announcing assignments, and naming speakers.
Real-life examples and concrete material can assist in establishing relationships between abstract learning and the child's experience. Consider the use of "hands-on" material where possible, to provide opportunities for kinesthetic and tactile learning.
Individual explanation: You may find the student with a visual impairment needs a little additional explanation. When the class begins a task it may be useful to check with the student to ensure comprehension.
"Tell me what you see." To check whether or not the student can see specific visual material it is advisable not to say "Can you see...?" The student may pretend to see or assume that they do.
"How does this relate to what you know?" You may need to assist the student to organize thoughts and make connections between learning experiences.
More Time? Fewer Questions? A vision loss results in students taking longer to complete assignments than their classmates. To demonstrate their grasp of the topic they may need longer working time or less written work on tests. You may wish to consider verbal tests or the use of a reader or a scribe in some circumstances.
More time is needed for assigned reading. A tape of the material, particularly for long passages in literature, can be helpful.
Study Skills: Thorough outlines, point form and identification of key concepts can help avoid fatigue and frustration.
Skip the non-essentials to free up more time for assignments, writing and projects. Tell your student if some of highly detailed portions of the text can be skipped while retaining the essential details taught elsewhere.
Correct spelling, grammar and vocabulary development can be expected and should be checked regularly, as with all students.
While legible handwriting is an important skill to be encouraged, computers are recommended for most students.
Teaching basic literacy is the work of the specialist teacher. Classroom teachers are not expected to know Braille.
Rate and order of literacy development: Skills are developed in a different order and at a different rate for Braille users.
Taped books and readers are an alternate form of reading which may be appropriate in some situations.
Quality over quantity for written work as Braille users will complete their writing assignments in class using a Braillewriter. This takes longer than ordinary handwriting.