Week 2: June 22-26

Cohorts and Events 2026 Hive Summer Cohort
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I think that educators determine whether a student is ready to move from concrete experiences (real objects/models) to more abstract representations as they find evidence of the student’s concept development improves. According to the Perkins reading, shapes and textures are extremely important. So for example, the way the progression of a cube would be giving the child a toy block. As the student is able to feel and describe the cube and then it is then paired with a 2D version of a textured square. Then just the outline with raised bumps or textured outline would be presented. An interesting step is to make sure that the student is able to draw the shape. This actually reminds me of something I learned, where you know that you understand when you can teach someone else. So I think this is an extremely important step because the student is showing you their understanding of what that square (or object) is by presenting it to you. This now shows you if the student understands the square has 4 corners, equal sides.

Evidence that would be looked for is if the student can identify the real object, recognize the differences amongst other real objects and use language that compares and recognizes features of objects.

If a student struggles with the transition, I would see it as concept gap. For example, in the video the girl was able to recognize the 2D shape as round, with a line on top of it but she wasn’t able to recognize it as an apple because she didn’t know that apples have stems. Since the stem is the concept gap, I would take this opportunity to focus on where apples come from and how they grow from branches (assuming she knows and understands what a tree is). We could focus on how apples grow, parts of the apple. Then have the student reflect why the stem is important. Pairing the functional knowledge, with the real object, may help generalize her knowledge with not only apples but other fruits and vegetables that grow.

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Oh wow! I would have also assumed that your student would have had a full understanding about common foods. I love that you made this in to a cooking lesson and explored other foods that are made from carrots. This actually reminds me of an experience with an ENL teacher because the students didn’t know where pickles came from. So she brought in pickles and cucumbers. They explored the color, texture, and differences. The teacher explained how the pickles were made by cucumbers. You are completely right though, I forget how important experiences are and also sometimes people don’t think of how something is made we just I guess know through generalizations of things that we have seen.

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This is such a great comment and observation! It reminds me of how important language is to our students and not assuming that because they understand a word in one scenario they are able to generalize it in another. The PB&J was a great assessment- it’s like the one reading where the students knew all the vocabulary but as soon as they were presented with the duck they had no concept of it! So meaningful real life experiences, when available, can truly show you how students generalize information.

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Hi Lani from Lanna! Thank you for the link to the article as I haven’t seen this one. Years ago, I had the privilege to meet Dr. Lilli Nielson in Texas at a conference and even had my picture taken with her, one I always treasure.

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Kerri Clarkin

Impact of Visual Impairment on Development

5. The reading emphasizes the role of adult mediation and the risk of overdependence (pg. 2). To what extent can adult support both help and hinder development? How do you strike an appropriate balance?

It is really hard for adults and teachers to want to help because of the time crunch with schools and what is expected (especially with complexity of material at school) for students with processing challenges (CVI related). When a younger child gets used to someone initiating the reach or touch of exploration for him or her, it makes them just sit back for the magic trick. Things just magically appear and i’ve seen students that find work really difficult as they get older due to too much adult support. There is less incentive to have internal motivation to tactually explore the environment if someone else will do it for you. Specifically with students that have additional disabilities, this can make progress with tactile exploration of the environment really difficult. The adult’s expectation is low and it’s like saying “ I don’t think you can do it on your own so I’ll do it for you.’

Adult support can help encourage initiation of tactile exploration with both the hands and body. However, I’ve found it helpful to have the student or child participate in the process as much as possible. This can look like putting the object for exploration really close to them, but the expectation is that a reach or effort is required to touch and explore. There is a tendency to start describing the object or environment etc. right away and put our own labels on it. However, what is missed is we are building their construct of the world. An approach I use is asking questions with students that can verbally communicate their experiences. I don’t just tell them it’s hard or soft, but give them time to explore so that they can develop their own ideas with support. For a student with multiple disabilities, you may need to help give them the words through different tools (iPad, support with simple explanation, or other assistive technology). Either way, I have to remind myself to provide wait time sometimes even count to 10 or 15 in my head so I don’t take over the learning process.

The balance is having an awareness of the student’s needs and keep pushing them towards progress. It’s also okay to help a little too much and do something different the next time. We are all learning how to help each other.

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Kiara,

I appreciate your comment about going back and teaching it again from the hands on step. I used to teach high needs students and the students that were moved on too fast never did get the concept. Once they were brought back to the beginning step and brought through the steps again, they learned the concept. I had some students that never did move on too fast graphic representations because their cognitive ability would cause them to forget.

I believe that we need to make the concept learning line fluid. Some concepts they will learn and be able to move on, some concepts will take longer and will need to revisit the level before many times until it becomes concrete.

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In my practice (SPED high needs teacher), I have walked the very thin line of over-reliance on adult support and struggling independence for the student. It is hard to know how much adult support is too much adult support especially when you are not with the para and student all day long.

Adult support can hinder development when the adult is either over-supportive OR doing all of the work for the student. The student doesn’t get a chance to explore doing things independently and will become over-reliant on the adult to complete all things. They will not get to experience growth and development, and they may become frustrated and have behaviors.

Adult support can help development by giving the student encouragement to try new things. A student that you have a good and safe relationship with will trust you. This trust will allow you to help the student experience new and important things for their cognitive development.

There is a fine line between struggling which causes frustration and struggling that causes growth. This is also a hard concept to teach to new para-educators. I believe that striking the appropriate balance comes through trial and error. I think that sometimes we under estimate the abilities of our students and then we see boredom. Sometimes we overestimate the abilities and see frustration. I believe that the learning plans of all my students should be flexible and that we (my team and I) should reflect daily on whether the students are being pushed the appropriate amount.

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  1. Think of a time when a student accurately used vocabulary but did not fully understand the concept (similar to the “duck” example). How would you redesign that learning experience using the progression of real objects → models → tactile graphics → raised line drawings? What specific instructional moves would you make at each stage?

n the past, I worked with a DeafBlind student who was trying to understand the concept of “duck” for his Art class. This student wanted to make a sculpture of a duck. In order for this student to create a model of a duck, he was introduced to an object that represent duck. After exploring the model and understanding the shape of the duck, how it makes sounds, walk. The student made the model that looks like duck.

After reading about this module, this gave me more insight how to improve their literacy concepts transitioning from concrete, functional, and abstract. I would use objects that represents duck. I would use different objects such as a stuffed animal, toys in different size and shapes. Even I would like to see if there is a petting zoo where you can pet a duck if that is possible and if the student is comfortable with the idea of touching and exploring a real duck. That might not be an option but using non-breathing objects is a good start to develop concept of “duck”. I would continue to work with the student and make sure they are understanding the concept. As they move on to the abstract level, where they can feel the raised lines symbolizing a representation of duck. I would work with the student as they explore and interpret the information without direct physical contact. I would provide support if they struggle with the abstract concept by bringing in the objects and explore both process at the same time.

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Discussion Week 2

6. The reading emphasizes the role of adult mediation and the risk of overdependence (p. 2). To what extent can adult support both help and hinder development? How do you strike an appropriate balance?

I really appreciated the video Considerations for Caregivers. The information included was so valuable to team members (not just parents in my opinion). This would be a great resource to share with teams. This topic is something that I have been continuing to work on with parents, staff, and community. I have incorporated different ways to include partners throughout the years. Parents are always welcome to come in during sessions and participate. I encourage this participation as I can learn from them and they can learn from me. I also encourage staff to participate or observe lessons by myself. This helps with shared vocabulary and learning goals being team focused. Having a shared daily journal is also something I have used for some students. This also promotes team and shared goals. Students need adult intervention at times either physical or verbal but allowing students to also explore, play, and make choices either good or bad is important for development. Adult support can be too much and hinder development, so students do not take responsibility or ownership of learning or life. Something that I have found helps with this is having organizations such as NWABA (Northwest Association of Blind Athletes) provide opportunities through sports for students to engage with activities and each other. Often parents come to events, and this is a wonderful opportunity for parents to gain community as well as student community. Parents have shared that this opened their eyes to what their child can do. Students and parents enjoy the community that comes from such events, and it allows others to see the potential of individuals. Often students are looked upon as needing support, so advocacy is worked on continuously with students to either ask for assistance or be able to deny assistance. Celebrating independence and steps to independence, encouraging and motivating success with or without support, looking for ways to pull back support, and team communication with sharing of learning goals/supports has assisted in creating positive environments of students progressing with helpful and meaningful support.

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I totally agree with making choices on their own. Mistakes are valuable. I have heard and seen “it is faster”, but in the long run teaching them how to do could lead to less time needed to complete task. It is very hard to combat too much assistance. What strategies have you used with parents to support independence and self reliance?

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I really like your sequencing here. The done bin so important. The landmark book is a great idea! I have successfully moved a student from 3D to 2D with consistent reinforcement and opportunities to use objects meaningfully. One recent success has been a student that went from whole to part and is now somewhat functionally using an AAC. She still has her tactile cards but is showing great promise with IPAD and accessible APP. Where do you think you will go next with this student?

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What a great example redesigning the learning experience for this student. Finding the objects for the student to tactually explore and then moving on to raised line drawings is a process. You really put in alot of thought and time making sure the student is able to interpret and understand the concept of Funko Pop.

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I enjoy your comment about if a student struggles with the transition, there is a concept gap. Its a very good point when we need to cover many details of the object for them to understand the function concept as they transit to abstract. By learning tactically and pairing the knowledge, it will help with more broader knowledge of other concepts. What a great example. Thank you for sharing that experience.

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Lauren, I love this lesson and how you got to let him go to the air museum and see the helicopter up close. At our state school for the blind, they have stuffed real animals that I want to create a lesson and field trip around. Reading your discussion answer gave me a renewed excitement to do this,.

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I think that caregivers of students that needs support are often given either not enough information or too much information. It can be really overwhelming when providers come into the home or support a student at school and give too much information. Supporting parents in creating community with other parents and other supports are very important. I think that the video provided students with specific steps that can be taken to increase student independence. However, I have found the parents who see students who are older with similar challenges exhibit growth be an important motivator to step back. This allows the child to step forward and make more progress. Steps and suggestions are best to be specific and easy to do.

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This is an important step to complete with students and I agree that is really important to not assume every step of the skill is understood. I know that there are a lot of simple tools to make tactile graphics and a good idea might be to have the students create their tactile goal ball court (with an adult example). That way, they are applying what they learned and can even become the teacher to another student that struggles with the same skill.

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Question 1 Reflect on a time when a student struggled to understand a concept (e.g., spatial awareness, object use, or body awareness). What assumptions did you or others make about what the student “should” already understand? How did those assumptions influence instruction or expectations? What helped shift your understanding of the student’s needs?

I am working with a blind student the ultimate goal is for her to use a fork, spoon, and cup during meals. First we worked on identifying the objects. Once she was able to identify and select each item. I began working on the function of each. While working with the spoon and fork I did not realize that she would have reject some foods because of their texture. For example she has tactile aversion to cold, gooey, slimy things. I did not realize this would carry over to food. In order to begin working on the function of eating utensils, through trial and error I had to find food that she was willing to eat in order to use the fork and spoon. As a second grade student I expected her to know that she had to lift and tip a cup to drink from it. She is currently using a sippy cup but does not lift it to drink from it. She relies on others to drink from it. We are still working on object use for the fork, spoon and cup in tandem with their function.

To help the student I began working with her during lunch or snack time. I realized since she only had bite sized finger foods she was not familiar with the function and use of the utensils. She could identify the items but did not know how to hold them and manipulate them to use them to eat. That is where we started. How to hold them. Until we began attempting this I did not realize that she will touch, explore and lift things but not in away that applies pressure. So we had to work on holding the utensils correctly and applying pressure to hold it correctly. We are still working on this. With the sippy cup we worked on lifting it and tipping it to take a drink. By the end of the year she was lifting it and tipping it.

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Hello I agree that the student struggling with moving forward from concrete to function may need to go back to building their foundational understanding or they may need micro steps toward the functional understanding.

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I agree with what you have observed with students using an ACC. They often do not have a conceptual understanding of what the icon they are pressing means or what they are conveying to others. Following the same sequence from real object to tactile symbol working with the speech provider we have added the tactile symbols to the ACC device.

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I work with children from birth through three who are blind/low vision. Many of them have additional disabilities, including gross/fine motor and speech delays. The lack of mobility makes environmental awareness and object exploration challenging.

Object exploration involves using residual vision, tactile exploration, sense of hearing, and smell to discover various items and their properties. Are they heavy, light, smooth, rough, etc. This hands-on exploration and handling of objects builds upon and leads to environmental awareness. Concepts surrounding hands-on exploration must come before environmental awareness. An infant and young baby will be exploring as far as their arms and hands can reach. This could include mom’s soft skin, her clothes, dad’s rough beard, ensuring a safe and predictable play area with known objects. Once motor milestones are achieved, object exploration builds from there. Perhaps the baby rolls over to a couch and hits that boundary. Upon object exploration of the couch, they are starting to build environmental awareness of their living room. This is broadening their cognitive mapping of the environment around them. This concept mapping of their home will continue to build.

Initially, they need lots of time and exploration to identify objects and explore their tactile properties in a safe and predictable environment. The awareness that objects exist (object permanence) leads to further environmental awareness. I love how these two concept developments overlap, much like a Venn diagram.

For students who are motorically challenged, I like to set up Little rooms or play areas with boundaries where any incidental movement from their body interacts with their environment.
This develops body awareness and shows that my body can act upon my environment. I have even used laundry tubs or cardboard boxes with toys on them for babies and toddlers to feel the limits and boundaries with their bodies and to understand their bodies in relationship to where they are.

I work closely with physical therapists. Oftentimes, children are placed in a gait trainer or kid walk, and then that opens up the world! We have done routes to the mailbox and identified different features of their environment: the slope of the sidewalk, the mailbox, the soft grass or hard concrete, the bush or tree next to them.

Starting from simple to complex and gross to fine is a joy to watch unfold in children. Explaining these developmental concepts to parents helps inform them and allows them to work with their children in strengthening and building upon these concepts.