Yes, I loved the information that students cannot be expected to understand tactile graphics if they do not first have a firm concept of the object being represented.
I struggle with this when working with speech therapists. They oftentimes jump into PECS cards when working on communication with students. Often, these students (birth to three) do not have the concrete knowledge or vision to interpret these picture cards meaningfully.
I try to have all my students use an object calendar and use real tangible objects in their life to present what will be going on next. This includes a diaper for diaper changes, a pool noodle for aqua therapy, a spoon for mealtimes, etc. Many of my students are non-verbal so this can complicate matters in trying to understand what they are understanding in relationships to concept development.
If an SLP brings out PEC or picture cards, I often ask if we can take real photos of the objects in the students life and match the picture with the real object to build upon their experience with the real object and assess if they are making the connection between the picture (and I’ll make many different sizes of the photo fo the real object) with the real object.
I would love any feedback on this and how others working with 0-3 and those with limited mobility and verbal skills does this.
I love the idea of not just identifying the parts of the whole item but also the function of the parts applicable. In your duck example, they have a duck bill. Other birds have evolved different beaks as highly specialized tools adapted to their diet. Some beaks crack nuts, probe mud, tear meat (birds of prey), suck nectar (hummingbirds), etc. I love birds if you can’t tell!
The thing I love about being a TVI is that it forces me to look at the world through a different lens in teaching concepts and then branching off from there. It makes it so much fun! I’m always fascinated by how the hands will build a concrete model by exploring parts to whole in their minds.
I love your idea of moving from a tame duck to a dead but once-alive taxidermy duck to a stuffed animal representation, which is more abstract. Then I think of Daffy Duck, the cartoon duck and how that is an even more abstract idea. Do ducks talk? No, but the one represented on TV does. I wonder if DCMP (Described and Captioned Media Program) has one on Daffy Duck?
At a teacher staff meeting I attended years ago, we were advised that every moment we spent with a student should be a teaching moment. Whether we were in the classroom, or walking down the hall to another destination, or escorting a student to the restroom, or at the playground, or in the cafeteria, we should at all times be providing information and education. No minute should ever be wasted. I thought about this for a long time. It sounded like a good and useful idea. I tried right away to put it into practice. I had a student in second grade at the time, a boy who had optic nerve hypoplasia with no light perception and who was later diagnosed with autism. I saw him for about 8 hours a week, vision and O&M, so he was my most likely candidate for trying this out. We spent a lot of time together, both in the classroom and traveling around the school. With all my students, but with him particularly, I increased my talkative communication by about 300%. Everywhere we went, I told him what we were doing, the features of his environment, what he was touching or hearing, who was around him, what to expect next, and anything else I could think of to fill the time.
It did not take very long for me to realize that this had not been good advice at all. Most of what I said, particularly outside the classroom, was noise and distraction. Very little of it was useful to him. What he needed was quiet so that he could listen and think and respond. This turned out to be true for all of my students, regardless of age, developmental level, or educational situation.
For the most part, I think, adults give directions and talk too much. Students need to learn good social and educational behaviors, and they need individualized and generalized information that helps them to develop academic and functional skills to guide them toward successful adulthood. However, the world in which they live is already full of enough noise and less is better than more. Being always ready to respond to an unexpected need or teachable moment is good, but experience, exposure, and concept development can be gently and effectively facilitated without a lot of adult talking.
Your comment about the way a child’s overreliance on one person can restrict his or her development caught my attention. I think this is a great observation. Have you seen evidences of this in your experience working with young children or students? Have you found or used successful strategies that help adults to realize when they are helping too much or being too present, and to release some of that control?
I liked your statement that a student learns functional independence through instruction in object exploration and environmental awareness. I wanted to ask, what does functional independence look like to you? How do you know that a student is achieving functional independence through their experiences with object exploration and environmental awareness, and how do you help them to move from one level to the next?
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 worked for years in a medically fragile classroom. The students there were impacted by more than just vision loss. I continue to use strategies from that time period in my daily implementation of strategies for addressing student needs. Students no matter their cognitive ability go through the stages of concept development. Before my experience in special education I was not aware of how much incidental learning happens in the early years, and is based on our sight. I knew that student do need to learn left and right, but did not know or understand that forward, in front of, behind, next to, are also concepts that deal with direction. I have also learned that developing concepts give students a sense of self and empowerment. Concept development leads to the understanding of aton0my and self awareness. It gives students an understanding of the world around them, and ownership and awareness of their bodies. Even if students do no have the language or cognitive ability, concept development is possible. Even the simplest of concepts can give these learners the power of choice. So much frustration can happen when children are not given the ability to choose. There are many students that don’t have control of their own bodies all of the time, they can also lack the verbal language to articulate their needs. Giving student the opportunity to develop concepts, explore and interact with the world around them, helps alleviate some of that frustration. It aides in empowering them to learn and gain access to the world.
I know in my experience helping too much can hinder a students development of independence. I have seen this with overbearing parents (who are the hardest to deal with ) and I have also see in with 1:1 IA’s. I have seen students blossom when they are given the ability to work on their independence. For example when I student finally finds their voice because they are able to access language. When a learner discovers a communication system that works for them, and can finally make a choice for themselves, well those are the types of moments I live for. I often come across people, even other educators, that assume just because a child can’t see, or hear, or has a cognitive delay, they aren’t able to be an academic learner.
I agree! It wasn’t until I started working in vision that I realized all the different filters and lens I see and experience the world in. At times the field of vision can be overwhelming because it is so vast. I remember when I was first starting out as a braillist and I wanted to be the master of everything, I quickly realized that is not possible. What is most important is my students and their individual needs.
How can educators determine whether a student is ready to move from concrete experiences (real objects/models) to more abstract representations (symbols and raised line drawings)? What evidence would you look for, and how would you respond if a student struggles with this transition?
An educator can determine if a student is ready to move from concrete to more abstract by assessing the student’s ability to recognize 3D object and then able to identify the 3D objects key features in a 2D symbol or raised line drawing. If the student is able to make these generalized identification of features, they show success in more abstract representations. If a student cannot make these generalizations, returning to the concrete objects and using comparison side by side with the tactile graphic so that shared characteristics can be highlighted would be a good response to assist with the development.
I agree that students not only start to depend too much on staff and sometimes one individual staff member but they also start to rely on it. They start to want all adults to help and do things for them that they should be able to do for themselves. The learned helplessness seems to be increasing for all students. Students do not want to have any type of struggle or work through things on their own. I fear what will happen in our future when they just do not want to be pushed.
I love taking students to field trips, community outings and real world experiences to learn and develop concepts. I think this is the best opportunity to add a unique learning experience and maybe finding a way to tie this in to abstract and tactile graphics at the same time would solidify the student learning since the student could be using multi-sensory approach for learning.
To me, functional independence means the student is able to independently complete daily living skills – dressing, brushing hair and teeth, opening a snack, etc… The student will try to figure something out before asking for help and so on. Much information is gained through observation, speaking with the parents and the teacher. If a student is given a brush, provided time to explore it, and receives the instruction on what it is for, they would be more likely to try to brush their own hair. They would also need to know where to find the brush to function independently with this task, which is where environmental awareness would come in.
All students are different. What works for one student might not work for another. I find that there is a lot of trial and error to figure out what is going to work. Some students need tasks broken down into steps – first, next last. Continued support, demonstration, practice, etc… needs to be provided for the student to be successful. Time for the student to try something on their own before jumping in to help is also important.
Question #6: The role of adult mediation and risk of overdependence:
Adult mediation is crucial to guide students in their learning and exploration. It not only introduces them to new experiences, but guides their learning in a systematic approach. The catch to this is that it can often lead to overdpendence or “learned helplessness”. We see this in Deaf students as well. There is a balance to be achieved here and it comes by using scaffolding and gradual release of responsibility. Guiding the learner until they gain competence and encouraging students to learn on their own while assuring them that you are there if needed can create the safety they need. Part of this process is creating an environment where students feel confident and safe to learn and explore within. The world can be scary- but we need to approach it with a sense of wonder and model that for our students. Assuring them that they CAN do this independently is important. Allowing students to try (and occasionally fail, but reflect on what went wrong and how to improve it) will gain them confidence in themselves and their learned skills. Also sharing with students how you have tried, and failed or succeeded and show them how not all setbacks are bad things! It’s the human experience and that’s how we learn!
This also made me stop and think about how different it is to experience something visual versus a verbal description versus a SIGNED description. It’s hard for me as my biggest form of access IS visual- I’m Deaf! It really made me think… that verbal description was dead-on, but then i thought about that and it really made me go “huh- interesting”.
Now- I read a lot of science fiction/fantasy and rely heavily on a written description of something and often those somethings are entirely made up objects but I still get a picture in my head of it. How difficult that must be for someone with limited experiences!
Just interesting how we don’t necessarily consider how to describe something and add the non-examples in there, too.
oh I a MILLION TIMES agree here! Giving students the autonomy to do for themselves and truely take the lead in their learning often sees them bloom!
In the Deaf world we have the term “learned helplessness” and even have a sign for it. We see it often; And it often is caused by good intentions, compassion, and care- but it can absolutly destroy a person’s ability to function. It’s so hard to explain to parents that they have to let their child become independent and sometimes you even have to teach the parent! It’s worth it in the end though.
How can educators determine whether a student is ready to move from concrete experiences (real objects/models) to more abstract representations (symbols and raised line drawings)? What evidence would you look for, and how would you respond if a student struggles with this transition?
One of the first things that can help with determining if a student is ready to move on from concrete to abstract is their independence level. Can they use concrete examples to match concrete, then can they match concrete to abstract, lastly abstract to abstract independently? How much prompting is given to the student? What type of prompting? Is there a plan for fading out prompting?
Does the student understand spatial placement and positional words? (top, bottom, right, left, etc) Can they demonstrate this skill independently?
This is the case with all of our children! Well meaning adults do not understand that it is their job to work themselves out of a job. Often times the paraprofessionals who work the hardest at promoting this independence have the label of “cold” as others do not realize that over helping is almost worse then under helping. Finding that perfect balance is difficult and it takes a special person to have it.
Nice job working with your student to promote further independence!
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 have a 65 year old client that could not navigate his own kitchen AT. ALL. he did not know what we were cutting or spreading or even what different utensils should or should not be used for. I assumed he knew his way around a kitchen. He was born Deaf but had worked for 30+ years as a maintenance technician. Once I realized the level of conceptual deficits related to food, we went to the grocery store. Several times. We are still working today on different foods. He had a wife that made his food for 30 + years… and still did. before that, he was in a dorm at his Deaf school. Concept development is SO important!
Oh this is my life all the time. I work with DeafBlind youth and adults of all ages, 2 to 92. I cherish my experience with each one. I have a client right now that is a 17 year old female. We have been together for 3 years and she is just now beginning puberty. It has been a BIG deal to help her understand how to care for her acne and not rip it off her face. She loves going to the window and feeling the warm sun. I take her there when she is upset, she now goes there when I am not there to calm. Its been a beautiful progression of independence.
) and I have also see in with 1:1 IA’s. I have seen students blossom when they are given the ability to work on their independence. For example when I student finally finds their voice because they are able to access language. When a learner discovers a communication system that works for them, and can finally make a choice for themselves, well those are the types of moments I live for. I often come across people, even other educators, that assume just because a child can’t see, or hear, or has a cognitive delay, they aren’t able to be an academic learner.