I really appreciate your point that tactile skills are often overshadowed by braille instruction. While braille literacy is certainly essential, the underlying tactile skills are what allow students to access braille, tactile graphics, and many everyday tasks successfully. Treating tactile development as a foundational skill rather than an afterthought would benefit all students with visual impairments, regardless of whether they are formal braille readers.
I was especially interested in your observation that tactile assessments are often missing from Functional Vision Assessments. Without formally assessing these skills, it is difficult to identify areas of need or justify the instructional time students require. Including tactile assessments as part of the evaluation process would help ensure that instruction is more intentional and individualized.
I also agree that strengthening teacher training is key. Classroom teachers, TVIs, and support staff all play a role in reinforcing tactile skills throughout the school day. When everyone understands how to provide meaningful tactile experiences, students have many more opportunities to develop confidence, independence, and efficient learning strategies.
1. Reflect on how educational teams (teachers, families, specialists) collaborate to support tactile development. Where do breakdowns typically occur, and what could strengthen this collaboration?
Teacher, families, specialists need to collaborate to support tactile development. Often, collaboration is difficult for itinerate teachers in multiple districts however having a set time to collaborate with each team member monthly at minimum has helped the progression of tactile development. Utilizing zoom, meet, etc has been helpful in being able to jump on to a meeting to discuss individual students. Classroom and special education teachers are usually the entities I collaborate the most with within the school setting. Parent collaboration is commonly weekly. Having set meeting times has helped to shape individual student development meetings. We all are busy but having a set meeting on calendars helps for thoughtful engagement and reflection of current practice and needs. OT, PT, SLP’s are harder for me to collaborate with in person but they will commonly come to a monthly meeting or respond to meeting minutes with thoughtful ideas and guidance. OT’s and PT’s are the ones I will call during or after school for guidance and assistance with activities. Since I am mainly rural and itinerate, I have worked with most specialists at my service district which is a real blessing. Some breakdowns I have encountered include new case managers and not having prior case manager information about students’ program or development available. General Education teacher feeling like accommodations are too much to carry out even though there are staff members in class to support students. Specialist often change frequently so flexibility is essential. Changing team members is a time-consuming part to obtain a collaborative team, however this is inevitable. Collaboration and generalization of tactile skills include all the team and thankfully we have all been willing to share the work to gain growth for student success. Some recent collaborative endeavors include positioning at a table for tactile discrimination, room exploration with appropriate support (PT), participation in classroom cooking, requesting assistance with AAC, accessibility of AAC with Vision/OT/and PT, daily living task with appropriate tactile supports, tactile learning experiences that others are also utilizing after being created.
Anyone else have amazing ideas to increase collaboration for development of tactile skills? What is working for you?
Reflect on how educational teams (teachers, families, specialists) collaborate to support tactile development. Where do breakdowns typically occur, and what could strengthen this collaboration?
When educational teams (including teachers, families, and specialists) collaborate to support a student’s tactile development, it helps to create a wonderful learning environment. Unfortunately, breakdowns can occur within the team but there are strategies that will support and collaboration.
Keep Talking: TVI’s and the team should work together to ensure that any support is implemented effectively and not causing disruption for students and staff. Regular check-ins will ensure that support for the student remains effective.
Establish clear protocols: TVI’s and the team can meet at the beginning of each unit to ensure that the student’s accommodations are incorporated into lessons (this will help with smooth transition).
Quick Daily check-ins: this includes the students as well. Questions include: “how is this working for you?” this will allow students to feel a part of their learning and allows a quieter student to be more expressive. Sharing small successes as well as areas of need will encourage positive routine.
Treat Parents as equal experts: this will also help with consistency at home and school. Share functional and practical strategies with the family to reinforce literacy skills at home.
Thank you for sharing some ideas for itinerant teachers to use to help collaborate with school districts and their families. I agree that it is important to communicate with families and school districts on a regular basis. I find that communication can break down when there is turn-over in staff (on a regular basis) and this change affects the students the most.
I appreciate your post. I agree that it is difficult to modify and simplify materials last minute especially when TVI’s are not available or in that district on that particular day. I think you highlighted an important fact that “tactile learning is highly sequential and requires continuous reinforcement”.
I agree with common language. I chose this one to answer and missed that critical piece. The common language is so important to practice skills. After each session I work with a student I send a follow up email with what was worked on, introduced, practiced. If it is a trouble spot that I learned through collaboration I will detail step by step process (including language) and reflection of teaching. Braillist/para also emails me daily to give notes of what is going on daily so I can gauge needs and instruction. I email special education teacher, general education teacher, and if applicable specialists. I do think this helps with collaboration as it opens the door for others to know what we work on and allows for more practice with other staff. Professional development is also another great one to include as some general education teachers have been very eager to learn about how to best serve and support students with VI in their classroom. You hit so much in your response!
What have you tried to focus on to increase collaboration?
Co-treating with an exceptional OT or PT for O&M is so valuable in my opinion. Great point! You are so spot on about blindness being a spectrum. Usually one time a year in any of the up to 9 school districts I have been in during a year I need to educate staff on visual impairment and the spectrum. Often times teachers can just view a student using their vision to complete some tasks however they are not understanding the impact on student, missed information, struggles they have to complete these tasks. Giving teachers the evaluation report and going over entirely the impact of vision during their academic day has been the only way these teachers have begun to understand the students diverse individual needs. Agree that I want to be with my students and figuring out time is a difficulty. How are you calculating?
How might you apply the principles of the ETLP to better identify and support a student who shows uneven or “splintered” tactile skills? What would this look like in your current or future practice?
I am thankful to have found this tool to help me assess students tactile skills. Using the tool will help me to identify the tactile deficits and to create a plan to teach the specific skills needed.
I work with a student who, when given an object to explore, will lightly touch it with one or two finger fingers. She is in the seventh grade and can understand the tactile learning process. This tool will help me to create the lessons and vocabulary with the student and create goals with her regarding her tactile exploration, and development.
In my own practice, it is sometimes difficult to balance the materials and goals of the classroom teacher and the needs of the student with a visual impairment. Balancing direct instruction with instruction in the classroom is very critical.
Unfortunately, teaching tactile literacy skills has taken a backseat to teach teaching braille and technology- laptops and braille displays, or pre-teaching what the students will be learning in class.
During direct lessons when I am pre-teaching classroom curriculum, I am able to have more focus on tactile development.
One thing that we found beneficial in addition to collaboration, was to meet with the staff at the beginning of the year. We introduced our vision team, and provided staff with experiences that their students, who have visual impairment, may encounter throughout the year.
For example, we provided glasses that change a person’s vision and asked them to copy notes.
We blindfolded some staff members and had them use a white cane to navigate. Sometimes these real life experiences, along with guidance and education, will help people to understand the how to best support the students with visual impairments in the classroom.
Hi Lacey! I couldn’t agree more about using the Sensing and Learning Approach with students who are at this developmental level. We’ve all witnessed IEP goals beyond a student’s developmental level or ZPD. And you are right about tactile development with students who have multiple disabilities as we often think of these students as nonreaders (non-traditional tactile learners). I think using the words, non-traditional tactile learner, changes how we look at these learners. This prompted me to look at the APH Census as they changed the wording under Primary and Secondary Reading Medium to Symbolic Reader vs non-reader in 2023. Just a bit of historical information to tuck away for later!
Hi Jeannie, I work with 0-3 and as you stated, families who have children with complex needs are often focused on immediate health issues like seizures, nutrition, sleep, appointments. Plus, there might be siblings in the household as well. These families have a lot to balance or handle in day-to-day living. I am currently working with a family, and we added a literacy goal in his IFSP to focus on the development of emergent literacy skills. Hopefully this will become part of an everyday routine for this family and as you said, “empower caregivers to become confident partners in their child’s tactile literacy journey.” A statement that bears repeating!
3. Reflect on your own use of touch when supporting students. In what ways might your approach unintentionally promote passive or controlling touch? How could you shift towards more active, non-controlling interaction? What impact might that have on student learning?
My first thought, in response to this question, is when I work with students that have multiple disabilities and/or challenges with communication of wants and/or needs. I can think of students I have worked with in which I was too focused on the goal of the lesson that I didn’t focus enough time on the student’s innate sense of safety. One thing that struck me was the definition of active vs. passive touch. I never want a student to feel like they are “being acted upon.” I consistently tell teachers to use hand under hand to help limit passive touch and promote active touch. In addition, I always try to encourage permission to touch (ex. I’m going to help move your hand towards the ball”) in order to ensure the student feels safe enough to use active touch. It was powerful to learn about the affective touch system in which students, even with hand under hand support, can override the discriminative touch system and automatically pull back when they feel like there is a danger. When a student feels safe, he or she will more consistently use active touch. The shift for me is having a better understanding of why a student is reluctant to tactually explore. Taking a break is better because when in fight or flight mode, it’s impossible to tactually discriminate and organize thoughts about features etc.
The other thought was how I can help a second grade, more typically developing student to consistent tactile exploration with active techniques. He is not confident in his tactile skills and there is a pressure to figure out how to catch him up. While he is able to complete work with his peers with some difficulty, the student struggles to tactually read braille or any other tactile graphics. While it technically is “active” because he is interacting on his own to explore tactually (especially with fun games), I ‘d like to encourage him with more complex projects etc. in a fun way to help increase his confidence. Using a better assessment for this student could help and I would like to use some other assessments.
However, I’d love ideas about how to encourage tactile exploration of braille and raised line tactile graphic pictures for older students.
One thing that I try to do is use hand under hand support but gradually slide my hand from maximum support to minimal support. This looks like sliding my hand (using hand under hand technique) as close to the elbow as I can so that I am guiding as needed but allowing for active tactile exploration. It is something that I must constantly be aware of and sometimes I count in my head to 10 or 15 to make sure that I am allowing for student independence with tactile exploration.
I have not used the ETLP resource, but also think it will be a very helpful tool for assessment. I think the more resources we can give to teachers and use ourselves that are specific and easier to use are more likely to be used consistently. I have a second grade student with a lot of missing tactile skills and limited confidence exploring tactile materials. This tool will help me create a new and targeted approach towards his growth and education.
Reflect on your own use of touch when supporting students. In what ways might your approach unintentionally promote passive or controlling touch? How could you shift toward more active, non-controlling interactions, and what impact might that have on student learning?
I worked with DeafBlind individuals over 20 years and I have always tried to pay attention how I give information through tactile sense. I try to pass information in the way where it inspires them. Reflecting in the past when I was younger, there were times I need to guide them and I would approach hands-over-hands to touch information. Also, I noticed when I take control, the individuals do not engage as much they want to and they are not motivated to try new things and depend on me for access. Over time, I realized my approach doesn’t help foster their curiosity to learn new things. I have learned from many DeafBlind instructors as they explain the appropriate way to exchange touch when giving information. Over the years, I have shifted my approach more with hand-under-hand as I emerged myself as Protactile Interpreter. I realized the best approach is hand-under-hand where I have learned from their Protactile philosophy which emphasize the importance of sharing experiences together and stay connected with the DeafBlind individual. This promotes autonomy of the individual and give them the confidence to gather information through touch. It’s important we develop trust and respect in the way we approach our sense of touch.
Reading this research reminds me even more so, the approach teaching hands-under-hand is the more inviting and helps the blind students to engage more in a positive way. Its shows its more effective as it helps encourages tactile curiosity and motivates them to want to explore. Its important to allow them to have the freedom of hand movement to encourage independence and concept development. This research help remind us to gain a more skillful use of touch that encourage students in developing their skills in social, cognitive and academic environments. We want to be thoughtful in our approach in tactile sense so we can empower them to reach their potential.
Yes I find myself doing that in the past where I would approach hands over hands without intentionally trying to control. This didn’t help foster their curiosity as I noticed. So I changed the way I approach and realized they have a better learning experience and gain more independency as they explore.
You brought up so many valid points and observation in the educational system when it comes to long-term tactile development. There is not enough materials to broader their tactile exploration and concept developments for their lifelong learning. Its shouldn’t stop at after graduating high school. I work with Deafblind adults and they are constantly learning and exploring and they need guide to help them continue to develop more concept understanding in their environments.
Reflect on how educational teams (teachers, families, specialists) collaborate to support tactile development. Where do breakdowns typically occur, and what could strengthen this collaboration?
After reviewing other posts on this question, I am relieved that I share most of the same struggles. Many of my caseload students have a long list of educational team members. Some include outside agencies. Over the years, I have noticed that as an itinerant teacher, you have to learn and understand each member. Communication is key. Which form of communication is best? A prior post from a TVI made a good point about having a set meeting time for a certain student. This is usually a Zoom or Google Meet where more educational members can attend. If possible, co-treating with some of the educational team members, specifically the OT, PT, SWK, or SLP is ideal. Tactile development can reach across a variety of environments where each team member can provide their expertise. Many of the assessments can be shared with team members and give a more focused area of what the student needs to work on. Caregivers and parents need more face-to-face and hands-on instruction. At the beginning, I always had an agenda of what I wanted students to practice at home. But living in a rural area, I have found that asking the parents and students what they want to work on at home has made it more interactive. Another activity that has helped parents is listening to prior students and what they did at that age. If possible, have these conversations at their house (a comfortable area). The IEP meetings with multiple people is very intimidating where most parents don’t ask any questions or give input. They are overwhelmed.
I relate to your struggles as an itinerant teacher in a rural area. The idea of setting a time each month for that particular student has been helpful. Before, we would try to work with everyone’s schedule, and it would never pan out. Each year, I continue to have struggles with general education teacher(s). I either have the teacher overwhelmed with the accommodations or the teacher who doesn’t have high expectations for the student and gives a passing grade with no feedback. My student will be transitioning to the high school next year, and I am still reminding the general ed teacher to support our student and talk directly to them, not the staff. I wish our department budget had room for more community-based instruction. The outside experiences fill in those gaps.