Communication is so important. Somethings that have worked great for me ( I visit up to 5-6 different schools within our coop) are creating a one sheet document about the student, vision condition, adaptions, educational impact, and technology used for new teachers/staff. I will also ask for the best way to contact them and if occasional classroom observations are OK, and that I will let them know prior to each visit (I have never been turned down, and I feel that it demonstrates respect of their time and classroom ) I will have the student help create the sheet if able. Also in the Spring of the year, the student and myself will set up a âmeet and greetâ session with new teachers. It is an opportunity to make face to face contact, ask/answer questions, and sometimes demonstrate technology used.
How effective do you find cross-setting collaboration (between home and school) in building compensatory access? What practices support authentic carryover and what barriers still exist?
A student recently transferred from another county, where the Teacher of the Visually Impaired (TVI) had been actively involved in both the home and school environments. The student benefited from consistent interventions, a calendar system, and several favorite toys that were reinforced across both settings.
Upon transitioning, the student arrived without these materials and is now placed in a new foster home, lacking access to the familiar calendar system and preferred toys. The new TVI is collaborating closely with the educational team to reintroduce some of the same interventions and is working toward establishing a communication system with the home environment.
The impact of this transition has been noticeable. The student has exhibited increased behaviors, avoidance, and signs of frustration. However, there have been promising developments. Last week, the TVI introduced a shape sorter similar to one the student used previously, along with a tactile frog book. The student engaged enthusiastically with both items and even requested more. This moment not only highlighted the studentâs capacity for engagement but also served as a powerful reminder to the team of the importance of consistency and familiarity when supporting a student with Cortical Visual Impairment (CVI).
I totally agree with you. I am the specialist for VI in a large county and have presented CVI workshops to our center schools in the past. This is key to spreading the knowledge. It benefits the staff and students.
I love the idea of the student being a part of the meet and greet. I also include observations of the student, especially when they are in a new environment.
Question 1: Analyze the role of family narratives and lived experiences in shaping intervention priorities. How should these narratives be integrated into professional practice without compromising assessment findings?
Family stories and experiences help us understand how a child with CVI sees and functions in everyday life. These insights are important because they show how vision affects the child at home and in the communityâsomething assessments may not fully grasp. For example, a parent may share that their child becomes visually overwhelmed in the grocery store due to too much movement and clutter, which matches the CVI characteristic of difficulty with visual complexity. While this behavior may not appear in a quiet, structured assessment setting, it is still important to consider when planning interventions.
Professionals should use family input to help guide goals and strategies, while still relying on assessment data to support decisions. When both are used together, we can create strong, personalized interventions that meet the childâs real needs.
Thank you for sharing your experience. I really liked how you talked about supporting teachers in a calm and helpful way. Itâs so true that many teachers feel worried at first, but when they see that weâre there to make things easierânot harderâit can change everything. I also find that setting up the classroom together and giving small, clear tips makes a big difference. Itâs great to hear how teachers not only help the student with CVI, but end up using those strategies for the whole class. Your approach is a great example of how teamwork can lead to success for everyone.
I agree that strong communication between home and school is so important, especially when it comes to helping students carry over skills across settings. I really like your idea of using video modeling and a communication app to share progress in real time. That kind of visual feedback can be really powerful for both families and staff as well as it is something they can refer back to as needed. You also brought up a great point about challenges like caregiver turnover and fatigue late in the day which are real barriers that can affect consistency. It sounds like youâve worked to find creative ways to support both students and families through those challenges.
- Think about the classroom adaptations youâve used for students with CVI. Which have been most effective, and which seem underused or misapplied? Are there tools or approaches you wish were used more often?
One of my favorite adaptations for students with CVI has been to find the type of literacy that was best suited to the child. This could be adapted books in which I obtained a copy of a classroom book, cut out key pictures, and placed them on a black background or a favorite color background of the student while still maintaining the storyline. Other books might have had a supplemental book box of objects that related to the story. Many were designed around the interests and/or needs of the students, made with simple tactile designs. Still, some were not recognizable as traditional books, but centered on the favorite routine of a student (SAM curriculum from APH). These books started as book bags/boxes with real objects that related to the routine, and as the student became more familiar and comfortable with this story about a part of their day, the objects gradually moved to pages and sometimes to pictures in a finalized version. Success with the books was fantastic with classroom staff who used them regularly. I have collaborated with two different teachers in separate classrooms to create books that could be used by the whole class, but also catered to the students with CVI. Interestingly, the books Iâve created over the years have been the most successful, even over simpler accommodations. For me, making sure that literacy is accessible for all has been what I hoped would be the biggest takeaway for the classroom staff. Some of the easier accommodations seemed more difficult for classroom staff to put into place, such as a solid colored mat covering the clear, Plexiglas tray of a studentâs wheelchair or solid colored black Velcro boards to present individual replications of group time activities. This was an activity that all agreed would be easy to present and work on with the student. I had recreated the visuals from the teacherâs group time lesson plan with the needed accommodations, and all anyone had to do was put them on the board and guide the student through the activity, as I had modeled â basically the same activity their peers were getting. As my years in teaching VI increased, I found that if the accommodations could be implemented from the beginning of the school year and on, then staff were more able to accept them. Getting accommodations in place for students who came in mid-year to a classroom that had never had a VI student, much less one with CVI was more difficult. I also learned to offer âdialoguesâ about CVI prior to school starting, and this seemed to help, as well. Again, it was always the relationships I developed with classroom teachers and staff that often fueled their understanding of why just a few changes might make all the difference with a studentâs responses and progress.
I completely relate to your scenario of a teacher who jumps into âfight or flightâ mode when I walk into their classroom prior to the school year starting. Including everyone in on what Iâve come to call âDialoguesâ about CVI helps to keep the whole team on the same page. Often I had an advantage over the classroom staff, as I might have known my student since birth. This has helped me ease my way into developing lasting relationships with teachers and their staff. I had one teacher who was skeptical for about the first 6 months of our first year, and then the next year asked me to mentor her for a graduate project, which involved interventions for her students with CVI. What you said about watching their stress levels shift as they come to understand that you arenât really asking them to do more work is so true. They will often incorporate CVI strategies with the entire class and see positive results overall.
I recently did an FVA/LMA with an incorporated CVI assessment on a 17-year-old who had never had VI services. I had to do the assessment at the home, in the girlâs most familiar environment, due to the summer break. The parents preferred this over doing it at the school. It was a challenge because the parents planned to share the report with the school. However, the parents were my best resource, of course, and gave me scenarios that I was not able to observe, such as her participation on an adapted sports team. Dad described her continually being surprised when a ball came toward her and wondered if the âball was suddenly appearing to herâ - a perfect description of what was happening, and was corroborated by his daughter. Parents are the first teachers for their child, and continue to be so as the child grows. Like you, I see parental input as a key component of the assessment process. Without this input, we will struggle to see the whole child.
I love to hear that you give a compliment for the teachers/staff you work with, in addition to recommending something they may need to change, but not trying to bombard the teacher all at once with accommodations, etc. I always feel bad when I meet new teachers/staff every year, as I try to also not to overwhelm them with too much information at one time. I understand that while I may only have one student in their classroom, they do have other students/staff in class and need to make sure they are covering everyoneâs needs. If I know I will be in the same district for the following school year (but not necessarily working with the same teacher/team), I will try to meet with the teacher (and any additional team staff members who may be available) prior to the current school year ending, so that I can at least introduce myself to them and let them know I am available as a resource for them and that I welcome any questions they may have.
I feel that cross-setting collaboration between home and school is probably one of the most effective strategies I have seen work time and again with multiple families with student(s) who have been diagnosed with CVI. Consistent coordination between what the student is learning at school and how the family may continue to support that learning at home and/or in the community creates an amazing experience and varied opportunities for the student to gain confidence in their learning and independence within their daily life. In addition, being able to collaborate on shared goals while using consistent technology/supports allows parents and school teams to create a consistent learning experience for each student.
I have one family whom I have worked with for several years now and one practice/support I find which has been extremely helpful and effective is meeting one-on-one with the parent every year (at least once), outside of the annual IEP meeting. For this particular family, I typically meet with the studentâs mother and just have a conversation as to how she feels things are going â at home and at school. I find this not only provides an opportunity for authentic dialogue with the family, but it also has helped clear up a few communication gaps between the family and the school team. While I feel cross-setting collaboration has been beneficial and truly eye-opening for this particular family I work with in building compensatory access, I do realize not every school team and/or family may have the same opportunity to collaborate, due to unknown/personal circumstances.
As for practices which may support authentic carryover, I find that consistent communication between the family and educators is key. This two-way communication method not only provides/allows for problem-solving in real-time mode, but it also allows for the family and the school team to adjust supports, adapted materials, tech tools, etc. so the student may continue to succeed and achieve their very best. While I feel the good far outweighs the bad, there are still some barriers which may create hiccups along the way, which may include time constraints, lack of training (for families and/or educators), limited access to materials/accessible manipulatives, and possible differences/difficulties in cultures, expectations, and/or delivery models.
The statement, âWe canât do better until we know better!â has been a big mantra for me over the last several years. It has been very important not just for me but for our teams to be reminded that while we donât alway know everything we are constantly working to provide the best service for our students.
I agree with you that data is the cornerstone for changes in the classroom. A student with CVI is going to need adaptation changes throughout the year and the main way to know if something is working or not is to use data. I think itâs a great idea of yours to offer a compliment on what the teacher is currently doing but also offering a suggestion to implement. In order to help the teacher that may appear overwhelmed with the thought of data collection or adaptations, I meet with them and prepare the materials to show them how to reduce clutter, create high contrast materials, etc. I have noticed the teachers are willing to work with me if I take the time to hear them out.
I agree wholeheartedly that professionals should use family input to help guide goals and strategies. My current position as a TVI has allowed me to visit my students outside of school during some of their extracurricular activities. I have had many conversations with parents while the child is participating in the activity or is home and in a comfortable environment. As the child does a task or activity, I will ask about their visual tendencies and how they access their surroundings which then spurs the parent to bring up more experiences. As you said, the use of organic family-based experiences coupled with assessment data will help guide the creation of personalized interventions. Thank you for your response!
The most effective adaptations have been easy to implement such as highlighting the important words in the word problem that the student needs to pay attention to in order to solve the math using their preferred color. One that I find underused is blocking out the busy background so that the student can focus on the visual information being presented. So many classrooms are filled with visual clutter and my students are expected to find items that are hard for them to locate on a shelf or on the table right in front of the book station. Giving students enough wait time is often misapplied as staff doesnât always wait long enough before repeating the direction or a physical prompt. Using back-lighting, simplifying the amount of information on the page or in the array of objects are successful with most of my students in constant application.
I try to take something that they able to do and explain why the student can do that particular task and how to adapt other tasks that are similar in nature to make it easier for the student to do independently. I am working to make my adaptations as easy to implement as possible and explain the why to the staff. I am also building in time to observe the adaptations in action and collaborate with the classroom teachers on what is working/not working.
I definitely agree that communication between the team and the family is key. I have found that sometimes if there is a language barrier it can be difficult to ensure that the messages are understood. I try to have someone with me who can interpret when I have to call a parent who does not speak English otherwise I put it in writing.
I also like to send the parents notes/emails about how things are going other than the progress periods especially if they have started doing a skill with more independence. I also like to know what the student did over the weekend or something exciting that happened during the week at home so that we can have a conversation about it especially if they are unable to tell me themselves. The more rapport I can build with the team and the family, the better the outcomes can be for the student. I try to get the families in touch with outside agencies that can assist them in getting equipment that they might need in the home to continue to work on the skill if we are not able to provide it for them.
- Evaluate your systemâs or regionâs readiness to support students with CVI using the recommendations in this guide. What infrastructure (e.g., training, assessments, funding) exists, and where are the gaps?
In Kansas, it feels like we are currently working to educate as many people about CVI as we can reach. As part of the Kansas State School for the Blind, we have TSVIs across the state on our team serving children in both early intervention home settings and in school settings. A few strengths that help with this mission are that we have an amazing pediatric ophthalmologist, Dr. Linda Lawrence, that works closely with TSVIs. She sees many children in traditional clinic as well as in Low Vision Clinics and has been instrumental in identifying and diagnosing CVI in our area. We also have really good professional development opportunities available to all TSVIs in the state (not just school for the blind staff) that are often free and over a variety of topics. We recognize the need for more targeted trainings on CVI, so we are in the planning phases of starting a statewide CVI conference that will take place in March featuring a variety of speakers. I believe that this conference will be open teachers, but also parents, giving them a place to learn more and to connect with other families across the state to build support networks.
A challenge that we are facing in our area is the lack of medical professionals that are comfortable with identifying and diagnosing CVI. As I mentioned before, we have access an amazing doctor that partners with us, plus a couple other ophthalmologists in other locations that will diagnose CVI. Our state is bigger than it looks and very rural. Access to these doctors is not easy and families in the area I serve have to travel 2-4 hours one way for appointments. We acknowledge that a next step in providing better support for children with CVI would be to educate medical professionals enough that they feel confident identifying CVI, but we also realize that is not a task that can be accomplished by teachers. There needs to be some sort of push for education at eye doctor conferences or continuing education opportunities, but we donât really know how to get that going here yet.
I like to explain to the teachers that the student might have the ability to see the items, but because of the environment, their own inner state, or optic nerve issues the brain is not able to process the information fully. These accommodations will allow their brain to be able to process the information and respond.
Your story emphasizes what the right teacher can do for a student and how important it is to our students to be able to succeed in school. I find myself having to âsellâ the reasoning for why I am asking teachers to do certain things for all of my students. I like the idea of using Mattâs simulation activities to give the teachers an idea of what CVI can be like. It is not as easy as giving them a pair of simulators and asking them to do a task.
I look at behavior issues as communication and you just have to figure out what message the student is trying to get across and then give them a different way to accomplish that. I had a student who would push work off the tray when they had enough so we gave them a voice output button that said âI need a breakâ or âI want something differentâ to push instead.
I love that you are working with the team on a system for AAC and that your studentâs family is on board. Access to communication is something I am trying to work on for all my multiply impaired students as so much is done for them/to them that I try to build in choice making wherever I can.