Play and Communication for Children with Visual Impairment and Additional Support Needs
Presented on Monday & Tuesday 1 & 2 December 2008
Creating a Responsive Environment
How do we do this?
Mary Lee
Royal Blind School, Edinburgh
Creating a 'reactive' environment
It should:
- Be respectful and attentive
- Be responsive
- Be interactive and mutual rather than directive
- Include opportunities for choice
- Include opportunities for turn taking
- Create a need for communication
- Be relevant
- Allow for sensory impairments
- Be fun
RNIB Partners in Learning course
The Learning environment
Structuring the environment
- Routine
- Physical surroundings/simplicity
- Making sense of sound
- Making sense of objects
The social environment
- Interactive partners
- Group work
- Creating a need to communicate
- Behavioural needs
Giving significance to the environment
- Context/relevance
- Repetition/familiarity
- Experiential signifiers
- Pace/time
Maslow's hierarchy of needs
- Physiological (food, drink, warmth)
- Safety/security
- Belonging/friendship/affection
- Self-esteem/adequacy
- Cognitive
- Aesthetic
- Self-actualisation
Maslow: need to fulfill each level before can move on to the next.
Objects of reference and experiential signifiers
Objects of reference - what are they?
Objects of reference are used to:
- Aid understanding of language
- Enable self-expression
- Develop pre-literacy skills
Points to consider
- Level of concept development
- Sensory and physical impairments
- Relevance of objects as signifiers
- Availability of objects of reference
Environmental signifiers
- Broaden the idea of a signifying object to a significant experience
- Experiences would be multi-sensory
- Signify, eg; days of the week, rooms and areas, activities