Transition: approaches for children and young people with visual impairments
Presented on Tuesday 19 January 2010
Transition: Nursery to Primary
Kat Barrie
(Principal Teacher Sensory Service)
Dumfries & Galloway Council
Awareness Training: Case study
Rory Irvine
Lochview Primary School
- Rory has a lower visual field deficit and probably doesn’t notice objects below waist level unless he looks down.
- This causes him to trip over objects and miss steps when climbing/descending stairs. Kerbs may pose a problem too.
- He has excellent vision in his left eye and his right eye is improving. He has a horizontal squint (right eye) and frequently closes this eye.
- He has been advised to wear a patch on his left eye for 2 hours per day (this may need to continue for several months).
- He has difficulty in busy places (eg; dining hall) and picking out people in a crowd.
- He may have some difficulty with close work.
Advice
- Rory needs reminding to alternate between looking down and ahead when walking.
- He needs to use the hand rail when climbing / descending stairs
- A clutter free classroom would help (especially the floor)
- it would be helpful to alert him to kerb edges etc
- His work station needs to be kept uncluttered to help him find objects such as pencils, crayons etc.
- He may need reassurance in crowds as he cannot deal with too much information and he may not recognise known people.
- It would be helpful if ‘buddies’ wear a high visibility vest or armband.
- Rory will probably respond best to a multisensory approach to learning and needs lots of encouragement to attempt close work (he is capable of much more than he thinks he is)
Teacher for the Visually Impaired
June 2009
(Please contact me on ***** ****** if you have any queries)