Anyone hsing blind/low vision child?

[CherryBomb]

Hi, I was just wondering if anyone is homeschooling a blind or low vision child? Dd2 went to developmental prek and is currently in Kindergarten at public school, but I'd really like to homeschool her for first grade on. She does have some vision, but it's extremely poor, due to a brain injury. The state school for the blind evaluated her and said she'll need to learn braille and recommended an evaluation for a cane as well (though I haven't heard back from them on that, uggh). She doesn't really have any depth perception or peripheral vision, either. She's mildly developmentally disabled, but I really feel it's due largely to her vision. This is my third year hsing dd1, and I realize more and more how much we rely on vision to learn. So I'm wondering primarily what curricula you use with your blind/LV kids, and/or how do you adapt other curriculum to your child?

[CrazyCatLady]

Well my daughter isn't blind, but her vision is very poor. She has double vision, a lazy eye, a very strong glasses prescription that I don't think helps all that much, and a lot of visual processing problems.

I'm kind of lost too and can't wait to see what people here chime in with here. We still work on writing and such. But she's obviously struggling with it. We always use markers instead of pens or pencils because she sees them better. We also practice writing in flour and the dirt with her finger. We do a lot of stuff on a white board. She gets books with extra large print from the school district to use. Which is nice, but she can't read yet anyways so I don't know if that will really help or not.

So I work on other pre-reading skills for now. I read to her tons, I ask her lots of questions and get her thinking about what she hears, we love to work on new vocabulary words each week and her vocabulary is way ahead of her peers. I have her memorize songs for her voice lessons.

She's great with math and science, so I don't worry much about those.

This is our second year of homeschooling and it's going well I guess. For all I know I'm doing everything wrong. My goal is to get her into vision therapy and some other services here soon that can help me to help her more. She tried two months of public school during the middle of last year and that was a disaster, so I'm kind of stuck with her either way lol.

[mykdsmomy]

My ds10 is legally blind. He still has vision and does really well with the vision he has but he's currently learning braille as we don't know what the future holds as far as his vision. (He had Retinopathy of Prematurity ...he was a 26 week preemie).

Here's what we do: We are using a public charter school (K12 virtual Academy) and benefit greatly from the services they provide. He has the benefit of homeschooling this way so it works for us. His IEP includes a VI teacher 2x a week to come into our home and teach him braille. He also gets Orientation and Mobility 2x a month (his VI teacher takes him out into the community and shows him how to get around, etc).
They have supplied him with a brailler, a CCTV, and large print (when possible). It's also written into his IEP that he can turn in assignments through braille, typed or even orally (on a tape recorder). Right now we're working on Science and I'm basically reading the lesson to him and we're discussing it. He has mild CP and cannot write well at all so we focus on typing and that works for us

There are also TONS of audio books out there you can download for free. My son's eyes tend to tire easily. He loves to read and tends to take his glasses off to read but then has to hold the book two inches from his eyes. The audio books help him

There are so many great resources out there. I would suggest getting hooked up with the Braille Institute. The chapter near us picks up my son once a week for activities

Let me know if you have any other questions

[laohaire]

I don't have a LV child but I am low vision/legally blind myself (retinitis pigmentosa). I just wanted to suggest calling your state's commission for the blind, if you haven't already, and get some suggestions and materials. (All are free in the 2 states I've lived in). (UGH, reread. Obviously I'm blind You already did this).

I would also consider making up some of my own materials and printing them out in a larger, bolder font. I like the PP's idea of using markers instead of pencils and such, as well. (A whiteboard might be nice, with high contrast, thick black markers). I would be inclined to try to teach reading/writing in tandem with braille. Assuming she has enough vision to read (even if it's large type) I would imagine she'd be much better off having both skills.

I read a book a few years ago called Coping with vision loss : maximizing what you can see and do (Bill G. Chapman). It's not about kids or homeschooling, but I found it inspiring and interesting because it reassured me that I should keep using every bit of vision that I could, for as long as I could. It was a confidence boost. Some people (like my mother) think I need to act like I'm completely blind, when I'm not. For example, a lot of people ask me why I don't have a guide dog. Well, because I don't need one. I don't always even need a cane, though I certainly use it when I feel like it would help. Some people kind of give up when they have low vision and start acting like they are totally blind, but they lose a lot this way. We folks blessed with low vision (as opposed to total blindness) have a lot to enjoy. But when people don't USE their vision, their brains reduce the visual cues that are processed.

Anyway, I thought I'd just throw that out there, and hope it might help encourage you to encourage your daughter to use whatever vision she has, and enjoy it. Naturally, she needs enough accommodations to make it enjoyable rather than stressful and straining (thus, if she can't read regular print, then of course she should have large print - for example). But it's good to have the perspective that we LV folks DO have vision, and should use it for all it's worth!

[CherryBomb]

Thanks so much for your perspective, laohaire! Those are some great ideas, and I'll definitely check out the book.

We live in Indiana, and right now afaik, there's only one liason from the school for the blind for our area, and she's only here a couple times a month. It's frustrating. I do think she really needs someone at least a couple of times a week who's trained specifically to work with blind/LV kids. I'd love to just enroll her in the school for the blind, but it's an hour and a half away...I could board her, but I can't do that when she's only 5, I feel like the benefits of being there would be totally cancelled out by the trauma of being seperated from her family 5 days a week.

At any rate, I did actually check K12. The regular program for our state effectively requires you to live in Indianapolis (it doesn't say that, but you're required to attend an "enrichment center" two full days a week, and it's in Indy, so...) Anyway, they do also have a pilot program for a virtual school where that wouldn't be necessary, and it's set up to be geared primarily to kids with special needs and/or otherwise aren't able to go to traditional school. So, assuming the program is still around next year, that's a definite possibility. I know it varies state to state, but I'm hopeful that if I did it, I'd have access to some of the things you mentioned, mykdsmomy.

My daughter has mild CP as well, mykdsmomy, so she also has difficulty with writing (poor fine motor skills). I'll check out the Braille Institute, too. I really need to get her more early braille exposure, we have a few kids books with braille, but that's it (I keep intending to buy a small brailler and label things around the house, and her teacher said I could add braille to the stuff that's labeled in the classroom, I just never seem to have the money, gah!) We did sign up for the reading pals program from the NFB.

[mykdsmomy]

I found this:

http://www.nfb.org/nfb/Braille_Readi...SnID=230095355

I didn't realize that the Braille Institute is just in So. Cal.....but they have an early literacy program like the one in the link above.

We haven't paid for anything (except we will be purchasing a cane for my son soon). The school district has paid for everything. Is there another public charter school in your area? I can help you look if you want to pm me There are lots of great resources out there but sometimes they are hard to find.

[hadleys_mom]

Now nice to see other's homeschooling the VI kids!

My DD is 6, she has ROP from being a 23 week preemie. She has hypotonia and fine motor activities are difficult for her. She will be a dual reader but we are focusing on braille since this will be the easiest way for her to access materials. So far, I've had no problem modifying materials to meet her needs. We do a lot of things orally. This is our second year of homeschooling. Here are some resources I've found and use.

Hadley School for the Blind: Offers class for parents and students. It is a distant learning school and free.

Quota Funds: As homeschoolers we still have access to the Federal Quota Funds, which allow you to order items from APH. We just received Patterns, which is the Language Arts/Braille program. Very excited about this!

Our local Library for Accessibility Services: The books and players are free. My DD goes through so many audio books!

There is a blindhomeschoolers online support group through yahoo.

[CoolMomNC]

There is a tool for learning Braille that seems like it's ideal for children. It involves blocks that are like Lego, with Braille letters embossed on the surface.

(If anyone has used it, I would love some feedback!)

Studies show that most kids with low vision in school who are mainstreamed don't receive enough Braille instruction. And, therefore, they don't read Braille very quickly, and don't like it, and so on.

Google "tack tiles" to find the Lego-like blocks.

It's great to use all of the senses to learn, and use all of the available vision.

My daughter has some vision issues, and when needed, she used sharpies on big pads of paper. She liked having a set with many colors to pick from.

With the white board, make sure to have some extra markers, as they dry out really fast.

It's also great practice to listen to stories and other things that use the oral/aural route. This helps develop the brain's ability to take in information that way.

In addition, as one of the posters mention, lots of experiences, touch, experiential learning, and so on are good.

Hope it goes well!