Division on Visual Impairments

VIDBE-Q 64.2 Spring 2019

A quarterly newsletter from the Council for Exceptional Children's Division on Visual Impairments containing practitioner tips for Teachers of Students with Visual Impairments, Certified Orientation and Mobility Specialists, and other professionals.

Issue link: http://dvi.uberflip.com/i/1094650

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33 VIDBE-Q Volume 64 Issue 2 read, we introduced a model of a horse, real mint, a real rose, a Derby fascinator, and a balloon as we read sentences about these objects, all of which are important to the Derby. The students were able to pass them around so they could get a better look, touch, and even smell each object. We observed the students being much more interactive and intrigued during this group session than without objects. Not only did it increase engagement, it was easy to do. Between the team, we had the items we chose to pair with the text around our home, which made it easy and free. All it took was a simple conversation of who would bring what to group. During this time, Erin was participating in a reading academy, a course put on through a collaboration between our school district and a local university. One requirement was completing an inquiry study using some of the techniques learned in the class and implementing them with a group of students. Vocabulary building was one of the five pillars of literacy instruction that underpinned the class, so the natural choice for this project was to study the use of tactile items to build vocabulary in our specialized population. Before beginning the inquiry study, Erin searched for research in the fields of speech pathology, visual impairments, and education, and found no research on the efficacy of story boxes for building literacy skills in our population.

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