VIDBE-Q Volume 65 Issue 2
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lighting, the extent and type of physical interaction, positioning, and
visual/auditory clutter (NCDB, n.d.). For children with cortical visual impairment
(CVI) – now the main cause of visual impairment in children in the U.S. (Hatton,
Ivy, & Boyer, 2013), affecting at least 30% of students with deafblindness (NCDB,
2019) – the impact of multisensory complexity (Complexity of the Sensory
Environment) on visual processing can have an overarching impact on availability
for learning (Roman-Lantzy, 2018).
Green et al. (1994) surveyed a group of educators working with children
with multiple disabilities about the levels of alertness of their students, and how
student alertness impacted teaching. While the teachers indicated almost
unanimously that they preferred to conduct training when the student was alert,
almost 70% reported postponing teaching due to non-alertness. The authors
pointed out a potentially significant issue in educational programs serving students
with multiple disabilities: "withholding training due to lack of student alertness"
(Green et al., p. 520). Rather than postponing training altogether, the study
suggests a more productive path: what can the educational team do to promote
alertness when the child is not alert?
How do you moderate your biobehavioral state when you need to? Consider
the experience of driving a car at night, and feeling drowsy: what do you do to
make yourself more alert? You may roll the window down to let in the cool air
