Transcript Document

THE VISION IMPAIRED
STUDENT IN YOUR
CLASSROOM INDIVIDUAL, SOCIAL & FAMILY
PERSPECTIVES
Geoff Bowen
Psychologist,
Statewide Vision Resource Centre
CONTENTS
1. Are vision impaired students really
different?
2. Living your life fully!
3. Families, grieving and disability.
4. Working with students in the classroom:
– Discipline issues
– Stepping back
– Self Esteem?!
MISCONCETIONS ABOUT
VISUAL IMPAIRMENT
There are multiple causes and effects of
visual impairment therefore it is difficult
to talk about the educational, social and
emotional impact except in very general
ways.
However – issues to consider
• Approximately 75% of visual impairments
result from some problem with aspects of the
central nervous system.
• 60-70% of children with visual impairments will
ultimately be diagnosed as having a
secondary disability.
• 50% of blind children have a LD and 56% of
those with severe LD or IQ<50 have autism
(Steinberg et al., 2002)
• Same abilities, personalities and basic
needs as their fully sighted classmates.
• Regular classroom and follow the same
academic program as other children.
• Biggest obstacle to their living and learning
naturally is the attitude of other people who
have normal vision.
• Most of them can see, although not well, so
that while methods of instruction need to
be adapted.
• There is no special psychology attached to
being blind.
• The teacher should be to evaluate his or
her own feelings about visual impairment
and about the child who has joined the
class.
• As with other mainstreamed exceptional
children, the attitude of the teacher will
more than likely shape the behaviour of
the children’s peers and ultimately the
child’s own feelings and self-concept.
(Bowd, 1986)
AFB – Living With Vision Loss
• Live independently and productively
• Read and write
• Raise a family
• Have a social life
AFB – Living With Vision Loss
• Travel
• Maintain a career—or launch a new one
• Enjoy recreational sports and games
• In short, lead a normal life
Unemployment - Australia
“Surveys suggest that while people who are blind
or vision impaired are eager to work (62%
participation rate, which is high relative to other
disability groups (ABS 1997), only 21 % are able
to find work (RBS 1996: 101).”
“BCA estimates that the rate of unemployment
amongst vision impaired and blind people in
Australia to be around 70 percent.”
Non-finite Loss And Grief
• Internalised expectations for their child
and life.
• Discrepancy and tension between world
that should have been, might have been
and “what is” emerging.
• Losses that are contingent on
development, time and dysynchrony with
hopes, wishes, ideals and expectations.
• Enduring presence of grief precipitated by a
negative life event.
• Retains a presence - helplessness to fix - a
ghost.
• Dreams, fantasies, wishes - loss captured
in other people’s lives.
• Also - 20% of mothers reached criteria for
diagnosis of PTSD [a general finding
among victims].
(Elizabeth J. Bruce Parents of children with chronic conditions: The
urgency of psychological first aid)
DEALING WITH FAMILIES
“At any given point, families need
opportunities to express themselves, and
they need acknowledgment of their feelings
by others. They also need specific, relevant
information regarding their child, presented
in an honest, empathic manner.”
(Cohen et. al. 1992)
“Grieving”: Helping Parents
• Loss and grief persist despite passage of
time and age of child. Respect the ongoing
grief associated with non-finite loss.
• Be aware that all responses to the loss are
ways of coping. This is anything the
person does, thinks or feels. Fathers often
“under-dosed” on loss perspectives (no
denial). Mothers “over-dosed” on loss
perspectives.
• Individuals will move through the process
at THEIR rate. Try and be patient.
• Don’t take it personally.
• Be with the person, not solve their problem
( give advice when asked for).
• Allow the pain - enter into it/ not try to take
it away.
• Allow expression of feelings without
judgement.
• Accept the story being told over and over
again.
• Crisis or change may reactivate a more
intense period of stress.
• Listen and hear what is really being said
(Learn some basic counselling skills).
• Communicate information in an honest and
empathetic manner.
• Involve the client in collaborative problem
solving.
• Our attitude can be disabling.
• Be aware of the needs of the siblings.
• Ethnic differences. Be aware that different
groups deal with disability in different
ways.
• Information should be provided from a
culturally relevant perspective and in
language understandable to the client.
Encourage Parents to Get Help • If they are stuck with memories of the crisis
and can't seem to get away from them.
• If they can't really accept your child as he is,
but still believe that he will have great
achievements in ways that he cannot.
• If they continue to be very angry or feel very
guilty.
• If they are still looking for a reason why it
happened, after they have had all the
possible information.
• If they still, after time, cannot see anything
positive about their child's life (or if they
cannot see any of the problems but think
of it all as a blessing).
WORKING WITH VI STUDENTS
IN THE CLASSROOM
•
•
•
Beware the“slippery sided sympathy pit”.
Remember if you do it right they won’t
need you anymore! Step Back!
Non-verbal discipline skills: “the look”, eye
contact, body posture and teacher
placement.
VI students need considerably more verbal
indication of where they are “at” with their
behaviour.
THE “MOVING IN” APPROACH
1. Get close to the child and gain their
attention i.e. arms length, eye contact and
say their name.
2. Tell your child specifically what you want
them to do in calm clear voice.
3. Give the child time to cooperate and
encourage them if they do. If they
argue stay calm and even drop your
voice level and say something like: I
hear what your saying but I want you
to do..(Repeat the instruction). If
argument continues; step 4.
4. Back up your instruction with a
consequence.
5. If they do what they are told after the
consequence, use lots of praise.
EFFECTIVE DISCIPLINE
• YOU MUST PLAN FOR EFFECTIVE
CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT.
• POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT IS THE
KEY.
• BEFORE YOU RULE REMIND, WARN
OR GIVE A CONSEQUENCE, PRAISE AT
LEAST TWO STUDENTS FOR
COMPLIANCE.
OTHER USEFUL IDEAS
•
PROXIMITY PRAISE
•
THE CANTER “MARBLES IN JAR”
APPROACH
•
ORGANISE “DOWNTIME”
A Good Quality Of Life
Includes
Having Power And Control Over Your Life
This Is:
Self Determination
Essential Characteristics of
Self-Determined Behavior
• Make choices and decisions as needed.
• Exhibit some personal or internal control
over actions.
• Feel capable and act that way.
• Understand the effects of own actions.
Component Elements of
Self-Determined Behavior
Choice-Making Skills
Decision-Making Skills
Problem-Solving Skills
Goal-Setting and Attainment Skills
Independence, Risk-Taking and Safety Skills
Self-Observation and Self-Evaluation Skills
Self-Reinforcement Skills
Self-Instruction Skills
Self-Advocacy and Leadership Skills
Self-Awareness
Self-Knowledge
Self Determination & Stepping Back
To assist VI students in developing self
determination we need to learn how to
step back and help VI students and all
students with disabilities to do as much as
possible for themselves, develop
independence and only ask for help when
they really need it.
i.e. If I as a aide, teacher or
psychologist do it right they won’t
need me any more!
19 WAYS TO STEP BACK
It often feels right to give help to students
with visual impairments, but this may not
be in their best interest. Use the following
list to help yourself step back.
Adapted from Classroom Collaboration, by Laurel J Hudson, PhD
(Perkins School for the Blind) Available at:
http://www.afb.org/Section.asp?SectionID=6&TopicID=19&Documen
tID=1573
1.
You’re stepping back so your students can step
forward and become independent. Keep this in
mind.
2.
Pause before answering or helping.
3.
Sit on your hands for a whole task while you
practice giving verbal instead of touch cues.
Hands off the hands.
4.
If you need touch cues, try hand-under-hand
instead of hand-over-hand. This gives students
much more choice.
5.
Acknowledge your impulse to make students'
days go smoothly. There's a reason you chose
the helping profession.
6.
Sit further away. If you have been within arm's
reach, sit just within earshot. If you have been
sitting just within earshot, sit across the room.
7.
Pat yourself on the back every time you help with
seeing, not thinking. Your job is to give
information. Record your and their behaviour over
time – Functional Behaviour Analysis.
8.
Even though helping can feel right, be aware that
to much assistance is short sighted. Sometimes
less is more, less is better.
9.
Unless you are the Classroom Teacher, catch
yourself before you correct students' work.
Remember, this is about the students' skills . . .
not yours.
• Low self-esteem is a consequence of failing
at school not the cause. The whole box and
dice of successes and failures in the world
cause self-esteem. Therefore if we teach the
doing well bit of self-esteem, the feeling
good, which we cannot teach will follow.
• People guided by the popular "feeling good"
approach are ready to intervene to make the
child feel better.
• The "doing well" approaches such as
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy intervene
to change the child's thinking about failure,
to encourage frustration-tolerance, and to
reward persistence rather than mere
success.
• The "doing well" advocates have a range
of new psychological technologies that
work, for changing pessimism into
optimism and for changing helplessness
into mastery.
Therefore!
Increase student’s sense of mastery in
their lives. Don’t cheat them and lie to
them by trying to give false self-esteem.
Self esteem grows out of challenge and
mastery rather telling a child they are great
regardless of what they do.
For further information about the
Statewide Vision Resource Centre
please contact us on:
(+613) 9841 0242
[email protected]