It is more and more common for students to receive an iPad as their personal Communication Device. The most common Communication apps are designed to provide a large vocabulary to non-verbal students. However, these apps are often...
Multiple Disabilities
Posted by Faye Gonzalez
Posted by Liamsmom
Storyboxes are a great way to make stories come alive for our children with vision impairments. Storyboxes are also a way to make pictures in a children's story accessible. A story box is simply a way to use objects to represent parts of a...
Posted by Deirdre Leech
By Patricia Weismer and Deirdre Leech
A literacy kit is a set of activities that are designed to allow a student to actively participate and communicate during book reading activities. The primary purpose is to support and enhance the curriculum with math...
Posted by Charlotte Cushman
Our field lost a treasured friend and visionary colleague with the passing of Linda Hagood this month. She has contributed an enormous amount to the field, through her writing, her teaching, and her modeling of innovative techniques. As a speech...
Posted by Liamsmom
I am a mother of two sweet boys. My oldest, Liam, is 6 years old. He is deafblind. My youngest, Finn, is 3 years old. He has typical vision and hearing. I really look forward to the Christmas season. I enjoy finding...
Posted by Flavia Moreira
Students with visual impairment and multiple disabilities generally need concrete information that favors the understanding of the most diverse concepts and information. They also need literacy support.
Visual impairment and multiple disabilities refer to...
Posted by Charlotte Cushman
If you are a teacher or parent of a child with complex learning needs or significant multiple disabilities, you may already be familiar with Dr. Lilli Nielsen's Active Learning approach. If not, we invite you to visit our sister website the ...
Posted by Chevonne Sutter
First / Then Schedules can be used to help individuals understand what activity they are expected to be engaging in currently and what activity to anticipate next. They are a structured method of communicating about what is happening now and what is going to...
Posted by Siena Capistrano
There have been a number of stories shared here on Paths to Literacy by the mother of my student, Kara, who is from the Philippines and I wanted to share my perspective as her TVI. Her earlier stories can be found below:
Kara’s Turning...
Posted by Julianne Lemman
What is PenFriend?
The PenFriend is a voice labeling system that uses a simple device to create recordings associated with sticker labels. The user taps a sticker with the PenFriend, makes a voice recording, then the PenFriend saves the voice recording...
Posted by Flavia Moreira
Children with multiple disabilities and visual impairments face difficulties in accessing information and often have limited communication. These children are part of a general heterogeneous group, with visual impairment (blindness or low vision) being a...
Posted by Adam Wilton
An animated PowerPoint story is designed to enhance the literacy experience by using movement and color to make a simple story more engaging for children who benefit from and qualify for alternate format literacy materials. It takes some time and effort...
Posted by Leslie Hagood
I created this pegboard book for a second grader with CVI that I worked with in Southern Oregon. He was in a wheelchair, had limited hand/arm strength, and showed difficulty with visually attending to objects, tracking, shift-of-gaze, and using a visually-...
Posted by Deborah Fenton
and Patrice Bucheli
Goal
We put together this PowerPoint for our students with CVI and it was used based on a student's CVI Range Score. The goal was to provide 2-D images and concepts that allowed us to work on a variety of lessons to discuss...
Posted by Chris Russell
Visually-guided reach (VGR) is a skill that we typically assess and often try to promote in our students, but what about students who have limited motor control and may not be able to extend their arms or control their reach at all? Many students with...
Posted by Julianne Lemman
Pictello is an iOS app made by AssistiveWare that can be used to create experience stories and social stories using pictures, text, audio recordings, and video. Pictello can be used to build literacy skills, social skills, communication, social-emotional...
Posted by Sharon Elliott
We have successfully transitioned my son who is non-verbal and scored at a 2.5 on The CVI Range (Dr. Christine Roman-Lantzy) at his initial assessment to a current score of 5++ by using whole objects in an object schedule system to using photographs of...
Posted by Amy Flores
If you are a parent trying to help your child learn remotely, you might not be able to promise that your child will practice the pegboard daily, but you do know that you will be washing and drying laundry at some point this week—this post is for you....
Posted by Liz Eagan
As I teach my students cooking skills, we also learn how to write a grocery list for what we're cooking. But what if a student can't write the list? What if pictures are the media used to communicate, as well as read and write?
I found this cool...
Posted by Ann Bolin
My goal in working with students to create vision portfolios is to promote self-determination skills when talking to their classmates or teacher. I want all of my students to be able to say more than just, "I wear glasses".
I am sharing an...