Let’s start with the good news. You have emerging readers with visual impairment who have learned the meaning of tactile name symbols for people in their lives. The bad news? You are considering crossing that skill off your list of “Things to Teach my Students” in order to move onto something else.
Whether you are raring to go and have your materials all organized, or your vacation flight arrives home the night before your first day back, it’s time. Here are just a few things I like to remind myself this back-to-school time of year.
I used to be that therapist. The one who threw around the words “self-stimulatory behaviors” and “idiosyncratic language” all of the time. The one who described her students as engaging in silly sounds, strange vocalizations, repetitive body movements, and non-communicative language. The one who had discussions about replacing those behaviors with socially appropriate behaviors unless of course we could ignore those behaviors or extinguish those behaviors altogether! I used to be that therapist.
Looking back on my own early reading and writing experiences, I have a very clear memory of my first-grade classroom’s beautiful alphabet chart hanging over the windows of our classroom. I even remember the long wooden pointer the teacher used to direct our daily recitation of the alphabet letters. This was back when direct reading instruction started in first grade. Now you will see this practice in kindergarten and even pre-K classrooms!
Buried deep in the Paths to Literacy archives is a little post called Adapted Adapted Literacy. It describes how my TVI colleague Sheryl Katzen and I worked together to adapt parts of our school’s conventional English Language Arts Curriculum for elementary students who functioned across a spectrum of early literacy and communication skills.
I had the absolute pleasure of being part of a Perkins eLearning workshop for the last 5 weeks, focusing on AAC strategies to use with students who are Visually Impaired and have additional disabilities. I referred to this population of students as “Early Communicators.” As part of an assignme
About 3 years ago I found myself in the middle of what I thought was a routine Multidisciplinary Evaluation Team meeting for a high school student who also happened to be present at the table.
I live in Arizona and my mom lives in Illinois. Last week I found myself ordering her Mother’s Day gift online. After typing my financial and personal information and checking the order twice, I hovered the cursor over the word PURCHASE. “Click.” I was redirected back to the home page of the website. Hmmmm. Did they get my order? Was my credit card charged? Did I need to start over?
Let’s start with the good news. You have emerging readers with visual impairment who have learned the meaning of tactile name symbols for people in their lives. The bad news? You are considering crossing that skill off your list of “Things to Teach my Students” in order to move onto something else. 
I had the absolute pleasure of being part of a Perkins eLearning workshop for the last 5 weeks, focusing on AAC strategies to use with students who are Visually Impaired and have additional disabilities. I referred to this population of students as “Early Communicators.” As part of an assignme
About 3 years ago I found myself in the middle of what I thought was a routine Multidisciplinary Evaluation Team meeting for a high school student who also happened to be present at the table.
