We all have things we like and things we don’t like. At the risk of sounding old, I like watching old Columbo reruns. I’ve seen the episodes multiple times and still enjoy them all. I don’t like old cowboy TV shows but my husband loves watching them. They are just an invitation to fall asleep on the couch. How many of our students are like that? We don’t know their areas of interest and they have difficulties attending to instruction because they see no value in the activities we create for them. Many times, we may think that a learner with combined hearing and vision loss is not paying attention to the activities we plan for them. Could it be that they are just not interested in what you are doing? How do you change that?
Sarah was a teacher of students with combined hearing and vision loss and multiple physical impairments. When creating her unit lessons, Sarah designed them to use with all students with no modifications noted. She had not taken the time to individualize anything about the lesson or address the students’ interest areas. The students were in the classroom with Sarah but they were not really “with” her. They had no interest in what Sarah was sharing with them. She was using the Smart Board with pictures and a lot of words on the screen to teach about counting objects. These students had no reason to be interested since they probably had to struggle to see the board and they couldn’t relate to the real purpose of the numbers.
One of Sarah’s students named Mina has difficulties with depth perception and seeing things at a distance. Mina needed to see items up very close. She liked shiny, bright objects since they were easier to view with her visual limitations. She was very into the “Frozen” movie and characters. Sarah loved the colors and bright, shiny details from the movie. Using this background knowledge would have been a great help in figuring out effective means of teaching about counting numbers. Mina’s interest would increased if Sarah had created a lesson using shiny objects to count paired with a mini-adapted version of the “Frozen” movie.
This background information is available through a variety of resources, including student records, and conversations with service providers and family members. We must know where to reach our students and bring our lessons to them on their playing field. In other words, the lessons should be student-centered and adapted.
Student success can be greatly increased by seeing educational opportunities through the student’s perspective. What are their areas of interest? What are their vision and auditory levels? Do they have physical access limitations? What concepts do they understand?
As a teacher, support staff, or parent, how can you ensure you are ‘following the child’? This term comes from the very effective child-guided teaching methods of expert Dr. Jan Van Dijk. It is important to learn the perspective of the child. There are things we cannot learn through standardized assessments because they do not address challenges brought by DeafBlindness. Not only do we have to know things the child likes/dislikes, but we also have to know the perspective the child is coming from. How do they understand their world? What experiences have they already had to form their likes/dislikes? It is so important to know the learner!
You can get to know the learner by knowing their medical and experiential history, relationship history, information shared about the student through all people involved in the child’s life, listing likes and dislikes, and communication methods used with everyone in the child’s world. Come together with all the people involved in the child’s life to share helpful information.
It’s important to be on the same page with interactions with the child to encourage their growth and interactions. The TEAM approach says it all: Together Everyone Achieves More.
Check out more information about Dr. Van Dijk’s methods on this site: https://www.perkins.org/resource/child-guided-assessment/
How have you determined the areas of interest for your student with DeafBlindness? Please share in the comment section below.
Julie Brickhouse