Young children who are visually impaired and have additional disabilities need to learn to use their sense of touch effectively to promote their growth, development, and ability to communicate. This manual provides teachers, early interventionists, and parents with critical information about alternative communication methods not based on the use of vision as well as countless practical strategies. Topics include assessing a child's skills, planning interventions, and selecting appropriate tactile strategies to meet the child's needs.

Essential Elements in Early Intervention is a complete sourcebooks and guide for early interventionists, teachers of students with visual impairments, and other professionals who work with young children with visual impairments, dual sensory impairments, and multiple disabilities. It includes comprehensive information on vision and hearing examinations, functional vision and hearing assessments, and effective methods of providing early intervention services. The new edition includes expanded, updated information on federal special education legislation, best practices in early intervention, evidence-based outcomes, and the role of the early interventionist, as well as strategies for working with families and educational teams successfully.

This easy-to-understand guide explains the role of paraeducators (sometimes called classroom aides, teaching assistants, or paraprofessionals) in working with students who are visually impaired and assisting other members of the educational team. When You Have a Visually Impaired Student in Your Classroom: A Guide for Paraeducators provides basic information about visual impairment, the learning needs of visually impaired students, and the special devices and materials they use. Includes easy-to-use forms to help organize information and tasks.

"Published in conjunction with the Perkins School for the Blind."

Reading Connections: Strategies for Teaching Students with Visual Impairments offers an in-depth and user-friendly guide for understanding reading instruction for teachers and professionals seeking to improve the reading skills of their students who are visually impaired. The book addresses in detail the essential components of reading--phonemic awareness, phonics, reading fluency, vocabulary, and reading comprehension--as well as other key reading components and subskills. While this book addresses the needs of students who read print, braille, or both, much of the book is also consistent with strategies for teaching reading to students who have, or are at risk for, developing reading disabilities. Teachers of students with visual impairments, as well as family members and other professionals who work with children who are blind or visually impaired, will find within this book a repertoire of strategies and activities for creating a balanced, comprehensive plan of reading instruction for each student and for teaching the essential reading skills necessary for students' success.

Using the practical advice from itinerant teachers within the US, each chapter develops strategies for working with students with visual impairments. It discusses the rights, expectations and demands of itinerant teaching, as well as the provision of services within a variety of environments.

When a child with an autism spectrum disorder is also visually impaired, the effects on learning and behavior and complex and varied. Two exceptional educators condense their years of personal and professional experience into a one-of-a-kind handbook of effective ways to work with such students, including suggestions and approaches for assessment, instruction, and program planning; forms and tools for capturing vital information; information on assessment instruments, instructional materials, and web sites rich in important advice. Professionals and educators, as well as parents, will find critical guiding principles and valuable strategies.

ECC Essentials: Teaching the Expanded Core Curriculum to Students with Visual Impairments is the first comprehensive book for teachers of students with visual impairments to focus on the nine areas of the ECC that encompass the unique skills children and adolescents with visual impairments need to learn in order to access the core educational curriculum and become independent individuals, by providing the rationale, suggestions, and strategies necessary to implement instruction. The nine areas include compensatory access, sensory efficiency, assistive technology, orientation and mobility, independent living, social interaction, recreation and leisure, career education, and self-determination. ECC Essentials helps teachers manage time efficiently and effectively; work with students of different ages and ability levels; collaborate with parents and other members of the educational team; conduct assessments; align instruction with state standards and the general education core curriculum; and maximize planning effectiveness. The book includes learning activities that combine several areas of the ECC; information about additional resources; specific guidelines and strategies for teaching each of the nine areas of the ECC. ECC Essentials provides teachers with a road map for helping their students achieve success in school and in life.

"This book expands upon the knowledge base and provides a compendium of intervention strategies to support and enhance the acquisition of social skills and children and youths with visual impairments ... Part 1 ... addresses social skills from a first-person perspective. The second part ... examines how theory seeks to explain social development and influences assessment and practice ... Part 3, ties personal perspectives and theory to actual practice. Finally, Part 4 ... offers numerous examples and models for teaching social skills to students who are blind or visually impaired, including those with additional disabling conditions."--Introduction.

A trip to the park features many different sensations, including the feel of a smooth rubber ball, cold metal chain links on the swing set, and a grooved rubber on the tire swing.