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This video is about how to work with children
with visual impairments in physical education.
Please make sure you come to class with me,
because I need support with physical education.
Please have high expectations for me, just as you would
for a child who can see.
Please be sure to get me to class on time
and that I am included in every way possible.
Thank you for taking the time to watch this video.
The purpose of this video is to train
orientation/mobility instructors,
teachers of the visually impaired,
adapted physical educators, physical education teachers,
and professional preparation students
how to teach paraeducators to work with children
with visual impairments in physical education.
Everybody wants what's best for their students,
so please keep in mind that it's fine to ask
any of these professionals for help and support
throughout your process.
We would also like to take this time to thank
the Fetzer Institute,
the American Printing House for the Blind,
the College at Brockport, and Camp Abilities
for all their support with this video.
NARRATOR: Make sure that you meet
with the physical education teachers to ensure
a clear understanding of their teaching style,
philosophy, their experience with children
with visual impairments, and to ensure that you both
have all of your questions answered before class starts.
Visual impairments.
Children with visual impairments will have different types
and levels of visual impairments.
Some children will have acuity problems,
which is issues with clarity of vision.
Some children will have issues with field loss,
which is issues with either peripheral vision,
central vision,
or visual fields.
In some cases, children will have clear vision one day
and loss of vision the next, which is cortical vision loss.
Other children may have additional disabilities,
such as deafness, autism, cerebral palsy,
or intellectual disability, in addition to the vision loss.
Guiding techniques.
Human guide techniques.
When guiding a child who has a visual impairment,
it is important for the child to grab the guide's elbow
with the thumb out.
Make sure the person guiding is verbal
about upcoming terrain change,
such as door opening on the left,
stairs, or stepping up a sidewalk.
There are several guide running techniques
that facilitate running both with a guide
and independently.
This section will share some of those techniques.
Running with a guide wire entails pulling a rope
across a gym, track, or driveway or open area
very tightly with a carabiner or handle on the rope.
Make sure there is a clear marker at the end of the rope
to signal the end of the running rope.
Auditory running.
A child could run to a caller or to a sound
with a runner running ahead of him.
Running on a treadmill allows a child
to run freely and increase or decrease speed as needed.
Make sure the electronic buttons on the treadmill are marked
with clear tactile markings so the child can be
independent on the treadmill.
Another way for a child to run independently
is to run in a circle with a 30-foot rope pulled tight
attached to a large stake.
A radio or metronome can be used to help the child know
where they started.
A child could be guided by a guide runner
who gives the child their elbow, and the child grabs the elbow,
like the human guiding technique.
In this way, both runners can swing their arms
at the same time.
If the runner is taller than the guide,
make sure they hold their shoulder.
It is important that the guide runner
is faster than the child who is visually impaired
so the guide does not hold the child back.
A tether is a short rope, shoelace, or towel.
The guide runner holds one end,
and the person who is visually impaired holds the other end.
In this instance, both runners can swing their arms
during the run.
In this technique it is important that the guide runner
is faster than the child who is visually impaired.
In many cases, when a child has usable vision,
or if a child is very familiar with the terrain,
a child can run independently.
This is easiest around a track or in a quiet cul-de-sac.
Teaching strategies.
Tactile boards can be used when a child is learning
a new sport to show them the boundaries, positions,
to teach terminology, and describe the strategy
and purpose of a game.
A soccer field can be described first on a tactile board
so the child can get an idea of the boundaries, center,
goals, positions, and strategies.
The same technique can be used for goalball and other sports
including the dimensions of a pool, a park trail,
or a cross-country route.
Preteaching is the idea that every child who has
a significant visual impairment has adequate time
to comprehend an entire unit before it begins.
Preteaching should occur prior to any new unit.
It can be done by the physical education teacher,
adapted physical educator, paraeducator,
orientation and mobility teacher,
teacher of the visually impaired,
or a trained peer tutor.
It can be done before school, during recess, after school,
during mobility class, before physical education class,
or during a free period.
It is important that the child understands
the whole-part-whole.
Whole-part-whole is specifically teaching the child
what the whole skill or activity is right from the beginning.
Examples are
the three-step approach and then roll for bowling,
the arm movements and then the leg movements
for the front crawl,
and what positions players might assume
during a whole game of soccer before it is taught,
so the child understands what the skill or activity is.
Then the child successfully achieves
the performance criteria for the individual parts,
and the instructor links these parts together.
This approach provides the advantage of part practice
and the advantage of whole practice.
Feedback about performance
is one of the most powerful variables
that affects the learning process of motor skills.
Feedback can be verbal and physical.
It is not only the mastery of each individual part
of instruction that is important,
but also the relationship between parts and whole
that provides the child with the complete understanding
of the content.
Without the whole, the parts would be meaningless.
Teaching the whole of a skill or game to a child
who has visual impairment takes time, energy,
and creativity.
But the resulting knowledge gained
about future skill development is priceless,
as shown by the transfer of skills
with the underhand roll in goalball.
The whole-part-whole teaching method
is the most successful teaching method
in our collective experiences.
The whole can be taught
through the following teaching techniques
of verbal instruction, task analysis, and tactile teaching.
Task analysis.
Task analysis is the breakdown of a skill into steps
necessary to perform a given task.
Task analysis is a powerful tool of instruction
for those with visual impairments who need to learn
basic physical skills.
The use of task analysis allows smaller steps or parts
to be taught and mastered in a series,
until the entire skill is learned in a progression.
Use verbal cues coupled with teaching techniques
of tactile modeling and physical guidance
during task analysis.
Teaching the underhand roll is a matter of using
the appropriate cues-- arm back,
step with the opposite foot, bend knees, roll,
and follow through.
Tactile teaching:
tactile modeling, coactive movement, physical guidance.
Tactile modeling.
Tactile modeling means an exhibition of a motor skill
presented tactilely.
As shown in the video, the child feels the instructor,
who executes the movement.
Tactile modeling is a great way to incorporate peer instruction.
Let children teach children.
Tactile modeling not only demonstrates actions
to children who are blind, it also increases
the visibility of an action for children who have low vision.
Tactile modeling is a common tool
used to teach the component parts
in the task analysis, and is effective for static
and dynamic activities such as jumping rope,
yoga, shot put, goalball, swimming, and many others.
While using task analysis, have the child
touch the model during each part.
Coactive movement.
Often a child comprehends a skill much better
when he or she feels the instructor or peer
do the movements.
This works best when the child is smaller than the instructor
or peer.
In coactive movement, the child is positioned
so that his or her moving body part touches
the instructor's same moving body part.
This is similar to tactile modeling,
but the entire body part experiences the movement
as opposed to parts of the body,
and the child is going through the motion at the same time
as the instructor.
Please note, as with any physical education technique,
the instructional strategy should always be noted
in lesson plans, progress reports, and IEPs.
Physical guidance.
Physical guidance is an important component
of the instructor's lesson, because there are
some physical activities for which tactile modeling
and coactive movement will not work.
Physical guidance is an ideal teaching technique,
and its use can improve performance.
Please remember that all methods of tactile teaching
must be coupled with verbal explanation
or appropriate sign communication
for children who have a dual sensory impairment.
When physical guidance is used, it is imperative to discuss
its use with the child before doing so.
Some individuals who are blind are sensitive to being touched
or to being urged along by an arm or elbow by another person.
Indeed, one of the first principles to guiding a person
who is blind is to never push or grab.
This sensitivity to being pushed is not unique to people
with visual impairments, but is broadly human in nature,
and probably stems from a need for the locus of control
to remain within each of us.
Thus, physical guidance can be appropriate and effective,
but the child must understand that he or she can ask
the instructor to use tactile modeling if preferred.
When teaching physical skills to individuals who have
no significant intellectual or cognitive difficulties,
the general rule is to consider tactile modeling first
and then move to physical guidance
if that is a preferred method for the child.
The child should have a choice, but the instructor can also
assess what method is most appropriate
for a particular skill or activity.
Please make sure you ask me
which tactile teaching technique I prefer,
so that I am comfortable during class.
Adapting activities.
Adapting equipment can be done by making it more auditory...
(beeping)
Or bright...
Or easier to catch by deflating a ball
or by putting it in a sock.
Adapting rules can be done by adding physical assistance.
It can be changing boundaries.
(beeping)
Adding an auditory cue.
(high, whistling beep)
A child could play only offense or defense.
Adapting instruction.
The child could be taught
with additional verbal instruction, tactile instruction
with either tactile modeling or physical guidance.
The child could be taught by a trained peer tutor.
The child could have more tactile cues.
Adapting the environment.
Decreasing glare, excessive noise,
or outside distractions is a key to instruction
for children with visual impairments.
Make sure the child is not facing the sun.
Make sure to have very clear boundaries.
Expanded core curriculum.
The field of visual impairment has determined that children
with visual impairments need additional instruction
in some key areas to be prepared to be
independent adults who utilize every aspect
of their potential.
This approach is called the expanded core curriculum,
and the areas that are focused on
are social interaction, self-determination,
orientation and mobility, independence,
compensatory and access skills, recreation and leisure,
technology, career awareness, and sensory efficiency.
Ensure consistent social interaction.
Always tell the child who is in the gym when you enter.
Ensure student knows what is happening during games
and down time.
Ensure the child is partners with a peer.
Promote social interaction skills by teaching peers
how to socialize.
Do not get between student and peers.
Promote self-determination by allowing the child
to have choices and ensuring that they learn what their peers
are learning.
Promote orientation and mobility by ensuring
adequate preteaching, set up guide wires from base to base,
activity to activity, or from weight machine
to weight machine.
Promote independence and leadership opportunities
such as team captain, squad leader,
or demonstration leader.
These types of opportunities will ensure the student knows
they are independent and can be empowered to lead.
Promote the concept of compensatory and access skills
by showing the child how to modify a hockey game
for her needs, a kickback game, or a basketball game,
so she can be included.
These adaptations will help the child understand
what they need to do
to compensate for their vision loss
and modify to meet the abilities that they do have.
Recreation and leisure can easily be promoted
in physical education by ensuring a foundation
of motor skills, fitness, and opportunities
that are typical.
Technology is pervasive in physical education
and can be implemented using talking pedometers,
talking heart rate monitors, electronic fitness programs
such as Nike Running Application,
Dance Dance Revolution, Wii Fit, and more.
In some instances, they will need to learn
adaptive techniques.
Career awareness can be infused into physical education
by introducing roles such as referee, manager,
scorekeeper, journalist, announcer, publicist,
news anchor, et cetera.
Sensory efficiency can be promoted
by playing beep baseball or goalball to promote the use
of auditory skills.
Running with a guide wire enhances the use
of tactile skills.
Dancing helps with the use of auditory and tactile skills.
And weight training, yoga, and swimming all facilitate
the use of tactile skills as well as auditory skills.
For more information on the expanded core curriculum,
see your teacher of students who are visually impaired
or the orientation and mobility instructor.
Infusion of these important concepts
are worth the time and effort, as they lead to independence
and a better quality of life for children
with visual impairments.
Physical safety.
Make sure all doors are either all the way open
or all the way closed.
Mark the entrance to any stairs, halls, closets
or entrances with a rug or rope covered with tape.
Ensure that boundaries are clearly defined.
Keep equipment in consistent places
around the gym at all times.
Show the child when you do move equipment,
so they know what to expect.
Emotional safety.
Ensure disability awareness at the start of the year
to ensure peers know needs of the student.
Do not allow any teasing or bullying.
Discuss feelings at the beginning and end of each unit.
Supervise the student.
Ensure they have equipment they need.
Ensure they know what is happening in class.
Review what teacher asks of them for clarity.
Children with visual impairments
can be active and high achieving athletes in physical education.
With some very careful planning and dedication,
you can ensure that they can perform
to the best of their abilities and get the most
out of each physical education class with their peers.
Thanks to the Fetzer Institute,
the American Printing House for the Blind,
Camp Abilities, and the College at Brockport.
For more information, please read
"Games for People with Sensory Impairments"
through the American Printing House for the Blind,
and "Physical Education, Sport, and Recreation for Individuals
"who are Visually Impaired and Deafblind:
Foundations of Instruction,"
through the American Foundation for the Blind.