Children With Visual Impairments And School Assignments
Our society works hard to ensure that children with disabilities – in this case children with visual impairments – also have access to activities that they will enjoy.
Playing with other children is one of the most important activities in children’s lives as they grow up. For this reason, you will find here a number of activities that may include children with visual impairments.
Children with visual impairment
According to the World Health Organization, there are four different levels that classify the quality of our vision:
- Normal vision
- Moderate visual impairment
- Severe visual impairment
- Blindness
Within these four categories, people also often refer to the following three subgroups: normal vision, moderate or severe impairment, and blindness.
Activities for children with visual impairments
Children with visual impairments develop better motor skills and are better able to use their other senses.
It is important, especially in the classroom, that activities are inclusive towards children with visual impairments. That is, teachers need to plan activities that can be performed with all the children.
This has a number of benefits for all children in the classroom:
- Children with disabilities do not feel subordinate, they would rather feel that they are on the same level as their classmates. This aspect is very important for their own mental health.
- The other children will be more aware of the difficulties that their classmate with visual impairment faces, and they will take such things more seriously.
- All children develop better motor and sensory abilities with these activities, which is very important for children with visual impairments, but also for the benefit of the other children.
Activity: Noah’s Ark
To initiate this activity, the teacher needs to use a large open space and place a music player in a convenient place where it can be heard by all the children. The recorder plays the sound of an animal or one of the elements (such as water, fire, wind…).
Children with normal vision will have blindfolds so they have no advantage over children with visual impairment. The children in pairs or groups depending on how many are involved in the game.
Once everything is in place, the teacher starts playing the sounds on the recorder. The children need to listen carefully and move towards where they think the sound is coming from.
If students hear the sound being played and arrive at the right place, the teacher gives them a drawing of the animal or element in question. The group that collects the most drawings wins.
This game is useful because the kids work as a team and make decisions together. The children have to work together and they all move towards the same place together. In addition, they develop their auditory abilities and their sense of place because they have to listen and guess where the sound is coming from.
They need to move carefully by putting their hands out so that they do not bump into the other children. They also need the ability to position themselves in relation to other things using senses other than sight.
Activity: The secret code
The secret code is an activity recommended for older children because it can be a little more complex. In a large open space, the teacher sets up a small obstacle course.
The obstacle course will consist of small paths that the students have to move through and deal with the obstacles, on their way. The first team to fight through the obstacle course receives a trophy at the finish line.
To get through the course and reach the trophy, the teacher pairs the children up and gives a child in each pair blindfolds. This means that the child who is not blindfolded must lead the other.
The activity is made more difficult because each pair of students also need to collaborate in advance to create a special code to communicate directions to each other.
This secret code must be based on colors or sounds. For example, the code might be: yellow, go right; blue, go left; bark like a dog, take three steps forward.
This game helps students work on the following skills:
- Finding their way without being able to see their surroundings.
- Trust another classmate.
- Develop their memory by remembering the secret code they have agreed upon.
Activity: Recognize the object
For smaller school children, recognizing the object can be a good activity to include children with visual impairments. The teacher blindfolds the children so that everyone has the same limitation, and they distribute objects so that the children have to rely on their sense of touch to identify each one.
It is useful if the objects make some kind of sound or make noise. They could also be made of different materials. The objects must have different structures and sizes so that the children learn to recognize a number of properties by touch. Each turn will help develop their perceptual abilities and stimulate their motor abilities.
