RELEVANCE OF PREPARING INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS
FOR VISUALLY IMPAIRED CHILDREN IN INTEGRATED
EDUCATION PROGRAMMES
Visually impaired children in integrated education programmes are assisted by resource teachers in sensory training, orientation and mobility, training in activities of daily living, braille reading and writing skills, use of special aids like Abacus, Taylor's Frame and so on. Another task of these teachers is to choose and prepare relevant instructional materials according to the needs of the visually impaired children and to help them to use the materials appropriately. The academic standard of the child, his age, status of vision, intelligence, grasping power, extent of support and quality of instruction from the regular school teachers, and the level of education and involvement of the parents, are some of the factors to be considered by the resource teachers in assessing needs. Continuous monitoring of the learning ability in the domain of experiences, concept development and real understanding of the subjects can provide hints to the teachers to correctly choose the appropriate teaching materials.
Instructional materials can be prepared out of almost anything that facilitates learning. They can be any locally available materials such as a ball, an empty box, pieces of thread, buttons, thread, pieces of cloth or rubber, match sticks, cotton, leaves, vegetables, fruits, and so on. Many toys and objects used by sighted children could be modified for the use of visually impaired children. Such three dimensional objects help visually impaired children to learn several concepts through real experiences. For other experiences, instructional materials include readiness materials in braille and large print, diagrams, maps in tactile form, arithmetic tables, model 'solved' arithmetic problems, geometric shapes and figures, number charts, number counting facilitating charts, and so on.
While preparing instructional materials, it is necessary to consider several factors such as contrast, size, tactility, clarity and description. For example, it is preferable to have a light background while using dark colours for writing. White on black, or yellow on dark green are the preferred colour combinations for preparing reading materials. Simplified diagrams and maps with labels only on major parts would be more useful. While preparing such materials, care should be taken to see that all children in the classroom can use them. All reading matter in braille should also have a printed transcription. Diagrams and labels could also be in both tactile and visual forms.
Reading materials in appropriate forms should be prepared for visually impaired children on a regular basis. Resource teachers need to guide the children on the proper use of such materials. These reading materials could also be used by other children. An inventory of the materials supplied already and of those required by the children in the future will have to be maintained on a regular basis.
K. Kempaiah
National Association for the Blind Zonal Office (South), c/o
NAB Karnataka,
CA site 4, Jeevan Bhima Nagar, Bangalore - 560 075.
Friday Meeting Transactions
Associate Publication of Asia Pacific Disability Rehabilitation Journal
Vol.1 No.2 1999
Editor:
Dr. Maya Thomas
J-124, Ushas Apts, 16th Main, 4th Block, Jayanagar, Bangalore - 560 011, India
Tel and fax: 91-80-6633762
Email: thomasmaya@hotmail.com
Printed at:
National Printing Press
580, K.R. Garden, Koramangala, Bangalore - 560 095
Tel: 080-5710658