My son Liam is a third-grader in a mainstream classroom. Liam is deafblind and a braille reader. His class does something called "Star Student". This is where one child is highlighted for the week; the student gets to write on a special poster that...
Blog Posts
Below are recently created blog posts.
By Diane Sheline
Make sure your student or child with CVI has a variety of literacy materials this summer that are relevant and enticing. The Yellow Bucket and the Red Shovel is easy to make and can be adapted, depending on the color of bucket and shovel you happen to have...
By maloneyk
This is the second part of a 3-part series on Yoga and Literacy. See also Using Yoga to Support Language and Literacy Development and Addressing Narrative Language Goals in Yoga Activities.
A long, long, time ago, I was originally...
By Christopher Sabine
My name is Christopher Sabine, and I am an adult with Optic Nerve Hypoplasia who operates a small consulting firm serving families of children with Optic Nerve Hypoplasia Nationally and worldwide. I have worked as a service coordinator at a child welfare...
By Liamsmom
I have always wanted to make my son an accessible garden that my son could learn to take care of independently. I was hoping a garden could be something he could learn to enjoy and learn from.
Earlier this year I applied for the...
By Jbrown
Meaningful summer activities can be a struggle to plan when it is too hot to go outside. It can be helpful to make the long summer days enjoyable by planning a daily activity for the week. For example, Mondays are sensory days, Tuesdays are art,...
By Sharon@TSBVI
These lessons are aimed at students who are blind or visually impaired who have never used the Internet with screen reading software. I prefer to start with simple, short assignments and websites. My mantra is “build on success”. So let’s...
By Liz Eagan
Pictures and videos are an amazing way to share progress, as well as activities, behavioral concerns, strategies and more with parents and teachers. I have found that pictures and videos help parents know what we are doing with their child. ...
By Linda Hagood
Yoga is rich in teaching opportunities, and can be used to support learning in a wide variety of skill areas-- improving movement patterns and spatial concepts, social interactions, emotional regulation, and language and literacy skills. It is a perfect...
By Peg Palmer
This week I arrived at a school just as Justine, a beautiful little four-year-old girl, arrived off her bus. Justine was recently diagnosed with cortical visual impairment (CVI) and is in Phase III on the CVI Range (Roman-Lantzy). She has some gross motor...
By Linda Hagood
Through the years, I have co-created many stories with many kids—some with autism, some who were blind, some who were deafblind, and some who were just Interesting Kids (without any diagnoses at all!). Sometimes we just make up a story together, other...
By Ann Cunningham
I always have print and braille labels with my artwork but sometimes being able to access audio files is preferable. I would like to share the methods I am going to be using at my next exhibit. There is a broad range of solutions. If you have some solutions...
By Cheryl Kamei Hannan
My interest in bringing storytelling to life grew out of a growing interest in Waldorf-inspired education. While story boxes have been around in our field for many years, I wanted to try to create a full multi-sensory experience to bring stories to life...
By Charlotte Cushman
Purpose of Experience Books
Personal book is motivating
How many of you scrapbook or keep a journal to remember important events/people in your lives? An experience book is a way for a student with deafblindness to record such...
By Penny Rosenblum
The title for this post comes from an experience I had on February 22, 2018. As many of us do, I posted about that experience on Facebook. My language was casual as this posting was intended for my “friends” (Okay, many of my friends...
By Belinda Rudinger
There is NEVER enough time in the school day for everything I want to create and accomplish for my students with visual impairments, so having an assortment of low tech options and quick fixes is essential.
Making Notebooks with Reference Concepts and...
By Liamsmom
I have two boys, Liam (age 8, deafblind, braille reader) and Finn (age 5, typical vision and hearing). I recently signed up for a program that gives children who are blind a chance to experience creating art using different accessible media (thank you...
By Marnee Loftin
Maria is a second grader who currently uses braille for most of her learning, but supplements the materials with audiotapes. She was quite successful in first grade and was often complimented on her amazing memory. Maria could often quote stories...
By JFBamber
When my braille room followed my 5th grade student to a new area of the building, she quickly noted that there was a bulletin board hanging in our new classroom. As we chatted, she shared that she had never had bulletin boards that she could "see"...
By Linda Hagood
I’ve been helping kids tell their imaginative stories for almost twenty years. I once believed the myth that kids who have autism, and sometimes kids who have visual impairment or deafblindness, are not creative—that they are rigid and...
