نشریه تعلیم و تربیت استثنایی
سال بیست و یکم شماره 164 (مهر و آبان 1400)

Although the importance of intervention programs for children with visual impairment is widely acknowledged, its practical knowledge needs further introduction. The purpose of this article is to introduce the model and content of providing early intervention services to visually impaired children and their families. This article specifically emphasizes the importance of initial screening, adaptation of early intervention programs, and supportive measures for parents and children.

When students with Visual Impairment joined public education in the early twentieth century, teachers learned that the core curriculum didn’t provide many skills that these students needed. For this reason, some educators tried to identify the skills these students needed and Hatlen in 1996 introduced Expanded Core Curriculum (ECC) as a special curriculum for these students to meet their needs. Currently the educators believe that students with visual impairment like all students, need to learn core curriculum and unlike other students, need to learn special techniques and skills for having access to the world and successful life. This article introduces ECC and its nine areas for students with Visual impairment.

Many parents of blind and visually impaired children in their visits to various doctors state that there is no opportunity to ask the doctor at the time of the examination and if we want to ask the respected doctor, we will not get a proper response! Unfortunately, this is true in almost all branches of medicine. In this article, an attempt has been made to provide accurate information and at the same time away from strict medical terms so that the esteemed reader can find the answer to some of the most important issues in the field of vision. Definition of vision, prevention and treatment, visual aids, things to do for a child with vision. How visual impairment affects learning. Cortical Visual Impairment, stem cells and blindness, and who to look for are the topics and questions answered in this article, and at the end, tips for parents and educators of combination children are provided.

Visual ability has a spectrum from sharpness to total blindness. Some of students with visual impairment who are low vision have problems for learning different skills and education. Proper rehabilitation and using low vision devices can help them in teaching-learning process and give them self-confidence. Visual rehabilitation doesn’t necessarily mean increased vision, but it does mean that one can use his/her residual vision in daily living activities in the best way. In this article, visual rehabilitation methods and low vision devices for students who are low vision are introduced.

Physical education is essential for all students, but students with visual impairment need more physical education due to the lack of appropriate movement patterns to be fit and healthy throughout their lives. In this article, first, the important terms in the field of visual impairment are explained. Then, after introducing appropriate training strategies in physical education, the necessary modifications in equipment, rules and boundary have been stated.

The increasing quantitative and qualitative growth of various computer-assisted educational technologies for blind and visually impaired students in the world, parents, educators and parents of visually impaired children and students to follow the latest news in this field, get acquainted with their latest findings and Use the education of this group of children. This article aims to introduce and review the most efficient and latest educational and rehabilitation technologies in the field of visual impairment, including hardware and software, using scientific articles, specialized websites and official sources.

One of the most important goals in pre-school for many students who are visually impaired, is learning Braille as the primary literacy tool. Teaching Braille is a process that begins with Pre-Braille skills and includes activities to increase awareness and sensory perception of children who will learn to read and write in Braille. This article is written based on the knowledge in the resources of this field and the author’s lived experiences in working with visually impaired students to provide a logical framework for teaching Braille to visually impaired students in pre-school.

The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of orientation and mobility education on increasing self-efficacy and self-expression of visually impaired students. The research method was quasi-experimental with pre-test and post-test.

The sample size consisted of 26 students with visually impaired in the academic year of 2018-2019. The sample group was divided in two groups of control (13) and experimental (13). Self-efficacy and self-expression were evaluated by Sherer’s Self-efficacy Scale (1982) and Gambler-Verichi’s Expression Questionnaire (1982). Orientation and Mobility teaching was conducted through “Guidebook for Orientation & Mobility” printed by Exceptional Education Organization, in eight sessions. To analyze the results, descriptive statistics and then multivariate covariance analysis (MANCOVA) were used.

The results indicated that Orientation and Mobility (O&M) program increased self-efficacy in the experimental group versus the control group. The O&M program also increased self-expression of the test group against the control group. O&M skills were significantly improved in the experimental group compared to the control group.

The results of this study showed that teaching O&M skills to students who are visually impaired, increased their self-efficacy and self-expression and improved their living conditions.

When teaching students who are blind, we need to contact their hands to guide them or to show them and activity. Most of teachers place their hands on students’ hands to show them something or demonstrate them an activity. This behavior is called “hand over hand” method which is restrictive. This article, which has been written using the author’s lived experiences in the study opportunity and two other articles in this field, has recognized the “hand-over-hand” method and introduced the “hand-under-hand” method as a more suitable alternative.