Delivering Learning Environment for Visual and Physical Impair Child - Essay Example

The aim of my professional practice is to become well versed in terms of how to support the pupils’ visual, hearing and sensory abilities. Previously, I mostly relied upon the input from the physiotherapist to direct me as to how to support the physical needs of the pupils. My initial concern regarding one particular pupil was that due to his cognitive, visual and physical impairment he had restricted opportunities to learn and develop. I felt it was crucial that I developed teaching strategies and activities that motivated him to want to develop his tactile skills. My main aim was to enable him to develop his tactile skills to stimulate his interest and ability to experience the world around him and motivate him to move outward in the first place. Through the assignment, I developed my own knowledge and understanding about the movement displayed by the pupil in respect of his visual and physical impairment. I also gained a greater insight into the relationship between his cognitive and physical abilities. I was able to highlight the reason why the pupil lacked the motivation to learn. Overall, I feel more able to incorporate the immediate environment and activities to overcome difficulties in accessing stimuli more effectively for the visual and physically impaired pupils. Pupil Z observation in class The sensory story began with an adult verbally indicating ‘it is time to go to the Chocolate factory’ and playing ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ introductory song on the plasma screen. Pupil Z was in his normal activity time positions, in his wheelchair with a table in front of him to access objects and equipment. Pupil Z worked one-to-one with an adult sitting on the side of his wheelchair. It was evident that Pupil Z was making head movements toward the source of sound and making arm movements at the sides of his chair. Next an adult leading the activity asked ‘who wants a golden ticket to go to factory?’ and the shiny golden tickets were passed around to each pupil to take one. It was evident that the smooth texture of the golden ticket was not very motivating for Pupil Z to explore co-actively with the adult support when the song ‘Golden ticket’ was played on the plasma screen. Instead Pupil Z was thoroughly enjoying listening to the song by smiling, laughing and making lots of intentional head movements rather than co-actively exploring the ticket. When the music stopped the adult leading the activity indicated ‘the train has arrived, all aboard’ and pupils were encouraged to give their tickets to an adult. The adult working with Pupil Z lifted his left arm and placed the golden ticket in his hand without any verbal indication. This lasted a few seconds before the adult released his left arm and took away the golden ticket. Pupil Z naturally seemed to have a very steamy look on his face. The sound track of the train raiding playing in the background seemed to have a very calming effect on him after experiencing this unexpected movement. When the pupils arrived at the chocolate room the adult leading the activity indicated ‘we are in the chocolate room’ and further added ‘what can you smell? what can you smell?’ All adults repeated ‘chocolate, chocolate, mmm mmm mmm!’ The two types of coco butter were passed around to be smelt. When Pupil Z was presented with the choice of two butters to smell he made a sound and after a brief period of time began lifting his arms. He used the tactile search to localise one of creams put on his table. Unfortunately, this cue was missed by an adult who passed this cream to another pupil to explore. When all the pupils had experienced the smell of the two coco butters it was time to explore ‘Chocolate River’. The plastic bowl with milkshake was passed around. Pupil Z was encouraged to co-actively hold the wooden spoon and stir the milkshake. It was evident that Pupil Z was not very motivated to hold the plastic bowl and make co-active stirring actions with the wooden spoon. Instead he was trying to dip his fingers in the bowl to try to determine the smell of the liquid. However, this experience was very controlled by an adult working with him and lasted a few seconds. After that he was offered the chance to drink the milkshake from a plastic bottle with a straw. He showed that he enjoyed the drink by asking for ‘more’ drink and trying to touch the bottle with both hands while the adult was giving him a drink. Regrettably, he was not encouraged to hold the drink by himself. Second, the pupils arrived at ‘inventing room’. The pupils leading the activity indicated ‘we are in the inventing room’ and all the adults repeated ‘here we have sweets… chew, chew, chew we are turning…blue’. The jelly cubes in a plastic container were passed around to be explored. When it was Pupil Z’s time to explore the jelly the adults lifted both his arms and placed his hands in the container. Pupil Z had a look of aghast on his face and immediately pulled his hands away. It was evident for the short period of time after that Pupil Z was retaining a position with arms outstretched on the sides of his wheelchair. Thirdly, the adult leading the activity indicted ‘we are in the fizzy room’ all the adults sang ‘pop the bubbles’ song. During the song each pupil had an opportunity to activate the bubble machine with a switch. When it was time for Pupil Z to activate the bubble machine the adult lifted his right arm, placed his hand on the switch and started verbally encouraging him to activate it. It was evident that he really enjoyed the sound of the machine and the feel of bubbles on his skin. He was vocalising, laughing and making lots of body movements. The session then concluded with the last sound track from the movie ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ where the adult stroked Pupil Z’s arms in a down motion. Pupil Z then seemed to relax and fall back into his chair. Pupil Z individual observation programme I completed a two-week individual observation programme of Pupil Z based on the Affective Communication Assessment (ACA) model. This was designed by Coupe et al (1985) to enable the identification of positive and negative responses to a range of stimuli. The identification of these responses aims to facilitate the ‘optimal setting conditions’ through which the person could communicate effectively. It reflects the theoretical principles of Thoman (1981) who indicated the notion of affective communication and Bated (1976) with his theory of pre-intentional communication. I discovered this assessment format through my reading of the text ‘Communication before Speech’ by Coupe & Goldbart (1998). I hoped it would help me identify existing responses made by Pupil Z and so aid my ability to potentially foster an effective learning experience. By using this assessment I felt I could develop my awareness of, and build on, Pupil Z’s existing tactile skills in order to stimulate his interest and ability to experience the world around him and motivate him to move outwards in the first place. Presentation of stimuli Pupil Z was observed in a quiet, distraction-free area at a time of the day when he was alert and displaying neutral and communicative behaviours. He was seated in his wheelchair in a comfortable position with freedom of all his limbs. From my knowledge of Pupil Z I selected a variety of stimuli with different properties to observe his interest in different stimuli and what exploratory procedures he used when in contact with them. During the sessions the stimuli were presented in a random order, an interval of one minute was allowed between the presented stimuli and no more than five stimuli were presented during one session to prevent boredom from clouding Pupil Z’s responses. Discussion of results Initially, the assessment included identifying a range of responses to the stimuli Pupil Z was accustomed to. It also included identifying a range of responses that were consistent with how Pupil Z behaved and what exploratory procedure he used, for example, making vocalisation or stilling, grasping, pushing away or using finger tips to explore objects. I immediately felt better about this approach as I had the ability to choose my own criteria comfortable for Pupil Z. As I had so much control in devising strategies and making observations, I felt it was important that I was sensitive to responses and positional interpretation of Pupil Z’s behaviours during this assessment. Therefore, my observations and consequent summary of results have been written in consultation with the class staff’s comments. The observational assessment highlighted a range of behavioural reactions, both positive and negative, to different stimuli. The most common positive response was vocalising and making contact with stimuli for a brief moment and smiling. The most common negative responses included body stilling, no vocalisation, having a frowning expression on his face, dropping or pushing stimuli away. It was evident that physical contact with objects with strong auditory (loud sound) and tactile feedback (rough and complex) was the most rewarding experience for Pupil Z. For example, he would reach out to locate such items when he hears them being played. He would use hand(s) to grasp an object for a brief moment- 5 to 10 seconds. He also liked to hear the sound of them again which motivated him to repeat the task. Pupil Z enjoyed putting his hands on vibrating objects and feeling the vibrations when I was operating them. He would smile, vocalise at times and make head movements from side to side to indicate his pleasure. He would rest his both hands on the big vibrating object and hold in one or both hands a small or medium size vibrating object. He preferred rapid vibration of the object for short periods of time than slow vibration of the object for longer periods of time. The class staff and I agreed that t was because he has short ability to focus for longer periods of time on an object and slow vibrations do not give him enough auditory feedback. During my observations, he would move his hands laterally through soft substances (flour or sand) while patting and splashing the liquids (water). He was able to use the word “more” to ask for more water. In agreement with class staff I felt this was because he likes to feel the water on his skin and hear the sound of splashing water. From my observations he did not show any resistance to exploring objects of different temperature or weight although he preferred to explore materials with a dry texture rather than a sticky one. Read More