Social Issues of the Visually Impaired Children - Essay Example

SOCIAL ISSUES OF THE VISUALLY IMPAIRED CHILDREN, STUDYING IN REGULAR SCHOOLS, THEIR DEVELOPMENT AND PROBLEMS WITH ADAPTATION Introduction Our country has accepted visually impaired children even before the law for this purpose was enacted (IDEA). It is clear from this that children with visual difficulties can be accommodated and they can find their own space in the classrooms. This form of education, gives opportunity not only to the children but also to the teachers and the students in the class. The teachers and other students have said that their communication skills are enhanced; and the teaching abilities of teachers are polished to perfection. The child with VI learns how to live in the mainstream of life. It would be the model of the real world where they have to find their own place in life. A child with VI is like every other child that we meet. Every child needs special attention. The variant and descriptive abilities of everyone else in the class are enhanced due to the presence of the child in the class (Castellano,C. 2005). Earlier when children sat together with the other regular students and their academic performance was only paid attention to, it was found that children did not come out of schools competent enough to meet the requirements of the society. They lacked the social skills needed to function independently. When they spend more time in regular classrooms and lacked personal attention of special schools the children were isolated and found themselves left out. For them to be accepted into the mainstream, they should be accepted by their peers and trained in age effective social skills. Only then would they be able to interact with the other children and learn to be effective in the society. Whether the skills are academicals or non-academicals, the children need to develop their social skills to an extent that it increases their feelings of social worth and usefulness (Sacks, S, Keklis,L& Ross, R.G. 1997). About sight loss in people: some statistics People with uncorrectable sight loss may be treated as people with sight problem of VI. There are about 2 million people in the UK that have VI. Being VI does not mean that they are completely blind; they can see some variation in light density (About sight loss. 2009). When a child is diagnosed with Visual Impairment, it is vital for the family to receive support. The mechanism created by Central Government for this purpose is the Early Support. The Early Support has developed a Journal that explicitly deals with the importance of sight in the development of the child. A study was conducted, within a small pilot group and it was found that if the disability was found in the earlier years much could be done, that the impairment does not hinder the development of the child. In England the number of children with VI during 2003 was found to be as low as 3270. It was also learnt that imparting confidence to the parents to support the child was important (Jennings, J.2008). It is also to be kept in mind that they are to be treated as individuals with very specific needs like any other group of individuals, racial, ethnic or special (Education, 2009). Visual impairment and mainstream schools Visual impairment is not at all connected with intelligence. Children who are visually impaired are of normal intelligence like other children. It has been argued that they would have what is known as “the myth of compensatory ability”. This just means that in consequence to the blindness they develop extra skills in listening, language and other areas of functioning. In direct contrast to this, other researchers have demonstrated that there would be limitations to the development of vocabulary and reasoning ability of the impaired children as compared with their peers who do not have this handicap. They suggest that there would be delay in some areas of the language such as pronouns, questions, and appropriate words that have a range of meaning. But when coming to actual results such notions have not been supported. The development of children with VI has not been accounted either by special psychology or by developmental psychology. Schools play an important role in the development of the children with VI. In the case of schools where the local authority supported the schools with students having VI, it is found that it would contain more options and more support for the students, families and the teachers (Teachers. 2009). An online survey was conducted among the VI services in the UK among one hundred local agencies supporting the visually impaired in schools. Derived from the data were the following facts. There are around 22,000 students below the age of sixteen, who are partially or completely blind in the schools in UK. These students need some type of specialist education. Some of the children had additional disabilities apart from VI as well. Almost all of the children (97%) were educated in the home educational authority. Among these children, 72 percent of the primary students were educated in local mainstream schools and 65 percent of secondary school children were in the mainstream schools. Only 4 per cent of the children were educated in schools for the blind or the partially blind. In an overall estimate, around three percent of all the blind students used Braille as their only format for reading. In students using VI services there were at least one student in each school using VI services (Research briefing.2008). The funding for schools within the Visually Impaired service was provided for centrally. All over England Scotland and Wales, it was not left to the schools. None of the VI services said that the funding was completely left to the school (Morris,M&Smith,P.2008). Technology used for educating the blind Talking books from institution like the RNIB help people with VI to listen and understand the world of books. Audio descriptions also enable students to enjoy television, Videos and DVDs (About sight loss. 2009). Braille transcribers play a great part in defining the curriculum for the blind child. There is an acute shortage of Braille transcribers throughout. They do the work of making the books that is in effect providing the blind children, books and material they need in a timely manner (AFB and Verizon National Campaign for Literacy. 2009). A teacher should also be careful that there is no Braille gap, where the teacher is completely unaware of the student’s work. Computers, scan and read systems, electronic books, electronic note takers, Braille embossers etc are just a few to name the advances in technology that is used to support the blind. Let us try to examine one, namely electronic books, to see how it could help (Castellano,C. 2005). The shortage of textbooks for the VI was also subjected to survey in the schools of England and Scotland. They reached the conclusion that the methods and provisions for acquiring textbooks were far from perfect. Interviews with blind people and surveys with VI services were also conducted. It was found that many students have experienced delays in receiving text books. Alternative practices like using A3 size papers and issuing page by page copy of the books, single the student out and is not acceptable with the inclusive method used. One of the solutions suggested by the survey was to make provision for the electronic copy of the text book available from the publisher. This would go a long way in solving the problem. This would help to produce books in house and also make books in A3 or Braille print from an external provider. A centralized agency to function as the repository for all electronic textbook material is also to be implemented (Keil, S, Paris, D & Cobb, R. 2006). Growing up is a very positive process for the child. We, as grown ups could easily make the child feel lacking and inferior. Let us be the light that they have been denied, though partially. Whatever may be the theoretical learning and experiments, it is undisputable that development of these children depends on the experience of these children during their formative years, which should be supported by their teachers, their parents and most of all their peers (Sacks, S, Keklis,L& Ross, R.G. 1997). References: About sight loss. (2009). Online, http://www.rnib.org.uk/aboutus/aboutsightloss/Pages/aboutsightloss.aspx, Date accessed 22/10/09. AFB and Verizon National Campaign for Literacy, Textbooks, Transcribers and Technology, (2009), Online, http://www.afb.org/Section.asp?SectionID=44&TopicID=192&SubTopicID=34, Date accessed 22/10/09. Castellano,C. (2005). Making it work: educating the blind/visually impaired student in the regular,New York: IAP.inc Educational provision for blind and partially sighted pupils in England.(2008), Online, http://www.rnib.org.uk/aboutus/Research/reports/edemp/Documents/2008_7_NFER_England_Briefing.doc, Date accessed 22/10/09. Education, (2009). Online, http://www.afb.org/Section.asp?SectionID=8, Date accessed 22/10/09. Jennings, J.(2008). Online, Practitioner-led Research Early Support - Final Project Report (ref 034),http://www.rnib.org.uk/aboutus/Research/reports/edemp/Documents/2008_practioner_led_early_support.doc, Date accessed 22/10/09. Keil, S, Paris, D & Cobb, R. (2006). Online, Too little, too late - provision of school textbooks for blind and partially sighted pupils http://www.rnib.org.uk/aboutus/Research/reports/edemp/Documents/2006_10_Too_little_too_late.doc, Date accessed 22/10/09. Research briefing Morris,M& Smith, P. (2008). Online, Educational provision for blind and partially sighted children and young people in Britain: 2007.http://www.rnib.org.uk/aboutus/Research/reports/edemp/Documents/NFER_GB_Report.doc, Date accessed 22/10/09. Sacks, S, Keklis,L& Ross, R.G. (1997), The Development of social skills by blind and visually impaired students. New York: AFB press. Teachers. (2009). Online, http://www.afb.org/Section.asp?SectionID=44&TopicID=189, Date accessed 22/10/09. Read More