Inclusion of Students with Visual Processing Disorder - Research Paper Example

 Introduction Visual perceptual or processing disorder is the inability of the brain to interpret images seen by a person. The individual normally experiences difficulties focusing on visual images, visual tacking and recognizing letters. It might prove difficult to notice this challenge in a person such that one has to look for some signs exhibited by an individual. These include missing out on an entire concept of a picture, agitation or confusion on working with extra stimulating material, occasional loss of place while reading, requesting for verbal directions even with clear written directions and even more common experiencing problems spelling and reading non-phonetic words. The challenge experienced by a student with this disorder is vast and can be demoralizing to the student (Gregory & Chapman, 2002). This is so when one considers school work requires ability to process accurately visual images. Despite this great challenge to students, weaknesses with visual processing are not without remedy. The problem is that most cases go undetected and therefore untreated. A child will continue to experience difficulties without the knowledge of concerned persons. In some cases wrong diagnoses commonly with attention deficit disorder makes the problem worse. There are a number of strategies that can be followed to ensure the child strengthens visual processing. For such a student to utilize a normal classroom it is recommended that writing paper must have darker lines (Edyburn, 2004). Instead of giving them large projects, assignments need to broken down in short simple steps. Again they can be encouraged to make use of a ruler as they read. This is an important reading guide and if used effectively will see to improvement of a child’s visual processing. Equally important is being able to highlight vital information as they read. Of course this comes with the guidance of the teacher. All these activities are necessary for the student to gain from mainstream classes. Effective Differentiate Instruction In order for a teacher to effectively carryout a differentiate instruction one must have acquired refined skills and knowledge. It is very vital that the teacher have strong understanding of cognitive components necessary for the process of learning. The specific components must be well known whether or not they are working or have broken down. After successfully knowing the condition of the cognitive components then it becomes easy to come up with a strategy to address a specific task or break down and at the appropriate time (Forsten, Grant & Holla, 2002). It can become frustrating for both students and teacher if the right strategy is applied at the wrong time or where strategies are mismatched with breakdowns. This happens once intended results are not achieved. The learning process comprises of six interactive components which include language, attention, organizing and processing, memory; higher order thinking and writing. These processes are not independent of each other but interact with each other and also with family, classroom climate, teachers, behavior and social skills (Bender, 2002). A class comprises of diverse learners and the teacher must be able to engage each and every student in the learning process. This actually means the teacher must recognize and respond to cognitive and emotional profiles of individual students. Only tactics and instructional strategies that favor majority students are adopted. The first component is attention. In order to be able to learn, a student must first be attentive. It is important for teachers to realize only exciting or interesting things catch the attention of learners (Reynolds & Chelazzi, 2004). Things that are not interesting do not catch learner’s attention. Oftentimes attention will stray or a learner becomes easily distracted by another activity or topic. It is for this reason that teachers must ensure lessons delivered connect with learners (Hoover & Patton, 2004). Sometimes offering students an opportunity to move around physically jogs the mind and improves attention. Memory is another important cognitive component. It is vital in a sense that it enables an individual use, receive, retrieve and store information. The systems of memory are divided into short-term, long-term and working memory. School going children need to remember substantial information compared to adults. As people grow older they specialize in certain disciplines hence only able to remember specific information. On the other hand, students remember a number of subjects and a substantial amount of related information. It is however not necessarily that once students understand something then it will be remembered. Knowledge must be made meaningful to enable students easily elaborate on the same. Directions must be repeated for students who exhibit difficulty with working memory and short-term memory. For their benefit, the teacher must endeavor to give directions in both written and oral form. Examples and self-tests prove to be beneficial to all students. In school and society as a whole, language is used to receive and give information. The processing systems of language are confined in its receptiveness and expressiveness. Reading and listening conform to the former whereas writing and speaking are expressive skills. As much as students with good communication or language skills excel in school those without this ability perform poorly. Such students are not able to communicate effectively, maintain and form new relationships or be able to store written or verbal information (Sperling, 1960). Students with visual processing disorder normally have problems with language. Those students that exhibit difficultly with written language will be better off if staging procedure were to be employed. This works well to bring home the concept of creative and expository writing. In conforming to the procedure students will have to generate ideas, organize them and then look at the structure of sentences. After this they can proceed to check spelling and finally rules of grammar. The most frequent errors must be correctly noted on a book. On a self-correcting exercise the student should emphasis on areas where most errors were made (Grant, 2003). Likewise students who are challenged with receptive skills must be given short lectures. These lectures will be coupled by frequent breaks. Similarly, lectures must always be accompanied by well structured written forms. As a variant to the lectures, teachers might consider discussion groups. These groups will be allocated sufficient time and not long sessions to bore students. Students can easily tire if these sessions are unnecessarily prolonged. Cooperative Strategic Reading has proved to be valuable in the improvement of oral skills. It is also a great strategy in ensuring students enjoy reading (Norlund, 2003). Reading comprehension and intellectual discussion are also favored by this strategy. The strategy calls for a group of about five to seven students with varied abilities. The tasks are divided into four segments whereby students cooperate to ensure they have been completed successfully. The first step is preview whereby the material is skimmed. In the process students establish what need to be known or learned. The second step students identify what they are able to understand or not able to understand. This is simply referred to as clicks and clunks. Words or ideas that are not understood are highlighted for reference. Then the gist or main idea is ascertained. Finally, students summarize contents and wrap the exercise. Questions can also be formulated as a way of anticipating what the teacher might ask. A teacher’s communication in a classroom helps in a great way to connect students with the topic under discussion. Students with visual processing disorder will be helped a great deal if teachers effectively utilize other ways of communication apart from visual. Organization is another important component that must be well understood by a teacher. Information is organized in either successive or simultaneous manner. Individuals with a good sense of direction or witness double processing at the same time exhibit the former organization behavior whereas successive organization is the sequential order of events (Rucci, Iovin, Poletti & Santini, 2007). Concept such like order, time and date falls in this category. Verbal explanations are a must for students experiencing difficulties with geographical or spatial information. Information that is contained in diagrams, charts or graphs must be accompanied by descriptions and written information. Similarly, those experiencing problems with sequential information should be made to benefit from flow charts, diagrams or graphic organizers. In order to write one requires coordination of visual, neural and muscular organs. It is coordination of these functions that see to writing, and not merely an act of will. If this coordination is problematic then a student is not motivated to write or complete handwritten assignments (Tomlinson, 2003). These students must be given an opportunity to perform tasks orally. This can be conducted through tests, exercises or quizzes. Such students are also helped in a great way by use of computers. However, the students also tend to have problems with the keyboard. High order thinking goes beyond memorization of facts. As much as an individual has a firm grasp of factual information, the person goes further by being able to manipulate known facts (Li, Piech & Gilbert, 2004). This can only be guaranteed to a person who understands the information perfectly. This concept involves practical thinking, creativity, inferring, visualizing and questioning. Students benefit a great deal from teachers that bring out the big picture and clearly highlight main concepts that need to be covered. It is also important that students understand how to connect one concept to another. Emotions and motivation come in handy if a lesson is to be understood perfectly. Emotions are these inconceivable gifts that a learner cannot do without. It is important that emotions are made to mirror lessons being taught. Students be relaxed, calm and without fear or anxiety. On the other hand the teacher must motivate students by giving more than it is expected by students. Strategy for Visual Processing Disorder It is important for the instructor to realize that a child with visual processing disorder is impaired on one of the senses. This means that effort must be made by the teacher to be able to make the child utilize other senses in the learning process (Marr & Nishihara, 1978). The activities performed in the classroom must involve as many multiple intelligences as possible. This manner of teaching will not only enable a student with disability understand a lesson but ensures the lesson is reinforced to the rest of the students. The teacher must also realize that activities that are performed by hand are much more effective. This is because multiple senses are being put to use. The utilization of lessons or games that reinforce visual discrimination must be shunned (Hayhoe, 2000). These include games that require students to give a description of pictures or to match shapes. As the ability increases these games prove to be more difficult for visually impaired students. The teacher must be aware of fun games that are useful for visual memory. One of the most common is to pair up students and allow them to study each other for some duration of time. Once the time has elapsed, one student turns round while the other alters his appearance. The students must be able to realize the changes made on each other. This same idea can work with objects. Objects will be lined up and students given a chance to study them (Roelfsema, Lamme & Spekreijse, 2000). The objects are then returned to a box. The students should be able to recall the correct order of the objects or alternatively arrange them as they were lined up. The same idea applies in card game. The cards are laid facing down and students try to match them up. The ability to comprehend figures, symbols and shapes is referred to as visual figure processing (Roelfsema, 2005). There a number of ways to be used by the teacher to correct this impairment. These methods are not only fun for students but very effective in addressing the challenge. Conclusion Students with learning disorders are just like any other students. They are normal despite their disorder. In fact unknowingly many teachers struggle with these students assuming they are stubborn, less intelligent or suffering from attention deficit. Teachers are therefore required to be knowledgeable and skilled to know that a class is comprised of a diverse range of students. In order to impact knowledge and make all students understand, each must be understood as an individual. Their strengths and weaknesses must be noted. Through this understanding a teacher will be well able to come up with the best strategy to educate them. References Bender, W. N. (2002). Differentiating instructions for students with learning disabilities: Best teaching practices for general and special educators. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press Edyburn, D. (2004). Technology Supports Differentiated Instruction. Journal of Special Education Technology 19(2) Forsten, C., Grant, J & Holla, B. (2002). Differentiated Instruction: Different Strategies for different learners. Peterborough, NH: Crystal Springs Books Grant, J. (2003). Differentiating for Diversity. Principal (Reston, Va) 82(3) p. 48-51 Gregory, G & Chapman, C. (2002). Differentiated Instructional Strategies. One size doesn’t fit all. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press Hayhoe, M. (2000). Vision Using Routines: A Functional Account of Vision. Vision Cognition 7, pp. 43-64 Hoover, J.J & Patton, J. R. (2004). Differentiating standard-based education for students with diverse needs. Remedial and Special Education, 25(2), pp. 74-78 Li, W., Piech, V & Gilbert, C.D. (2004). Perceptual Learning and Top-down Influences in Primary Visual Cortex. Nature Neuroscience, 7/6, pp. 651-657 Marr, D & Nishihara, H.K (1978). Visual Information Processing: Artificial Intelligence and the Sensorium of Sight. Technological Review 81, pp. 2-23 Norlund, M. (2003). Differentiated Instruction: Meeting the educational needs of all students in your classroom. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Education Reynolds, J. H & Chelazzi, L. (2004). Attentional Modulation of Visual Processing. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 27, pp. 611-647 Roelfsema, P. R., Lamme, V. A. F., & Spekreijse H. (2000). The Implementation of Visual Routines. Vision Research, No. 40, pp. 1385-1411 Roelfsema, P.R. (2005). Elemental Operations in Vision. Trends in Cognitive Sciences Vol. 9, No. 5, pp. 226-233 Rucci, M., Iovin, R., Poletti, M & Santini F. (2007). Miniature Eye Movements Enhance Fine Spatial Detail. Nature, 447, 7146, pp. 851-854 Sperling, G. (1960). The Information Present in brief Visual Presentations. Psychological Monographs. 74, 498, pp. 1-29 Tomlinson, C.A. (2003). Differentiating instruction for academic diversity. In J. M. Cooper (Ed), Classroom teaching skills, 7th ed, pp 149-180: Houghton Miffin Read More