Visions of the Blind

                                    Picture description: Picture of 4 cut out paper turkeys with bright feathers and numbers 1-4  on their bellies lined up in a row from left to right. We all know visual efficiency skills play a role in our students with low vision. Sometimes, as TVI’s, we need to help our students learn to use the vision they have more efficiently. Visual efficiency is how an individual uses their current vision. Vision efficiency skills are a set of skills that help a student with learning tasks and understanding their environments.  Visual efficiency skills include visual discrimination, visual memory, eye-hand coordination, visual imitation, visual attention and fixation, visual closure, and visual tracking, scanning, and tracing. One of the visual efficiency skills that I, as a TVI and O&M Specialist, continue to need to work on with my students is visual scanning.  Not only do we need to scan for reading at near distances, but we need scanning

(Picture is of a 'Sensory Turkey'. It is a Turkey shaped base with multiple feathers. Each feather has a different texture.) This week in the blog post we are going to explore different ways to expose students who are blind or visually impaired to different sensory activities of the Fall Season! Keep in mind that many of these ideas incorporate Occupational Therapy and Physical Therapy Skills, so it could be fun to collaborate with other professionals on these activities!  They also can include Orientation and Mobility or Body Awareness Skills. If doing this activity with a student, always check for allergies prior to making the activity as many of the Fall recipes can include nuts, gluten, or other allergens! Since Halloween is just passed, many of you probably carved pumpkins. If you painted or left the pumpkin whole, here are some activities you can do to introduce your child to the many parts of the pumpkin. (Picture is of a divided dish with 7 compartments, 6 o