There is a wide variety of teaching strategies that can be used to assist learners. However, there are specific strategies that will be useful when teaching a group that has a disability such as visual impairment. When considering the various teaching strategies, one should ensure that the strategies ensure equal opportunity and have objectives that can directly meet the needs of the visually impaired individuals. One of the main objectives of teaching individuals that have disability is to ensure that they have the specific resources that can be used to help the individuals with a specific disability. The population of an individual with vision impairment is selected and learner assessment and teaching strategies for individuals within the given population is analyzed.
Selected Population
The selected specific population involves a patient that has a visual impairment. The general population will involve students that have visual impairment challenges. It is expected that the patient that has visual impairment is at the early stages of learning and should have the age between 11 and 15 years old. There is an increasing population of students that face visual impairment challenges. When the needs and the challenges of individuals within the given population are not addressed, it will result in significant learning and development challenges at the latter stages of their life.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Educational Barriers for the Given Population
Individuals that have problems with visual impairment and are at their early stages of learning are likely to encounter several educational challenges. One of the challenges is that the visual impairment may not have been diagnosed yet and this could make it difficult for the individual to follow instructions. When the instructions are placed in a visual format, it will be difficult for the individual to follow them because they will not be able to see them clearly. The teacher may assume that the individual with vision impairment actively chooses not to follow instructions or engage in work. Passing out of information through the use of non-verbal cues and instructions would result in several challenges for the students. The nature of educational setting created has also been designed for students that have proper vision. Students with visual impairment will face several challenges when trying to fit in with the normal system as there may not be enough resources to be used by visually impaired individuals.
Assessment of Learning Needs
The assessment of learning needs for individuals in the given population will be carried out through the use of Learning Media Assessment (LMA). This is a tool carried out by teachers to find out the senses that the child mostly uses to get information from their current environment. After the senses have been identified, decisions will later be made regarding the method or methods that the child should use for their learning and literacy. In case the child makes predominant use of hearing and touch when learning, it will be recommended from the assessment that he or she makes use of braille for reading and writing and oral instructional strategies are used.
Health-Related Topic to Teach the Patient
The health-related topic that should be taught to the patient will deal with mental health and cognitive behavioral therapy training that can be used to improve one’s mental health. The visually impaired individual will start comparing his or her life to that of other individuals and may go through challenges that could result in depression, stress, and other mental health problems. Soleimani et al. (2017) observe that cognitive-behavioral therapy training can be used as an effective strategy for individuals that are visually impaired. Different cognitive-behavioral techniques will be taught to the patient in order to help them manage stress or depression in case it emerges at the later stages of their life.
Teaching Strategies
The teaching strategies that may be used to teach the patient will involve the use of oral instructions and the provision of a tactile learning option. Black et al., (2015) observes that universal design for instruction (UDI) should be implemented in order to benefit a broad range of learners. One of the UDI principles that were identified was the use of oral instructional strategies. Oral instructional material will involve giving assignments and activities through an auditory form that the patient can easily listen. Other forms of instructions such as the use of handouts should not be used. Additionally, when addressing the students, they should be called by their name. The teacher should also make minimal use of non-verbal cues as the patient will not be able to make proper judgment.
The other teaching strategy that can be used will involve the use of tactile learning format. The tactile learning experience will involve having physical objects that the individual is trying to demonstrate. For instance, instead of using images to show different types of rocks, the teacher may make use of physical rocks available in the classroom so that the students could handle and touch the objects. This should enhance their understanding of the different objects.
Advantages and Disadvantages of the Strategies
One of the advantages of using the oral instructional material is that it will make use of the sense of hearing which should be enhanced for the visually impaired individual. The visually impaired will find oral instructions easy to follow and understand. The difficulty with the approach is that it can be difficult to use oral instructions for complex subjects like mathematics. Other types of instructions may have to be used.
The advantage of making use of tactile material will be that the patient will make use of their sense of touch to assess objects adequately. The use of different objects will enable the patient to understand the immediate world around them. The disadvantage with the approach is that it is limited to physical objects that can be touched.
Implementing Oral Instructions to Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
The use of oral instructions will be implemented on cognitive behavioral therapy through the use of an audiotape. Instructional CBT involves the use of audiotapes that can be used by the visually impaired patient. The audiotape will also involve additional teaching that deals with the importance of mental health.
Assessing Teaching Effectiveness
The effectiveness of the teaching will be assessed by making use of a simple quiz to instruct and assess the patient. The quiz will involve asking the patient to provide several oral responses to questions dealing with mental health. The patient will be instructed to provide examples of the cognitive behavioral therapy techniques that were learned. The responses will be collected and analyzed to determine whether the patient retained the knowledge.
Conclusion
The visually impaired patient can have their learning strategies improved by making use of learner assessment and teaching strategies. The implication of making use of the learner assessment is that it provides a framework that can be used for the assessment of learning needs of individuals that are visually impaired. After identifying that the individual makes use of hearing and the use of touch to experience their world, teaching strategies that involve the given senses are to be implemented. Hearing was implemented through the use of oral instructions and touch was implemented through the use of tactile objects. A final analysis of the teaching assessment should be carried out to provide an overview of the success of the teaching strategies.
References
Black, R. D., Weinberg, L. A., & Brodwin, M. G. (2015). Universal design for learning and instruction: Perspectives of students with disabilities in higher education. Exceptionality Education International , 25 (2), 1-16.
Soleimani, E., Younesi, S. J., Dadkhah, A., & Rostami, M. (2017). Effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy training in reducing depression in visually impaired male students. Iranian Rehabilitation Journal , 15 (2), 165-172.
