Back to School Prep Starts Now
Seminars@Hadley
Back to School Prep Starts Now
Presented by
Allison Conway
Kim Walker
Moderated by
Dawn Turco
May 13, 2015
Dawn Turco
Good afternoon and welcome to today’s Seminars at Hadley. I’m Dawn Turco and I am moderating today’s seminar that we have titled Back to School Prep Starts Now. Preparing for the beginning of a new school year is a busy time for all parents, but are there any additional considerations for parents of children with visual impairments? Our presenters are ready to answer this question. Joining Seminars at Hadley today is a first timer, Allison Conway, and we welcome you especially today, Allison. Allison is a teacher of the visually impaired and O&M instructor at the Tennessee School for the Blind. She is joined by Kim Walker, and this is not her first seminar. Kim is a Hadley instructor and adjunct professor at Tribeca Nazarene University. Our presenters will be sharing strategies you can implement before and at the beginning of the new school year, so let’s get going. I am handing the microphone off to you, Kim, you’re the first up.
Kim Walker
Hi, Dawn. Thank you so much for that great introduction. I’d like to tell you a little about myself and then give Allison a chance to tell you about herself, but first of all, Allison and I have known each other for about 25 years. We went to graduate school together for visual impairment and we’ve worked together over those 25 years as TVIs. Allison is an O&M instructor and always looking at strategies that we can use to help our students be successful, help the parents and also help the school system, so we hope today we can share some strategies that we have found helpful that will serve parents and students. So Allison, you want to go into a litle bit about your history?
Allison Conway
Hi this is Allison, and I have been a vision teacher in the public schools for most of my career, working in public schools and also in outreach with the Tennessee School for the Blind. For the past few years I’ve been strictly doing orientation and mobilty at the residential school.
Kim Walker
Thanks, Allison. Well, as a parent myself, the beginning of the school year can be absolutely hectic, not only of course, buying new clothes and the newest purse and the cutest backpack. But, you know, is everything ready for school? Do we have the books ready, are the immunizations ready for my child, so I know how hectic it is to begin a new school year. But preparing for the beginning of a school year, for the parent of a student who has a visual impariment really does involve quite a bit of planning in advance to ensure that your child’s needs can be met. So the first thing that Allison and I would like to tell you is you have so many things that you need to put in place so that your child has a successful year. I would suggest that you create a timeline at least one month before the beginning of school, have a checklist that includes the areas that we’re going to discuss.
But first of all, one of the most important aspects for the instruction of your child is communucation. I cannot stress enough the importance of communicating with the school. Not only your teacher, but the nurse, the counselor, the administrators. My last ten years in the school system was as an administrator, woking with curriculum, working as a principal, and I always stress to the parents, please come to the school, please call me, please email me. You know? I cannot make things better unless I know what your concerns are. So it’s very important that that communication be in place, no matter if it’s a phone call, a note that you jot down, or an email, but build that relationship with the school that your child attends.
You know, before the school even ends, generally, most students and parents have their IEP meeting. We’re looking at, you know, we’ve completed our assessment. We’ve completed the year. We have a summary of performance for that year. We have a present level of performance, and that’s based on of course the year’s data that was collected, and also the end of the year assessment that we’ve completed so that we know what the child, what levwl that the child’s working on. So that we can place that in the IEP and that is always recorded in the IEP.
In about February or March, I’m nto sure that parents, and a lot of general educaiton teachers don’t know this, but we begin to order books for our students for the next year, so by this time of the year, as the TVI, I would have ordered the books for my chidlren whether they’re in large print, Braille, or digital format, we’re preparing so that we have that transition be very smooth, and of course, we want our children with visual impairments to have their books and their materials the same as their sighted peers. So we’ve been at work quite a bit at the beginning of about January for preparing for your child to be ready for that next school year.
Also as I mentioned, communication is so important. But also, parents remember that you are a vital part of that IEP team. That is not just a school team. You should be part of that. We really need your information because many times, children will do thigns at home that they will not do at school, especailly if we have a child that is non-verbal that may be having some issues with transitioning to a new school, a new teacher, a new classroom, so always remember that your information is as valuable as any of the tests that are done for your child.
And also, never feel intimidated by asking for the information about your child. That information is your information. It’s not information that is put in a file, that’s hidden, but its information that you need to be aware of, that you should always be updated with. So that you know how you could help your child at home and that you know what are the techniques being used with your child. And also as a TVI teacher, teacher of the visually impaired, part of my job was to train parents. You know, I was not there just to work solely with your child. I was there of course, to teach your child Braille, as Allison will mention, strategies for orientation and mobility. Daily living skills. And I know to train the peer educator working with your child, often the administrators. I even work with the maintenance, the custodians, the lunchroom workers. My job was to be there to train the staff to know the techniques used to help your child be successful, because, you know, we’re of course wanting them to learn the content. But we are wanting them to be as independent as possible. So that’s part of what we do as TVIs.
And then part of what we do is to train the parents. I would often have parents come in to the school and go over what we’re working on at school, but also during the summer, many times I would go to the child’s home, and you know, in many situations, because I could help the parent learn techniques that would be very specific to their house and to their child So make sure that you communicate on don’t ever feel intimidated, make sure you ask for that information, because you’re spending more time with your child than we are, and you are the child’s first instructor and the first teacher. And another aspect of getting ready for a new school year is ask for the school calendar. As the principal, we generally started working on our calendars about January, and we would have the calendar completed by February of that school year so that you know what’s going to happen in your child’s school the next school year. That way it gives you a chance to plan, so that you can come to school.
And often, I would have a middle school parent and high school parents say, oh, oh, no, I don’t think it’s appropriate for me to come to school to see what’s going on at school or come to the sports events. But being that principal, I was very, I had relationships with the students. I knew the students. And I knew that they were very, very happy when their parents came. And I knew that they were just ecstatic when their parents came to an event at school. So make sure you get that calendar. You know what’s going on so that you can attend those functions. You know, all children want to have their parents involved at school. Now teenagers will tell you that they’re embarrassed, you know, I really, really don’t need to, you really don’t need to come to that, but they really do want you there.
Another aspect of it I’d like to talk to you about is health. As parents we know that there’s so many immunizations that are due that lots of times, I can’t even keep up with them. You know, of course, we all know about those shots that the kids need before they begin school, but there are boosters that are needed throughout the school year and it’s important that you talk to the school nurse and you talk to the school nurse generally at the end of the year if you can, and ask them are there any immunizations that are due for your child specific to their age, are there any boosters that you need to have? That way you’ll have time to plan your appointment. You know, because the school sometimes get really, they’ll talk to you about shot records not being up to date so you would never want to be in that situation.
Also, a lot of times our children with visual impairment have medications that they take, you know, they’ll have eye drops, you know, things like that that they have to take during the school day. So it's very important if you can possibly get an appointment with the school nurse during the summer. That will give you a chance to sit down with the nurse, explain, you know, you know, Tom may have eye fatigue, have headaches due to the eye fatigue, you know, when should they give the child medicine, when should they not give the child medicine? If they have prescriptions or eye drops, you know, anything specific about that, build that relationship with the school nurse so that, you know, she’ll feel free to call you also when she has a question about sometimes those headaches that happen at test time, you know, she’ll know about a trick to make her maybe avoid this behavior of not wanting to take that test.
Also some of our kids have allergies to food, so of course, you’re going to want to meet with them about that. Also, especially if your child is taking a prescription medication, set up a communication system with the nurse, you know. Maybe the nurse would want to email you once a week, maybe they would want to have a communication notebook with you, but you know, go ahead and set up that communication with the school nurse also.
During the summer is an excellent time to work with your child on social skills. A lot of times, educators and families don’t think about the social aspects about children with visual impairment. Sometimes our children are not as involved in camp or church activities or girl scouts or boy scouts. So this is a time as a parent that you can help them become involved with those social situations. And also, our children always want to be like everyone else. All children want to fit in, and you know, as a TVI, and Allison and I have spoken about this quite often, when we’re working with our children when they’re in elementary school and we come to the door to maybe pull them out to work on Braille skills or work on, you know, using their binocular, their telescope. Or just maybe work on their reading skills and building their reading skills and visual efficiency. They love us in elementary school. We’re their best friend and they’re so happy and they’re so proud to go with us.
But about middle school, and Allison has learned this, about middle school, they like you because you have that rapport with the child most often for several years, they’re like, please don’t come to the door anymore, it’s embarrassing that you come and get me. So they want you to arrange to meet them in the library. But that’s fine and as TVIs we understand that. So we, you know, we want to have the privacy for the student. Now high school rolls around and they’re getting serious and they’re like you’re okay, again, come back, because I know I need your help. So we know this and we try to abide by these social situations that arise throughout the child’s different age levels. And also, you know, a lot of times the kids are going to need the large print. They’re going to need the Braille books. So they don’t want to be different, and often they don’t want to use those, and as TVIs we try to work around that and we abide by that. As long as the child can get the information. You know, most often, like I said, the elementary students really love the attention that they get from us, TVIs, the teachers, and the other children, but that does change.
Something else that we do for social setting for the schools is that we train the staff, you know, the, there’s stereotypical things that people believe about children or individuals with visual impairment that we often have to let them know that is not true. So a part of that is training the staff and also many times, Allison and I have trained children. We brought simulators in and said you know, Susie, this is how Susie sees things. You know? Or this is why Susie’s eyes move, and we always do it in age-appropriate terms. You know, as children are younger, they don’t need as much information. As they’re older, then you can give them more technical information so that’s things that we do socially for, for the children. Oftentimes, the children, because they worked with us for, for such a long amount of time, they trust us and they will tell us things that are going on in their lives that they may not tell their general ed teachers, and sometimes they might not even tell their parents. So we’re sort of the good sounding board for the student so that they can tell their frustration, they also can tell us about their joys.
Someone that I really kind of work closely with for social settings is the school counselor. You know? Our counselors are not trained TVIs, and on occasion, there will be some, but generally, this is not part of their training. So we want to work with the counselor, so that they can build the relationship with the child and function as a school counselor for our children with visual impairment, as well as the children. Or, as well as the sighted peers. So we try to meet with the school counselor in the summer. I would also advise with the parents to meet with the school counselor in the summer.
And something else that I have found very helpful, especially with teenagers during those awkward years, is to role-play with the student. You know, because they start to get to that middle grade, early high school, and it’s boyfriend, girlfriend issues. So part of what we do, you know, self-esteem, we start and leisure skills are part of the skills that we do teach, we start role playing with the kids and go, okay, you want to talk to Tommy. The conversation starter is to ask, well, what movies do you like or what music do you like? We also, there’s something called face the speaker. Which means when you are speaking with someone, you need to make sure that your face is facing the other person, and we often tell them, you know, even though you may have your head down and that you can possibly listen better, sometimes for people who have sight, they might think you’re not interested in what they’re saying. So it’s a social skill that we really work on is facing the speaker.
Another social skill that we work on is how to raise your hand properly in the classroom. You know, we want to let them know, you know, you don’t put your hand up in the air, you wave it, you know, wildly in the air, so those are some simple things that we really work on socially with our children so that role play is very important. And as families, you know, have the role play with the students or maybe in a church setting or a girl scout or boy scout. There might be a child there that could be a practice person that you know well that could role-play with the student. You know, what to do if a student stops to say hello in the hallway and you get disoriented. I know Allison will talk about, you know, keeping your direct path of travel and you want to say hello to your friend but you certainly don’t want to lose track of where you are. So that’s something that we work on.