Teaching Children with Multiple Disabilities Essay

Working with children with Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP)

Children diagnosed with ROP have poor vision because the condition affects the retina part of the eye. Blood vessels in this region experience poor development. They are owing to ROP complication, scar tissue forms around the retina (Ramani, Police, and Jacob 112). Second, magnifying aids and high illumination are required to assist students with this visual complication. In fact, some students experiencing ROP complication may be partially blind and hence cannot see clearly unless numbers and letters are made larger or brightened.

Helping a child who has a neurological vision impairment

A child with neurological vision impairment should be accommodated alongside other normal learners, especially when visual perceptual tasks are being carried out. In other words, the teacher should not exclude or pay little attention to such a child. This is vital so that the learner can concentrate the available energy on the on-going task. Second, it is vital for the teacher to understand that epilepsy is a common brain condition for children diagnosed with neurological vision impairment. Before the occurrence of neurological vision impairment, a teacher should exercise reasonable seizure control (Ramani, Police, and Jacob 111).

The teacher should also assist such a child in maintaining a perceptual continuum than learners who are not handicapped. In addition, children with neurological vision impairment may take quite a longer time than other normal learners to analyze small bits of information. Hence, it is the duty of a teacher to grant them additional time to thin and give their feedbacks. They should not be quickly dismissed before they take adequate time for analysis and response. Third, such children experience overload quite easily. They even find it cumbersome to maintain flow in long conversations. In most cases, their postures take a significant amount of energy among children suffering from neurological vision impairment. Worse still, they involuntarily lose visual targets. If they fail to support their heads well, they easily experience poor head maneuver. From these weaknesses, a teacher should assist such children in sitting properly in the class. The most comfortable posture should be preferred for such visually handicapped children. On the same note, the teacher should not give the amount of work similar to children who are not disabled. Short and relatively straightforward assignments should be advanced for children with neurological vision impairment. However, teachers should make sure that tasks are carried out repetitively so that the affected children in this category can grasp and fully understand lesson contents (Ramani, Police, and Jacob 113).

Strategies for working with children with cochlear implants

Regular entries should be made in a notebook concerning communication between parents/guardians and the school. This implies that a teacher should maintain a constant flow of communication regarding the progress of the child. When talking, the conversation should be moderate enough. Hence, shouting should be avoided even though voice projection is necessary. When communicating with such children, the back of the teacher should not face the class. Stillness is also necessary because children with cochlear implants are easily affected by random movements. They tend to concentrate more on the movements at the expense of what is being said. While speaking, the teacher should make sure that his or her face can be vividly seen by learners. Adequate lighting is also necessary in order to enhance communication.

Second, a teacher can help such learners to comprehend lesson contents by the vivid introduction of new content, summarizing core learning points, writing all the vital information on the board, and offering learners a list of vocabularies to learn and master (Ramani, Police and Jacob 114).

Working with children with multiple disabilities

Learners with multiple disabilities can only benefit when a range of learning and teaching skills are embraced. A video and narrative may be used to achieve literacy in language. Other approaches include specific child-guided instructions, experiential-based literacy, home-school journal, and daily schedule on the progress of a child. Individualized lessons are also highly encouraged.

Works Cited

Ramani, Krishna Kumar, Shailaja Reddy Police, and Namita Jacob. “Impact of Low Vision Care On Reading Performance in Children With Multiple Disabilities And Visual Impairment.” Indian Journal of Ophthalmology 62.2 (2014): 111-115.