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About Me

Expanded Core Curriculum Coordinator & Assistant Director/Principal. I’ve been a teacher of students who are deafblind, early intervention provider & am enthusiast of the Expanded Core!

You can find me at:

@9MoreThanCore on social
robbin.keating@gmail.com

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LEARNER OUTCOMES

Participants will identify the need for Expanded Core skills for students with vision impairments/deafblindness.
Participants will identify strategies for combining Expanded Core skills with academic skills.

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Let’s

TALK!

What are some obstacles you face with including children with vision impairments in your classroom?

What are some success strategies you have implemented for students with vision impairments?

What questions do you have?

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The Unique Needs of Children with Vision Impairments

A spectrum disability that has four main subgroups: blindness, low vision, CVI and deafblindness.

Significant vision loss to total blindness: read Braille (can be auditory readers as well), require sequential and explicit instruction, use white cane, benefit from hands on, meaningful experiences to provide greater concept development.
Low vision: read large print and/or Braille (can be auditory readers as well), have some usable vision, may or may not use a cane, benefit from optical devices such as magnifiers and AT devices (CCTVs), may have issues with glare, depth perception, inconsistent vision. May need modifications such as contrast, reading stands or use eccentric viewing to look at objects
CVI (Cerebral or Cortical Vision Impairment): common in children with multiple impairments (although isn’t a requirement). Vision can be resolved. Has unique characteristics such as visual motor and complexity issues. CVI is a vision impairment of the brain.
Deafblind: dual sensory impairment of both hearing and vision. Deafblindness is a spectrum of sensory loss. May be combined with an intellectual, motor or physical disability.

*This is an overview of the spectrum of vision loss. Individual student vision needs/impairments may vary.

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The Unique Needs of Children with Vision Impairments

Vision is the primary learning modality and source of information for most children. No other sense can stimulate curiosity, integrate information or invite exploration In the same way, or as efficiently and fully, as vision does.

The child who comes into the world without a dependable visual system, or without vision at all, has to navigate through the incomplete messages received through the other sensory modalities in order to put a whole picture of the world together.

The visually impaired child needs to determine how to organize this incomplete information and then respond to what may remain a confusing view of the world. �

Source: The Unique Needs of the Visually Impaired Infant, retrieved from; http://www.tsbvi.edu/program-and-administrative-resources/3247-the-unique-needs-of-the-visually-impaired-infant

Incidental learning is severely restricted

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The foundation to our success

“As we move toward the 21st century, our society is changing and growing at an ever-increasing rate. We must ensure that our children can change and grow with it so that they are not left behind, but instead fully participate in every aspect of mainstream societal life. If the children of today and tomorrow are to succeed in this way, then we must set high standards for them, for ourselves, and for our programs. We must expect children to learn to a high level of competency, so they can compete successfully and confidently in the global 21st century society that is fast approaching.”

-Foreword to the original edition of The National Agenda

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What do you think?

What skills, resources, opportunities do students with visual impairments need to be successful for life?

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What is the Expanded Core Curriculum?

The Expanded Core Curriculum is a disability-specific curriculum to meet the unique needs of children with visual impairments including children with deafblindness. The ECC has 9 designated areas.
It is taught combined with not in replacement of academic instruction.
It extends beyond the classroom to include the community and the home.
The Expanded Core houses the skills needed for students to have a thriving life outside of the classroom and into adulthood.
It is nationally recognized as an educational need for students with vision impairments.
The school-based team has opportunities throughout the school day to address the Expanded Core.
ECC is equal to academic instruction. The ECC is the functional piece of IDEA.

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Quality of Life

Provides Access

Depth of Knowledge

Connections

Why the Expanded Core?

ECC skills create opportunities for students to thrive in their world.

ECC skills allows students to be active participants in learning, life & community.

ECC skills allow students to learn concepts “details deep”.

ECC instruction provides whole and part learning.

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ECC Learning

Goes Beyond the Classroom

Students can develop a range of ECC skills in their home. It is a natural environment for areas such as independent living skills, social interaction and self-determination.

Students receive valuable direct ECC instruction at school. Effective ECC instruction happens with a partnership between all members of the education team.

Students connect to their world with meaningful ECC instruction in the community. It is the natural environment to learn about the details of the world.

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What do you think?

How do we effectively teach the �Expanded Core Curriculum?

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Thumbs Up When You Identify a Skill that Benefits ALL Learners

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Consider This for Students who are B/VI:

Start with vision impairment understanding

What & Where vision?

Establish expectations

How will help be offered?
Presume competence

Descriptions matter

Be wary of the GPS approach!

Experiences

Meaningful experiences
Tactile opportunities whenever possible

Pre-teach, pre-teach, pre-teach!

Vision is instant so provide opportunities for anticipation.

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Know the components

Start with the end goal

It’s all in the details!

Task analysis

Getting Started with the ECC

Go “details deep”. What makes this an ECC skill?

Start with the target goal in mind. Where are we going?

Whole-part & part-whole instruction. What details are implicit in the learning?

Encourage students to identify the tasks in the skill.

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Let’s Unwrap Student Gifts

As educators, we won't know what gifts are hidden in our students until we unwrap their packages. Most successful teachers of inclusion classes have found that when they teach basic skills within the context of meaningful lessons, all students can achieve higher-level learning. Such lessons stimulate critical thinking and motivate students to make personal connections with the material. �Source: Brain-Friendly Strategies for the Inclusion Classroom by Judy Willis, Chapter 1 Success for all Students in Inclusion Classes�

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Partners with School-Based Team

Who is on the school-based team for the student?
Skills can be divided between home and school environments
Related services are on the team!
Partnering requires teamwork. Teams can meet monthly, bi-monthly, etc. to work together. A plan of action (with a follow up step) is always helpful
Parents: how can we engage and educate our parents?

A special note for general or sped teachers: ECC skills meet the unique needs of of students with visual impairments but they aren’t exclusive to them. Many of the ECC skills benefit your whole classroom. *Just remember to use explicit instruction

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Concept Development

3 C’s of concept development�by Dr. Margaret Robinson

1. Concrete Experience: their experiences need to be as real as possible, a real dog not a stuffed animal, models only when you can’t personally experience it.�
2. Complete Experience: if you make cookies, then your student has to be part of every step: buying the dough, prepare it, put them in the oven, the clean up. fragmented experiences created fragmented development�
3. Connected Experiences: perhaps you explore a car, then you explore another car-recall the details and compare and contrast the cars. where do cars go? how do you buy? you want to help develop more accurate development

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Consider This...

Expanded Core isn’t taught in isolation. You can infuse several components at one time.
Make a plan that your child and you agree to.
Find routines that you can take advantage of
Data helps!!
What to prioritize? Self-determination

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Important notes for quality ECC instruction

Explicit instruction is the way to go
There’s a difference between touching and tactile exploration
Pre-teach, pre-teach, pre-teach!
Pre-teaching activates background knowledge, allows for anticipation

Learning should be organized by these two sequences: whole-part-whole and part-whole

Slow down! Create the space for connections to happen. Let mistakes happen. Remember vision is instant! Honest feedback

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Communication-�Hand Under Hand Instruction

What is Hand Under Hand (HUH):
To provide access to the experience of how people use their hands in relation to one another, including direction of movement, amount of force, speed or tempo (without engaging the student's startle reflex or opposition to having hands picked up)
To provide spatial awareness of the distance between hands, for people who are blind or have low vision
To involve the student in routine tasks that they cannot yet perform independently
To stimulate curiosity, the desire to do things themselves, and to reduce passivity and dependence

Adapted from material by Geraldine G. Larrington, MA,OTR/L, Arizona Schools for the Deaf & Blind, April 1997
Resource: Washington Sensory Disability Services, http://www.wsdsonline.org

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Hand Under Hand Instruction

Important Points:
Too much touch distracts the brain
Too much talking distracts the brain
Provide the student with daily "observation" time (with their hands as their "eyes" even if they have some vision)
Keep both of their hands engaged on yours throughout the task. Make it a brief task.
Start with something the student likes!
This is teaching active participation and learning
Students with "tactile defensiveness" accept this better than your hand over their hand because they are doing the touching with their palms/fingers rather than being touched on the sensitive back of their hand or wrist.

Adapted from material by Geraldine G. Larrington, MA,OTR/L, Arizona Schools for the Deaf & Blind, April 1997

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Language & the ECC: Making the Connection

What does salt taste like?

There is no way to describe it unless you actually taste salt.

When working on developing concepts, take the time to match the language to the concept. (Big, red ball)

It’s not just about talk, talk, talk. Too much language, just like too much visual patterns, can create obstacles such as over-stimulation, withdrawal, and confusion

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