[blindkid] PE for blind student

Carrie Gilmer carrie.gilmer at gmail.com
Wed Sep 9 13:52:05 UTC 2009


Dear Joy,

Next to getting Braille, PE was our largest nightmare in elementary school.
The PE teacher was generally a poor teacher for ANYONE and she never "got
it"...in fifth grade after countless meetings and teaching Jordan since
first grade she sent him to the nurses office during a ball toss game once
"so he would not get hurt in class"...we had a host of
options/accommodations written into the IEP and a part-time full adaptive PE
teacher every other class...but his idea of inclusion was to stop the entire
game and hand Jordan the ball.

 

that said, he did not take any PE in middle school-(long story, but we
waived it cuz he was on YMCA swim team and other after school sports and he
needed that time to get Braille/tech instruction AND cuz they were so
horrible at adapting in elementary we did not want to hassle with it
anymore), in high school we tried it again. There he had a WONDERFUL para
who was trained in adaptive PE, the guy would try out various adaptations
with Jordan and they would agree on what would work, sometimes they made
stuff up after experimenting--he would even search stores for various; the
reg ed PE teacher was awesome and the other kids too so they did not mind a
larger/softer/colored or beeping ball or calling out (So Jordan could orient
by sound) or whatever was used. Sometimes the adaptive PE para was his
partner in say ping pong or sometimes another student was and was agreeable
to adaptations.

 

This should be in her IEP. Jordan used his cane for running and oriented to
follow. The overuse of other students as guides carries a host of problems
in both her own independent participation and it is social death.

 

You can mix pull-out with reg participation depending on the activity. It
was also in his IEP (and actually worked in high school) to get the full PE
curriculum ahead of time and to write options and some known specifics into
the IEP, we tried to get accommodations ahead of time. You don't want to be
figuring out volleyball during class for example. Pull out and reg were
mixed in the IEP language "as needed and as agreed upon by activity between
the teacher, us and Jordan". Pull out was often even just for ten minutes of
a class sometimes to sort out and experiment...it worked well with people
who WANTED to really engage him independently.

 

There was an excellent very extensive Future Reflections special issue on PE

Download it...you can incorporate that into the IEP. They might welcome the
ideas, likely they just do not know what to do.

 

 

Carrie Gilmer

-----Original Message-----
From: blindkid-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindkid-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Joy Orton
Sent: Tuesday, September 08, 2009 8:54 PM
To: blindkid at nfbnet.org
Subject: [blindkid] PE for blind student

 

Last week our daughter Ahbee, age 9, grade 3, came home with a problem in

her physical education class (PE). She said that the kids who were helping

guide her around were passing her off. In other words, one student was tired

of helping her, so he or she asked someone else to help her.  Ahbee's

concern was that people were getting tired of her, and she was feeling

rejected.

 

I am concerned about the social problem of feeling rejected, but also about

the other issues raised. Why does she need someone to lead her around in PE?

She has excellent cane skills and can walk independently in and out of

school. She has no other disabilities or delays in addition to her

blindness.

 

I called the TVI, the O&M teacher, and the adaptive PE teacher. The adaptive

PE teacher met with the PE teacher and Ahbee the same day I talked to her.

They concluded that the PE teacher will designate three or four people each

day to be Ahbee's helpers. The TVI told me that last year when the beeping

balls were collected at the end of school, they were covered in dust. Hmm.

 

My questions:

1. To other parents and teachers: Does this seem like an appropriate

situation? How can I tell?

2. What activities do other blind children have in PE? Do they participate

with sighted classmates in regular class or have a special pulled out PE

time?

3. Anyone else have peer students acting as guides for their blind student?

How much of the time? How well does it work?

4. What can I ask for? What would be the wording for the IEP?

 

Thanks in advance for your feedback.

Joy Orton

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