[blindkid] ECC- Social Skills

Sat May 12 17:14:15 UTC 2012

I agree with you Arielle..

I think the wording is a prime sad example of low and poor expectation. It
sad that this is used wide spread.

-Penny
On May 12, 2012 11:43 AM, "Arielle Silverman" <arielle71 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi all,
> One part of the expanded core curriculum that I take issue with as a
> blind person is:
> "Since nearly all social skills are learned by observation of the
> environment and people, this is an area where students with vision loss
> need careful, conscious and explicit instruction."
> I take issue with this statement because it implies that blind people
> cannot "observe" their environment and people around them to learn
> about social customs and norms of interaction. Granted, there are some
> nonverbal communication things that we won't get on our own, without
> being explicitly taught. But since when was the word "observation"
> synonymous with "seeing"? A good deal of interpersonal interaction is
> verbal and blind people can pick up an awful lot by listening and
> participating in conversations. We learn how to speak by listening to
> others around us speaking to us. We eventually learn things like
> turn-taking, sharing and initiating conversations by listening to
> others conversing and engaging us. As a blind person, I can tell if my
> boyfriend is angry or upset or anxious from the tone of his voice, and
> I don't think anyone sat me down and taught me how to recognize
> feelings from vocal tones. I learned it by observation, which
> supposedly blind people cannot do. The statement that social skills
> have to be explicitly taught denies the validity of the techniques we
> do use to observe our environment. Like everything else, it renders us
> dependent on the "experts" to translate the environment for us instead
> of recognizing the ways in which blind people initiate their own
> observation and learning. And it overstates the supremacy of visual
> information, overstates what we are missing out on.
> I wholeheartedly agree with Heather that social skills have to be
> learned in context, in real interactions with family, friends and
> teachers in real settings. Parents should provide feedback and
> information about nonverbal things that are happening as they are
> happening in context. It makes no sense to read about social
> interaction in a book or to discuss it in a classroom with a TVI. That
> wouldn't make any sense for a sighted child, so why would that kind of
> education be appropriate for us? In order to learn what works and what
> doesn't work in social situations, we need to experience these
> situations, try things and get feedback either from the situation
> itself or as it is interpreted by parents.
> I have some strong feelings on this topic, in part because as a child
> I was consistently labeled as being deficient in "social skills". From
> what I can remember and what I've been told, this was mainly because I
> preferred to play by myself rather than with other (sighted) children.
> I would also tend to try to do things my way when I was playing with
> another child and showed little interest in their preferences for
> activities. I now think very little of this had to do with a lack of
> knowledge about how to play with others. Instead, part of it was a
> personality thing (I am introverted and do enjoy being by myself) and
> part of it was because the sighted kids did things together like
> drawing and ball games, which didn't interest me or which I couldn't
> fully access. I have wondered if some of the supposed social
> deficiencies blind children show appear because blind children don't
> enjoy typical sighted-child activities or don't feel accepted by their
> peers and so aren't motivated to interact or just kind of give up on
> doing so. For example, young children do a lot of coloring and
> drawing, and a blind child can play around with the crayons with
> everyone else, but might not get a lot of enjoyment out of doing so.
> Many social activities (perhaps more so for boys) seem to involve
> physical or athletic play and while blindness shouldn't prevent a
> child from joining in, blind kids may be left out of these activities
> or not be able to keep up (i.e. always being "it" in tag) and this
> could have implications in terms of social status and fitting in. If a
> blind kid is thrown into an environment where activities aren't
> accessible or enjoyable, withdrawal might be an adaptive thing to do.
> Eventually as a blind child gets older, he/she gains more control over
> the environment and can engage others in accessible activities, but
> this takes time. It seems to me that instead of this explicit
> instruction in social interaction the ECC calls for, intervention
> should be directed toward making playground activities more accessible
> and building in things that are nonvisually interesting, so a blind
> child will actually want to interact and get that naturalistic
> experience. Once that is achieved, I'd think it would be best for the
> TVI to get out of the way so the blind child can interact. I'd be
> interested in your thoughts on this topic.
> Arielle
>
>
> On 5/12/12, Heather Field <missheather at comcast.net> wrote:
> > Hello Penny,
> > I really like your description, a "catch all" for blindness skills.
> > Unfortunately, I believe this Expanded Core Curriculum (ECC.) has
> created an
> >
> > awful problem for teachers, parents and blind students alike for that
> very
> > reason...It catches "all" the skills.  It is because they have put
> > everything together in one document and demanded that teachers implement
> the
> >
> > lessons that we now have a problem.
> >
> > The idea that teachers should teach reading and writing and literacy
> skills
> >
> > in braille, or braille mathematics, and technology devices using speech
> and
> >
> > braille, and that qualified instructors should instruct blind students in
> > orientation and mobility is appropriate. However, daily living skills,
> such
> >
> > as eating, dressing, self-care and basic house cleaning etc. has
> absolutely
> >
> > nothing to do with school teachers. Nor, for that matter, does much of
> the
> > socialising that blind children, just like sighted children, receive from
> > day to day. How anyone can imagine that it is the role of the teacher of
> the
> >
> > blind to teach a child to fold their shirts or shine their shoes is
> beyond
> > me. Similarly, how can it be the school teachers' job to introduce blind
> > children to people who do various different jobs, in order to give them
> > experiences to help them in choosing careers? Children start choosing
> > subjects that head them in certain career directions as early as middle
> > school these days and, furthermore, many teachers of the blind haven't a
> > clue about the sorts of careers that blind people can have. Blind nurses
> and
> >
> > doctors, farmers and pilots, mothers and florists, jeweler makers and
> auto
> > mechanics, scientists, welders, horse trainers, computer programmers,
> school
> >
> > teachers, administrators, and on and on. Blind people are pursuing all
> kinds
> >
> > of careers. Yet, many teachers of the blind do not number blind adults
> among
> >
> > their circle of friends and could count the blind adults they know
> > personally on one hand. They are very uninformed about many of the
> careers
> > that blind students might realistically pursue.
> >
> > And, now, this new Self-determination section has been added to the ECC
> > which make things even more murky. Self-determination comes from being
> given
> >
> > choices from early in life and opportunities to live out the
> consequences of
> >
> > these choices under the watchful eye of parents or guardians. Children
> learn
> >
> > that they can make decisions for themselves and/or to advocate for
> > themselves by being allowed to do so. Currently, there is a grave
> shortage
> > of qualified teachers of the blind and it's getting worse as the baby
> > boomers are retiring. Teachers of the blind have caseloads far beyond
> > reasonable in many school districts. They often don't get to see students
> > for the proper amount of time they need to teach them literacy and
> numeracy.
> >
> > Where do people imagine that these overworked teachers will find time or
> > motivation to teach skills to blind children that, rightly, should be
> taught
> >
> > at home. In some respects, this ECC is a rod for their backs of their own
> > creation because they have not done enough to help debunk the "mystery"
> > surrounding educating blind children. Many like The Myth Of The Expert
> > because it allows them to deny braille and push print etc. School
> district
> > administrators, principals etc. accept the teacher of the blind's
> > recommendations because of the perceived expertise. Print readers don't
> make
> >
> > teachers of the blind have to relearn the braille they haven't looked at
> > since college and try to find ways to teach it, round up the necessary
> books
> >
> > etc. No need for braille equals no expense for a braille teacher for
> school
> >
> > districts and that saves a lot of money. So, the idea that the teacher of
> > the blind is an expert is helpful in many situations. Now, people are
> asking
> >
> > the "experts" to teach blind children everything. Obviously, the school
> day
> >
> > has neither the available time nor environmental opportunities for blind
> > children to learn everything at school and the ECC sets an impossible
> task
> > for educators. Many of the provisions, in my opinion, are wrongly
> labelled
> > as being part of a "core curriculum" for blind children and should,
> > therefore, not be in this set of teaching requirements. Daily living
> skills
> >
> > and social skills are learned by children in their homes with their
> > families. Self-determination is an attitude, a state of mind and a set of
> > experientially acquired, situation specific skills which are learned from
> > infancy to young adulthood. How can such a thing be taught by an
> overworked,
> >
> > time restricted school teacher?
> >
> > The reality is that most blind children will never receive most of what
> is
> > mandated by the Expanded Core Curriculum, no matter how many goals are
> > written into IEPs. There simply isn't the time, personnel or
> environmental
> > opportunities to implement it. Having the same expectations for blind and
> > sighted children and then finding the nonvisual ways to enable blind
> > children to reach them is the simple formula that gets blind children
> > educated. Teachers do what they can and parents and guardians and other
> > family members pick up where teachers can't, or won't, teach them,
> whatever
> >
> > the area of learning. In many cases the ECC. simply muddies the waters
> and
> > gives parents/families the false idea that teachers can teach blind
> children
> >
> > everything. In fact, as it has always been, parents and families will
> end up
> >
> > teaching their blind children most things, for better or worse, and
> teachers
> >
> > will teach reading, writing, arithmetic and, if you're lucky, good
> > orientation and mobility skills.
> >
> > I hope one day, after the ECC has been recognised as the failure that it
> was
> >
> > doomed to be from its creation, that we will be able to come up with a
> > better and more realistic tool to undergird solid skills education for
> blind
> >
> > children.
> >
> > Regards,
> > Heather Field
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Penny Duffy
> > Sent: Friday, May 11, 2012 2:34 PM
> > To: Blind Kid Mailing List,(for parents of blind children)
> > Subject: Re: [blindkid] Expanded Core Curriculum Feedback
> >
> >   ECC includes things like braille instruction, O&M  and other blindness
> > skills.  For some reason I have a hard time getting it. I think its with
> > the wording. It seems to be a catch all of all the extra stuff a blind
> > child needs to learn from school and home.
> >
> > I found the following at the Perkins website.
> > The Nine Components of the Expanded Core Curriculum
> >
> > Compensatory and functional academic skills, including communication
> > modes Compensatory
> > skills involve the adaptations necessary for accessing the core
> curriculum,
> > which can include: braille, tactile symbols, sign language, and recorded
> > materials.
> > Orientation and MobilitySkills to orient children who are visually
> impaired
> > to their surroundings and travel skills to enable them to move
> > independently and safely in the environment.
> > Social Interaction Skills
> >
> > Since nearly all social skills are learned by observation of the
> > environment and people, this is an area where students with vision loss
> > need careful, conscious and explicit instruction.
> > Independent Living Skills
> >
> > This area includes the tasks and functions people perform in daily life
> to
> > optimize their independence - skills such as personal hygiene, food
> > preparation, money management, and household chores.
> > Recreation & Leisure Skills
> >
> > Skills to ensure students' enjoyment of physical and leisure-time
> > activities, including making choices about how to spend leisure time.
> > Career Education
> >
> > Students with vision loss benefit most from an experiential learning
> > approach. Structured visits to community sites and discussions with
> people
> > who perform various jobs, enable
> > them to understand concepts and specific skills that are needed to be
> > successful in those jobs. Considering the national rate of unemployment
> or
> > underemployment
> > of working-age adults who are blind is 70% -75%, this area needs
> attention
> > throughout the school years to help students with vision loss develop
> > marketable job skills.
> > Assistive Technology
> >
> > Assistive technology is a powerful tool that can enable students with
> > vision loss to
> > overcome some traditional barriers to independence and employment.
> > Sensory Efficiency Skills
> >
> > Skills that help students use the senses – including any functional
> vision,
> > hearing, touch, smell, and taste – to access skills related to literacy
> and
> > concept development.
> > Self-Determination
> >
> > Skills to enable students to become effective advocates for themselves
> > based on their own needs and goals.
> > --------
> >
> > Most of it is blindness skill wrapped up in a different sounding package.
> >
> > Does Christopher get a lot of O&M in the community?  Abby made cookies in
> > O&M yesterday (I think it was a step and listening activity since her
> > instructor didn't do anything).  They go to the shopping a lot and she
> > works with Abby to ask for help when she needs that. Now a lot of things
> > can be done at home but I think it reinforces those things to have
> someone
> > else following up with it.  I would guess the more he gets out the better
> > he will learn.  (I know you keep Christopher busy at home)
> >
> > ECC is in Abby's IEP and its what they use to pay for the programs Abby's
> > has gone to at the Perkins School for the Blind.  I will hopefully adjust
> > it as she gets older when she can go to programs at some of the NFB
> > centers.
> >
> > Abby's O&M instructor has TVI students too and depending on the age is
> she
> > has them call the state to ask for supplies for NH AIM.  She always at
> > having the student do thing for themselves.
> >
> > I found an article that mention ECC in future reflections.
> > http://nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/fr/fr26/issue3/fr260304.htm
> >
> > Beyond that I am still confused but it helps me to call ECC  blindness
> > skill.
> > -penny
> >
> > On Fri, May 11, 2012 at 8:18 AM, <SCDUFFLEY at aol.com> wrote:
> >
> >> Hello Everyone:
> >>
> >> I am having a struggle with ECC goals that are meaningful and  specific.
> >> I
> >> have asked my team to evaluate his current strengths as it  relates to
> >> these goals.   Does anyone know of any specific resources  of IEP sample
> >> statements for ECC for a 5th grader?  The real struggle  is in the
> >> self-help,
> >> independent and self advocacy area.  No one seems to  want to touch
> >> teaching him
> >> home skills (other than four to five tasks a year -  like opening a
> jar).
> >>
> >> Thanks for your input,
> >>
> >> Christine  Duffley
> >> _______________________________________________
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> >>
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > --Penny
> > ----------
> > A lucky mother to two amazing children - visionfora.blogspot.com
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