1. Practices and
Environments
Addressing
Needs
Unique
To
Sensory impairment

2. Welcome to this picture-tour of the
Little PEANUTS Center
The LPC is located on the campus of the
Wisconsin Center for the Blind and Visually
Impaired
1700 W. State St
Janesville, WI 53546
To set up a visit, contact:
Mary Tellefson 608.758.6147 or
Mary.tellefson@wcbvi.k12.wi.us

3.  Started with $48,000 ARRA Grant
 Purpose: Create a demonstration model of
best practice designs, programs and
curriculum that meet the developmental and
diverse learning needs of all children B-6,
especially those with sensory impairment.
 WCBVI funded: structural and building
changes
 HOPSA track, tactile wall, flooring, paint, cabinets

4. • Research of best practice models in B-3
curriculum, including travel costs
• Hiring OT/PT, Assistive Technology
coordinator, tactile artist.
• Stipends for B-3 families and
teams/professionals attending training:
VIISA, Spatiotemporal Development Workshop
and Sensory Symposia.
• Purchasing of assistive technology and
resources for loan library
• Materials, toys, therapy equipment for activity
areas
• Active Learning resources and equipment

5.  Model environments to show
strategies, accommodations that facilitate
development
 Model practices that facilitate development
 Model curriculum
 Hold a Sensory Symposium for
children, parents and B-3 teams to learn
strategies that facilitate development (May
21, 2011)
 Show environmental features/characteristics
that facilitate development

6.  Beon-going resource to B-3 and School
Districts to demonstrate practices and
environments that facilitate development
 Offer child specific workshops
 Provide trainings (VIISA, In-SIGHT,
Spatiotemporal Development)
 Build capacity in designs and use: play
groups, toddler groups, individualized
workshops

7.  Asa result of the collaboration between
parents and professionals, the unique
developmental needs of each child will be
identified:
 Children will progress at a more efficient rate due
to the appropriate modifications, compensatory
strategies and accommodations made in the
home, school and community.
 Children will benefit from the calm confidence their
parent gain specifically in regard to meeting their
child’s needs.

8.  Teams will leave the sensory
symposium, workshops or on-site visits with a
greater overall understanding of the
developmental characteristics and needs of
children who are blind or visually impaired:
 Sensory systems and their role in movement and
development
 Role of vision in development and leave with
specific visual and non-visual practices and
strategies
 Appreciate the role of the environment in
development and experience a model
environment

9.  Know specific environmental modifications
 Have hands on experience with a variety of toys
and practices that appeal to a variety of sensory
systems
 Have access to applicable developmental
resources in the WCBVI resource center

11.  Are patterned and predictable.
 Use defined spaces for specific activities.
 Visually augment the environment using
color, contrast, placement and position.
 Tactually augment the environment using
landmarks of interesting and various textures.
 Lay out the environment to facilitate
independent movement, route
planning, sequencing and cognitive mapping
using visual and non-visual clues.

12.  Promote multisensory access to the
environment and environmental information
through intentional placement of curricular
and enrichment content.
 Provide multisensory clues, landmarks and
objects to encourage, motivate and reward
independent exploration.
 Adapt the environment to meet the needs of
all children in accordance with the Wisconsin
Model Early Learning Program standards
(alignment document available)

13.  Highlight environmental features
that build concepts.
 Support print, braille and object literacy and
emergent literacy skills.
 Define space to facilitate familiarization and
orientation.
 Facilitate independence and problem solving.

14.  Support early O&M skills: defined routes,
squaring off, sequencing, use of landmarks,
early cane instruction, on-body and off-body
trailing.
 Facilitate child-directed activity or “active
learning” in which children learn from their
own movement and initiation.(Go-Go room =
active learning corner on wood floor for
resonance; HOPSA dress/track with tactile
wall.)
 Supports children in every level of
spatiotemporal development

15. 1. Body space in the present moment
2. Reach space in proximal time
3. Moving through proximal space and time
4. Moving through cognitive space in extended
time
5. Imagining action in distant time
“proximal” = immediate past and future

28. Note seating appropriate for each level of
spatiotemporal development.

47.  Specific routes set up in Beach House

54.  Use hand-under-hand rather than hand-over-hand
instruction
 Pair senses together to form accurate concepts
 Understand the role of vision in development
 Understand and use visual and non-visual
strategies for motivation
 Include multiple hands-on experiences with real
objects
 Use real objects with multisensory dimensions as
toys
 Teach in a “part–to-whole” rather than “whole –to-
part” progression

55.  Know that strategies that support learning for a
child with a cortical visual impairment different
from those for a child with an ocular visual
impairment
 Consider age-appropriate early cane instruction
using parents as models
 Teach children they are whole blind people rather
than defective sighted people
 Conduct a sunglass evaluation
 Conduct a functional vision evaluation
 Uses a calendar system approach to support
communication and spatiotemporal development

57.  Understands the role of the visual system in
sensory integration and provides alternative
approaches and therapies to support sensory
development
 Links object cues with specific activities and
locations
 Resists constant and irrelevant sound sources
 Uses optimal positioning for vision/hand use
 Uses authentic experiences to build concepts
 Provides a “surprise-free” environment

58. Sunglasses, functional vision
eval, early cane instruction;
simple calendar system

59.  Understands the role of the hands for leaning
about the world and eventual literacy
 Uses a tactile curriculum to ensure sequential skill
development
 Uses best practice recommendations from the
field of visual impairment
 Integrates the expanded Core Curriculum and
Wisconsin Model Early Learning Standards into
daily programming
 Understands the role of vision development and
learning and provides visual and non-visual
adaptations, strategies and accommodations

60.  Provides more opportunities for the development
of the auditory skills that support learning and
echolocation
 Uses strategies that facilitate the development of
space and time concepts (spatiotemporal
development) in ever increasing spans relevant to
the child
 Understands that blind children need more tactile
exploration, touch and manipulation of objects
than sighted children
 Understands that children learn best from their
own self-monitored movement and that touch is
the integrating sense when vision is unavailable

67.  Next:Photos of kids from Sensory symposium
interacting with environment

108.  Send questions or comments to:
mary.tellefson@wcbvi.k12.wi.us