Jane N. Erin

Infusing a Teacher Preparation Program in Learning Disabilities with Assistive Technology

A recent trend in the fields of special education, rehabilitation, and technology is the development and implementation of assistive technology (AT) devices and services to assist individuals in compensating for disabilities and/or utilizing functional capabilities to meet environmental demands. AT devices and services have major implications for individuals with learning disabilities (LD) regarding life span issues, environmental and curricular accessibility, and compensatory strategies. Faculty members in higher education who are responsible for designing teacher preparation programs in LD must explore ways to structure curricula, methodologies, and practica to better prepare teachers to work with students who use AT devices to compensate for their specific learning disabilities. The purpose of this article is to describe curriculum design steps and barriers to and solutions for infusing LD teacher preparation programs with assistive technology.

The Student with a Visual Disability and a Learning Disability

Existing studies indicate that between 14% and 65% of students with visual disabilities also have learning disabilities. The similar symptoms of the two conditions and the earlier identification of a visual disability often mask the presence of a learning disability. This article addresses definition, assessment, intervention, and future implications related to educational practices with students who have both learning and visual disabilities. The definitions of the two conditions are compared, emphasizing features that make identification difficult. The article examines common assessment procedures, describing approaches that are inappropriate for students who have low vision or blindness. Intervention approaches are described, including adaptations of the environment, enhancement of vision, instruction in compensatory skills, the use of learning strategies, and the availability of learning opportunities. Future directions include refinement of diagnostic approaches, and research related to the characteristics and instructional needs of students who have both visual and learning disabilities.

A Collaborative Model for the Preparation of Teachers for Students with Visual Impairments.

There is a critical national shortage of teachers prepared to work with children who are blind and those with low vision. This article describes two federally funded projects that addressed the needs of school districts and specialized schools that were unable to locate and employ a teacher of students with visual disabilities. In the Collaborative Model 24 teacher-participants attended traditional on-campus programs 2 days per week while working in their local school districts, often hundreds of miles from campus, 3 days per week. Collaboration among educational agencies is described. Evaluations of the model using data from teacher-participants and school administrators is included along with costs for each project. Data indicate that the Collaborative-business Model is a viable, though more costly model for preparing teachers of students with a low incidence disability.

Language Samples from Visually Impaired Four- and Five-Year Olds.

This paper presents an analysis of language samples from 12 children, including 4 blind, 4 sighted, and 4 children with low vision. The samples were generated as the children examined a set of household objects and talked about them with the investigator. Analysis of the samples focused on four areas: syntactic structures, pronoun usage, sentence types, and topic/content. With respect to syntactic structures, the mean length of utterance (ML U) and number of syntactic incongruities were examined. These indicated slightly greater complexity of utterances by the sighted group as compared to both visually impaired groups. Blind and low vision children also demonstrated a higher frequency of inappropriate pronoun use than the sighted group. Visually impaired students also used less variation in sentence types, employing a high frequency of repetitive forms, including questions. Finally, there were fewer instances of experiential narrative and imaginative play in the samples obtained from the visually impaired children. The samples suggested that a greater variation in the level of language maturity existed in the samples from these children. Related literature suggests that the altered environment of the visually impaired child may influence this outcome.