Sensory+Impairments

=Sensory Impairments= A sensory impairment refers to an impairment of one of the senses, most commonly hearing or vision.

**Vision Impairment **
Vision impairment ** is simply defined as a limitation of one or more functions of the eye or visual system. The most common vision impairments affect the sharpness or clarity of vision (visual acuity), the normal range of what you can see (visual fields) and colour. **May be the result of a genetic condition; prenatal, prematurity and birth complications or consequences of a disease or trauma (RIDBC Website 2011 [] ).
 * Definition: **


 * Students with Vision Impairment may: **
 * Have difficulty moving around the classroom/school or appear clumsy.
 * Require assistance or modifications to access visual material in the classroom.
 * Require low vision aids such as glasses, monocular, magnifiers, enlarged fonts and specialised computer software. In some cases may require Braille to access written texts.
 * Experience difficulties in social interactions as they do not ‘see’ the non-verbal cues.

These strategies may differ for particular students depending on the type of visual impairment. § Enlarge paper based resources and examinations to the appropriate size font (often enlarging a page to A3 size is sufficient). § Allow extra time to complete tasks especially those with a high visual content as it takes longer to find the visual information even when the information is enlarged. § Use blue or black whiteboard markers that are not faded. § <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Reduce glare on whiteboards by turning off lights and pulling down blinds. § <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Ensure diagrams have sufficient contrast and clarity – may need to be enlarged further for the student to access the information or simplified to aid visual discrimination. § <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Be careful when photocopying a resource from a newspaper or magazine – they often do not reproduce well and can be difficult to read even when enlarged. § <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Be aware of students with colour blindness in tasks that require discrimination between colours especially red/green. May need to be discretely told which colour is which. § <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Be aware that they may require some information in an alternative format. § <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Verbally state important information. § <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Provide access to audio versions of texts if available. § <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Keep passageways in classroom clear to assist with mobility issues.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Teacher Strategies: **

Helpful Websites - Vision Impairment

 * Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children []
 * Guide Dogs []
 * Australian Blindness Forum []
 * Queensland Department of Education []

Hearing Impairment
<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Simply defined as an inability to hear. Often described according to its degree (i.e. Mild, Moderate, Severe and profound). Can be present from birth or acquired later in life. <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Hearing losses are also generally categorised accordingto whereabouts along the hearing 'pathway' they occur. <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">A conductive loss occurs when something interferes with sound travelling between the outer and inner ears (eg, infection). These are usually medically or surgically treatable. A sensorineural loss results from damage to the cochlea (the organ of hearing) or the auditory nerve. It may cause reduced sound levels, distortion and other problems. Hearing aids or cochlear implantsare often recommended. (RIDBC Website 2011 http://www.ridbc.org.au/)
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Definition: **


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Students with Hearing Impairment may: **
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">A student with impaired hearing may find certain aspects of language challenging such as colloquial language, humour, register, tone, sarcasm, inferential and instructional language. They can sometimes appear rude or disrespectful due to these difficulties
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Students with impaired hearing have to work very hard to access oral information in the classroom. It’s not just a matter of hearing sounds but they need to discriminate, identify and make meaning from what they hear and see.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">May have specialised equipment such as hearing aids, cochlear implants and FM transmitters.


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Teacher Strategies: **
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Students with impaired hearing often pick up on very little in a classroom discussion. Often helpful for teacher to summarise what each student says or write key points on the board. Can organise group into u-shape for discussions
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Vocabulary – students with impairment hearing have a limited range of vocabulary. You can assist by providing a vocabulary list or glossary for each new unit/topic
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Use FM from beginning of lesson this makes a huge difference for the student as it makes the teachers voice louder than all the background noise
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Ensure student is attending before you speak
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Give clear simple instructions.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Give written instructions for all tasks, especially homework, page numbers, question numbers
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Write topic and key points on the board at start of lesson and refer to them throughout the lesson
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Remember students with impaired hearing can’t take notes and listen at the same time – they need to look at your lips to listen
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Use captioned videos/DVD’s or a transcript.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Pause video/DVD to allow time for students to write answers and reduce amount of information that they are required to remember. Recount segment before moving on.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Check for comprehension of instructions before moving on – remembering that these students will feel reluctant to ask again as they don’t want to appear different

Helpful Websites - Hearing Impairment

 * Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children []
 * Media Access Australia []
 * Disability Awareness Kit []
 * CapThat! http://www.capthat.com.au/