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Welcome! Glad to see you. We hope that your summer has gone well and that you are looking forward to the school year. As the school year begins there are some reminders that may be helpful for teachers working with disabilities. This section will focus on different ideas and tricks of the trade for making physical education for students with disabilities more enjoyable. This section will also address visual impairments, and what a physical educator should keep in mind when working with a student with a visual impairment. Enjoy your visit, and if you have any questions please feel free to get with any of the editors for the adapted section. Cindy Piletic Section Editor

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Visual Impairments - Info

Basic information Every year 75,000 Americans become blind! Visual impairment refers to the amount of vision that one has. There are varying degrees of visual impairments, ranging from being totally blind (no detection of motion or light) to experiencing vision that is blurry. Visual impairment is determined by visual acuity (clarity of vision). Classifications for blindness include that of normal sight, partially sighted, legally blind, and totally blind. It is not that the physical educator needs to know each of those classifications. Instead, he/she needs to have understanding that there are different levels of visual impairments. Most individuals who are visually impaired experience different bits of sight than others with visual impairments. Another matter that is important to physical educators, and often coaches, relating to vision is one's peripheral vision. Such impairments are often caused by different visual conditions (i.e. cataracts, retinopathy, glaucoma). Vision loss is often affected by these vision conditions. Vision may also be affected by the what is referred to as Strabismus. This is where the visual images of both eyes do not match up as they are sent to brain, or simply stated, the eyes do not function in unison. If this sort of problem is evident, students will have difficulty with depth perception. This is an important component for motor skill development. Just think about it! For more information about blindness and visual impairments, check out the following sites: National Federation of the Blind and the Light House International.

Visual Impairments - Symptoms

Symptoms That May Indicate Visual Difficulties • Confusing right/left directions • Complaints of dizziness or frequent headaches • Poor balance • Frequent rubbing of eyes • Difficulty following a moving target • Squinting • Eyes turn in or out • Walking overcautiously • Sensitivity to normal light levels • Going down steps one at a time • Poor hand-eye and/or foot-eye coordination • Avoiding climbing apparatus For more information about visual impairment symptoms, consult the following webpage - Light House.

Contribute YOUR Ideas

If you have ideas, comments, letters to share, or questions about particular topics, please email one of the following Adapted PE Section Editors:

Carol Huettig Kristi Roth Cindy Piletic

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Here are questions you should ask before including a student with visual impairment in physical education: • When did the individual lose his/her sight?   This is an important question, because the more experience an individual has with the world visually will be a help to provide more feedback to assist with motor development and awareness of the environment. • How did the individual lose his/her sight?   Having information about how an individual lost his/her sight provides information about what sort of activities may, or may not, be safe for the individual to participate in. For example - if a student has lost his/her vision due to the visual condition of glaucoma, he/she should not be allowed to do any heavy lifting, for such activity could increase the pressure on the eye causing more loss of vision. • How much can the individual see?   Individuals experience different levels of visual abilities. Some may see shadows, others are able to perceive motion, some may have tunnel vision, others only able to see out the periphery of the vision field, etc.

Strategies for making it work in physical education For the Instructor: • Use music as start and stop signals. • Provide manual guidance whenever possible. • Provide hand over hand instruction when needed. • Provide instructions in Braille. • Use large print letters and numbers that may be seen by student. • Encourage student to tactually explore objects to determine size, shape, and texture. Modifying the environment: • Keep safety first! • Use audible balls for relays and other games. • Use larger balls for games and activities. • Use a sighted student as a guide/partner for activities. • Use a short rope (guide rope) held by a sighted student and the student with the visual impairment, allowing for more freedom. • Provide verbal feedback throughout activities and games. • For complex games or activities that cannot be modified, teach the lead-up skills for the game. • Design activities where there is distinction between objects (balls, etc.) and the background (wall, field, etc.), making it easier to see the objects. • Establish reference points in the gym for students to go to during the activity (use object to mark the area). Remember to ask the student. He/she may have ideas on how to make modifications that you did not think of.

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Community Recreational & Leisure Activities Individuals with visual impairments participate in numerous activities for recreation and leisure pleasure. There are blind golfers, there are cyclists, there are blind swimmers, there are snow and water skiers, there are mountain climbers, and the list goes on. There are opportunities for competitive events for individuals with visual impairments. Events include activites such as goal ball, beep baseball, skiing, athletic events, and swimming. Fitness activities are often individual activities, and can easily be modified for individuals with visual impairments. Running can be done with a sighted guide. Weight machines can be used once proper technique has been taught. Stationary equipment can be used once the individual is taught how to use the equipment controls.

Teaching Tips

Transition: moving between one activity to the next Physical educators are learning more and more about inclusion, but one area that is often forgotten is how to transition between one activity to the next within each class. Some ideas that have been provided by those working out in the field are: • Use of music to signal the transition is occurring, and students need to "freeze" when the music stops and listen for next set of instruction. • Placing a big circle in the middle so that at the time of transition all students go to center, and listen for what the next activity is going to be. • Provide verbal cues (i.e. 2 minutes before we will change activities) prior to transition. • Provide visual cues (i.e. hand above head, tossing a scarf into the air, etc.) to capture students attention that a change is going to occur. • Provide one-on-one cue with student having difficulty making the transition, such as using a little secret signal between teacher and student. Then signal the student a minute or 2 before the cue for the rest of the students. • Reward students who make the transition between the activity (post their names on the wall). Hint: still need to use verbal or visual signals to communicate the change is coming. A special thanks to all individuals who have shared their ideas on the APE listserve. Your ideas were so good that we thought we could share them with more folks. For more information refer to an article that was published in JOPERD. Reference - Dawson-Rodriques, K., Lavay, B., Butt,K., & Lacourse, M. (1997). A plan to reduce transition time in physical education, JOPERD, 68(9), 30 - 33.

Miscellaneous

Try out this book: 50 Ways To Use Your Noodle (loads of land games with foam noodle toys) Authors: Chris Cavert and Sam Sikes Published by: Learning Unlimited Corporation 5155 East 51st, Suite 108 Tulsa, OK 74135, 918/622-3292 Check Amazon.com to get your own copy.

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