As special education teachers we are blessed with the opportunities to work with many different types of students--we are also cursed with budget constraints. The lack of fiscal resources often leads to special education teachers' use of their ingenuity to adapt resources (perhaps that is why we special education teachers are labeled "creative").
Here is a scenario that has or will presented itself in your classroom...
Here is a scenario that has or will presented itself in your classroom...
A new student has enrolled in your school and is placed in your classroom. Although this student is at approximately the same academic level as the other students in the class, he has a visual impairment that inhibits his academic performance.
What is a way you as a special education teacher can adapt materials to allow this student to function at the same level as his classmates?
The answer... PUFFY PAINT!!!!
Growing up as a preteen in the early nineties two things were true. First, I loved New Kids on the Block, and secondly I loved puffy paint. Every article of clothing I owned was bedazzled with puffy paint. I declared my favorite bands and all of my crushes in large, embossed letters among my sneakers, pants and t-shirts. Like New Kids on the Block's recent reunion, puffy paint is making a comeback... in your classroom! Use puffy paint to outline worksheets and pictures. Students with visual impairments can feel the outline to help them see clearer. Using puffy paint with glitter will boost the students ability to perform to their fullest potential, because the sparkle in the glitter will enhance their vision. Using glitter glue can have the same effect. Also, putting pictures of objects against a contrasting background can help the student see more clearly. So, when you are modifying your curriculum to assist students with visual impairments, remember the good old days of your childhood, and your creative teeny bopper experiences, and bring out the puffy paint!
What is a way you as a special education teacher can adapt materials to allow this student to function at the same level as his classmates?
The answer... PUFFY PAINT!!!!
Growing up as a preteen in the early nineties two things were true. First, I loved New Kids on the Block, and secondly I loved puffy paint. Every article of clothing I owned was bedazzled with puffy paint. I declared my favorite bands and all of my crushes in large, embossed letters among my sneakers, pants and t-shirts. Like New Kids on the Block's recent reunion, puffy paint is making a comeback... in your classroom! Use puffy paint to outline worksheets and pictures. Students with visual impairments can feel the outline to help them see clearer. Using puffy paint with glitter will boost the students ability to perform to their fullest potential, because the sparkle in the glitter will enhance their vision. Using glitter glue can have the same effect. Also, putting pictures of objects against a contrasting background can help the student see more clearly. So, when you are modifying your curriculum to assist students with visual impairments, remember the good old days of your childhood, and your creative teeny bopper experiences, and bring out the puffy paint!
5 comments:
Katie, looks like we had a "brain match" about using some sort of paint/glue to make raised lines. I hadn't thought about using it for students with visual impairment, though. I think the puffy paint is a great improvement over glue for students with visual impairments if they can see the color contrast of the paint!
I love your idea. I have seen variations on this idea with those wiki stix (I think that's the name - those wax colored sticks) where the kids can likewise shape them and then feel the boarders. Also, I have seen people use different fabrics and such. I haven't seen the glue idea but I think it is great and someting available easily and as you highlighted CHEAPLY. YAY for bringing back the eighties.
That is so funny...I was just commenting on the brilliance of Micki's idea and I came to your site, Katie, to see that I've been beaten by Micki and Sara to the blog punch. Yes, I like your puffy paint variation--it's like differentiation for the fine motor writing/coloring activity for different learners. Perhaps, clear glue can be used later in the fading support process. Again, UDL at its best: flexibility for those who might demonstrate inflexible tendencies, tolerance for those who don't normally find things intuitive, simple, hardly a dent in the wallet, equitable but personalize(able), little to no extra effort for the student user, occupies the same space as the regular glue sticks, and just aesthetically-pleasing student work enhancer. All around supa-star!
This is a great idea, especially since it something a teacher can do quickly and easily to adapt a worksheet. I don't think this is limited to students with visual impairments - so many students have poor fine motor control or co-ordination which makes it difficult for them to stay within the lines, and I think that if they could feel their pencil hitting the raised line it might help them to try and stop there!
It is very fun art work. Kids surely enjoy this activity. As you showed in your photos, we can use many different colors and create beautiful arts. There are many expensive art materials are sold, but after all, kids enjoy simple materials, like glue. After I read your blog, I think I can apply your idea to decorate origami,too.
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