Teacher of Students with Visual Impairments OBJECT CALENDARS What are we doing next? A case study Peggy Palmer, MA. Teacher of Students with Visual Impairments CVI Endorsed

That sinking feeling when we lose our calendar.

How do our students feel when they don’t know what is coming next? Anxious? Upset? Panicked? Helpless? Lost? Angry? Shut down? CVI Meltdowns?

Who benefits from this system? Students with: CVI Additional disabilities such as: Speech/language delays Motor impairments Cognitive delays

Lack of Accessibility Visual cues all around us help us know what is coming next: Picture calendars Visual recognition of stations within classroom Visual recognition of what others are doing Visual recognition of materials and people

A typical preschool calendar:

First attempts at calendar for Joe

School day

What does neuroscience tell us about time awareness? Time awareness, sequencing and symbolic understanding do not appear to be housed in any one area of the brain, but in many areas. “..it is still unknown whether mental orientation in space and time relies on similar or distinct neurocognitive systems.” (Peer, Salomon, Goldberg, Blanke and Arzy The understanding of sequencing and time can potentially help children build and strengthen pathways, “effectively knitting their brain together.” ( private conversation Merabet). Time and sequencing awareness is also associated with language development.

What is an object-symbol? An object that represents an activity, place or person. The juice box doesn’t mean just “juice” but that we are about to go to the snack table, eat and drink.

How do the use of symbols affect our brain? “When a visual symbol like a token is imbued with meaning, our brain connects the basic visual areas to both the language system and the conceptual system in the temporal and parietal lobes and also to visual and auditory specialization regions called ‘associative areas.’” Maryanne Wolf from Proust and the Squid

Is your student lost in time? Who could benefit from a calendar system? “Students with disabilities which put them at risk for not understanding, participating, in or directing the events which surround them.” Robbie Blaha

Children most at risk for being “lost in time and space.” CVI Little or no meaningful language “Empty language” Reduced experiences exploring world Difficulties making transitions Additional ocular vision loss and additional disabilities

Determining if a child is ready for a calendar system: Recognizes some of the people, locations, sounds associated with some familiar activities. Anticipates a few steps while doing a familiar routine. Understands when an activity is finished. Associates some familiar objects with their activities. Demonstrates object permanence. (Blaha)

Where to begin?

Time to go: “Get your keys.” Roadtrip!

Determine visual/tactile needs of the child: CVI Range (Roman-Lantzy) determines how child uses their vision, drives determination of each symbol. Additional ocular issues should be taken into consideration with ocular FVA.

Create a left to right visual/tactile calendar that references frequent activities of the day. Develop and use scripted language.

Introducing “first-then” box **video in playlist**

Auditory and Visual Processing: Why aren’t words enough? Words “hang” in the air for a fraction of a second. Visual cues and tactile cues help boost our memory and recall. Symbols can become ways for students to communicate with us.

Introducing Joe **video in playlist** Would Joe benefit from an object calendar system?

“Star” = hall pass. “Paper towel” = bathroom. **video in playlist**

Starting an object system at home.

Use of 3-slot calendar box.

Encouraging Joe to do more calendar box exploration on his own.

“{Reading} connects regions in the frontal, temporal-parietal, and occipital lobes- in other words, select areas from all four lobes of the brain.” Maryanne Wolf

Joe builds his own calendar **video in playlist**

How to select objects? For the student with CVI: Consider Complexity Color Movement Light Novelty From the work of Roman-Lantzy

For all calendar systems Consider: Objects should be easily replaceable. Use caution with use of miniatures. Objects should be familiar and concrete. Objects should speak to the vision system and/or hands. Objects should be named with scripted language to insure consistency.

Calendars for Students with Multiple Impairments Robbie Blaha TSBVI Christine Roman-Lantzy, Cortical Visual Impairment: An Approach to Assessment and Intervention 2nd Edition AFB Press Maryanne Wolf Proust and the Squid Harper Perennial Gordon Dutton and Amanda Lueck, Vision and the Brain AFB Press

Resources: “Brain system for mental orientation in space, time, and person” Peer, Salomon, Goldberg, Blanke and Arzy Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA. “Calendar Boxes and Schedule Systems as Literary Tools” Charlotte Cushman Paths to Literacy

Resources: Sequence Board for Child with CVI, Rachel Bennett Paths to Literacy Multi-Step Object Calendar System, Megan Connaughton ‘Object Schedule in the School Setting” Tess Daigle Multi-D

Joe: updates **video in playlist**

Some talking! **video in playlist**

Special thanks to: Dr. Mary Morse Dr. Lotfi Merabet And especially, AJ and Joe, their educational teams and their families.