Art and design and visual impairment at P level 8

The main development at P level 8 is an increased awareness of the meaning of a piece of art, their own and others’. There is also more emphasis on being independent in the choice and use of tools and in knowing when a work is finished. The idea of sharing other people’s work is difficult for a significantly visually impaired child.

You can:

• Support the concept of finishing a work through questioning; ask what they want the work to feel like? Try to create stages for the pupil. The first might be deciding what they want it to represent, then what they want to achieve and how they will finish it.
• Develop understanding of the meaning of their work through careful questioning:
• What were you thinking about when you were working?
• What were you trying to tell people through your work?
• How would they know what you wanted them to feel?
• For sharing work try photographing it and enlarging it on a screen, use good light and contrast and a magnifying lens to see it more closely.
• For a child with no functional sight use a moon-printer so they can explore through touch. Try to make their art work as textured, or 3-D as possible.

Now you might like to look at:

• Art and design and visual impairment P level 7
• Art and design and visual impairment in the national curriculum