English at KS1 and visual impairment

The National Curriculum for English is statutory in all maintained, mainstream schools up to and including key stage 4. An appropriate version of the curriculum is used in maintained special schools. Key Stage 1 (KS1) covers years 1-2, children aged 5-7 years.

Begin by reading the information on challenges faced by visually impaired children across the curriculum and at all levels, plus the suggestions for inclusion.

The child with no effective vision, with the potential to learn braille or moon writing, would normally be placed in a school for blind children, so this information concentrates on a child with poor vision.

A visually impaired child will need support with all written work, and help with remembering facts and details of stories for assessing comprehension.

You can:

• Use enlarged text and pictures for a child with some functioning vision.  Have good lighting and a multi-sensory approach with tactile and auditory support. It may be helpful to record their work using a voice recorder voice-activated software.
• Make sure new vocabulary is planned and explained in a way that won’t depend on experience the child does not have. The challenge when learning vocabulary is in understanding the concepts associated with it.
• Try to provide tactile and auditory input for the child’s learning, and be specific about what these resources represent. For example a wind machine may be used to represent a windy day but is not the wind itself; pebbles felt in the hand may represent a pebbly beach but are not really a beach.
• Use a clear font without serifs for the child who can read large print. An interactive whiteboard or PC is ideal for this.
• Use uncomplicated speech enunciating clearly at a good, audible volume. With a lot of background noise a visually impaired child may tune out and miss key information, so signal clearly when they need to focus on what is said. Try to keep classroom noise at a low level for directed learning.
• Support social interaction with other children by leading discussions on a topic that the child can contribute to. Support the interaction between the children, ensuring that the visually impaired child is not left out.