Any ideas for math support for a visual disability?

[Guest davidah]

My DD (11 years old) has visual processing challenges associated with a rare chromosome disorder (Alfi's syndrome). While she has close to 20/20 vision on a static eye chart, she can't perceive the difference between a straight line and a diagonal line, for example. (So a "plus" sign and a "times" sign look identical to her). We did 1+ year of vision therapy which helped with a lot of things, but significant challenges remain. She also has very poor handwriting and can't always read her own numbers.

 

She does well with math concepts, but has a huge difficulty lining things up to do multi-digit addition or multiplication. She has done well with M-U-S, but gets tons of wrong answers even on things she understands because of challenges in lining things up, writing the numbers, etc.

 

I was starting to wonder if math curriculum designed for someone with visual disabilities would work for her. There must be a way that someone who is blind learns arithmetic, geometry, etc.

 

Any thoughts?

 

Thanks,

Davidah

 

 

[kbutton]

I googled a bit, and this is what I came up with.

 

http://www.tsbvi.edu/math

 

http://s22762.tsbvi.edu/mathproject/

 

The second link is more general, I think. The first one seems to be about high school.

[PeterPan]

I had a friend in high school who was legally blind, visually impaired, and she did her math on a computer with each problem blown up VERY large.  That was back in the days of internet relay chat and thick VGA monitors. :D   Now, to do something equivalent you'd just throw it on an ipad.

 

Have you talked with a psych about this?  How would a school handle it in an IEP?  I'd be tempted to go to your ps and get the evals, just to see and get that documentation going.  I recently got my ds an IEP, and I learned a lot more in the process than I expected.  Can't guarantee you would, but it's a path to pursue.  Also, a psych could do an eval and give you documentation of recommendations and accommodations.

 

Is she able to use a calculator of some form?  With braille?  On the ipad with the buttons large?  To me, I'd probably focus on problem solving (word problems, mental math, conceptual work) and just push the rest to calculator and be done with it.  As long as it's not going to come back to bite you in the butt, that's probably a way to go.  She's about at the age where they'd hand her a calculator anyway.  That's why I was saying it would be interesting to see what the ps would put into an IEP for her.

 

 

[Guest davidah]

Thank you, both. Those are helpful suggestions. My DD is in public school for a half day and has her IEP meeting coming up. In the past, the IEP has focused on services (OT, speech, psych for social issues). We haven't sought out specific academic accommodations, but I want to push that more this year. We can't accept pats on the head (DD is very lovable and everyone adores her, which I think also means that they don't always push her to do her best).

 

--Davidah

 

[mathwonk]

I second using the computer to blow up things.  I had a student with very poor eyesight in a graduate math class and I wrote notes for the class and just blew his way up.  His handwriting, in his twenties, looked like a very young child's crayon writing.

 

In his case ultimately he was unable to manage the graduate PhD course in pure math but later became a Bill Gates scholar and got one or two advanced degrees from Cambridge in England.  He is a computer whiz, and his firts project was to program a speaking program on a computer to have a southern accent to make it sound more human and less robotic, since he had to listent to it all the time for his lessons.  Think Steven Hawking with a more rounded and pleasing accent.