EDUCATION ASSESSMENTS FOR VISUALLY IMPAIRED STUDENTS

Education Assessments for Visually Impaired Students

Table of Contents

Introduction3

Summary of the Study4

Significant findings5

Test for Students with Visual Impairments6

Test for Students without Disabilities7

Discussion9

Tactual and Auditory Skills of People with Visual Impairments as Compensatory Modalities10

Individualized Education Plan12

Recommendations and Conclusion13

References16

Appendix17

Education Assessments for Visually Impaired Students

Introduction

Education is the socialization process where the individual acquires and assimilates different types of knowledge. This is a process of cultural awareness and behavior, which is embodied in a set of skills and values.

When people suffer from some type of disability mental or physical, their needs may not be satisfied by the traditional educational system. It is here where the concept of special education, which, as its name implies, presents different characteristics (i.e. special).

Special education provides technical and human resources to offset the declines experienced by students. In this way, students can complete the process of learning in an environment according to their capabilities. (Weston 2002)

Special Education aims to promote and ensure compliance with the principle of equal opportunities for those children and young people with special educational needs at all levels and modalities of the school system, through an educational package and human, technical and material at their disposal.

To achieve this purpose, the new Special Education policy sets out guiding principles and defines major goals to be achieved in special education. The new policy seeks to implement the right to education, equal opportunities, participation and non-discrimination of people with special educational needs, ensuring their full access, integration and progress in the education system. (Weston 2002)

For this plan to develop new plans and programs, professional development for teachers and non-teaching, delivery of training materials, textbooks and educational resources, with gradual incorporation into programs of quality assurance of education. (Weston 2002)

Summary of the Study

The studies cited in this review were selected by the following criteria:

(a) All studies were published after 1985 in the peer-reviewed journals;

(b) Participants were between the age of 3 months infants and university students;

(c) Participants should have no disability except visual impairments; and

(d) The area of research was limited to tactile and auditory performance of people with visual impairments. Books, simple on-line resources, and practical reports were excluded from this literature review. Any research method, however, was not excluded in selecting studies.

Search was conducted from online university database including ERIC, EBSCO, Academic Search Complete, Wilson Education Full Text, and Google Scholar. Hand searches were also conducted in journals relevant to the topic of this review (Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness, Review, Infant Behavior and Development, Applied Research in Mental Retardation). Keywords used for searching for studies included the following: visual impairment, blind, infant, child, sensory, tactile, tactual, touch, auditory, sound, listening, development, tasks, achievement, performance, compensate, and supplement.

Obtained studies were filtered by reviewing each abstract and method. Selected studies were narrowed to the research that is focused on tactile or auditory development of the visually impaired, and that examined the difference of tactile or auditory task performance between people with visual impairments and those without ...