The following rather hastily whipped up issue of The Bulletin was prepared by Deb Lewis, Co-ordinator, Statewide Vision Resource Centre – hope you enjoy it anyway!
The SVRC PD program for term 1 appears below. For the complete list of activities for 2004 go to: http://www.svrc.vic.edu.au/PD2004.html
All activities are open to subject teachers, integration teachers and aides, careers teachers, therapists, parents, visiting teachers, students etc. Please register for these activities by calling (03) 9841 0242, faxing (03) 9841 0878 or emailing svrc@svrc.vic.edu.au
Term 1 Professional Development Event |
Date |
| Mountbatten Workshop (For ‘Users’) 10am-12.30pm Trevor Boyd, Quantum Technology |
Tuesday 16 March |
| Educational Support for Students with Low Vision - for class and subject teachers, integration teachers and aides, therapists, parents and VTs supporting students who have low vision (Maximum 80) | Friday 26 March |
The following notes were most kindly prepared by Joanna Sims, visiting teacher – Ballarat:
About 30 participants met at the Statewide Vision Recourse Centre on Monday 23 2004, to discuss and learn more about educational support for students with vision impairments who are attempting their VCE.
A wide range of issues were addressed including:
Essentially the day can be divided into 3 areas, access, preparation and independence.
Students with a vision impairment must have equal access to print information in their preferred format eg large print, audio or braille for the exams.
Examiners need to consider the requirements of a student with a vision impairment, so that papers are designed with these in mind. The exams should not be a test of an individual’s vision but rather a means of assessing knowledge, skills and ability in a particular subject area.
Visiting Teachers, in conjunction with school personnel and families, must ensure that our students (before Year 12) are competent at:
These are skills that we can start addressing NOW regardless of the year level your students are currently in.
By the end of secondary schooling students (with the assistance of visiting teachers and school personnel) should:
In order to survive VCE do activities that you enjoy outside of school eg hobbies, sport, music, drama, catching up with friends etc. Just try to maintain a balance between fun and school work.
It is perfectly OK to do VCE over 2-3 years or you could start some VCE subjects in Years 9 or 10 or you could spread units 3&4 over 2 years.
Friends are important! Help them too where you can. Just remember not to fall in love! (ask Carolyn about this one!)
Practice the exam in the format and conditions you require now as each subject is different. The visiting teacher and/or integration teacher will need to document accommodations and modifications so this data can than be used when applying for special provision. Practise using a reader and a scribe. Decide whether or not to do the GAT – useful to get a derived score.
Start investigating and researching the prerequisite subjects for your chosen course. Erin Shale (inspirational author and careers teacher at Balwyn High School) told us that there are many options, courses and institutions out there, keep trying and don’t give up. Follow your dream but be realistic, ask for help and keep asking until you are enrolled and satisfied.
Find VTAC guides, TAFE and Uni handbooks, ring and/or write to Course Selection Officers and Disability Liaison Officers, enquire about Targeted Access Programs and ask about transferring courses.
At Open Days ask heaps of questions and be assertive. Visiting Unis or TAFES when it is not an Open Day is a good idea too. There are lots of courses out there and one is perfect for YOU. Remember do what you want to do, or if you can’t do what you want, do what you like.
Lyn gave the participants an account of the:
Closing date for applications to VCAA: 2 April 2004
Nola Birch and Clare Rhodan (Disability Liaison Officers University of Melbourne) spoke about transition to a tertiary institution and the level of independence required.
School leavers have to make a transition on four levels:
Success at uni can be achieved if:
PD can be rated on many levels eg how many participants attended, the catering,
the keynote speaker or the absence of ice breaker activities.
However, the best way to evaluate PD is to ask yourself will I be able to implement
information, strategies or ideas the next day at school. And, will I know who
to go to when I have a question about a certain issue. If the answer is yes
to both questions – you have been to a beauty.
Last Monday’s PD activity meets this criteria, it was a great opportunity
to discuss the issues faced by our kids doing VCE – to ensure they have
access to curriculum and exam papers, to be prepared for VCE and beyond, but,
most importantly that they have the confidence and independence necessary to
achieve their goals and dreams.
Erin Shale kindly left us a selection of resources which are invaluable for secondary, particularly senior secondary students. They include:
These resources are not for loan but can be viewed at the SVRC and selected pages photocopied. They are also probably available from your secondary school.
Please call if you would like copies of the following audio tapes made at the VCE professional development day on 9th March:
Source: VCE and VCAL Administrative Handbook 2004
The closing dates for applications for special examination arrangements are as follows:
In 2004, the June examination period will be in the week beginning Monday 7 June - Wednesday 9 June, prior to the Queens Birthday weekend.
9.00 am - 10.45 am Biology Exam 1
11.45 am - 1.30 pm Physics Exam 1
2.45 pm - 4.30 pm Accounting Exam 1
9.00 am - 10.45 am Psychology Exam 1
11.45 am - 1.30 pm Chemistry Exam 1
2.45 pm - 4.30 pm Environmental Science Exam 1
10.00 am - 1.15 pm General Achievement Test (GAT)
The end-of-year timetable has not yet been set – but check for updates at: http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/vce/exams/timetable.html
Contributed by Sarah Caldow (daughter of VT Helen!!!)
Do you have a student currently completing their VCE? Why not get The Age High Performance Pack. This pack includes: a copy of The Age for every school day, two copies of SAGE (newspaper written by VCE students for other students), free press clippings, and free entry to The Age Careers Expo. This pack is only available to students currently undertaking their VCE. You can pick up a sign-up form at your school, or go to www.education.theage.com.au, select subscription offers and follow the prompts.
One to two weeks after you sign up for the offer, you receive a card through the mail. This card has a customer ID number and allows you to access the Careers Expo and the free press clippings.
To obtain the free press clippings, simply go to the website again and select the press clippings option. There are ranges of categories, going back to last September. Once you have decided on a category, enter you customer ID number and download the articles.
To increase font size in press clippings from The Age website:
Source: http://www.pablo.net.au/englishcommentaries/
Helen McAlley, BA, Dip Ed. (Melb.) BEd. (La Trobe), who has taught and coached at Year 12 level, has produced CDs or audio tapes on over 70 books and films.
Each commentary gives a detailed analysis of the particular work, discussing background, character development, issues which arise, etc.
Each commentary runs for 60 minutes. Students find them useful to listen to
at home, to discuss with other students, to use in walkmans etc. Teachers buy
them for their teachers’ resource centres, for private use, in the classroom
or in the library.
Cost (plus postage and handling): CDs are $17.95 each; cassettes are $15.95
Contact: Helen McAlley, 4 Yalta Close, Greensborough 3088
Phone or Fax: (03) 9435 3255
Email: englishcommentaries@pablo.net.au
Article by Dr Mike Steer, Renwick College, Royal Institute for Deaf & Blind Children, North Rocks, NSW
Just last week, a Visiting Teacher (VI) on one of the local Education Department teams phoned to say that she had a five year old boy on her caseload who had been diagnosed as having low vision and PDD, and asked “What’s that?” Case notes indicated that he was ‘autistic-like’. His records indicated that he had experienced an uncomplicated birth and in fact had always been quite healthy. There was no family history of PDD (whatever that was) or anything similar. He had developed normally until about 18 months of age when he gradually seemed to become more withdrawn. He lost interest in toys and stopped communicating with his siblings and family, seemingly wanting to be alone all the time. If anything in his daily routine was changed, even slightly, he would become agitated. He appeared to have had little or no significant cognitive development since he was about three.
PDD is of course, an acronym for ‘Pervasive Developmental Disorder’. It is an umbrella term used to define a wide range of disorders including a spectrum of behavioural problems commonly associated with autism (Boon, 2004). Children with PDD increasingly attend regular community schools and increasingly appear on visiting teachers’ caseloads. In this instance the boy in question’s visual acuity was sufficient to secure him support from an Education Department Visiting Teacher (Vision Impairment). All PDDs have common symptoms of varying severity. These often include abnormal language and communication skills, poor social interaction abilities, repetitive, stereotypic behaviour, and resistance to changes in routine (Hirsch, 1996). Some children also exhibit abnormal response to auditory and visual stimuli, touch, taste and smell.
Children with PDD have a wide array of intellectual abilities, as of course have children in any type of grouping. With PDD, these abilities vary from severe intellectual disability to normal intelligence. Further, a reasonably high incidence of seizure and emotional disorder is associated with children thus labelled. Some children do not speak at all, others speak in limited phrases or conversations, and some have relatively normal language development. Repetitive play skills and limited social skills are generally evident as well, (Boon 2004).
Autism (a so-called ‘spectrum disorder’ which is quite subjectively diagnosed) is probably the most widely recognised and widely studied of the PDDs. Other PDDs which may be difficult to distinguish from Autism include Asperger and Rett syndromes, Heller (childhood disintegrative) syndrome and PDD-NOS (PDD not otherwise specified). Autism is generally diagnosed using a set of symptoms or criteria listed in the American Psychiatric Association’s diagnostic manual DSM IV. These classifications are sometimes used in determining service eligibility.
The DSM IV criteria for autism are preceded by the following cautionary statement: “The specified diagnostic criteria for each mental disorder are offered as guidelines for making diagnoses, because it has been demonstrated that the use of such criteria enhances agreement among clinicians and investigators”.
A. A total of six (or more) items from (1), (2), and (3), with at least two from (1), and one each from (2) and (3):
(1) qualitative impairment in social interaction, as manifested by at least two of the following:
(a) marked impairment in the use of multiple nonverbal behaviors such as eye-to-eye gaze, facial expression, body postures, and gestures to regulate social interaction
(b) failure to develop peer relationships appropriate to developmental level
(c) a lack of spontaneous seeking to share enjoyment, interests, or achievements with other people (e.g., by a lack of showing, bringing, or pointing out objects of interest)
(d) lack of social or emotional reciprocity
(2) qualitative impairments in communication as manifested by at least one of the following:
(a) delay in, or total lack of, the development of spoken language (not accompanied by an attempt to compensate through alternative modes of communication such as gesture or mime)
(b) in individuals with adequate speech, marked impairment in the ability to initiate or sustain a conversation with others
(c) stereotyped and repetitive use of language or idiosyncratic language
(d) lack of varied, spontaneous make-believe play or social imitative play appropriate to developmental level
(3) restricted repetitive and stereotyped patterns of behavior, interests, and activities, as manifested by at least one of the following:
(a) encompassing preoccupation with one or more stereotyped and restricted patterns of interest that is abnormal either in intensity or focus
(b) apparently inflexible adherence to specific, nonfunctional routines or rituals
(c) stereotyped and repetitive motor mannerisms (e.g., hand or finger flapping or twisting, or complex whole-body movements)
(d) persistent preoccupation with parts of objects
B. Delays or abnormal functioning in at least one of the following areas, with onset prior to age 3 years:
(1) social interaction
(2) language as used in social communication, or
(3) symbolic or imaginative play.
C. The disturbance is not better accounted for by Rett Disorder or Childhood Disintegrative Disorder.
Although these criteria are reasonably specific, determining the severity,
or intensity of certain of the symptoms is a judgment call on the part of the
professional making the diagnosis. This judgement in turn depends on that individual’s
training and experience. The issue of successful diagnosis is a complex one
and dependent inevitably on a certain amount of “best guess”.
Based on the boy’s description provided on the phone by our worried graduate,
it might well be that the young fellow’s symptoms might fit certain of
those listed above. My recommendation, was therefore, that he should be re-evaluated
by a competent developmental psychologist and an individualised educational
program devised using the McGill Action Planning (MAPS) framework (Steer, 2004).
There is a great deal of information about PDD and Autism on the internet and an excellent Autism Resources Home Page at http://web.syr.edu/~jmwobus/autism/
Boon, (2004). Pervasive developmental disorders. Retrieved 6 February from home.iprimus.com.au/rboon/PervasiveDevelopmentalDisorders.htm
Hirsch, D. (1996) Pervasive developmental disorders. Exceptional Parent, 26(9),
82.
Steer, M. (2004). Mcgill action planning: Getting your act together for students.
Retrieved 6 February from: home.connexus.net.au/~dba/steer.doc
Rett Disorder: http://www.behavenet.com/capsules/disorders/retts.htm
Childhood Disintegrative Disorder: http://www.behavenet.com/capsules/disorders/childisintdis.htm
Marion Blazé is currently working in the NT but still sending her contributions to The Bulletin!!! Gotter love that!!! Her most recent email details some ideas for working with very low functioning students with vision impairments. She writes:
I have four children on my caseload who are in special schools and are very low functioning. They have been diagnosed as Cortical Vision Impaired and show no apparent visual response. In fact, they show little response to any sensory stimuli. Through experimentation, we have found that one child responds by moving her legs when they are massaged (she has little movement in the rest of her body) and another boy pulls faces when he (apparently) doesn’t like something he tastes. These seem to be the only forms of communication of which these particular children are capable.
Marion and the staff have been investigating some ideas for sensory stimulation (or experimentation) in the areas of touch and taste. The special school teachers found them very useful as ideas for these children, who were particularly challenging to program for. Go to: Tactile Awareness Activities
They are adapted from a terrific book called ‘Early Sensory Skills’ by Jackie Cooke (Speechmark Publishing, UK 1996).
Marion is currently working as Advisory Teacher for Vision, Darwin (formerly Education Officer for students with vision impairments, Victoria) and can be contacted via email: marion.blaze@nt.gov.au
Source: http://www.sofweb.vic.edu.au/lem/esl/einter.htm
Interpreting and translating services are available free to government schools,
within guidelines, to ensure that parents and guardians who require an interpreter
have access to school information, and are better able to communicate with schools.
This service is not available to assist individual students in classrooms, or
support curriculum related activities.
Booking online is the preferred option. To book an interpreter, go to: http://www.allgraduates.com.au
For guidelines to use this service go to: http://www.sofweb.vic.edu.au/lem/esl/docs/I_T_Guides_2004.doc
Twenty-three commonly used school notices have been translated into twenty-two languages, including English, and are available at: http://www.sofweb.vic.edu.au/lem/esl/multi.htm
Multilingual notices are available in the following languages: Albanian, Filipino, Polish, Tamil, Arabic, Greek, Russian, Tongan *, Bosnian†, Italian, Samoan, Turkish, Croatian, Khmer, Serbian, Vietnamese, Chinese, Macedonian, Somali, English, Persian, Spanish
† Only notice referring to Parent/Teacher Meeting is currently available
in Bosnian
* Only a limited number of notices are available in Tongan
Information for parents relating to a number of key DE&T initiatives have been translated into a number of languages. See http://www.sofweb.vic.edu.au/lem/esl/transmat.htm for details.
VisTech Solutions’ Jim Pipczak is offering a seminar comparing talking mobile phones – the difference between Mobile Accessibility and TALKS has been running a number of seminars over the summer months and there are only a couple to go.
When: 23 March 2004 between 6.00 and 8.00 pm
Where: 201 High Street Prahran
RSVP: Please let them know that you are coming by either email:
vistech@rvib.org.au or phone: (03)
9520 5555
Vizhelp is a support network for Western Australian families who have children who are blind or vision impaired.
This email group is intended to be a fun, friendly and supportive place for Vizhelp families (and anyone else, anywhere else, who share a common interest) to communicate and share their experiences.
To join please send a blank email to: vizhelpfriends-subscribe@yahoogroups.com or send an email to: penny@vizhelp.org and an invitation will be sent to your inbox directly.
Source: E-Access Bulletin, October 2003
A law recently came into force allowing UK schools, libraries and non-profit organisations to provide accessible versions of printed materials to vision-impaired people without having to receive permission from the rights holders.
The law applies to the production of books in accessible formats by individual vision-impaired people, schools, colleges and non-profit bodies.
The Copyright (Visually Impaired Persons) Act (http://fastlink.headstar.com/copy1) says if a non-profit or educational organisation has the master copy of a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work, it does not infringe copyright for them to make or supply accessible copies for “vision impaired persons to whom the master copy is not accessible because of their impairment”.
Source: E-Access Bulletin, November 2003
Advice on work experience placements for students with disabilities, including those with impaired vision, is offered in a new free guide from Skill (http://www.skill.org.uk), the national organisation for students with disabilities.
‘Into work experience’ (http://www.skill.org.uk/shared/into_we.asp) includes practical advice about finding and starting a placement; disabled people’s legal rights; a reference section listing helpful publications and organisations; a section for employers highlighting the benefits of taking on disabled people; and contributions from students about their varied experiences of work placements. According to Jenny Hayden, a blind former student at the University of North London who supplied one of the case studies, a work placement may be difficult at first but can pay off in the longer term. “It was really hard going into an unfamiliar environment, to do a new job with people I didn't know,” she told E-Access Bulletin. “But it’s a good way of finding out the difficult things with a safety net,” she said. “I now feel quite happy about looking for any kind of job.”
Source: OzBrl Listserv
The New South Wales Subcommittee of the Australian Braille Authority has recently produced Diana Braun’s recipe collection in braille. It is intended for adult learners of braille who wish to continue their love of the culinary arts and for this reason, the recipes have been produced in uncontracted braille.
‘Never Fail Recipes with Braille’ contains recipes for:
Diana writes: ‘Braille is a very practical skill to learn. Flour on the recipe book can be sponged off gently and left to dry. The paper is heavy, so the wind probably won’t blow the page over.’
Please contact the SVRC for a copy of the braille files or a braille copy or
contact:
St Edmund’s School
PO Box 582
Wahroonga, NSW 2076
As with a growing number of schools around the state, the new School speed Zones Program will be implemented outside Heatherwood School (and therefore the SVRC) this year. The plan is to have a speed limit drop from the usual 80km to 60km between 8.00 - 9.30 am and from 2.30 - 4.00pm on school days. An electronic sign will operate to indicate the speed.
Source: http://www.svrc.vic.edu.au/VCALaward.html with thanks to photographer Dianne Skillern!
One of ‘our’ students Michael Kelly has been awarded the Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning – VCAL Achievement Award.
The Awards recognise the outstanding achievements of VCAL students, teachers and partner organisations that have successfully contributed to the development and delivery of VCAL programs.
Michael has received his award for outstanding achievement in technology and audio production related areas. His work in this VCAL area involved work placement at the Vision Australia Foundation’s Radio 3RPH and later at the Statewide Vision Resource Centre (SVRC). While at the SVRC Michael’s major project involved devising and implementing a digital audio production system for the conversion of analogue tapes to digital format.
The Awards will be presented at a ceremony on 17 March at Parliament House,
Melbourne.
Congratulations Michael!
The picture below shows just how keen Michael’s school was to tell everybody about his achievements. A huge sign outside the school reads "MICHAEL KELLY STATE VCAL TOP ACHIEVER 2003"
Lyn Robinson will be taking some leave in term 1 and 2 – which means that we will be somewhat depleted here at the SVRC. If you could possible assist during this period, we’d be delighted.
Some offers of assistance could be:
Keen to see the way we produce braille books at the SVRC (short commentary with pictures and alt text descriptions)? Go to: http://www.visiontech.svrc.vic.edu.au/production.htm
Thanks to everyone who contributed to this edition of The Bulletin. Thanks also to my fabulous proof-reader Lea Nagel.
Deb Lewis (who can be emailed at deblewis@svrc.vic.edu.au).