Elevating the Significance of Vision

“If we get it wrong, if we miss the boat – people drown.”

Vision plays a crucial role in our daily lives, with over half of our brain dedicated to processing visual information. When the brain fails to process what the eyes see efficiently, significant challenges arise. These issues can severely impact learning. They also affect the quality of life.

Testing the vision of severely compromised people is usually very difficult. As a result, we and they are literally left in the dark. Leading to the question,

How do we see what someone sees when they can’t speak or move?

ACCESS TO LEARNING

Differences in processing visual information can be found in various subpopulations. These include individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). They also include those with other neurological differences or specific learning challenges, such as Dyslexia.

Understanding the intersection of vision impairment, cerebral vision impairment, and autism requires a nuanced approach. Dyslexia and neurodiversity also need careful teaching and support. Differences in visual processing and sensory integration necessitate tailored educational strategies that address each child’s unique needs.

This is particularly true for those with cerebral or cortical vision impairment (CVI). In these cases, neurological differences affect how visual information is processed. These differences also influence how the information is used.

Recent research into cognitive role in severely disabled individuals is important. However, it is often done on them rather than with them (Joanna Grace). What we have learned about ‘good research’ underscores the need to adapt teaching practices.

Impact: Reduced ability to process and respond to visual information leads to reduced opportunities to learn.

The effect of misunderstanding vision processing differences in children with autism, dyslexia, or other learning differences is significant. It inadvertently reduces the child’s learning opportunities. This happens, for example, if the focus of their education shifts to behaviour modification. Emphasis is placed on eye contact, social skills, and rigid teaching methods. Educators should understand how the root cause of this neurological difference affects confidence, processing speed, and self-esteem. It also affects communication and access to education in general. Highlighting the urgent need for understanding and adjusting our systems and practice.

Understanding ASD behaviours through the lens of vision processing differences

accommodations that benefit many, if not all

Educational strategies for children with different learning styles need to account for processing challenges. For children with CVI, teaching often focuses on using tactile and auditory ways, as traditional visual approaches are ineffective. This teaching strategy can indeed help many. It includes children with autism who may gain from extra cues or prompts to store and access learning. All children especially those with autism and visual impairment benefit from less cluttered and more structured environments. This setup reduces distractions (or noise) and at the same time addresses their sensory processing needs. The added learning aids accommodate their communication difficulties. They provide consistency and clarity to cement the teaching message. This approach is similarly effective for more typical neurotypes.

Understanding Vision Processors and support strategies

References

Pat Mirenda’s paper focussed on alternative teaching methods for communication. Entititled ‘A Back Door Approach to Autism and Augmentative and Alternative Communication’, it provides numerous insights. These insights are into our evolution of knowledge. She summarises her paper with power. She calls us to question our current practice. She uses her extensive research to back this up.

“I think we need to question what we think we know about people with ASD in general and how we support and how we support those individuals whose speech does not develop through AAC in particular. I think we need to do this because there is a growing body of science that suggests we may have gotten it wrong, at least some of the time, for some individuals. I think that it is not okay to get it wrong for even one person; when we talk about communication we are talking about peoples’ lives, no less than that – so there are no degrees of freedom.

Inclusion: Universal and Specialist Approaches (Module) Vision Impairment Education (topic). Postgraduate Inclusion Studies, University of Birmingham.