Story
Sensory Efficiency: A Student’s Perspective
Hear what Emma thinks about the the ECC area, Sensory Efficiency.
The ECC or Expanded Core Curriculum consists of the knowledge and skills needed by a student with a visual disability to access core content areas. Everyone involved in the life of a student with a visual disability should seek to learn as much as possible about the ECC which is organized into the nine areas listed below.
Nine Areas of the E.C.C.
ECC a Student’s Perspective Introduction (first post in this series)
- Compensatory Access
- Sensory Efficiency
- Assistive Technology
- Orientation and Mobility
- Independent Living Skills
- Social Interaction Skills
- Recreation and Leisure
- Career Education
- Self-Determination
- Final Thoughts
Sensory Efficiency
Sensory Efficiency refers to the ways in which those with visual impairments gather information from each available sense. Remaining vision may enable some students to read large print and enhanced images while audio books, music, and the sounds of nature provide information about the world to students with auditory listening skills. The sense of touch is used to access information produced in braille, tactile formats or “raised line” images. The manipulation of real-world objects and the building 3-D models are two additional means of accessing the world through touch. Taste and smell are senses students with low vision or blindness can leverage to gain meaningful information. All sensory input provides opportunities for learning.
“Make the most of every sense; glory in the beauty which the world in all the facets of pleasure reveals to you through the several means of contact which Nature provides.” – Helen Keller
Classroom activities from Teaching Tolerance to help young learners understand sensory efficiency in the article, Bringing Sight to the Sightless.
This article from Family Connect explains how the LMA (Learning Media Assessment) conducted by the Teacher of Students with Visual Impairments determines the best learning media for a student: Learning Media Assessment.
By Hope Pardee
