NOAH AOC

How old is Joli?

 I would advise taking her to a low vision specialist who will be able to assess her needs for school--print size, lighting, distance viewing, etc. and help you select aids and make reccomendations that best suit her needs.  However, my  two pieces of advice from personal experience are to have them help her select a monocular for distance viewing--she can remain in her seat and use it to view the material on the board and work directly in her notebook, avoiding having to copy everything first and using up time walking up to the board (although I used that method in algebra in 9th grade--before monoculars were around! and it worked for me, actually really reinforced the learning).  Make sure she has a small hand-held magnifier to fall situations where large print doesn't come through.  Also, computer skills--keyboarding especially and use of screen enlargement software.    This last could actually help alot with her writing--she will be able to more easily correct and make changes as she goes along and the concerns about perfection will diminish--I had a child--without albinism--who had the same problem with writing        and when her teacher suggested whe wrote on the computer she blossomed.

 I don't know if you can specify class size on an IEP.

Joni

My little guy has a kind CTTV (I think that is what they called it) the county actually provides for him, it allows him to focus in on the board the teacher is working on and enlarges it onto a monitor right in front of him, then for doing work at his desk he moves the arm and can see his books on on the scren, samething for the writing and he would prefer large lines also becuase he thinks he has to write big.  I know when you get bakc to the states you'll be able to get the help you need for school not sure about London though.  In the meantime maybe you could get a magnifying glass to use for reading at the desk.  As for the paper maybe get a few peices of it and use a marker to make the lines darker and then photo copy it for her to use.  Good luck

 Lauren,

I agree with what your saying about Joli both having ESL issues and vision issues. Does the teacher realize that's she also has the vision issues on of the ESL learning issues? Does Joli recieve any help for the vision issues?  Is Joli in any special education classes at school now?  I don't know if a specific class size number can be put in the IEP.

From my personal experience being an adult with Albinism and also having qualifitied for special education services during the time I was in the public system in two different states. The first state that I attended school in was Connecticut and that was in the mid 1980's and early 1990's when I was in elementary school. I ended up attending  four or five different elementary schools which never included my neighborhood elementary school. During the time I was in elementary school the special education placement was mainly with kids with behavorial problems. In July of 1992 I moved to Utah with my mom and younger sister and we lived in Park City for five years where I attended middle shcool and my freshman and sophomore year of high school. My experience when I was in middle school it was wonderful experience becasue the special education department was more of a resource. I was mainstreamed into also all my classes during middle school.  Then,for my first two years of high school my the special education placement was with there most severely disabled students. I believe that the high school didn't really know how to deal with someone whose visual impairment was their main disability with a suspected learning disability as being a secondary problem.They never have been able to determine if their is a learning disabilty because mostly of the tests for that I believe are very visualy based.I When right before I started my Junior year of high school we moved to Salt Lake. The other high school that I attended for my junior and senior years of high school once again the special education department was more like a resource department instead and they let me have the freedom to go an change my schedule when i wanted to all I need to do is at least let them know I was going to do it. I was able to deal with through my guidance counselor instead of the department doing it like what happend in Park City.

Hi Lauren,

I am a graduate student studying occupational therapy.  Your daughter seems like a wonderful little girl!  I know there is lined paper with thicker black lines that may help Joli.  I have seen this paper used for children with motor impairments, but I thought it was much easier to see.  Or you could create her own paper on the computer by making a blank document in Microsoft word and just hitting the underscore (_) key all te way across and continue down the page.  To increase the line spacing change the font size.  This paper can then be photocopied so she has a stack of her own at her desk.  And if the lines aren't dark enough, you can try bolding the font or trace over them with a thick black marker before photocopying the paper. 

I think it would be reasonable to ask the teacher to write out what is on the board and let Joli look at the paper copy at her desk when possible.  Then if things are written on the board spur of the moment, Joli can go up and use her marker board.  Or if she has a good friend, she can ask her friend quietly what is on the board and thus not have to stand up in case she doesn't want to "stand out" from the other kids. 

I hope you and Joli can find something that works well for her.  Don't give up until she is happy and getting the same information as all the other students! 

So far the help Joli (age 7 in year 3 at school) is getting is: sunscreen applied before any door breaks.  She cant go out without her hat.

In the classroom she sits right by the teacher and is allowed to get up and go to the BIG board whenever she needs.  She has a little white board that the teachers are supposed to use to write down anything on the BIG Board that she is going to need to copy or use for directions etc.  Her school is ordering enlarged reading books , and at her grade level they use worksheets rather than textbooks anyway.  Her worksheets are enlarged though part of the homework for the weekend was to look at puzzle (worksheet) each peice of the puzzle had a number on it, and she had to color in all of the pieces that had numbers which were multiples of 4.  Even though the sheet was blown up she still had a hard time seeing the numbers. 

We took her to a Pedi-opthamologist in the DC area and he tested her vision as being 20/400.  Before that her former school nurse tested her at about 20/80, and her another ped-opthamologist tested her at about 20/100.  We aren't sure 20/400 is acurate.  Basically at the doctors almost everything he asked her what it was she either said I don't know, I can't see it.  He stopped the test at 20/400.  But since before she was testing at around 20/100 my husband and I feel confused.  

Will a low vision specialist help us decide which to get either an IEP or a 504 ?  Would a low vision specialist be able to tell us if Braille is a good idea and/or if we should have aid helper in the classroom with her for part of the day?  I prefer push in programs to pull out programs. That said Joli is currently pulled out twice a week for ESL & once a week for reading recovery -- both are one-on-one.

Thanks for the advice

Lauren

 Lauren,

It depends what time of the day you are taking her to get the eye exam done. If you take har early in the day the reading would be very different. I guess the when the school nurse did Joli vision screening might have be in the morning before she really had a chance to get any work done. A lot of parents on the board reccomnend to take child at the end of the day when you know for a fact that they are tired. So, to some degree all the reading you were getting might actually be correct based on the time of day the reading were done. 

Does she have a teacher of the visually impaired (TVI)?  The TVI would be the one to do a functional vision evaluation and a learning media assessment to determine, among other things, near vision reading distance and size of print needed, print, braille or both, necessary modifications to classroom materials and accomodations in the classroom and on tests.  She will probably need an IEP since she is legally blind and an ESL student.