How to add routine and play-based learning into ECC strategies for young kids with CVI

Video presentation by Elise Darrow and article by Lacey Smith.

The Expanded Core Curriculum (ECC) is crucial for all kids with blindness and low vision, including those with CVI. The purpose of the ECC is to bridge the gap of missed learning due to lack of visual access—to instruction, the environment, activities, social interactions, and incidental learning. When adapted for infants and toddlers, the ECC focuses on early intervention to support development in multiple areas, including learning, development, social, and communication skills.

Elise Darrow is the CVI Initiative Manager, a Teacher of Students with Visual Impairments (TVI), and an Orientation and Mobility Instructor at Anchor Center for Blind Children. In her video, Elise explores the nine areas of the ECC for infants, toddlers, and preschool-age children with CVI, and how to incorporate ECC strategies and interventions into everyday routines. Below are highlights and takeaways from her video presentation.

Key components to working with young children with CVI are establishing routines with every activity and understanding their communication.
Elise Darrow

Independent living skills

Fostering independence through the everyday. Turn everyday routines into purposeful learning opportunities. A few examples include:

Encourage children who are passive to be active participants in activities through multiple senses in their natural environments.
Bring the world to your child so they can explore and understand what’s around them. For example, items, people, and elements of the environment beyond arm’s length.
Find what motivates your child to help them be an active participant.
Give your child opportunities to choose between options, starting with real objects.

Compensatory skills

Alternative skills to learn or perform visual tasks. A few examples include:

Feet first exploration, or exploration with a part of the body that your child prefers using.
Encourage tactile exploration in addition to vision, hearing, oral-motor, and vestibular.
Exposure to a variety of textures and multisensory experiences.

Sensory efficiency

Using available sensory information through vision and other senses. A few examples include:

Let your child be in control of the sensory environment.
Present sensory stimuli one at a time or in a less threatening way.
Encourage exploration through a multisensory approach.

Learn more about a multisensory approach to learning for kids with CVI.

Social development involves secure attachment and joint attention. A few examples include:

Being held close by caregivers helps develop interactions with other people.
Teach your child to recognize people by the sound of their voice.
Encourage peer interactions through musical instruments or adult-supported play.
Explore the use of assistive technology to support recognition of and interaction with peers.

Self-determination

An individual’s ability to understand who they are and what they want. A few examples include:

Expose your child to different types of items and materials to observe their preferences. For example, different textures and fabrics, types of spoons, stuffies, and so on.
Consistently present your child with options. Use motivating objects or activities to encourage choice-making.

For kids with CVI, if they are taught to learn the start and the end of an activity, they are in that much more control over what is happening around them, which will set them up for success in learning.
Elise Darrow

Orientation and mobility

Understanding their own body movements, and where they are in relation to other things and people. A few examples include:

Hearing about their own body parts and spatial concepts.
Use different motivators to encourage movement.
Explore different ways to move, explore, and develop body awareness and spatial concepts.

Recreation and leisure

Exposure to a variety of recreational and leisure activities, such as music, movement games, manipulative toys, gardening, and playing in nature guides, is fun while learning about different activities. A few examples include:

Learning what a child enjoys playing and interacting with.
Exposure to activities that can be done independently or with adult assistance helps develop an awareness of different types of play.
Encouraging parallel and pretend play.

Career education

Organizational skills, understanding of routines, work interests, and hands-on experiences are necessary to allow children to live as independently as possible. A few examples include:

Develop routines and anticipate transitions.
Practice sequencing and matching during play, mealtime, or bath time and social interactions with family members (taking turns, communicating wants and needs).
Exposure to different types of jobs, following directions, asking for assistance, and understanding the sequence of events.

Assistive technology

Playing on a tablet or using complex communication devices that provide for learning, play, and communication help with assistive technology. A few examples include:

Encourage exploration through playing with household objects (wooden spoons, keys, washcloths, other low technology).
Introduction to apps on tablets to help with cause/effect understanding, use tactile object cues or simple switches.
Use tablets for communication skills, listen to audiobooks, and explore tactile books and magnifiers.

Check out the video! Elise goes into more depth about each of these areas and ideas for how to build strategies into everyday routines.

Learn more about CVI and the Expanded Core Curriculum and find more creative learning strategies at the Active Learning Space.
Find more resources and helpful information on the CVI Now Early Intervention Series home page.