Visual Stimulation

Visual Stimulation

The Braille Monitor

_June 1997

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Vision Stimulation:

Is the Tide Turning?

From the Editor: The following editorial first appeared

in the January, 1997, POBC News and Views, a publication of the Parents

of Blind Children Division of Colorado. Here it is:

Editorial: For many years the professionals in the field of visual impairment

have held that visual skills could be taught--that children with impaired vision

could be trained through focusing and tracking activities to use better any

residual vision they might have. For just as many years the National Federation

of the Blind has argued against this philosophy, believing that the time spent

trying to stimulate the use of vision through therapy involving darkened rooms

and flashing lights is better spent

enriching the child and guiding him in the use of alternative techniques in

visually based activities. But

more than just a waste of time, the NFB has suggested that underlying such programs

is an insidious implication that the better you see, the more valuable you are

as a person. In a 1986 article from Future Reflections, (Vol. 5 No. 2,

1986; page 25) entitled, "Learning to Look," Barbara Cheadle wrote:

"Putting aside for the time the question of how valuable vision stimulation

programs are (or could be) for the blind or low-vision child, there is a greater

concern. Like drugs or a common kitchen knife, even useful educational tools

can be turned into dangerous weapons that destroy instead of nurture."

Meanwhile, as recently as 1995, the National Association for the Parents of

the Visually Impaired presented an article entitled, "Sensory Development,

Vision, Focusing & Tracking." The article stated:

"Using his/her vision is a learned activity for the child who is visually

impaired. It is not automatic, so you must teach your child that using his/her

vision will be beneficial to him/her. For example, instead of handing your child

a cookie, you should hold the cookie and ask the child to reach out and take

it. That way, he/she is being rewarded for using his/her vision." (Awareness,

Winter Issues, 1995, page 6)

What does such an approach teach the child? The child is rewarded for seeing

the cookie and made to feel inadequate for failing to see it. The child is set

up for failure and diminished self-esteem. Instead of valuing and appreciating

the usefulness of alternative techniques, the child is being taught that it

is better to do your best with whatever vision you have and hide your inability

to see than to use a alternative technique of blindness.

We all agree that enriching the environment with color and shape is extremely

important for a visually impaired child (as it is for any child), but enriching

the environment and trying to teach visual skills are very different matters.

It is dangerous to try to teach vision, for you have then placed a value on

seeing versus not seeing which can have damaging psychological implications.

Happily, there is evidence that the vision professionals

may be reevaluating their stand on the value of visual stimulation. A recent

article published in the Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness (Vol.

90, No. 5, Sept-Oct, 1996) entitled "A Call to End Vision Stimulation Training"

by Kay Ferrell, Ph.D. and D. William Muir, M.A., questions the efficacy of teaching

visual perceptual skills.

"The cautions against using vision stimulation are significant. The main

ones are 1) the research to support visual skills training is ambiguous at best;

2) the procedures violate the principle of normalization and diminish the self-esteem

of children, families, and teachers; and 3) the training consumes time better

devoted to instruction for real-life demands."

Ferrell and Muir also say: "Children may think that they are not good enough

and that visual impairment is indeed a loss, rather than a learning characteristic

requiring adaptation."

Dr. Ferrell and Mr. Muir are highly respected professors in the Division of

Special Education at the

University of Northern Colorado. However, it may take some time before their

fellow professionals are willing to abandon what they have long considered best

practice. At the very least one can hope that their students, future teachers

of the blind and visually impaired, will be entering the professional ranks

not as vision teachers, trying to teach vision, but as teachers of the blind

and visually impaired. Thank you, Dr. Ferrell and Mr. Muir, for seeing the light

and providing a beginning to the end of visual skills training.