Jennifer Hauser

Jennifer is a fifth grade student that has a visual perception problem or VPP.  She has difficulties reading and writing because she mixes up the orders of the letters.  She also has a directional problem, meaning that she cannot distinguish her right from left easily or immediately.  I chose to read about Jennifer because I have never seen any students with these severe problems and feel that it may be seen in a future classroom. 

Social – students with a visual perception problem do not experience a different social relationship within their classroom and school.  Jennifer is actually a very social person who likes to hang out with friends and play on sports team.  A student that has VPP may experience some “social outcast” if they get left out because they attend the resource room.  However, Jennifer’s resource teacher, Ms. Ricci encourages and allows students to invite friends or classmates into for activities.  This eliminates the frequency for teasing students that attend resource rooms.  I feel that this strategy helps students feel included in their classroom, and their activities can be brought back into the entire classroom because multiple students have participated in them. 

Academic – those with VPP, Jennifer in particular, have fully functioning academic capabilities.  However, since they experience problems, like mixing up letter orders, they must learn at different paces, with different strategies.  I feel that Jennifer says it best, “Some things I learn slowly and some things I learn quickly, but I am able to learn just about anything.  I just learn in a different way.  Ms. Ricci teaches me the way I learn best.”  Having a resource teacher will ultimately help the student the most, however, I feel that as their usual teacher, it would be beneficial to incorporate some of their learning strategies into your normal lesson plan so your students with VPP can feel incorporated. 

Linguistic – helping a student with visual perception problems can be through simple things that can be done within the integrated classroom.  I would suggest using lots of visual aids with words and directions written out, so the student can visually see how to read and write words correctly often.  Using larger print would also be beneficial for these students so that the focal point of the letters and words is easier for them to focus on. 

This website I found explains the learning disability visual perception problem and how it occurs in children.  These are some tactics that it highlights to use with students to help them progress. 

For readings:  Enlarged print for books, papers, worksheets or other materials which the child is expected to use can often make tasks much more manageable.

For writing:  Adding more structure to the paper a child is using can often help him/her use the paper more effectively. This can be done in a number of ways. For example, lines can be made darker and more distinct. Paper with raised lines to provide kinesthetic feedback is available.  

Teaching Style: If the teacher is referring to writing on a chalkboard or chart paper, s/he can read aloud what is being read or written, providing an additional means for obtaining the information.

http://www.ldonline.org/article/6390/