Once your child is confident and independent with slicing soft and easily cut items with a spreader, table knife, and/or lettuce knife, it might be time to move onto a kitchen knife. Two skills that naturally go together are peeling and chopping. Here's a quick tutorial on peeling vegetables and chopping with a kitchen knife. Remember that lots of supervision, verbal feedback, and tons of encouragement are needed. -Anne
Peeling and Chopping Vegetables
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We hear a lot of anxious concerns from parents about teaching their blind or visually impaired child to use the stove. This is a skill that all parents are nervous about, but we're hoping these videos help ease some of the anxiety about introducing this skill. We teamed up to do this post because of the variety of stoves on the market. Remember to always introduce and orient your child to a cold stove, and be patient because your child is likely as nervous about learning to use the stove as you are. We're available, as always to answer questions. - Marcia, Megan, and Anne
Using a Coil Electric Stove Using a Glass Cook Top Stove Using a Gas Stove Are your kids eating you out of house an home? My kids believe that all times are snack times...they might have come by that naturally. With the constant traffic in and out of my refrigerator I thought it would be a good moment to discuss organizing your fridge in a way that increases your blind and visually impaired child's independence. I try to make my own kids as self sufficient as possible, so I try to keep the things I want them to have within reach. The things I would prefer they not have easy access to, I keep out of their reach. Of course, this can be incorporated for any child blind, low vision or sighted. We've also incorporated keeping like items together in different areas of the fridge and you know I utilize my trusty rubber bands. If you have the ability to do braille labels, that's always a great idea to use. If you have questions please feel free to reach out. If you have ideas on organizing a fridge for a blind or visually impaired person, we want to learn what you do at home as well. -Anne
Organizing Your Fridge I know I promised a kitchen unit, but I got bogged down with making sure my COVID-19 closure paperwork was done. I promise we'll get back to that next week. Today Rachel and I wanted to focus on our preschool and elementary age kiddos to take us into the weekend. Rachel has a read aloud of Little Blue Truck. I have a couple of videos on opening a drawer safely as well as an idea to increase your child's independence.
When you open a drawer, especially a kitchen drawer, as a blind or visually impaired person, it's important to make sure you open the drawer all the way, and move your hand on top of the items to locate them. A sliding or jostling motion to locate your desired object, could lead to poked or cut fingers. I also wanted to share an idea that was passed down to me when I had preschool aged kids. Keeping a lower cabinet or drawer in the kitchen so that they could access their own cups, plates, bowls, plastic utensils, and even snack. Not only will this keep you from having to constantly redirect your energy to help them, but it will also build a sense of independence and self reliance. Win-Win! This was so successful in my house, that I still have a drawer for my kids who are 8 and 10. Let us know how it goes! - Anne & Rachel Read Aloud - Little Blue Truck Opening a Drawer Kids' Cabinet Hello families! We hope that things are going smoothly for you as you and your students get into the swing of distance learning! We know that for many of you, this means virtual school, and with that comes not only learning the school content, but also how to use the systems each school uses, on top of managing time and trying to create some sort of a schedule or normalcy! We want you to know that we are right there with you in this, and that we are here to support you!
With that in mind, I created some videos to help those of you with students who are using an iPad. These skills are specifically geared toward students using VoiceOver to access the iPad, but some of the videos about accessing Google Classroom can also be helpful in learning the basics of Google Classroom (just don't worry about the VoiceOver gestures!). If you have questions about any of these videos, or if there are additional technology skills your student is struggling with, please feel free to reach out to me ([email protected])! Accessing Google Classroom with VoiceOver-iPad Part 1 Accessing Google Classroom with VoiceOver-iPad Part 2 Accessing Google Classroom with VoiceOver-iPad Part 3 Accessing Google Classroom with VoiceOver-iPad Part 4 Setting Up the Onscreen Braille Keyboard-iPad Typing with the Onscreen Braille Keyboard-iPad Marcia has done a great tutorial on locating a dropped object as a blind or visually impaired person.
Locating a Dropped Object In these strange times, we’re all learning to do more with less and take advantage of the resources we have. One of the resources I have at my disposal is a toddler. So I thought it would be helpful to share some tips on supporting cane travel in early childhood students. This video shares some tips and very brief demonstrations of cane use. Remember when you work with your Early On or preschool aged student that cane use doesn’t have to be pretty. As long as your child is practicing the most basic cane skills, you’re on the right track. Please excuse the VERY shaky camera on my instruction demo clip. My 9 year-old does not have the most steady hand. -Rachel
Preschool Mobility At my house, I have one child that has always been interested in participating in the kitchen, and one that traditionally hasn't been interested. However since we've been home, both my kids are have been wanting to be in the kitchen more. I love the learning opportunities that this presents for functional life skills, and I love how much more independent and confident it makes them. This week I thought we'd move back to the kitchen to look at some more of those skills, so you guys can have your blind or visually impaired students develop more independence and confidence in the kitchen. We've done a few videos on introductory kitchen skills, and if you haven't had a chance to look at those, make sure you check them out.
Marking a microwave Introductory Microwave Skills Happy Friday everyone! A great way to increase your child's independence is have them choose their own outfits for the day. This is an area I gave my kids control over very early, and can be evidenced by the eclectic outfits my free spirited daughter chooses (plaid shirt with unicorn leggings just this week). While we're spending more time at home, this could be a great way to practice some of these skills. Here's some ideas on how you can organize your child's closet to help them be more independent. As always, there are a lot of ways to help your visually impaired or blind child organize their clothes, so if something else works for your family, do that. We'd love to hear how you guys are organizing your child's clothes, so we can get new ideas. Our families teach us so new ideas and techniques regularly. Bonus, Rachel Jones, one of our Teacher Consultants for the Visually Impaired and Orientation & Mobility Specialist, did a quick video on demonstrating Sock Locks for us. -Anne
Organizing Closet Sock Locks Welcome back families. I was talking to one of our parents today, and she let me know that our links don't work unless you have a Google account. I apologize; I'm still trying to figure this out. I'll go back and change them over the next few days. Today's links should work. As a continuation of our laundry unit, I wanted to post a few videos on folding shirts and pants as well as some ideas for clothing organization. If you missed out introduction to folding laundry, here's a link to it directly. Remember that all of these actives of daily living, including folding laundry, takes a lot of practice and encouragement. -Anne
Clothing Identification Introduction to Folding - Towels Intermediate Laundry Folding - Shirts and Pants |
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December 2020
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