2016-04-14_ECC4 This video is posted online with the following chapter markers: Chapter 1. Importance of Listening Skills Chapter 2. Teaching Listening Skills Chapter 3. Resources for Instruction Chapter 4. Learning to Listen, Listening to Learn Chapter 5. Listening Skills & Literacy Description of graphical content is included between Description Start and Description End. Transcript Start Chapter 1. Importance of Listening Skills [Silence] Fade up from black. Animation: Text for TSBVI transform into braille cells for TSBVI. Fade to black. Fade up from black. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Texas School for the Blind & Visually Impaired Outreach Programs present Content: ECC Seriies: Compensatory Skills -- Listening Skills April 14, 2016 Presented by Ann Adkins - TSBVI Outreach adkinsa@tsbvi.edu right-side graphic: TSBVI logo Description End: [ Slide end: ] Ann Adkins: Hi, I'm Ann Adkins with the outreach program of the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired, and I would like to welcome you to our webinar today. Today's topic is on Listening Skills, an important component of the Compensatory Skills area of the Expanded Core Curriculum for students with visual impairments. We hope that you enjoy in our series of webinars on the E-C-C. We've done a webinar on each of the nine areas of the ECC, plus we did a webinar on the ECC and the family and one on the ECC for infants and toddlers. Today's webinar on listening skills, our 12th webinar on the ECC, is actually only the second webinar, however, on compensatory skills. We did one on tactile skills back in December. Compensatory Skills is such a huge comprehensive area that, if you are like me, you may be somewhat overwhelmed by the whole idea of trying to provide evaluation and instruction in such an all‑encompassing area. There are so many concepts and skills that our students must learn, master, use, in order to be successful. Especially in this area of compensatory skills. Let's talk for a moment about listening skills and why those skills are so important for our students with visual impairments. They are skills, however, that I think, are often misunderstood, and that's what I would like to address briefly before we get into really the meat of our conversation about listening skills. I suspect that many of you in the audience... have heard that students with visual impairments, because they have a visual impairment, they must have a heightened sense of hearing or touch. Right? I bet you've heard that before. That's one of many assumptions in our field. Most of us who are TVIs have been asked if we know sign language. Again, these are assumptions from people who are not as familiar with information as we are. It is our responsibility as VI professionals to share that information with them. I think it's a similar misunderstanding that may lead others to wonder why are we evaluating and teaching listening skills. They may not realize just how important listening skills are for our students with visual impairment. So let's look at the first slide, importance of listening skills instruction for students with visual impairment. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Importance of Listening Skills Instruction for Students with Visual Impairments Content: “The world provides an abundance of sounds and auditory information, information that will facilitate our students’ understandings of and access to their curriculum, their environment, and their community, and contribute to their success and engagement in life...” Source - Barclay, viii Description End: Hopefully I'm preaching to the choir here, again. But I wanted to share with you some of the information from Liz Barclay's book on listening skills. It's an AFB publication that came out a few years ago entitled "Learning to Listen, Listening to Learn". [ Slide end: ] Excellent, excellent resource full of so much information. If, as a VI professional, you're like me, you might have seen this book, looked at it, you have it on your shelf, but it has so much information in it, that it might have been difficult for you to get into it and realize just how fantastic it is. So, I wanted to use it as a resource for this webinar, and it's full of information that I will share with you today. [ Slide start: ] Repeat previous slide What's on your screen right now is something that I have paraphrased from Liz Barclay's preface which says, "The world provides an abundance of sounds and auditory information, information that will facilitate our students' understandings of and access to-- the word access-- their curriculum, their environment, and their community, and contribute to their success and engagement in life. As I said, that is... a paraphrase of what she said. But what she said, at the very introduction of her‑‑ preface, I want to read to you, because it is very, very powerful. Often people wonder why we are teaching listening skills. [ Slide end: ] And I know that you like, when I was an itinerant TVI, we heard people say, "Well, they can hear. I know they can hear. I just-- they heard what I said. I know they heard me. Why are we teaching listening skills?" There's so much more to it. "The whoosh of water from the faucet into the tub, the dripping of rain from a gutter, the rush of a creek under a bridge, and the crashing waves of the beach represent just some of the sounds of water." So, yes, we know that water makes so many sounds. However, our students may not. And they may not be able to associate those sounds with the other things that are going on in their world. And do they truly understand what those sounds mean? [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Importance of Listening Skills Instruction for Students with Visual Impairments Content: “Every student with a visual impairment must rely heavily upon the distance sense of hearing...(which) provides the means for understanding the environment around them.” Source - Barclay, vii Description End: "Every student with a visual impairment must rely heavily upon the distant sense of hearing... which provides the means for understanding the environment around them." Another quote from Barclay's preface. And... she emphasizes the distance sense of hearing. Certainly visual is also a distant sense. And since our children have visual impairments, then, we are looking at their sense of hearing. Not talking about students with hearing impairments here, but certainly some of the instructional things that we will talk about today may be beneficial to them as well. [ Slide end: ] The emphasis here is on the meaning part. Whatever provides the meaning for them. The understanding. And that's what we really need to address. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Importance of Listening Skills Instruction for Students with Visual Impairments Content: “The ability to listen is essential to individuals who are visually impaired.” “...the deliberate development of listening skills for all children with visual impairments needs to begin in infancy and continue through a child’s development.” Source - Barclay, page 3 Description End: Continuing with Barclay, "The ability to listen is essential to individuals who are visually impaired." And "the deliberate development of listening skills for all children with visual impairments needs to begin in infancy and continue through a child's development." She's really emphasizing how important it is to know what a child's listening skills are, and to be able to give them deliberate instruction that meets whatever their needs happen to be. [ Slide end: ] The italics in this particular slide are mine and the reason that I have italicized the word all, is because we sometimes think of listening skills instruction, either just for those students that we consider auditory learners, or maybe we just think of, "Oh, the student who is using auditory textbooks might need a little bit of intervention to make sure he is getting the most information out of the books that he is using auditorially. It's more than that. All of our kids need to have information on how to use their listening skills in the most effective way. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: More...Importance of Listening Skills Content: So much of what we do as TVIs “hinges” upon the development of excellent listening skills...listening skills play an important role in the continued development of: • Language and communication skills o Concept development • Literacy skills • Skills for independent travel (O&M) • Appropriate social interaction skills o The use of technology Description End: More on the importance of listening skills. So much of what we do as TVIs hinges upon the development of excellent listening skills. I use the word hinges because that was the phrase Liz Barclay used. But if you look at this list of skills, you can see how important listening skills are, in, duh, look at all those other areas of the Expanded Core Curriculum. Listening skills-- think about this for a moment-- in the continued development-- their influence, their impact on language communication skills, concept development, literacy skills-- we'll definitely talk about that one-- the skills for independent travel-- clearly that's O&M-- appropriate social interaction skills, the use of technology. This was not an all inclusive list, but it definitely shows the relationship between listening skills and the other important areas of instruction for our students with visual impairments. [ Slide end: ] We can't just assume that our students have good listening skills. And oftentimes I think that the general public, maybe classroom teachers that are gen ed, maybe family members, aren't aware of the importance of specific evaluation and instruction in listening skills for students with general impairments. First let's talk about the difference between hearing and listening; and this may be where I think others get somewhat confused. Hearing is a physiological process in which auditory information is transmitted to the brain. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: “Hearing” vs. “Listening” Content: "Hearing" is a physiological process in which auditory inormation is transmitted to the brain. vs. "Listening" is the act of assigning meaning to what is hear. Barclay, page 4 Description End: And when I talk about hearing, I'm not just mentioning the fact that sometimes people hear us, but don't listen. For listening is the act of assigning meaning to what is heard. I'm really not talking about our family members, our children, our spouses, our whoever, who don't listen to what we say, but they hear us-- we know they hear us! But for our students it really is a similar concept here that we need to address. We may hear from a teacher that, "They can hear just fine!" Or from their parents. There's more to it. [ Slide end: ] [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: “Hearing” vs. “Listening” Content: “Whereas hearing is the passive ability to receive sound, listening is a deliberate process by which sound is given meaning. Listening is a learned skill.” • Source - G. Ferrington (2003), in Barclay, page 3 Description End: Whereas hearing is the passive ability to receive sound, listening is a deliberate process by which sound is given meaning. Listening is a learned skill. And Barclay, here, quotes Ferrington-- so important that I italicized listening is a learned skill, because that is what we do. [ Slide end: ] Something I find interesting here, too, is this whole concept of passive versus active listening. We will address that a little bit further, in a moment, as well. Research discusses listening as an active, cognitive process. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: “Hearing” vs. “Listening” Content: Research discusses listening as an “active cognitive process”... – For students with visual impairments, this process “takes a unique path” – It must be “more deliberate and more experiential” • Source - Barclay, page 5 Description End: I really was fascinated about by this whole idea of active cognitive processing. Barclay explains it very well, and draws upon quite a bit of research. I've summarized some of it here, in that, for students with visual impairments, this active, cognitive process takes a very unique path. I put that in quotes because that's the way she worded it. And she says it must be more deliberate and more experiential. That's where our teaching is so important. [ Slide end: ] What we do and how we do it. And it may not seem all that unique to us as teachers of the visually impaired. It is probably very unique to others, those not in our field. Continuing with hearing versus listening, and the issues of how they are different. Research discusses listening as an active cognitive process. For students with visual impairments, this process takes a very unique path. I like the way Barclay described this in her book, and I found it fascinating to think of the active, cognitive process part of listening. The instruction related to that is what is so important for us as VI professionals. The last bullet on that slide mentions it must be more deliberate and more experiential. Those experiences, what's so important for us to provide. That's our role! We know, however, that we can't provide all of the experiences that a student with visual impairments needs. So it's important for us to help others who work with that student-- and we include family members, of course-- important for us to help them understand ways that they can provide appropriate experiences for our students, things that are meaningful to them. So this whole idea of passive versus active listening, Barclay's book describes examples of what she called inappropriate instruction in listening skills, and... I probably hate to say it, but you may join me in knowing that I have done some of those things. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Passive vs. Active Listening Content: • Barclay’s book describes examples of inappropriate “instruction” in listening skills – using passive approaches such as shaking a sound-making object next to a child, putting headphones on the student so they can listen to the story, playing a recording of environmental sounds, etc. (page 5) • None of these require active listening unless they are paired with an activity, objects or something meaningful. Description End: Some of these passive approaches to listening skills, certainly see it in classrooms we go into. And, yes, I know that I did it, and... while I may have been a little more deliberate, as she said in that last slide, I didn't go far enough. I didn't do enough. Look, for example, at some of these passive approaches. Shaking a sound making object next to a child; and I am willing to bet that many of us have done that. Putting headphones on the student, so they can listen to a story. Playing a recording of environmental sounds. Some of you may remember there was an old... tape recording-- that's how old it is, it was a tape recording called, "What's that sound?" Our kids loved-- my kids loved to listen to it. They always got the sound of the flushing toilet, and they thought that was really funny. So, that was very engaging. It got them involved, and it was great. What I don't think that I did very wel,l was take that to the next step, to increase their understanding, add something to it, to make it more meaningful. And that made it such a passive activity. So, even if what we did, and I think probably the extent to which I went, which I have seen other teachers do; if we are shaking a sound making object next to a child, we collected data on whether or not they turned their head to the sound, whether they alerted to it. If they did a response. Those are the kinds of things that I think we did, but it's not enough. None of those activities required active listening. Not unless they were paired with an object, with an activity, with something that was more meaningful. [ Slide end: ] So, what is heard is not meaningful unless it is associated with something that is already known. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Providing Meaningful, Real-Life Experiences Content: • What is heard is not meaningful unless it is associated with something that is already known • Research suggests that when sensory input, including auditory information, is imbedded within a purposeful activity, it is meaningful to the central nervous system and can promote learning Description End: And, which will be key for us, is how do we know what they already know unless we've evaluated. Research suggests, that when sensory input-- and includes auditory information-- is embedded within a purposeful activity, it is meaningful to the central nervous system, and can promote learning. [ Slide end: ] I italicized that "embedded within a purposeful activity," because that's the piece that was missing when I was shaking a rattle next to a kid, or having them listen to something that was recorded. Maybe they answered comprehension questions, but I didn't go into any detail about what they should connect it to, and tying it to something they may have already learned. So, students must be actively involved in the listening activity, in order to be able to connect it to previously learned information, and then embed it in their long‑term memory. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Providing Meaningful Experiences Content: • Students must be actively involved in the listening activity in order to be able to connect it to previously learned (heard & understood) information and to imbed the information into long- term memory • Our students need many meaningful, real-life experiences with sounds and auditory information in order to connect what they are hearing (new information) to sounds they heard & understood before. Description End: Notice in parentheses it says "heard and understood." So many times we say, well, we did that yesterday. Or they have already listened to this information. Just because they've heard it does not mean they've understood it. Certainly that's the excuse some of my family members have used. Our students-- and maybe my family members-- need many meaningful real‑life experiences with sounds and auditory information, in order to connect what they're hearing now, the new information, to the sounds that they heard and understood before. [ Slide end: ] So we talk about active listening here. Active involvement and interactions promote active listening. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Active Listening & Learning Content: • Active involvement & interactions promote active listening! • An indication of the relationships between listening skills, language skills, communication skills, concept development – and the real-life experiences needed to teach them. Description End: I'm not really talking about Active Learning here. Even though the title of this slide is active listening and learning. But certainly Lilli Neilsen's work, and talk, and research and information on how to actively involve a student and engage them in an activity, is very important for us to remember. So that applies to listening skills as well. Active listening, really brings up-- and look at this... little quote on an indication of the relationships between listening skills, language skills, communication skills, concept development, all the real‑life experiences that are needed to teach them. And what are we doing? Yes, that's the ECC. [ Slide end: ] So, there's an interrelationship between listening skills, when we teach that and all of those other areas that we need to teach. Chapter 2. Teaching Listening Skills So, let's kind of go back a little bit. Why are we doing this, again? We have mentioned this a little bit before, but this is actually a quote from ECC Essentials, that I showed you earlier. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Why We Must Teach Listening Skills Content: • “Adults and peers often have a tendency to assume that some students with visual impairments understand the language they hear based on the fact that the students may say a lot of words.” (ECC Essentials, page 133) • “One cannot assume that excellent listening skills are innate in students with visual impairments.” (Sharon Sacks in Forward to Barclay, v.) Description End: "Adults and peers often have a tendency to assume that some students with visual impairments understand the language they hear, based on the fact that the students may say a lot of words." And if they can repeat back what they hear, there's even more of an understanding, or an impression, that they know what they're talking about. That's not always the case, as we know. We cannot assume-- again this is from Barclay's book, but it is Sharon Sacks who wrote the forward to it-- another one of the... people in our field who have given so much research to us. "One cannot assume that excellent listening skills are innate in students with visual impairments." [ Slide end: ] As teachers of the visually impaired, I suspect that you have multiple examples of students that you know were not quite getting something, just because they said they could, but there was a classroom teacher who was convinced that they did. I can think of many examples. A student that I saw recently on an onsite visit. Student was very verbal. And when we know that some of our students are very verbal. One of the concepts, though, that others may not be aware of, is the whole idea of "empty language." They may know about echolalia. They may have heard speech pathologists talk about repetitive language, but what I suspect they do not realize-- and this is true for gen ed teachers, for parents, administrators, other students-- they may not realize that the language, and the words that students are using are not meaningful to them, in the same way that they are to us. We've certainly had students who could repeat things over and over, but it didn't mean anything. The most interesting example I can think of is for this brilliant little kindergarten student that I had years ago. He had no vision. He was absolutely adorable. But he had absolutely no vision, and we were working on all of those type of skills and beginning Braille skills. But I went to see him one day, his kindergarten teacher was so excited, because she told me he can see! "I didn't know it, but he can see!" I was a little flabbergasted, of course. And I asked what she meant. And she told me, that every day when he walked past this picture in the hallway, that he stopped and commented on it. It was a picture that had some dogs playing in the yard with some kids. And every day he would stop in front of that picture, on his way to lunch, stop directly in front of it, turn towards it, and say, "Oh, what a cute puppy dog." I, of course, knew he couldn't see it, but she was convinced that he could. It really wasn't until I took that picture off the wall-- and sure enough, he walked down the hall, stopped right in front of where it had been and said, "Oh, look at that pretty picture. Look at the cute puppy dog," that she realized, "Oh, what he was saying, did not mean to him, what she thought it meant." We often misunderstand the words our kids use. They misunderstand the words we use. But they may repeat them back in a way, that it sounds like they do. That why it is so terrible, terrible important for us to make sure our students demonstrate that they understand what we're talking about. This is one of the cautions that I give all teachers, is that oral testing is not a good way to measure what our students know. It may be easier, as a classroom teacher, and heaven knows I was a gen ed classroom teacher, before; to be able to ask students to answer questions orally, take them out in the hall, send them to content mastery-- whatever it was-- and read the questions to them for a test, and let them give you the answer orally. That, however, is not measuring the same skills. If we want to know what they understand, they have to be able to demonstrate it in a form that is meaningful to them. It might be print, might be braille, it maybe something with tactile symbols, or something entirely different. Those literacy methods is another topic we'll talk about later. But it's very important for the adults and peers in a student's life, as we look back at the slide, to understand what the language that the kids are using means. And we won't know that unless we spend some time with them, sharing expenses with them. We can't assume that excellent listening skills are innate. Just because a child can hear you, doesn't mean that they understand you. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Why We Must Teach Listening Skills Content: • “Learning to listen and using listening skills effectively require systematic instruction...” • “Learning to listen skillfully does not happen for our students without guidance and instruction.” • “It is essential for children with visual impairments to learn how to take meaning from what they hear and feel.” • Source - Barclay, Preface & Chapter 1, page 4 Description End: Learning to listen and using listening skills effectively requires systematic instruction. Learning to listen skillfully does not happen for our students without guidance and instruction. It is essential for children with visual impairments to learn how to take meaning from what they hear and feel. All of this is a part of why instruction is so important. Again I have italicized parts of it. Certainly the systematic instruction. We know what we do in special ed should be specific and systematic. The whole concept of listening skillfully, takes practice and instruction, and maybe that's what I need to provide to some of my family members, as well. [ Slide end: ] [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: How Do We Do This? Content: • Begin with evaluation! • Identify strengths and needs – especially identify the gaps in learning that we know students with visual impairments may have • Plan the instruction & resources needed Description End: So let's look at how we do that. Always, always, always, in our instruction, where do we begin? We begin with evaluation. As we do that, we identify strengths and needs for our student. We especially need to identify the gaps in learning that we know students with visual impairments may have. And as I visit and observe students with visual impairments, in Texas; one of the things that I discover is that others don't realize that it is not unusual for students with visual impairments to have missed pieces of information, and have some gaps in their learning. They may understand x, but they don't really get y but they get z. And it's confusing, if there is a gap in their learning, to someone who is not aware of how we gather information incidentally. [ Slide end: ] So, that is a piece that needs to be shared. It's not the focus of this particular webinar. We've had other, you know, trainings on incidental learning and how that affects the learning of our students with visual impairments, or the lack of it. So that is something that we really need to share, and to remember as we do evaluations. Once we do that, we plan the instruction and determine the resources needed. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Resources for Evaluation of Listening Skills Content: • Learning to Listen, Listening to Learn (AFB Press, 2012), Appendix B: Informal Checklist for Listening Skills Development • Listening Skills Inventory, 2008 & 2009, from Learning Ally: Learning Through Listening (www.ltl.learningally.org) • EVALS Kit (TSBVI, 2007), Section 1: Listening-Auditory Skills Checklist Description End: Your next slide is a list of some of those resources, and I want to show some of those to you. There is a checkmark in front of my favorite book here[ Laughter ], "Learning to Listen, Listening to Learn". From AFB, 2012. [ Slide end: ] I want to highlight for you appendix B. In the back of it is an informal checklist for listening skills development. It's an excellent resource. Sometimes it's hard for us to know where to find a simple way to gather the information we need, on how a student is functioning in relation to specific listening skills. There are‑‑ the next evaluation tools that I really, really, really like is one that‑‑ I'm not even sure whether I should show it to you because I've had trouble finding it. [ Slide start: ] Repeat previous slide. Learning Ally has had kind of a sister part of their website-- a link called learning through listening, and the website for that is included in the PowerPoint, and is on the screen, and in 2008, was the first time that I became aware of the Listening Skills Inventory that they had. [ Slide end: ] In 2009, there was a separate one that actually says Listening Skills Inventory: Vision Classroom Teachers, 2009. They really are practically the same listening skills inventory. What I like about both of them‑‑ and that's awkward. What I like about both of them is that they are checklists that provide you with the information on specific skills that students can or cannot accomplish. The other good thing about the‑ that website is that there's additional information that we'll talk about when we get to instruction. When I went to confirm the link, however, for this webinar, that link is not active... I have emailed Learning Ally. I have not heard back from them, as of this morning, other than just an email saying that they didn't know what I was looking for, they were not familiar with it. They sent them a link to their current website, but I know that they, like us, are in the process of re-doing their website. So, what I'm hoping, is that this will again be available on their website. In the meantime, this is something that you would like. I do not have a problem with Xeroxing copies, or having it scanned and making links to send. It's a really good resource. If you want to put that in the chat or email me or whatever, I will be happy to do that. [ Slide start: ] Repeat previous slide. The next resource on your list for evaluation is the EVALS Kit. Hopefully you all are familiar with that. That is a TSBVI publication. Within section one of the EVALS Kit, there is a Listening-Auditory Skills Checklist. These are probably my three, favorite... evaluations to use for listening skills. [ Slide end: ] [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Resources for Evaluation of Listening Skills Content: • Brigance Diagnostic Inventory of Early Development (Curriculum Associates, 2004) • Oregon Project for Visually Impaired and Blind Preschool Children (Southern Oregon Education Service District, 2007) • Independent Living Curriculum (TSBVI, 1993) – Volume 1 on Social Competence • Reading Connections: Strategies for Teaching Students with Visual Impairments (AFB Press, 2015). Figure 10.2: Assessment of Listening Comprehension, page 256. Description End: There are a couple of others, however. The Brigance has a listening skills component. Most school districts and teachers are very familiar with the Brigance, so, therefore, the information gained from the listening skills piece of the Brigance is something that districts may, you know, understand and have access to, of course. I think many VI teachers-- hopefully, those of you in the audience-- are familiar with the Oregon Project. And, certainly, listening skills addressed there. The Independent Living Curriculum from TSBVI, addresses listening skills in the volume 1 on Social Competence. It's not really specifically pulled out as much as it is in some of those earlier resources that I mentioned. But, certainly, listening skills affect independent living skills, and certainly social competence. And Reading Connections is another resource that I have used in this webinar. And it is a very new book, which I'm going to show you. [ Slide end: ] Strategies for Teaching Students with Visual Impairments from AFB Press, and it is specifically about reading. But it does have a very brief assessment of listening comprehension, on Page 256. This particular book... stresses so much more on reading, and this tool for comprehension assessment, it's really much more involved, and to be able to use it with the student, the student needs to be able to write independently and generate thoughts, and ideas based on what they hear. So it would not be an assessment tool that you could use for all students. Instruction and listening skills must be deliberate and systematic. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Instruction in Listening Skills Content: • Must be deliberate & systematic • Lack of incidental learning (observation) necessitates a “more conscious effort” to compensate for missing visual information • Teach through meaningful experiences (must be meaningful to the student) • It can help to add a tactual or visual component to sounds instead of using auditory information alone Description End: All instruction in Special Ed, obviously, is supposed to be systematic; and, clearly, systematic, specific instruction is helpful for all students; special ed, visually impaired, otherwise. The second bullet so important. "Lack of incidental learning necessitates a more conscious effort to compensate for missing visual information." I think we as VI professionals are aware of how much information is learned through observation. I'm not sure that others do. And I've alluded to this earlier in the webinar. [ Slide end: ] I think, especially, parents and general Ed teachers truly believe that doing things orally with their students, providing verbal descriptions, letting them listen to things on auditory recording, that that can replace the information that other students receive visually. We know how I‑‑ how early kids, early concepts. I know that I've talked about what letter of the alphabet the students learn first, and most people assume that it's the letter A. There was some research some years ago-- and this may not be true any longer-- but there was research some years ago, that said the first letter kids learned was the letter M, because they saw it constantly at McDonald's, and the huge signs when they drove- rode down the street with their parents. That research may not hold any longer-- about M being the first letter kids learn-- I suspect its still got some validity. But, again it's learning that is through observation, it's what other students gather incidentally. Information that we as VI professionals need to share with others, so that it can be learned and taught in a very systematic way. That's why it's part of the Expanded Core Curriculum for students with visual impairments. I think another example, that talks about how meaningful things are, and that is the next bullet. [ Slide start: ] Repeat previous slide. Teach through meaningful experiences and the experiences must be meaningful to the student is-- think about that paragraph I read earlier about the sounds that water makes. A student with visual impairments would not understand what all of those sounds might be, unless they had some meaningful experiences with water, in those contexts. [ Slide end: ] And it's not meaningful unless the student has been able to experience it themselves. Not just having someone tell me that water going over a waterfall makes this sound. I've never actually touched a waterfall, either. But I can see one. And I've seen movies and pictures. So I understand that whooshing sound that a waterfall might make. That might be extremely confusing for a student who doesn't have any vision. I think they have to be able to experience activities themselves with water. And I'm not just talking about washing their hands, or taking a bath. All of those things, in that earlier paragraph, that I read about water, our kids need to experience. And how do we know if an experience is meaningful for our students? The bullets you'll notice on the slide talks about must be meaningful to the student. Not to us! And certainly as a teacher, I've been mistaken when I thought that I had came up with an activity that would be meaningful to a student, and it meant something to me, but he or she could have cared less. So one suggestion. And I know I have given this suggestion many times, when I have visited some of you in on‑site visits, but really gather information from the student's entire team on their likes and dislikes. That information, I think, will share with you-- let you learn what they've already experienced. A child is not going to like or dislike something if they haven't ever experienced it. So, we can say all day long that our student doesn't like bowling, but if they've never been bowling, how do they know whether they like it or not? The noise, the sounds in a bowling alley-- pretty loud noises-- might be pretty overwhelming. But unless they're allowed to experience, it with some pre-teaching, some opportunities to experience it with and without all the noises going on; all the pieces that can make it a meaningful experience to them, can help them decide what they like and what they don't like. So, this little likes, dislikes thing that I'm talking about; it can be used both ways; help gather information about the student, and it also helps the student gather information about what's going on around them. And I don't just mean... there's a form that we can use, but it's really pretty simple, you don't need a form-- I may have passed it out when I visited some of you. But, basically it's to gather a list of likes and dislikes. The likes are... not just the sounds-- that's what we're talking about today-- foods, people, activities, environments, you know, all the things that a student might like. May or may not be something that they can touch or see; who knows. It's got to be comprehensive, and it needs to be filled out by everyone that works with the student, because we all know them differently. Dislikes are those things that are so aversive that they interfere with the child's ability to gather information and learn in a particular situation, or environment, or activity. That bowling alley, I mentioned, could be extremely aversive for some students. On the other hand, It might be so interesting and fascinating that they want to explore the whole area, and they want to learn more, and they want to become a good bowler. [ Slide start: ] Repeat previous slide. The last bullet on this slide, mentions that "it can help to add a tactual or visual component to sounds instead of using auditory information alone." I alluded to that when I talked about the water... [ Slide end: ] And I thinks that's important for us to remember, with all activities we're working on with our students with visual impairments. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Instruction (continued) Content: • Repetition of experiences is important! • Pair the language used with touch, actions, and objects • Model and teach the language that links the perception of sounds to known information (what was previously heard and understood...importance of evaluation! ) • Use descriptive words that label the things they are hearing to what they are seeing, touching, tasting or doing Description End: Repetition of experiences is important! That's true for most of the things we do. Pair the language that they hear with touch, actions, objects, activities-- and this piece is extremely important, this last one. Model and teach the language that links the perception of sounds to known information; what was previously heard and understood, as we said before. Again, that's the importance of the evaluation. Cause how do we know what they heard and understood, if we haven't done that evaluation. Be sure to use descriptive words that label the things they are hearing, connecting that to what they are seeing, touching, tasting, doing-- I mention tasting, because for many of our students food, of course, is so meaningful. [ Slide end: ] Be consistent. I hinted to this a while ago. Everyone on the students team should use the same language and terminology. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Instruction (continued) Content: • Be consistent! Everyone on student’s team should use the same language & terminology. • Monitor your own language – more is not always best. Use simple directions instead of questions & explanations. • Allow & encourage students to participate as fully as possible in daily routine activities in order to help them develop an understanding of the language concepts involved. Description End: How many times do we find out that the parents call something one thing, and at school it's called something entirely different; and the child doesn't realize that... talking about the same thing. So it's important for everyone to use the same language and terminology. Monitor your own language. More is not always best. I'm clearly not the best example of this. I talk too much and way too fast. Allow and encourage students to participate as fully as possible in daily routine activities. We want to help them develop an understanding of language concepts associated with activities. Even if student cannot do the whole activity-- the whole routine-- encouraging them to participate in the parts that they can; providing them with the language needed to do so, encourages them to participate more fully and to listen actively to what others involved in the activity are doing. [ Slide end: ] [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Instruction (continued) Content: • Consider the importance of object permanence for students with visual impairments & its relationship to listening skills. Barclay emphasized the relationship of object permanence to joint attention, which is crucial for communication skills (page 7). Description End: Again, notice something I think we probably alluded to, the relationship between language skills and listening skills. And I found this information in Barclay's book to be particularly interesting. Consider the importance of object permanency for students with visual impairments. And we certainly know that that's important, but the relationship to listening skills is something that I don't know I had really thought about... very much. Certainly, Stacy Schaffer, if any of you remember Stacy when she was the... Educaiton Specialist that worked with infants and toddlers on the VI Outreach Team. She used to talk about joint attention a lot, and developing communication skills with really young children. Barclay emphasized the relationship of object permanence to joint attention. Obviously, that's crucial for communication skills. [ Slide end: ] We know that, but if a student is not listening with you; you don't have joint attention with them, related to whatever the object be, then that's going to affect their comprehension-- their listening comprehension, and what that applies to later on. So this whole concept of object permanence was really powerful, and she did a great job of explaining it on page seven. Chapter 3. Resources for Instruction Here are some resources for instruction. Some of them are the same. Learning to Listen-- I can't say enough about it, obviously. What is... so valuable about it is... the information-- the way it's divided, and just the detail... [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Resources for Instruction Content: • Learning to Listen, Listening to Learn (AFB Press, 2012) • Learning Ally: Learning Through Listening (www.ltl.learningally.org) - Listening Skills Inventory, 2008 & 2009 • ECC Essentials – Chapters 4 & 5 (AFB Press, 2014) • Reading Connections: Strategies for Teaching Students with Visual Impairments (AFB Press, 2015) – Chapter 10, pages 251 & 256 • Listen and Think Series, APH (1972)– 3 levels (plus multiple choice answer sheets & teachers’ handbook) • Oregon Project for Visually Impaired and Blind Preschool Children (Southern Oregon Education Service District, 2007) Description End: In just a few minutes, I'm actually going to go into it in more detail and share specifics about the book, and where to find specific things, because there is so much in there. Leaning Ally, again, I mentioned it in... the section when I talked about... resources for evaluation. The previous website also had a whole teacher education section. It included lesson plans, suggested teaching strategies, classroom activities to emphasis listening skills; it had a great wealth of information. I have pieces of that that I have copied over time. I didn't copy all of it, cause I was hoping I could go back and retrieve that information from their website. So, I'm hoping that will be available again... This was the previous website, the... L-T-L Learing Ally dot org. I will be happy that share that information with anyone that wants to get in touch with me. That listening skills inventory-- again that's the evaluation piece, but it ties very well to the instructional activities that were on the rest of the website. Reading Connections-- I showed you that earlier. It's got quite a bit of instructional information related to reading and listening skills, and the end of the webinar we'll talk about that a little bit more. I want to remind you about the "old," as I call it, Listen and Think Series from APH. You'll notice the date on it is 1972! And I remember when I first started teaching students with visual impairments, that particular series was in the office, where I was working, and... used it with a student or two; and, frankly, I thought it was... some of the most boring information I had ever heard... There are three levels-- they also have a teachers' handbook and multiple choice worksheet-- answer sheets that are really valuable to use. And they start with really basic, you know, information and how to use basic answer sheets-- those are extremely helpful, even in other activities. I thought those Listen and Think... stories that they listen to-- and they were on tape then-- they were so slow-- you know how fast I talk-- you've heard that already. So it was very frustrating for me when I previewed them. I had several students, however, who absolutely loved them. So, my caution to you is, don't just discard something, because one student doesn't like them... I had other students who really, really, loved the Listen and Think Series; and it's very systematic programmed instruction on listening skills. The Oregon Project for students with visual impairments also has... listening skills instruction. [ Slide end: ] Chapter 4. Learning to Listen, Listening to Learn Now, lets talk about... my favorite, favorite book for the world-- right now, anyway-- it the Learning to Listen, Listening to Learn book by Liz Barclay. It has two parts in the book. Part one has six chapters on the development of listening skills; broken down into so much detailed information; and there's a chapter on each of the areas. It goes from infancy up through high school, and then the high school section, it also goes into skills needed for students after they're out of high school. It even talks about the skills they need to have, in relation to listening skills, once they are out of high school. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Information about Learning to Listen, Listening to Learn (Barclay, 2012) Content: Two parts to book: • Part 1 has six chapters on the development of listening skills, from infancy through high school, plus a chapter on O&M. • Part 2 addresses the unique needs of students with additional disabilities related to listening skills, including those with hearing impairments, learning disabilities, and English language learners. Description End: And then there's also information on listening skills that might be needed in the workplace and for college, whatever they might be doing after- after high school. Part two addresses the unique needs of students with additional disabilities related to listening skills, and includes those with hearing impairments, learning disabilities, and English language learners. Excellent information! Each of the chapters has sidebars of instruction, case studies... individual checklists, teaching strategies, suggestions... [ Slide end: ] I can't even think of all the things, right now, that they have to help you, all along the way, with each area. Once you've identified something your child needs, I can almost guarantee you that there's a way to teach it, in this book; and it's spelled out. They have interviews and information from visually impaired students and visually impaired adults. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Content: Screen shot of Appendix A: The Listening Skills Continuum Description End: Appendix A in the back of the book has a Listening Skills Continuum that is pretty amazing! It lists the essential skills needed by age and grade level. It's not, however... so blunt that it makes you think, "Oh, this child is two and they haven't developed this skill yet. There's a problem." And it's something you could share and do together with a parent, or pull pieces of it, and they wouldn't go, "Oh, my child's seven, but they don't have this skill!" [ Slide end: ] Because it's kind of a range of skills. The grade levels are also given as a range. What's really helpful, is that it... Barclay has given the sources for the information at each one of those levels; for the evaluation and the instruction. So, this Listening Skills Continuum is- is an excellent way to look at what your child might need to know at a certain level. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Content: Screen shot of Appendix B: Informal Checklist for Listening Skills Development Description End: The Informal Checklist for Listening Skills-- that evaluation piece is in Appendix B. It's also excellent. The whole book is research based. It has strategies for students at all levels, as I mentioned. And it's good for both teachers and parents. [ Slide end: ] [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: More Information... Content: • Emphasizes the importance of specific & systematic instruction in listening skills • Highlights the early development of listening skills at home and school, as well as the “shift” that students must make beginning in elementary school – to gain “access” to information in the classroom & in the community Description End: The book emphasizes the importance specific and systematic instruction, like we've mentioned throughout the webinar. And it highlights the early development of listening skills at home and school; really, several chapters on that that are extremely good. But also the "shift," as she called it, that students must make beginning in elementary school, when they need to gain access-- that word again-- to information in the classroom and in the community. So the focus that it has on skills needed in multiple environments, I think is really helpful. [ Slide end: ] [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: And Even More... Content: • Comprehensive list of references at end of each chapter • Annotated resource list at end of book • LOTS of sidebars, tables, charts, lists of suggested activities, case studies, & lesson ideas throughout the book • First-hand accounts from students & adults with visual impairments • Strategies to support early literacy Description End: Even more-- there's a comprehensive list of reference information at the end of each chapter. At the back of the book, there is an annotated resource list that tells you where you can find these things, and gives some information on what's exactly included in each one. Lots and lots of sidebars, tables, charts, the list of suggested activities, the case studies I mentioned, lesson ideas throughout the book. [ Slide end: ] Some specific examples, I really wanted to share with you. There's sidebar 3.1, which I thought was really powerful, Listening Activities and Strategies to Use at Home; great information to be able to share with parents. There's another section, sidebars 3.8, 3.9 and 3.10, on listening skills and literacy-- mentioned that connection. Even includes strategies for "circle time." If any of you remember Stacy Schaffer, when she was the Early Childhood Consultant here... in Outreach; circle time the "bain of her existence," as she would say, because so often times, our students end up just sitting there during circle time, listening, without being able to attach what they're hearing to anything they already understand. So, suggestions and strategies for circle time is extremely helpful. A couple of other things that I think are really important. Another example, sidebar 3.3 on page 80. I hope you remember from our webinar on tactile skills, that we discussed the hierarchy of tactile skills, and how students must move through each area of the hierarchy, in order, and master those, before they were able to success- be successful with each successive area. The same's true with concept development; one of the reasons why we notice that some of our students may have some gaps in their learning, in their concept development. So, this hierarchy that Barclay includes on page 80, I think, is extremely helpful... She also includes strategies and activities that will enhance concept development and communication skills. Those are just a few examples, there's a whole chapter on O&M that provides sidebars and strategies. Here's one. For teaching the meaning of sounds to infants and young children-- remember the opening quote about water. So, a whole sidebar with strategies on how to make sounds meaningful. I can't say enough good things, obviously. The first hand accounts, going back to the slide, from students and adults with visual impairments; very powerful. A young girl... reported the whole thing of her learning and understanding about the top of the refrigerator. She was an adult when she wrote a paragraph in the book, but she talked about when she was very young, a neighbor came over to bring something to her family member, and her mother just said, "Put it on top of the fridge." She didnt' realize the refrigerator had a top. She had many concepts about the refrigerator; the loved the way it made cold are, she loved the way it sounded when it made a swishing noise, when she opened and closed it. She thought she knew all about refrigerators. She was floored to discover that there was a top; and evidently it was top that you could place something on. So, again, the concept development suggestions are powerful, and hearing them from an adult with a visual impairment can be very helpful for our parents to hear. [ Slide start: ] Repeat previous slide. The first-hand accounts from students and adults with visual impairments are really helpful; and strategies to support early literacy. [ Slide end: ] Chapter 5. Listening Skills & Literacy So, let's talk about this listening skills and literacy. This is an issue in our field... so, I wanted to reference more than just Liz Barclay's book in addressing this. But, in general, the auditory channel cannot be a student's primary system for learning and obtaining information. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Listening Skills and Literacy Content: • “In general...the auditory channel cannot be a student’s primary system for learning and obtaining information...” • “Primary dependence on auditory information for learning...is not a reliable strategy unless the auditory information is parred with visual and tactile information.” • ECC Essentials, page 133 Description End: I know that there are students for whom that is the case, however. ECC Essentials, that's where that quote, you know, is derived from... We know that we've heard this, certainly, from administrators and TEA and things in the past. But we also know how important the auditory channel is, and for some of our students, it may actually be their primary system, their primary channel for learning. But... the primary use of that-- primary dependence on auditory information for learning is not a reliable strategy unless that information is paired with visual and tactile information. So, just listening, by itself, is not enough. [ Slide end: ] Hope I've made that part pretty clear. And I hope this helps explain why using auditory information alone is not sufficient. Some more quotes. Back to Barclay. "Listening does not take the place of reading." And... most definitions of literacy-- and that's not what this webinar is about-- but most definitions of literacy include, you know, literacy skills that include either print or braille. We have students for whom listening is extremely valuable; and with the use of technology today, certainly, that impacts their literacy skill. Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Listening Skills and Literacy Content: • “Listening does not take the place of reading!” • Listening is “an important learning medium that supplements and supports literacy skills.” • But listening skills are important for the development of reading & writing skills, and later for acquiring information during classroom activities. • Barclay, pages 17 & 18 Description End: But it does not necessarily take the place of reading. It is an important learning medium that supplements and supports literacy skills. So, again, I'm not talking about the students for whom the motor skill, the cognitive skills, whatever it might be, impacts their ability to use either print or braille. I'm just talking in general about listening as literacy. Listening skills are important for the development of reading and writing skills for all those kids; and, later, they're important for acquiring information once they're working within classroom activities. So, this starts early and it goes up, through school activities. [ Slide end: ] So, what are some listening skills that impact a student's literacy skills. If you look at this list from Barclay, she give a big comprehensive list on this slide and the on next one. You'll notice a strong similarity to the wording in the TEKS. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Listening Skills Related to Literacy Content: • Discriminates & identifies verbal and nonverbal sounds • Demonstrates understanding of spoken words, syllables, & sounds (phonemes) • Knows & applies grade-level phonics & word-analysis skills in decoding words • Asks & answers questions about key details in a text read aloud or information presented orally or through auditory media Description End: For example, the very first one; discriminates and identifies sounds. She specifies verbal and nonverbal sounds. Sometimes you'll see IEP goals written a little more vaguely than that. That's somewhat more specific. Demonstrates understanding of spoken words, syllables and sounds. And we look at phonemes here. Think about all the research on main components, the five components of literacy, that includes phonemic awareness and phonics; and how that lends itself to other skills, fluency and comprehension, and all of that. So, demonstrates an understanding of spoken words-- clearly that's tied to listening skills-- huge impact on literacy as well. Knows and applies grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words. Decoding-- phonics-- again, those words, those terms, those understandings that have to do with literacy. Asks and answers questions about key details in a text. Picking out the main idea. Certainly, those are skills that we know teachers work on; especially in those early elementary grades. [ Slide end: ] Whether the text is read aloud, or not. This case, with younger kids, it's read aloud. The information that's presented orally through auditory media. That's one of the skills we often have our older students do-- we put headphones on them and have them listen you recorded text books, for example. Selects the main idea. More information related to the TEKS, but certainly impacted by literacy skills. Summarizes, relates one idea to another, makes inferences. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Listening Skills Related to Literacy (continued) Content: • Selects the main idea, summarizes, relates one idea to another, makes inferences • Recounts or describes key ideas or details from a text read aloud or information presented orally or through auditory media • Connects literary texts to personal experiences and previously encountered texts to enhance understanding and appreciation • Barclay, page 108 Description End: Recounts or describes the key ideas or details from a text read aloud, or information presented orally or through auditory media. Again, we're looking at, you know, more academic type activities; but, again, these are TEKS that are also... present at a different level at very early ages. Connects literary text to personal experiences and previously encountered texts to enhance understanding and appreciation. They become progressively more complex, but, again, you can see how they're tied to the TEKS. [ Slide end: ] I also want to share with you a few other resources that I think you'll find very valuable. I hope that all of you are aware of the website 'Paths to Literacy' It's given on the slide. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Additional Resources Content: • Paths to Literacy: http://www.pathstoliteracy.org/developing-listening-skills - information from Diane Brauner – and Jim Durkel (!) • Wonder Baby: http://www.wonderbaby.org/articles/listening-skills • Imagine the Possibilities: Creative Approaches to Orientation and Mobility Instruction for Persons Who Are Visually Impaired (AFB, 2001) – Chapter 4 on concept development • Website: http://www.teachingvisuallyimpaired.com/listening-skills.html Description End: But what I think is really interesting, in the section of the Paths to Literacy website there's some great information on listening skills from Diane Brauner, but also from our own Jim Durkel. And so, I had to actually put an exclamation point on that slide, because... we know that Jim's research and writing, and all the information he shared with us on auditory skills, stays with us-- is so important to our field. I'll get emotional. A... couple of other... resources to share with you. You may be familiar with Wonder Baby. Got the website for that one. The next one is an O&M book that I'm pretty sure the COMS in the audience are familiar with; Imagine the Possibilities: Creative Approaches to Orientation and Mobility Instruction for Persons Who Are Visually Impaired. Chapter four on concept development, while not specifically addressing just listening skills... [ Slide end: ] is a really excellent look at conceptual development that our students must go through, and some ways to do that; especially in relation to movement. But, based on what we've talked about today, you already are aware of the relationship between movement and listening skills; object permanence, that we talked about earlier. And certainly, Barclay has a whole chapter-- I believe it's chapter six-- on orientation and mobility and listening skills. [ Slide start: ] Repeat previous slide. The last... link is a website that's really new to me. It's teaching visually impaired dot com. It's written by a TVI. [ Slide end: ] It was not one that I was familiar with before, but there is a section on listening skills that I think you might find valuable. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Conclusion Content: The development of effective listening skills enhances the lives of all students with visual impairments...they: • Improve awareness & understanding of the world, • Are essential for understanding concepts & developing communication skills, • Increase security & encourage curiosity, • Are a prerequisite for satisfying social interactions, & • Provide the foundation for literacy skills. • Barclay, page 20 Description End: So, in conclusion the development of effective listening skills enhances the lives of all students with visual impairments. Hopefully we touch on each of those... types of students; each age and grade level. But they all need listening skills-- cause they impact all of these things. They improve their understanding and awareness of the world. They're essential for understanding concepts and developing communication skills. Sound like the ECC? Increase security and encourage curiosity-- something we want to do for all of our students! They are a prerequisite for satisfying social interactions-- certainly another part of the ECC. And they provide the foundation for literacy skills. [ Slide end: ] [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Content: Text read by presenter. Description End: So, it should be the role of educators and caregivers to make the teaching and development of listening skills a priority for our students with visual impairments. And that is something we must do together. We all need to provide those experiences that we talked about in... the webinar, and the specific instruction that they need. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Thanks for joining us! Content: ECC Series: Compensatory Skills - Listening Skills April 14, 2016 right-side graphic: TSBVI logo Description End: [ Slide end: ] [Silence] Fade up from black. Animation: Text for TSBVI transform into braille cells for TSBVI. Fade to black.