The visually impaired child: A thinking and thought stylization program.

Abstract

Programs that specifically teach thinking for children with visual impairment(s) in the public school and are not bound to any specific subject or content area prove to be a rare commodity. The majority of the research literature for the visually impaired, addresses approaches for intellectual assessment, the dispellment of discrimination towards this population or functional living and mobility training issues. A program which takes into account what children with visual impairments can do with their available, or untapped senses, for training in thinking and thought stylization is sorely needed. A thinking framework that could prove to be generic for children with congenital and adventitious visual impairments, as well as be generic for any subject or content area that would be selectively legislated by the child, can provide a significant impact for those who have limited or complete loss/use of sight. This study adopts the learning theory developed by T. Frank Saunders in which the nature of knowledge and intellectual functioning is regarded as "... not... something one has, but something one does," and intellectual functioning cannot be viewed as "a magnitude (or) a quantity, but a skill (where) intelligence is not a thing, but a process of applying systems of integrating ideas" (Saunders, 1973, p. 14). In addition, this study also provides an illustrative case in which the thinking style (abstraction skills in a pattern) of a child with visual impairment(s) can be described and identified, contextualized, and legislated by the child in ways that will enhance her/his educational performance.