ABSTRACT
Talking - and listening carefully - to pupils is often the best way to pick up issues like this, and a curriculum area such as literacy can be very fruitful for broadening pupils’ understanding and experiences through the very nature of the subject matter and the wide opportunity for discussion. Speaking and listening skills are particularly important to pupils with visual impairment, as the world is not full of accessible text. Pupils with visual impairment often have reduced access to incidental reading. Pupils with severe visual impairment often have poor spelling skills. As spelling is largely a visual skill, this is not surprising. Specialist teachers for visual impairment are responsible for coordinating braille teaching. Like learning to read print, it is important to provide appropriate pre-reading activities to develop the necessary skills. Pre-reading activities can be modified to include tactile and other sensory experiences that may benefit all pupils in the classroom.
