Interventions

Critical Considerations of All CVI Intervention Plans

1. The CVI interventions must be integrated into the curriculum. Lesson planning should take into account the individual needs of each student and how CVI will be addressed must be included when an activity or lesson is being designed.  Vision goals and objectives need to be linked to educational outcomes.
2. The language for salient features must be consistent among classroom staff. Discuss what the salient features are for targeted images among the team members and devise a plan for ensuring that everyone will use the same language when working with the student.
3. Advanced preparation of materials saves instructional time and ensures that the needs of the student can be met during each activity. Lesson plans should include what materials are necessary and what needs to be done to make them accessible.
4. The classroom environment plays a critical role in how well a student with CVI uses their vision. While it may be impractical to change the entire classroom, specific areas should adapted and used for activities that rely heavily on visual input.
5. Consistency in instructional materials, the descriptive language that is used, and the expectations placed on students is crucial to support the students as they learn to use their vision.

Developing an Intervention

During each phase the emphasis is not on vision stimulation activities but rather on carefully selected modifications and adaptations of environmental characteristics that support the student’s best visual functioning at the time.

Edelman, 2006

To begin intervention planning, assessment results are compiled on The CVI Range Assessment’s Essential Forms (Roman-Lantzy, 2010). The Essential Forms provide a student with a score that indicates their range of visual function. Once the CVI profile of a student is identified, The CVI Range Assessment planning guides and intervention suggestions are organized into documents that incorporate our current curriculum. These documents, used together or individually, help guide the development and creation of CVI interventions and materials for individual students.

CVI Characteristics:  Teaching Strategies and Accommodations Planning Guide

CVI Characteristics: Teaching Strategies and Accommodations Planning Guide is a document compiling a student’s CVI visual behaviors and responses derived from The CVI Range Assessment. It is used to document instructional planning, accommodations and materials for teachers, parents and IEP teams.

CVI Characteristics Blank [PDF, 21KB]

CVI Characteristics Sample [PDF, 36KB]

Student, Teacher, Environmental, AAC and AT Considerations CVI Intervention Planning Guide

The focus of The Student, Teacher, Environmental, AAC and AT Considerations CVI Intervention Planning Guide is to increase a student’s classroom participation through use of their vision by applying CVI interventions in the following areas:

• Student considerations: describing characteristics (after The CVI Range Assessment)
• Teacher/instruction considerations: Adaptations to materials, instructional strategies, prompting language and lesson planning
• Environment: changes to the classroom space, desk space, noise levels, lighting, etc.
• AAC/AT: development and use of AAC systems (no-tech, low-tech, high-tech), and decisions about AT tools (switches, seating, computer access, mounting, etc.)

Phase I Planning Guide Sample [PDF, 24KB]

Phase II Planning Guide Sample [PDF, 25KB]

Phase III Planning Guide Sample [PDF, 24KB]

Phase I, II, III Planning Guide Blank [PDF, 15KB]

Guide to Planning Accommodations Across the School Day

Providing CVI intervention strategies for individuals and groups throughout the school day can be a daunting task for educators. To make the task manageable, we followed Christine Roman-Lantzy’s recommendations to begin implementing two CVI interventions in four activities during our school day.  This led to the Guide to Planning Accommodations Across the School Day. This guide targets increasing a student’s classroom participation through use of their vision by planning specific interventions for an activity with a specific CVI characteristic and lesson objective as the goal.

Accommodations Across the School Day Sample [PDF, 20KB]