一、身心特質

由於視覺障礙兒童看不見或看不清，所產生在移動、環境控制能力受限，以致於在經驗範圍與種類上受到限制，與同年齡兒童比較，在認知、語言、社會、動作發展上有較遲緩的現象。

視覺障礙兒童的特質與發展，存在著很大的個別差異性，主要的影響因素包括:失明時期、失明原因、視力功能以及是否伴隨有其他障礙等。

以下分別自認知、語言、社會及動作各層面進行簡單介紹:

1. 認知發展:

(1)由於眼睛看不見，導致無法獲取大量的知覺訊息，造成概念發展困難。

(2)概念內化遲滯，對於其他如物體恆存、因果關係、空間關係、分類能力、保留能力等發展也受到影響。

(3)盲生運用觸覺與聽覺來探索環境，再用心理想像加以統整，此種概念化 過程較無效率，容易感受不完整或形成錯誤。

2. 語言發展:

(1)視覺障礙兒童語言發展與明眼兒童相同，早期字彙習得發展階段無顯著差異。

(2)受限於視力，對於視覺線索與社交經驗不足之影響，在語言使用與描述上，常依賴他人轉述，在缺乏實際經驗下，說出的文意常有「語意不合」的現象。

3. 社會發展:

(1)社會學習亟需依賴視覺模仿，當失去視覺時，將無法揣摩社會角色模式、遵循團體遊戲規則等。

(2)無法有效運用非語文溝通，如注視、微笑、點頭、打招呼等，社交能力將受到限制，因而造成孤立、誤解、負面態度、消極的自我觀念。

4.動作發展:

眼盲並非造成動作發展遲滯的主因，相關因素為:缺乏視覺刺激，以激發其移動意願;環境和社會因素，如過度保護;身體對空間位置知覺能力不足。此一動作發展遲滯現象，對先天盲者容易造成姿勢不良與特殊的行走姿態。

二、輔導原則

1. 教室中座位選擇:

(1)桌面要有夠大的空間，足以讓學生擺放大字體課本、點字書、點字機或擴視機等器材。另外，如視覺障礙學生使用電子輔具或輔助照明設備，座位盡可能靠牆以便有足夠的插座可連接學習設備。

(2)教室內要有足夠的專屬置物箱或櫥櫃，讓學生存放相關的書籍與設備。置物空間與書桌間的行走動線要簡明，以利學生往返取物。

(3)注意學生與黑板間的位置，允許學生到接近講台看黑板及老師的示範，或讓學生選擇坐在中間或後面的位置，而以望眼鏡遠眺。

2.學習資料:

(1)儘量以電腦打字，並且使字體字形一致，以直線成行，宜避免跳行。

(2)紙張與字體對比要清晰，最好使用白紙黑字，但白紙不能有反光的情形。此外，也要避免為了美觀，將字體印在背景圖形上，造成視覺混淆。

(3)由於弱視學童視力狀況各不相同，因此對於「放大」字體，並非一體適用相同倍率的字體。另外，並不是字體放得越大越好，有時放大太多反而影響閱讀的範圍與速度。

(4)教室黑板宜採用黑色或綠色的乾淨版面，以白色或黃色對比較高的粉筆書寫，字體亦需工整清楚、大小一致，依序一行一行的寫。

(5)以書寫方式呈現教材時，同時要輔以口頭說明或提供錄音教材。

3.儘量參與原則:

(1)盡可能讓視覺障礙學童有第一手的經驗，如僅由他人轉述，將降低學生的自我知覺與自我經驗的價值，剝奪經由發現而主動參與的學習機會。

(2)除了一些無法經由接觸或基於安全考量，不讓視覺障礙學童接觸的事物外，盡可能刻意安排讓他們有實際的經驗，如觸摸展覽作品、讓學生操作實驗器材等，對學生將有珍貴的體驗。

4.對學生的期望:

(1)對於學校中各項學習活動或要求，較適當的方法是採用和一般同學一樣的期望標準，但允許視覺障礙學生有較充裕的工作時間。

(2)由於在各項學習過程需要全神貫注，因此學生較容易疲憊、分神而錯失學習重點，故應給予額外的協助，但不需要過度保護，避免造成其失去獨立的機會。

(3)應注重視覺障礙學生的生活教育，加強其責任感，如自行整理背包、準備學習用品、繳交作業、準時上課等，激勵學生追求和明眼學生相同的行為準則。

三、教學提醒

(1)聽覺是視障學生資訊輸入的主要管道，授課教師的聲音是學生學習資訊的來源，如果在觸覺無法傳達教學重點，就必須以聲音替代。因此教師要能掌握清晰的聲音，並提供正確的訊息。藉由說話的速度、音量、語調的變化，增加上課趣味性，使視覺障礙學生加深上課的重點。

(2)提供訊息時應注意避免使用視覺語彙，如「請把這個東西拿到那邊去」。對於一些抽象的概念學習宜借助具體概念來教導之。

(3)如果以肢體語言來表達訊息(如動作教學)，應適當輔以口頭說明;指定學生發言，應說明學生姓名或同學自行說出姓名，讓視覺障礙學生有參與討論的機會。

(4)視覺障礙學生從事任何學習，均需花費較多時間，故不可因其速度較慢，認為學生學習遲緩，影響其自信心。

(5)因為學生需要長時間學習，以應付日益繁重的課業，因而缺乏社交生活與休閒活動，故需要指導學生有效率的學習。例如應用科技輔具，如盲用電腦、語音系統、光學閱讀儀器等，提高學習的效率。

 

資料出處:

全國特殊教育資訊網-學生輔導原則

https://special.moe.gov.tw/article.php?paid=181

 

1. Physical and Mental Characteristics

Children with visual impairments face limitations in mobility and environmental control due to their inability to see clearly. This results in restricted experiences in both scope and variety, causing delays in cognitive, language, social, and motor development compared to their peers.

The characteristics and development of children with visual impairments show significant individual differences. Key influencing factors include the onset age of blindness, the cause of blindness, visual functionality, and whether other disabilities are present.

Below is a brief introduction to their development in cognitive, language, social, and motor domains:

1.1 Cognitive Development:

1. Due to the inability to see, these children lack access to large amounts of sensory information, making concept development challenging.
2. Delays in internalizing concepts affect the development of object permanence, causality, spatial relationships, classification skills, and conservation abilities.
3. Blind students explore their environment through touch and hearing, integrating the information via mental imagery. However, this conceptualization process is less efficient, often leading to incomplete or incorrect perceptions.

1.2 Language Development:

1. The language development of children with visual impairments is generally comparable to sighted children during the early stages of vocabulary acquisition, with no significant differences.
2. Limited by their visual impairment and the lack of visual cues and social experiences, they often rely on others' descriptions in language use. Without firsthand experiences, their verbal expressions may show semantic inaccuracies.

1.3 Social Development:

1. Social learning relies heavily on visual imitation. Without vision, these children struggle to emulate social role models and follow group game rules.
2. Nonverbal communication skills, such as making eye contact, smiling, nodding, or greeting, are difficult to master. This limits their social abilities, often resulting in isolation, misunderstanding, negative attitudes from others, and low self-concept.

1.4 Motor Development:

Blindness itself is not the main cause of motor developmental delays. Contributing factors include:

• Lack of visual stimuli to encourage movement.
• Environmental and social factors, such as overprotection.
• Limited body perception in space.

These factors may cause congenital blind children to develop poor posture and unique walking patterns.

2. Counseling Principles

 2.1 Classroom Seating:

1. Desks should be spacious enough to accommodate large print textbooks, braille books, braille typewriters, or magnifiers. If electronic aids or lighting devices are used, seating should be near a wall for easy access to power outlets.
2. Provide ample dedicated storage for books and equipment. The pathway between the storage and desk should be clear and direct for easy access.
3. Ensure students can sit close enough to the blackboard to view it or allow them to use a telescope for distant viewing.

2.2 Learning Materials:

1. Use computer-typed materials with uniform fonts and avoid text skipping lines.
2. Ensure high contrast between the paper and text, preferably black text on white paper without reflective surfaces. Avoid placing text on complex background patterns.
3. Adjust font size according to each student's visual needs; larger fonts are not always better, as they can reduce reading speed and range.
4. Use clean blackboards (black or green) with white or yellow chalk. Write neatly, consistently, and line by line.
5. Supplement written materials with oral explanations or audio recordings.

2.3 Encourage Participation:

1. Provide firsthand experiences whenever possible. Relying solely on others' descriptions reduces the student's perception of self-value and denies opportunities for active learning.
2. Allow students to touch exhibition items, operate experimental tools, or participate in other hands-on activities, unless safety or accessibility constraints prevent it.

2.4 Set Expectations:

1. Set the same academic standards as their peers but allow additional time for tasks.
2. Provide assistance to let students better focus on learning without being distracted or overprotecting, as excessive support may hinder independence.
3. Emphasize life skills, such as organizing backpacks, preparing supplies, submitting assignments, and punctuality, encouraging them to meet the same behavioral standards as sighted students.

3. Teaching Tips

1. Hearing is a primary channel for receiving information. Teachers’ voices are crucial for learning. If tactile methods fail to convey key points, replace them with auditory explanations. Use clear speech, varying speed, volume, and tone to enhance engagement and emphasize key points.
2. Avoid using visual vocabulary like "Take this object over there." Instead, teach abstract concepts through concrete methods.
3. If using gestures or body language to convey information (e.g., for physical education), provide oral descriptions as well. When calling on students, mention their names to ensure participation.
4. Be patient with slower-paced learning. Do not equate speed with ability, as this may harm confidence.
5. Provide guidance on efficient learning methods to balance academic demands and social life. Encourage the use of assistive technologies, such as Voice systems, braille computers, or optical reading devices, to enhance learning efficiency.