“Intervention must be driven by intention, not by materials”

* Guest blog post by Judy Endicott

“Intervention must be driven by intention, not by materials.” – Christine Roman, 2018

Think about your own adult reading behaviors. Think about the range of choices of materials you have to choose from. Sometimes you pick materials based on length, sometimes on size of text, amount of pictures, subject and a range of other factors. You pick and choose, driven by goals and tempered by your energy and motivation.

So what about our CVI readers? How do we help children with cortical visual impairment (CVI) develop literacy skills? What about our kids in classrooms where the reading curriculum is not accessible to them without appropriate accommodations based on their needs (CVI Range, Roman)? Most of the school material available for their interventions is not appropriate without modification.

What does a parent, teacher, therapist do?

We search for what is motivating to our CVI reader and figure out how to present letters and text and images based on the child’s specifics determined by the CVI Range (Roman).

We customize our approaches and interventions to match the needs of our CVI reader so we can get our reader to develop and use visual skills.

Make no mistake. This isn’t quick, easy, or a task with an end point.

But by learning as much as we can about CVI, sharing ideas on literacy with each other, and arming ourselves with knowledge of the child’s use of functional vision (CVI Range score, Roman), we can make our literacy materials match our student’s needs.

Pictures, explanations, and samples coming soon in subsequent blog posts.

*Guest blog post by former educator, Judy Endicott. Judy is a reading specialist who taught in regular and special education classrooms, and worked as a reading specialist at the elementary level. She is also a Level 1 certified Wilson Reading Program teacher. Judy is the grandparent of River, who was diagnosed with cortical visual impairment (CVI) at 11 months old.