Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness

This article describes a program for improving the grocery shopping skills of blind clients who live independently. The program consists of nine lessons that acquaint clients with basic nutrition, meal planning, principles of food purchasing, mobility in the grocery store, proper food storage techniques and methods of organizing and labeling food.

This article discusses the effect on congenitally blind children of three types of parents: those who are over-protective, those who push the child toward independence too soon, and those who are “good enough.” The authors focus on how the three styles of parenting affect the blind child's ability to give and receive and develop a sense of competence. These effects are discussed in the context of the ego ideal. The authors also examine the depressive core that is often the result of the blind child's inability to live up to the dictates of the ego ideal. Finally, they suggest a fourth style of parenting that would prepare blind children better for the problems they will encounter in the sighted world.

Reviews the literature on hand and finger usage in reading braille. Describes an experiment using 25 blind students to test whether they read faster and/or more accurately with: the left index finger rather than the right one; the left middle finger rather than the right one; the index finger rather than the middle finger; and, with spontaneous hand usage (usually both hands), whether the student read faster and/or more accurately than with the index finger of one hand.

Because Public Law 94-142 mandates the public schools to educate handicapped children, school psychologists will increasingly be called on to assess visually impaired children. This article reviews a variety of assessment instruments that psychologists can use to evaluate the visually handicapped child's residual vision; cognitive abilities; academic achievement; social, developmental, and language skills; and vocational potential. The authors emphasize the importance of the school psychologist's clinical judgment in selecting assessment techniques and interpreting results.

This article briefly describes a prevocational program for multiply handicapped, blind adolescents. The basic orientation was a practical one. After learning the skills required for independent personal care, the students progressed to home management skills and ultimately to the skills necessary to function effectively as an employee in a sheltered workshop or other work center.

The Plano Independent School District, Plano, Texas, undertook to adapt an existing nature trail for use with visually handicapped students at the Plano Outdoor Learning Center. Several steps were taken in the adaptation process: (a) a review of the literature on environmental education for the visually handicapped; (b) planning and constructing the learning stations, the tracking aid system, and the herb garden; (c) developing and preparing braille, large print, regular print, and taped trail guides; (d) developing a teacher curriculum guide for use with classes that included visually handicapped students; and (e) evaluating the project.

A special forum for individuals to respond in detail to material published in the Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness or elsewhere, to present new ideas, or to raise issues which relate to the specialized field of work with blind and visually handicapped persons. Contributions should be 350–1000 words in length.