Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness

The association of hearing loss and retinitis pigmentosa has been generally recognized as Usher's Syndrome, although variations in the syndrome have not been clearly delineated. The diagnosis of a progressive visual disease in a person with severe hearing impairment has devastating implications for the individual's future. This article reviews findings of this syndrome and suggests strategies for dealing with some of the clinical problems displayed by Ushers Syndrome patients.

Many of the difficulties children have with measurement and estimation are caused by a lack of direct sensory experiences with the qualities they are asked to measure: length, weight, area, etc. This is especially true of the visually impaired child. While textbooks will provide rules and instructions for measuring, it is up to the teacher to provide the direct sensory experiences that will help the child understand the concepts he or she will later learn to measure. A model for teaching the concept of length in grades K through 8 is provided, with additional suggestions on teaching children to understand the concepts of area, temperature, capacity, weight, volume, angles and money or value.

Tactile graphic displays represent an important medium for communicating information to the blind. Because the need for such displays often cannot be met by standard mass production methods, practitioners have had to fabricate them on an individual basis. This article describes the development, evaluation, and testing of a kit which includes tools and information for facilitating the construction of readable tactile graphic displays.

This article describes research conducted in the early 1970s on the comparative efficiency of an electronic teaching system for programmed instruction (the BRAILLOPHON) and a conventional brailled book program for teaching blind students to spell. The results indicated that the BRAILLOPHON was significantly more efficient as a teaching device than the book program. Furthermore, among 40 students who used the BRAILLOPHON, those in the lowest IQ range made greater percentage learning gains than did those with higher IQs and compensated for deficiencies in learning abilities by extending the time required to complete the program.

The concurrent validity of the recently published Perkins-Binet Tests of Intelligence for the Blind was examined. Twenty-eight students from a residential school for blind children served as subjects. Although high correlations were obtained between both forms of the Perkins-Binet and the Wechsler scales of intelligence, there were substantial differences in the standard deviations for the different tests. The authors recommend further evaluation of the Perkins-Binet tests.

A special forum for individuals to respond in detail to material published in the Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness 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.