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The OR Project
The purpose of The Oregon Project for Preschool Children who are Blind or Visually Impaired (OR Project) is to provide assessment and curriculum guidance for intervention planning and progress monitoring to educators of young children with visual impairments. It consists of the Manual of information for preschool educational planning and development, the Skills Inventory, Teaching Activities for all the skills, and a Reference Section. It is important to emphasize that the OR Project Skills Inventory is a criterion-referenced, not a norm-referenced, assessment and is not designed to obtain a precise "score."
The OR Project is based on the premise that children who are visually impaired or blind can learn, grow, and develop much like children with normal sight. However, the impact of the visual impairment may change the timing of their development. If the child is blind, some changes and modifications of the learning environment are needed. Most teaching strategies that are successful with children who are sighted are also appropriate for children who are blind or visually impaired. Young children learn best through naturally occurring events and functional activities in their homes and communities.
Definition of "Visually Impaired" And "Blind"
There are numerous terms for children with limited vision. For our purposes, preschool children with blindness will refer to those whose visual loss is so severe that the reading mode will eventually be tactual. In other words, children who are blind are those children who are unable, because of visual loss, to read printed materials efficiently. Children with a visual impairment are those children who are able to use their vision as a primary mode for input and learning.
Anticipated mode of reading is a functional way to define visual impairment and does not imply that academics are the most important curricular considerations. Whereas a legal or medical definition may be necessary elsewhere, the above educational descriptions are beneficial when using the OR Project and designing specific planning for the child. In addition, interpretation of ophthalmological, optometric, and low vision reports is necessary so that the implications of the visual loss can be incorporated into educational planning. Children who have residual vision should receive services from a low vision eye specialist who will work with the child and the family to find out if non-prescriptive visual aids (magnifiers, monoculars, etc.) can be helpful.
Visual impairment refers to a significant loss of vision, even though the person may wear corrective lenses. The nature and degree of visual impairment may vary significantly, so each student may require individual adaptations to instructional practices and materials in order to learn effectively.
Most students with visual impairments have low vision. These students should be encouraged to use their residual (remaining) vision, when appropriate, using the necessary optical aids and adaptations. Low vision is reduced central acuity of 20/70 or less in the better eye after correction.
Legal blindness is a term for students whose visual acuity ranges from 20/200 in the better eye after correction to having no usable vision or a field of vision reduced to an angle of 20 degrees. A visual acuity of 20/200 means that the student sees at 20 feet what is normally seen at 200 feet. A reduced field of vision means that the individual has tunnel vision with limited peripheral vision. The nature and degree of a visual impairment varies significantly so each student requires individual adaptations to instruction in order to learn.
A child who is blind usually uses Braille as a reading and writing medium. Blindness ranges from being totally without sight to unreliable vision and primary reliance on other senses.
Severe visual impairments (legally or totally blind) in children is considered a low incidence disability occurring at a rate of 6 per 100,000.
Multiple Disabilities and Cortical Vision Impairment (CVI)
The OR Project was developed for children with visual impairments who do not have additional physical disabilities, mental disabilities or students with Cortical Vision Impairment (CVI). It is assumed that any developmental delay is due to the loss of vision. This assessment has been successfully used with children with multiple impairments (if the additional disabilities are not severe) and with older children functioning at younger developmental levels. While working with a child who has additional disabilities, the vision teacher typically assesses the child in the areas of cognitive, social, compensatory, vision, and self-help skills. Other information may be obtained from early childhood case-managers, physical, occupational, or speech therapists to complete the child’s assessment.
The OR Project Skills Inventory may not be the most appropriate assessment in some cases. It does not give a score in terms of developmental months, but shows acquisition of specific skills. A child with severe multiple impairments or CVI may not show progress using this assessment and should be assessed using other, more functional tools.