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Recognising symbols in the environment: High school students develop visual literacy skills

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Students looking up to find signs

Figure 1 Students looking up to find signs

At a local high school, three students with cortical vision impairment (CVI) have been participating in a weekly 45 minute programme to support their understanding of signage around their school.

BLENNZ educators Glenda Atkins and Kerrin Tattersfield-Smith, describe some of the opportunities and activities they have facilitated to build the students’ understanding of visual communication in their local environment.

Overview of the visual literacy programme

Comparing signs

Figure 2 Students comparing a laminated sign with real sign

The first thing we did was to have a general discussion about what signs there might be around the school campus and in the community. We elicited about 6 ideas, some requiring clues and prompts.

Then we gave the girls laminated signs they could hold to see if they could identify any (fig.1 and 2). Some signs were symbols and others contained words which were difficult as reading is a challenge for all of them, especially the girls with CVI. We spent parts of 3 sessions recalling and identifying the signs.

Identifying a new sign

Figure 3 Student identifying a new sign

Then we had walks around the school on 3 occasions, the last armed with a camera, locating signs they had learnt as well as ones they hadn’t (fig. 3).

Next steps

The next development will be a more extensive tour around the school. This will reinforce the learning and provide an opportunity to practice recognising the signs in new contexts.

This will be followed by visits into the local community to places the students may visit outside school.

Teaching and learning strategies and adaptations

  • A very quiet place to practice recognising the signs to support the student’s attention.
  • Opportunities for repetition with decreasing adult support to increase student independence.
  • Provision of prints of the photos for the students to take home to reinforce learning.
  • Use of colour to support understanding, e.g. the colour green is always the background for an exit or a fire exit sign, the white symbol on blue background usually means toilet with wheelchair access.
  • Work in partnership with the staff at the school’s learning support unit.

Useful links

More information

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