1. Think of the ECC Opportunities!
Involving Families
Think of the ECC Opportunities!

2. You Can’t Do This Alone! Families are key! Skills Evolve
They build on one another
They get better with lots of distributed practice
They get better with strategic feedback
They get better as they are used in more contexts and are broadened
Families are key!

3. Perceived Barriers May not believe the child is ready to learn
Doesn’t recognize evolutionary nature of skills
May not recognize that child might not know to demand to try a new skill
May believe that the task is too difficult
Can’t imagine how a person with visual impairment would perform a task
May not believe they have the background to teach the skill to the child

4. Remember! It’s hard to be a parent
Especially a parent of a child with special needs
Coping isn’t always a linear process
There are many competing demands for a parent’s time and attention
Parents aren’t always inherently good teachers
#1 job is caretaking

5. First Steps Talk with families about the ECC From earliest contact
Provide them with appropriate resources
Work to convince them that the ECC is really just about involving children in family life
Encourage families to keep lists of things that they don’t have their child do because of the child’s visual impairment

6. More Ideas Use ABA techniques with families
Help families to see the ECC in their midst
What do skills in each area look like?
Explain evolution of skills
Recognize the ECC skills that parents are encouraging
Help them to see impact, even if small
Use ABA techniques with families

7. Involve Families in Assessment, Planning, and Instruction
use as source of information about child’s schedule, engagement at home and in the community
use for ecological planning
use as assessors
interpreters of child’s behavior
use as demonstrators of child’s abilities
use as providers of rich site for assessment and instruction
use as data collectors

8. Help Parents See the Dangers of Helping Too Much
Bonus Benefit!
Help Parents See the Dangers of Helping Too Much

9. Perception & Reality Parent thinks: Child thinks: What happens:
“I’ll cut his meat for him because he might get hurt.”
Child thinks:
“Blind people can’t really cut meat.”
What happens:
Child never learns appropriate eating skills.

10. Perception & Reality Parent thinks: Child thinks: What happens:
“She might get hurt if she walks to the mailbox by herself.”
Child thinks:
“This grown-up, who knows, doesn’t believe in me. I guess I can’t do it by myself.”
What happens:
Child quits trying.

11. Perception & Reality Parent thinks: Child thinks: What happens:
“I’ll carry his lunchbox (paper, cane, brailler, etc.) to save time.”
Child thinks:
“People in the world do things for me and I don’t owe them anything.”
What happens:
Child becomes helpless, egotistic, and selfish

12. Dangers of Over-Protection
Children don’t get the experiences they need to understand the world
affects language, concepts, reading
Children don’t develop friendships
Nothing in common with others
Children don’t experience failure
And learn from their mistakes
Children learn to be helpless

13. Help Prevent Learned Helplessness
support building of healthy attachments
have appropriate expectations
provide safe and predictable environments
provide choices
avoid prompting
recognize initiations, give feedback
reward independent behavior
model persistence; assure success