The understanding of writing and reading of visually impaired individuals: a teacher’s perspective

Abstract

 This work originates as result of a PhD research in Language Development and Disorders, at the Fernando Pessoa University, in Porto, Portugal, in the year 2022. It was based on Vygotsky’s Socio-Historical theory, as it enables a better understanding of his concepts about the process of inclusion and construction of knowledge by children with visual impairments. It also addresses the concept of literacy. For Soares (2001), in this concept there is the idea that, for those who learn writing, social, cultural, political, economic, and linguistic transformations will be presented; for Tfouni (2010), initial reading instruction presents writing and its codes to the learner, while literacy will present the history of the construction of writing by society. Our objective is to analyze the conception of the teacher in the common class and in specialized assistance regarding children with visual impairments learning to write and read. Applying action research as a method, information was obtained through the training group, semi-structured interviews, and a questionnaire. Ten teachers who had visually impaired students participated in the research. The results were organized into categories, and, here, the challenges for initial reading instruction and literacy for children with visual impairments will be addressed. It was possible to infer that not all teachers who are working with students in initial grades are pedagogues, also, not all of them have training to assist visually impaired students, and not all training offered to teachers in initial reading instruction addresses relevant content regarding visual impairment. Thus, it is possible to understand the need for combined and collaborative work between the participating teachers, as neither the Specialized Educational Assistance teacher training nor the common class teacher training are sufficient to isolated mediate the initial reading instruction process of children with visual impairments.