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In this presentation I will tell you about a project, which resulted in a LA-KU-Program; Early Intervention Program specially designed for needs of visually impaired children from 0-6 years in our own country.
Why we wanted an Educational Program
The rehabilitation of small disabled children in Finland has mainly been based on a medical-therapeutical view and it is funded and governed by the health authorities. There have been fewer pedagogical elements than elsewhere in Europe and in the United States.
Finland is a sparsely populated country and there are no more than about 250 children with visual impairment aged 0-6 years. Earlier we had five counselors working in the F.F.V.I. I am one of them, and we worked only in the early intervention in different parts of our country. In the 1990's the Central hospitals have got counselors of their own and the total number has increased to 15. These new counselors are mainly nurses and social workers and most of them are working with visually impaired people of all age groups.
In this situation we urgently wanted tools for these new counselors. We also wanted to bring a strong pedagogical element to the habilitation of the children with visual impairment.
The LA-KU-Program will provide every child an equal quality of habilitation unrespective of residence. At the same time we offer a tool that parents and multi-disciplinary teams can use in planning the child's training and education.
It is based on the American
Oregon Project that is the most comprehensive assessment and curriculum
program available for visually impaired children. The second reason for
our choice was that The Portage Guide to Early Intervention is the basis
of the OR Project and it is already a well-known method in Finland.
What is the Oregon Project
I will only tell you about this programme briefly because its structure is familiar to most of the audience. The Oregon Project for Visually Impaired and Blind Preschool Children was first published in 1978. In our work we used the fifth revised edition (1991). The OR Project is in three parts: the Manual, The Teaching Activities and the Reference Section. The Manual contains an overview of the materials and specific instructions for using the kit. It includes the Skills Inventory, which is an assessment with eight sections covering the major developmental areas. The Skills Inventory is a criterion referenced tool and cannot be used as a normative assessment instrument. The Teaching Activities for each 640-skill item are actual activities that provide a starting point for the teacher and parents.
The actual adapting process
First we had the whole OR Handbook translated into Finnish. This first version was tested by a field test group of eight children. They were of different ages and most of them were totally blind without other disabilities. Our project group, which included four counselors from F.F.V.I. working in different parts of Finland, made assessments and training programs for homes and kindergartens. Usually both parents took part in the assessments. The field tests lasted for 2.5 years and we got a lot of valuable response from parents and those working with these children. Furthermore our project group got experience in making assessments and using the new tool. Now we use these experiences in organizing the training courses for professionals and parents.
While the field tests were going on our project group met regularly adapting the text into a standard language more suitable for our culture and habilitation practises. We discussed and sometimes argued about the meaning of some sentences and at the same time learned much from each other.
We also used the knowledge of experts from different fields: an occupational therapist gave comments on the section of self-help and fine-motor skills, a vision teacher and an ophthalmologist on vision skills, a speech therapist on language and a neuropsychologist on cognitive skills. In this way we secured that our program fits with other training or therapy methods used in Finland.
We also got comments of adapted
text from parents. The scientific support was given us by the Special Education
Department of Helsinki University. Professor Michael Brambring from Bielefeldt
University gave us good advice, warnings and inspiring lectures. This modifying
project took time, energy and money, but it was worth it.
What did we change
1. The greatest changes we made were in the sections of cognitive and compensatory skills. The changes are due to the educational system of our country. The children with visual impairment come under compulsory education at the age of six (other children at the age of seven). Usually the first schoolyear at the age of six takes place in a preschool group in kindergarten. In the Anglo-American school-system children attend school earlier, so writing and reading skills come earlier in OR Program. We have removed some learning activities concerning Braille reading and writing and for example the use of abacus and computers. Instead we added some activities and pictures which train pre-Braille reading and writing skills. We have also broken some skills to smaller parts. Every child can then practice a skill step by step according to his own developmental tempo.
2. We have reduced the amount of text and paper. In our rehabilitation system we are not so used to taking notes as accurately as they do e.g. in U.S. Written information is much more limited in Finnish culture in general than in American culture. We have also made some learning activities less detailed. We have not only severely edited the text but also added a chapter about how to use the program. We have reduced the number of forms from eight to four while adding two forms of educational plans for daycare and school.
3. We added ideas and tips for learning activities with the help of the parents and professionals, These included e.g. Finnish songs, rhymes and plays. As an example of our culture I will show you how we dealt with the skill SOCIALIZATION 30 and 39: BECOMES AWARE OF SEX DIFFERENCES AND IDENTIFIES SELF AS BOY OR GIRL. In Finland we take nakedness as a natural thing within the family. The Sauna is the place where the whole family is together once a week. This continues in some families until adulthood.
4. We also added methods and equipment which are especially familiar in Scandinavia: The Baby Massage by Ruth Rice, The Little Room and Resonanceplate by Lilly Nielsen and Lilly & Gogo by Gerti Jaritz and Lea Hyvärinen.
5. The differences between
the upbringing practices appear also in the way of praising the child for
succeeding. In the Scandinavian culture we use hugs and verbal thanks rather
than material rewards. The role of the fathers is very important in Nordic
upbringing. That is why we gave some tasks especially to fathers in the
part of learning activities.
6. The visual appearance of LA-KU -Handbook changed in two ways. We marked different sections with stripes with different colors. It helps to find the corresponding parts easily. The illustration includes pictures of a famous Finnish cartoonist. These pictures represent amusing situations of the life of his own children. These pictures are familiar to almost every adult Finn and so our program has got its own domestic visual character.
How to market the Program
We have now concluded our three years work and the first 200 handbooks were published in January this year. We immediately started to plan how to get our program into the life of every child with visual impairment. We started by creating a training program as multi-method-learning (including distance learning and training days) for those working with these children, such as counselors, kindergarten teachers and physiotherapists. We also invite parents to these training days. Their opinions, feelings and experiences help professionals to remember that every child and family is unique and different. After the training course every counselor from F.F.V.I. arranges tutoring days near the homes of the participants.
We have begun to tell the parents about LA-KU-Program. This happens mainly during family courses organized by our federation. Usually families can attend these courses once a year. We now offer LA-KU assessments in different developmental sections, if the parents are interested in using this program with their child. After the course it is now easy to continue the work at home and in the child's kindergarten.
We have also written articles to different journals. Especially we find the journal of the Parents' Association very important. It has already published an article by one mother whose child took part to our field test.
Finally I like to give great thanks to the pioneers and authors of the Oregon Project. A new branch has grown out of the Oregon-tree.