Blixten & Ida, två elever med synnedsättning möter läs- & skriftspråket
By studying recent literature and following current research we know that language awareness and a rich language is important to all children when learning reading and writing and that decoding and understanding of the words are the fundamental processes in reading. How do pupils with visual impairment learn how to read and write? What strategies do they use in their contacts with reading and writing? What are the advantages do pupils with visual impairment have when learning to read and write? These questions have been the starting points in a study we have done by following two pupils with visual impairment. By meeting and discussing with the children, their parents, teachers, and lowvisiontherapists we have got a deeper knowledge in how these children meet the language in reading and writing. We have also come to an understanding regarding people surrounding the children have to make reading and writing comprehensive, enjoying, and meaningful.The problem for a child with visual impairment is the decoding, to catch letters and pictures of words good enough with the sight. It requires energy and takes longer time with poor sight and they get not as good overview of the text as children with good visual skills. From our observations and from the interviews we have learned a lot regarding how the children think and work in the reading and writing processes.Parents and teachers have described how they support the children in the development of their language understanding as well as the advantages they can see the children have in reading and writing by having visual impairment. One advantage they can see is that the children use listening, feeling and the language to understand their environment and their tasks. Another advantage the teachers emphasize in the interviews is that the pupils are extremely focused when reading and writing.Different ways of thinking are necessary to give children with visual impairment good possibilities when reading and writing. Enchanced texts as well as pictures, bright contrasts, short reading distance and closeness facilitate the meeting with the written language. The children also need magnifying television systems, audio books, computers to get through all text they meet in the culture of written language in school.