Read + Listen + Respond = New Adventures

Storytelling for Children with Visual Impairments

By Mary Ann Siller

Storytelling provides a language of learning that delights the imagination. Throughout the ages, people have conveyed truth, beauty, courage, and imagination through a story. Fiction, non-fiction, and narrative stories are all exciting genres that help us enter "the world of the story."

What is needed in storytelling for children with visual impairments is the link to effective communication. And DCMP provides unique multimedia links to the "world of the story" for students, teachers, and families through their innovative titles of all genres of described and captioned media. With the help of description, we see the characters. We feel their emotions. We understand their dilemmas and experience their real-life situations. Most of all, from these stories, we gain insight from the way people responded to their surroundings in the midst of their circumstances.

Each month new titles are added to the DCMP accessible media list. What DCMP provides to students, families, and teachers in their classrooms is the delight of the senses coming alive through descriptions and captions. For example, the Living Oceans series is available with gripping description and captions. This is an epic series where learning, adventure, and fun travel parallel paths. Then when you discuss world history and epic changes one man and his government made upon the world, go to Napoleon Bonaparte's biography. And in teaching about the world of the story, take a look at Into the Book episodes for new critical thinking classroom lessons.

In your classroom and at home, bring your students and children into new worlds. Help them step inside new stories this month with DCMP. Take a moment to register with DCMP and then review the list of interesting multimedia stories at www.dcmp.org. Step into sandals, robes, and old fashioned costumes. Wander with explorers to hear the desert winds, the call of the wolves, and the hum of the whales. Laugh alongside famous characters of literature.

Chart your course and join the fun with reading and learning by viewing DCMP titles like these:

Enjoy children's books with characters who are blind. You'll also sharpen your teaching with reading clubs for children with visual Impairments and engage your students in new ways by Creating and Using Tactile Experience Books for Young Children with Visual Impairments.

Finally, students can find new friends through the DCMP titles in their media collection and DCMP YouTube channel. Classic movie titles include: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Pygmalion, Jane Eyre, and Little Men.

About the Author

Mary Ann Siller, M.Ed., is first and foremost an educator of children who are blind or visually impaired, ages birth through twenty-one. Siller has vast experience developing and leading national education initiatives and advocating for access to instruction and information. She is most at home when she is working with families to inspire their young children to dream big and find their special path to adulthood. She continues to address the most critical issues impacting the field of blindness and works as an advocate and curriculum designer. In previous career positions, she oversaw educational programming, curriculum development, and professional training at a state and national level for the Texas Education Agency and American Foundation for the Blind. Additional experience includes teaching/consulting for students with visual impairments and liaison with school districts to implement Federal and State laws. Mary Ann resides in Dallas, Texas.

Tags: educators