Self-Esteem and Social Skills Development

I discovered in my 20s how confidence and self-esteem could have been useful in my earlier years.

(Young adult with vision impairment)

Students with vision impairment have the same basic needs as all students - to be accepted, to have friends and to be included in the school's activities. Many students with moderate vision impairment look just like their peers, so therefore other students can find it difficult to understand their challenges - such as an inability to recognise their friends from a distance.

How students think and feel about themselves depends on how confident they are in their abilities and how they perceive themselves to be viewed by others. Students with vision impairment may be unaffected by their sight loss, but it is difficult for them not to be affected by negative attitudes towards them.

Teachers can play a major role in promoting positive attitudes within the class. By modelling positive behaviours, this influences others and creates a positive learning environment. Both within the whole school environment and in the classroom, relationships are built through opportunities to interact co-operatively.

Relationship-building activities can be planned for the whole class. To assist students with vision impairment in socialisation and self-esteem building teachers can:

• Talk about vision impairment, emphasising what students can do, rather than what they can't do;
• Ensure students with vision impairment have time and opportunities with their peers without close adult intervention;
• Involve students and their families in deciding what information about the vision impairment to share with others, how it will be shared and what approach they want the teacher to take when peers ask questions;
• Raise the awareness of sighted peers by asking Resource Teachers Vision to provide simulation activities.

Social skills development

Most social skills are learned through observations and visual modelling. Students with vision impairment are therefore at risk of missing many of the non-verbal cues, such as facial expressions or body language, that feature in much of our day-to-day interactions.

As a result they may not be aware that some behaviours are unacceptable to teachers or their peers, or their responses may be misinterpreted. Formal or informal programmes for social skills development will need to be included in the student's programme. For example:

• Encouraging good posture;
• Discouraging socially inappropriate behaviours;
• Encouraging appropriate verbal responses (eg, in tone, volume);
• Teaching the rules of social etiquette including respecting personal space and maintaining eye contact during a conversation.

In this way, students will have the opportunity to develop appropriate social skills.