Lack of Incidental Learning

One of the things I have noticed with Savannah, and what we have had to work on a lot, is what educators have labeled incidental learning.  Family Connect, which is a website for families with visual impairments describes it as "learning gained by observing people and activities around us, day by day."

"Did you know that educators believe more than 80 per cent of what children learn comes to them through their vision? If you find that surprising, think of what happens when you enter a room. At a glance, you'll typically see and understand the contents of the room, who's there, what they're doing, and, if there's a window in the room, even what the weather is outside. Much of what children learn is acquired almost automatically and instantaneously—that is, incidentally—as they watch other children and adults interact with the environment and imitate their actions. If your baby has limited vision, he'll need extra explanations, descriptions, and repeated experiences in order to learn what other children learn simply by watching others and imitating them. It's not a matter of your having to teach your child about things 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, but you will want to keep in mind that she won't learn about the things she can't touch unless you help her."

Even with what the doctors would call "normal" vision, a child with any visual problems still suffer from lack of incidental learning.  The unfortunate thing is that it is near impossible to replace all of the incidental learning that is lost when there is a visual impairment.  First of all, as a visual person we automatically assess the room and register the information without realizing we have done it, and therefore don't realize that those around us with visual impairments are unable to do the same thing.  Second, even if we do realize when we have scanned the room and incidentally learned things, there is so much information acquired so quickly that would take twice as long (or maybe more) to explain to a visually impaired individual, that often times the information learned though incidental learning goes untaught due to sheer volume of information.  Often what a visual person learns incidentally is only explained to a sight impaired individual on a need to know basis,  which tends to occur later than for the sighted peers.

Savannah was having problems with incidental learning for quite a while.  Even with extra help for replacing incidental learning issues, Savannah was having issues picking up the information.  One of the latest examples was with her handwriting skills.  Due to her vision loss, Savannah did not have the opportunity to watch the letter formations as they were made, she simply had to see what the end result the best she could and try and figure out how it had been made.  However a normal child will see the movement of the hand,  the direction that the pen is moving, and the lengths of the lines made to be able to mimic to get the correct end result...  So Savannah has struggled a lot with her handwriting simply due to her vision loss.

In Savannah's case the damage is neurological, so there is no way to increase her ability to see better but I believe that there is a similar loss in incidental learning for any individual not seeing 20/20.  If there is a child in class without glasses, then the level of incidental learning will be reduced for that particular time.  When the glasses are found, then the incidental learning also is restored.  The same goes for patching children too.  When the child is patched due to a lazy eye, it forces the child to see through the reduced vision eye, which causes the eye to be exercised and therefore grow stronger.  However, during that period of time, the child loses incidental learning time.  The child also spends the time while patched learning adaptive techniques for when the vision is reduced or unreliable.  So if a child has a tendency to forget the glasses or has been ordered by the doctor to wear a patch, it is not unreasonable to believe that the child will be regressed in skills often mastered quickly by visual children.  Depending on the severity and the time spent without the vision will determine how fast a child catches up to the peers.

Like I said though, Savannah's damage is neurological, so the severity and amount of time without the vision is not going to get any better.  The best we can do is continue to try and increase incidental learning and/or explanations so that she can make the best of what vision God gave her.  When it becomes frustrating, we must just sit back and take a deep breath and remember there are so many skills that Savannah has learned, and this is another one of the tasks that she will overcome as well, and if she doesn't, then in the end will it really matter?  Just because it isn't the future I had envisioned for my child, doesn't mean that it is any worse than what I had envisioned, just different.