impairment children face difficulties in the rest of the processes, viz., the arrival of results
and interpretation. Every mathematics teacher of visually impaired children should bear
this in mind while planning strategies in teaching mathematics.
Common Difficulties in Learning Mathematics
The pace of learning mathematics by visually impaired children is an important issue. Their
pace is comparatively ‘slower’ than that of sighted children. This is due to the visually
impaired child’s limitations in organising ideas, methods and devices used for solving the
mathematical problems. The following remedial measures can be suggested to provide equal
educational experience to the child. If there are 20 problems in the exercise of a chapter
and if the teacher expects sighted and visually impaired children to solve all the problems
within the class period, the visually impaired children will be experiencing difficulties in
doing so. For example, 20 problems are listed in the textbook as exercise for explaining the
ideas of ‘simple interest’ and the methods of using the formula for solving given problems.
Doing this full exercise is practically not possible for visually impaired children. Here learning
the ‘concept of simple interest and its practical uses’ is more important than the ‘number’
of problems. There are individual differences between any children in learning these concepts.
Some children understand the concept just by solving two problems. Some understand after
five problems and some may find it difficult to understand even after many trials. We see all
these among sighted children. This pattern can also be seen among visually impaired
children. If the child is able to learn and use the idea just with few examples, it is not
necessary to tax him/her for doing the entire exercise. The teacher can select the problems
of the exercises at random and give practice to visually impaired children. Due to the
slower pace of doing mathematical calculations, the approach for visually impaired children
might be “Do as many as possible for understanding the concept. As long as you are able to
use your learning to tackle new problems, it is alright.” Just by saying this the child cannot
be expected to have learnt the ideas. Sufficient drill and evaluation must become part and
parcel of the learning.
Collaborative Instructional Strategy
In teaching mathematics, the following procedures are suggested for an integrated education
setting. This holds good for residential school too as the suggestions are made from the
methodology point of view. The child who is admitted to the integrated programme not