The various areas of the ECC include:
Life Skills
Our Life Skills Program incorporates the teaching of daily living skills to enhance the independence, dignity and productivity of students who are visually impaired. Life Skills Instructors work together with the student, parents and lodging staff to set goals which are individual to each student. An individual program plan is created to best suit the child’s age, cognitive abilities, physical limitations, as well as visual impairment.
Orientation and Mobility
The W. Ross Macdonald School employs six full-time Orientation and Mobility (O&M) Specialists who provide one on one instruction once a week for the entire school year. Lessons occur within the school and all over the city of Brantford. In addition to focussing on standard skills and techniques, instruction may also include fun activities such as O&M specific board games created by our staff. Community destinations are also explored, often with special hands-on experiences.
Opportunities to travel outside the city also occur, with lessons on the Via Rail train, subways, city buses, roundabouts, and unfamiliar areas in other municipalities. The work experience program allows our students to put into practice everything they have learned in their O&M lessons. Applying their skills and techniques to a valuable real-life experience helps the students develop responsibility, a greater appreciation for O&M, and confidence in themselves and their travel abilities.
Remedial Braille
For blind and visually impaired children, being able to read and write braille is the key to literacy and independence. Remedial braille is available to all braille-using elementary or secondary students at WRMS and ranges in instruction from pre-braille activities, to learning braille letters, to becoming fluent alphabetic braille readers, to learning contracted braille. Instruction is usually individual once per week or bi-weekly for 40 minutes. Sometimes students are paired together if they are reading at similar levels. Instruction takes place in the Braille Room, or in the classroom. Reading materials are chosen very carefully to ensure that every student is engaged and interested in what they are reading.
Compensatory Access
These critical skills include concept development and organizational skills, as well as communication skills, such as speaking and listening, braille or print reading and writing, sign language, tactile symbols, and accessing recorded materials.
Career Education
Career education is a highly individualized process that considers the unique knowledge, skills, motivations, strengths, of the individual student. The opportunities for students graduating from WRMS are diverse: university or college programs, full or part-time work, volunteering, and day programming - to name a few. Students with visual impairments and Deafblindness require direct instruction in career education and exploration skills beginning in early childhood so they can:
● Become aware of personal strengths and interests
● Develop and reflect on personal competencies
● Explore possibilities after graduation related to education, work and personal life
Sensory Efficiency
Using all senses to access information and communication in an efficient manner These are Skills that help students to use all of their senses, including functional vision, hearing, touch, taste and smell.
Accessing Technology
Technology is everywhere, in home, school, and community living. Technologies provide access to information for learning, social interaction, or leisure. We have come to rely on technology for many forms of our daily communication and productivity tasks.
Technology skills include knowing how to operate and maintain devices, navigate operating systems, and deciding which device to use for different tasks. Leveraging high-tech devices, such as screen-reading software and refreshable braille keyboards, and low-tech devices, such as white canes and magnifiers, to support outgoing and incoming communication and access one's environment, is key to student success.
Social Skills
Social development starts immediately after birth and continues through the course of the lifespan. For students who are blind/low vision or are Deafblind these skills must often be directly taught. The set of knowledge and skills required to interact effectively with others is acquired and practiced across several social and cultural settings at school, within lodging and in the community. Social Interaction Skills include awareness of body language, social communication, cooperative skills, and social etiquette.
Self-Determination
Self-determination is a combination of “skills, knowledge, and beliefs and enable a student to engage in goal-directed, self-regulated, autonomous behaviour” (Field, et al., 1998, p. 2). Self-Determination skills include self-knowledge, self-advocacy, decision-making, and problem solving. At WRMS students learn how to advocate for their own needs, understand strengths and limitations, build their confidence, and learn how to solve problems.
Recreation and Leisure
With the pressures and expectations of our daily ‘on the go’ lives, it is essential that students learn how to relax and release stress. Participating in recreation and leisure activities that are physical activities can promote fitness and a healthier lifestyle. Leisure activities such as hobbies can be a creative outlet. Becoming aware of and developing recreation and leisure skills can lead to a sense of wellbeing in the pursuit of fun.