About Learning Media Assessment

Learning Media Assessment...

is an assessment for selecting the appropriate literacy media for students with visual impairments. What is meant by "literacy media" is how students access the general education curriculum.
offers teachers a framework or decision making process for the selection of literacy media. It is a decision-making tool.
provides a decision and monitoring tool for both conventional and functional literacy for students with visual impairments.
involves a team process and the collation of medical, educational, family and student supplied data to make informed decisions.

Why perform Learning Media Assessments?

Primarily because of Braille Bills, which require the determination of literacy media exist at both the Federal and State level. These various Braille bills assume that Braille is the modality to be used unless otherwise demonstrated trough appropriate assessment. Learning Media Assessment offers the tool to make that determination and monitor it over time.

For instance, the Legislative Changes in IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act), which was just re authorized, states the following about Braille:

"Consideration of Special Factors: The IEP Team also shall -

. (iii) In the case of a child who is blind or visually impaired, provide for instruction in Braille and the use of Braille unless the IEP Team determines, after a determination of the child's reading and writing skills, needs and appropriate reading and writing media (including an evaluation of the child's future needs for instruction in Braille or the use of Braille), that instruction in Braille or the use of Braille is not appropriate for the child." 34 CFR Section 300.346 (a) (2) (iii) and 20 U.S.C. 1414(d)

What does this mean?

This means that TVI's have to prove that, at that particular point in time, a student with visual impairments doesn't need Braille. There exists a false assumption that every child who is blind or visually impaired needs Braille. What Learning Media Assessment is designed to do is to help TVI's make that determination. Teachers of the Visually Impaired really have to disprove the need for Braille. TVI's should therefore be documenting that a child with, for instance, cortical visual impairment or severe cerebral palsy, doesn't need Braille, but needs to be evaluated with LMA and can learn in other ways. The key point here is that TVI's document that that their students don't need Braille but that they do need other intervention.

What exactly does LMA assess?

LMA assesses not just learning media but also learning style preferences of the student (compensatory skill use). This is where LMA has often been misunderstood to a high degree. One of the key things you are assessing is learning style, which is very useful when working with young children with visual impairments. A child's learning style is how they use vision, touch, hearing, and other senses to gain access to information, either singularly or in combination.

Specifically where should LMA be used?

The LMA scale should begin no later than age 3 and transition to preschool. It should be updated annually and/or as visual functioning changes

This scale should be used academically for kids who are in the general ed curriculum and proceeding along an academic track. However, it should also be used when dealing with functional literacy. LMA should be used with children with more complex disabilities who need to become literate.

LMA takes a broad definition of literacy, which is misunderstood many times. Literacy is reading and writing. What children with visual impairments do is reading and writing in some form. That form may be reading and writing by using drawing. It can be reading, writing and expressive communication. This notion almost takes a communication bend. Many times in the field of visual impairments, TVI's look at just the Braille/Print decision, but it goes much further than that.

LMA's Primary Goals, as outlined by Koenig and Holbrook:

"Examine efficiency with which student gathers information from various sensory channels"
Types of general learning media the student uses, or will use to accomplish learning tasks
"The literacy media the student will use for reading and writing" (Koenig, Holbrook, 6)