Our BaseKit
TRAINING RESOURCE
Incorporating hours of research, the activities and tools in this kit deliver whole-body experiences and involve all areas of the brain. The student will learn to experience and perceive what they are looking at, create memories, and ultimately create meaning and motivation.
The Wholistic Process
The BaseKit is a starting point. Each child is on their own journey. Each child has unique needs, unique likes and dislikes. The BaseKit is ready-made and filled with intentionally selected materials for activities designed to target the characteristics unique to CVI.
How do I Know It’s Right for Me?
- Teachers and Staff : Provides strategies and understanding on how to work with students with CVI.
- Parents: Provides a practical concrete easy to follow at home intervention and direction.
Assessment
Before a kit is assigned to a student, that student’s visual skills will need to be assessed.
Individualized
Students will experience their individual detours and roadblocks, but also their own amazing vista points.
Progress
As the student uses the materials from the kit, data can be collected about the student’s vision and progress.
Materials Included:
- Manual: thorough information and instructions
- Forms: templates ready to fill to track progress; print additional copies as needed
- Trail Guide cards
- Batteries
- Large piece of black cloth
- Clipboard with black backdrop
- Drawstring bag to carry items
- Activity items: Over 20 items; Each item selected to address more than one sensory modality (visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory); More than 200 activities possible with these specific items. Several examples of the items are listed below next to one of the corresponding sensory modalities:
- Visual: Red bird, Slinky, Pinwheel
- Auditory: Music Box, Pop Tube, Bells
- Tactile: Therapy Putty, Head Scratcher, Textured Cloth Squares
- Olfactory: Essential Oils
- Many so many more!
Assessment
Complete a Functional Vision Assessment and receive a CVI Assessment for each child. CVI is complex and will impact each child differently. The assessment will show how each CVI Characteristic impacts the child as well as how the child is impacted as a whole. These assessment results will guide the selection of each strategy and activity chosen when working with the child.
Trail Guides
A teacher for the visually impaired will help guide each student’s quest through use of the “Trail Guides.” These trail guides come with directions and strategies to incorporate along the journey. There will be times of great striving and times of rest, times to celebrate victories and times to perhaps step back and retrace a particular trail. Throughout the journey, the body creates mental and physical connections that will grow deeper with time and use. These connections will spread onto more connections as memories are created. The kit provides individualized “Alternative Trail Routes” as each student builds new visual skills and expands their ability to see and interpret what they are seeing.
Trail Routes
As vision progresses, select strategies in the Trail Guides to maintain the visual challenge and aid in the increase in visual skills. Flexibility is built into the Trail Routes so a child may progress in one area with more challenging activities while, at the same time, receive additional support when progress in other areas may take more time.
Progress and Data Collection
Data collection is always a crucial piece to intervention. It helps shape intervention and build the most effective plan. Data sheets are provided in the BaseKit. These forms take into account that many of our children are nonverbal and have unique ways of communication. It is important to know if the strategies implemented in the activities were successful, or if they need to be tweaked.
How The BaseKit came to be
I have often found in my experience being a Teacher for the Visually Impaired (TVI) that school staff members have not been provided information on cortical visual impairment (CVI) and how to recognize this condition and support students who have this diagnosis. Thus there are no intentional intervention measures being taken and students are not progressing in their visual functioning. There is a clear need for a teaching resource and support product to empower TVIs and staff to more thoroughly understand CVI and more effectively work with students.
“The BaseKit has been a great resource for me and my students with CVI. The activities are easy and beautifully outlined, all of the materials are included, and provided data sheets truly make my job easier.”
Claudia, Teacher for the Visually Impaired
“The coolest part of the BaseKit being placed in kids’ homes is so others (support workers, parents, siblings) can work with the child and have a functional playtime. The step by step directions on the Trail Guides have been super helpful to me. It makes a big difference because we are able to be on the same page as her visually. That’s the part I love the most!”
Tracee, Direct Support Professional
“The awesome thing about the BaseKit is it not something big that I have to drag out. It is easy to access and I can just pick something from it. Everything is contained in one area and it so accessible we are pulling something out of it everyday to use with my daughter.”
Lindsay, Mom
Order The BaseKit
Step 1: Shipping Details
Tell us where you want us to send your BaseKit
Step 2: Purchase
BaseKit $650
Cost includes full BaseKit plus shipping
Manual & Trail Guides Only $350
Cost includes only the Manual and Trail Guides plus shipping
*Bulk orders and Purchase Orders are accepted. For special orders, send us a message.
Frequently Asked Questions
Learn How it Works!
HOW WOULD I KNOW WHAT TRAIL ROUTE TO APPLY FOR MY CHILD/STUDENT?
Prior to receiving a BaseKit, a TVI would need to assess the student to find out their particular strengths and areas of need. The TVI could then help the family and/or educational team in following the guide/ trail routes that most fit that student’s needs at that particular moment.
How does the BaseKit help in knowing what my student is working towards?
In the Trail Routes, the activities are written building on each other. If a student is working on the “Discover” route in the area of color, the “Explore” route will let the adult working with the student know what they are working towards. For example, if the student is only able to perceive objects that are a single color, the next progression is working towards recognizing objects that have two colors.
Would I be able to carry over the strategies I am learning from using the BaseKit over to other areas of my child’s/student’s life?
Absolutely! The big picture is that by using the BaseKit consistently, one will become more and more familiar with CVI, the characteristics of CVI, and the strategies that are used to target each of these characteristics that this knowledge will overflow to other areas.
If something in the kit breaks or does not work, how can I get a replacement?
If you receive your box and one of the items is broken, just contact me and it will be replaced free of charge. Normal wear and tear will not be covered.
Contact Us
Send us any questions or comments anytime. We want to support you in your journey with your student or child and will be sure to get back to you.
