Lilli Nielsen

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Lilli Nielsen
Lilli Nielsen.gif
Born 21 December 1926
Rønne, Bornholm, Denmark
Died 24 June 2013
Kolding, Denmark
Nationality Danish

Dr. Lilli Nielsen (néeReker) (b. December 21, 1926, Rønne, Bornholm; [1] † June 24, 2013, Kolding, Denmark) was a Danish psychologist in the field of teaching blind children and those with multiple disabilities. She has written several books on the subject.

Rønne Town in Capital, Denmark

Rønne is the largest town on the Danish island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea. It has a population of 13,579. Once a municipality in its own right from 1970 until 2002, when Bornholm was a county with an area of 29.11 square kilometres, it is now the administrative centre of the Bornholm municipality. As of 2018 11,539 inhabitants live in Rønne Parish, which is a narrow piece of land on the westernmost of the island and stretching north and southward comprising around a third of the area of the former municipality. Knudsker Parish made up the rest of the former municipality. Not all inhabitants of either Rønne or Knudsker (400-7553) parishes live in the city of Rønne.

Bornholm Danish island

Bornholm is a Danish island in the Baltic Sea, to the east of the rest of Denmark, south of Sweden, northeast of Germany and north of the westernmost part of Poland. Occupying an area of 588.36 square kilometres (227.17 sq mi), the island had a total population on 1 January 2019 of 39,572.

Kolding Town in Denmark

Kolding is a Danish seaport located at the head of Kolding Fjord in the Region of Southern Denmark. It is the seat of Kolding Municipality. It is a transportation, commercial, and manufacturing centre, and has numerous industrial companies, principally geared towards shipbuilding. The manufacturing of machinery and textiles and livestock export are other economically significant activities.

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She was the second of seven children, four of whom were born blind. When she was seven she was charged with the responsibility of taking care of her blind younger brother. [2]

She was a preschool teacher, then worked in a hospital, became a psychologist, and eventually was hired to teach the blind. [2]

In 1988 she earned a PhD in psychology at the University of Århus. [1]

Psychology is the science of behavior and mind. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, as well as feeling and thought. It is an academic discipline of immense scope. Psychologists seek an understanding of the emergent properties of brains, and all the variety of phenomena linked to those emergent properties. As a social science it aims to understand individuals and groups by establishing general principles and researching specific cases.

Lilli Nielsen has worked as special education adviser at Refsnaesskolen, National Institute to Blind and Partially Sighted Children and Youth in Denmark. [3]

She has been awarded the Knight Order of the Dannebrog. [2]

Order of the Dannebrog award in Denmark

The Order of the Dannebrog is a Danish order of chivalry instituted in 1671 by Christian V. Until 1808, membership in the order was limited to fifty members of noble or royal rank who formed a single class known as White Knights to distinguish them from the Blue Knights who were members of the Order of the Elephant. In 1808, the Order was reformed and divided into four classes. The Grand Commander class is reserved to persons of princely origin. It is only awarded to royalty with close family ties with the Danish Royal House. The statute of the Order was amended in 1951 by a Royal Ordinance so that both men and women could be members of the Order.

Dr. Lilli Nielsen died on the June 24, 2013, at the public hospital of Kolding after a short period of illness (pneumonia).

Philosophy of Active Learning for Individuals with Visual Impairments

The Active Learning approach emphasizes that all individuals learn best by active participation. All activity, especially in the earliest stages of development, actually "wires our brains" and establishes critical foundational concepts and skills necessary for all future learning.

Individuals with multiple disabilities (cerebral palsy, visual impairment, cognitive impairment, autism, hearing impairment, etc.) are at great risk from developing reliance on others to interact with the world around them. They learn to be a passive rather than active participant, waiting for adults to provide activity rather than seeking it out on their own. Children and adults with special needs often develop stereotypical or aggressive behaviors in order to communicate with others or cope within the environments in which they are placed. Active Learning recognizes that every child/adult with special needs is unique. The programming and intervention for facilitating learning must reflect this individuality.

Active Learning emphasizes creating a developmentally appropriate and enriched environment so that children and adults with multiple special needs become active learners.

Dr. Nielsen's Active Learning approach addresses the breakdowns that can occur at the earliest stages of development due to an individual's inability to access the world because of disabilities including visual impairment, cerebral palsy, cognitive disabilities, hearing impairment, autism and other disabilities.

"Little Room"

One of her most famous ideas is that of the "little room." This is a box that is laid over a blind or severely disabled child that has toys and other stimuli hanging from it. The child can then explore and play with the toys. Most will vocalize, even for the first time, due to the superior acoustics of the Little Room. As Nielsen wrote: "The purpose of the 'Little Room' is to facilitate blind children's achievement of spatial relations and reaching behaviour, but it can also be of considerable help for sighted low functioning children." [4]

Child in "Little room" Jimmylittleroom.jpg
Child in "Little room"
Jimmylittleroom2.jpg

"HOPSA-dress"

The HOPSA-dress provides vertical orientation, without the need for weightbearing, to children with multiple disabilities. Items with interesting textures can be placed near the feet for tactile stimulation. Later, the pulley system can be adjusted so that the child can bear weight gradually, at their own pace.

HOPSA-dress Jimmyhopsa2.jpg
HOPSA-dress
Jimmyhopsa.jpg

Related Research Articles

Special education is the practice of educating students in a way that addresses their individual differences and needs. Ideally, this process involves the individually planned and systematically monitored arrangement of teaching procedures, adapted equipment and materials, and accessible settings. These interventions are designed to help individuals with special needs achieve a higher level of personal self-sufficiency and success in school and in their community which may not be available if the student were only given access to a typical classroom education.

Dysgraphia is a deficiency in the ability to write, primarily handwriting, but also coherence. Dysgraphia is a transcription disability, meaning that it is a writing disorder associated with impaired handwriting, orthographic coding, and finger sequencing. It often overlaps with other learning disabilities such as speech impairment, attention deficit disorder, or developmental coordination disorder. In the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV), dysgraphia is characterized as a learning disability in the category of written expression when one's writing skills are below those expected given a person's age measured through intelligence and age-appropriate education. The DSM is not clear in whether or not writing refers only to the motor skills involved in writing, or if it also includes orthographic skills and spelling.

The Individualized Education Program, also called the IEP, is a document that is developed for each public school child who needs special education. The IEP is created through a team effort, reviewed periodically. In the United States, this program is known as an Individualized Education Program .(IEP), and similarly in Canada it is referred to as an Individualized Education Plan or a Special Education Plan (SEP). In the United Kingdom, an equivalent document is called an Individual Education System. In Saudi Arabia, the document is known as an Individual Education Program.

Augmentative and alternative communication

Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) is an umbrella term that encompasses the communication methods used to supplement or replace speech or writing for those with impairments in the production or comprehension of spoken or written language. AAC is used by those with a wide range of speech and language impairments, including congenital impairments such as cerebral palsy, intellectual impairment and autism, and acquired conditions such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and Parkinson's disease. AAC can be a permanent addition to a person's communication or a temporary aid.

Mainstreaming (education)

Mainstreaming, in the context of education, is the practice of placing students with special education services in a general education classroom during specific time periods based on their skills. To clarify, this means students who are a part of the special education classroom will join the regular education classroom at certain times which are fitting for the special education student. These students may attend art or physical education in the regular education classrooms. Sometimes these students will attend math and science in a self-contained special education classroom, but attend English in a general education classroom. Schools that practice mainstreaming believe that students with special needs who cannot function in a general education classroom to a certain extent belong in the special education environment.

Inclusion in education refers to a model wherein special needs students spend most or all of their time with non-special needs students. It arises in the context of special education with an individualized education program or 504 plan, and is built on the notion that it is more effective for students with special needs to have said mixed experience for them to be more successful in social interactions leading to further success in life. Inclusion rejects but still provides the use of special schools or classrooms to separate students with disabilities from students without disabilities. Schools with inclusive classrooms do not believe in separate classrooms. They do not have their own separate world so they have to learn how to operate with students while being less focused on by teachers due to a higher student to teacher ratio.

Gross motor skills are the abilities usually acquired during childhood as part of a child's motor learning. By the time they reach two years of age, almost all children are able to stand up, walk and run, walk up stairs, etc. These skills are built upon, improved and better controlled throughout early childhood, and continue in refinement throughout most of the individual's years of development into adulthood. These gross movements come from large muscle groups and whole body movement. These skills develop in a head-to-toe order. The children will typically learn head control, trunk stability, and then standing up and walking. (Humphrey) It is shown that children exposed to outdoor play time activities will develop better gross motor skills.

Special education programs in the United States did not always exist."The idea of excluding students with any disability from public school education can be traced back to 1893, when the Massachusetts Supreme Court expelled a student merely due to poor academic ability". This exclusion would be the basis of education for all individuals with special needs for years to come. In 1954, Brown v. Board of Education sparked the belief that the right to a public education applies to all individuals regardless of race, gender, or disability. Finally, special education programs in the United States were made mandatory in 1975 when the United States Congress passed the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EAHCA) "(sometimes referred to using the acronyms EAHCA or EHA, or Public Law 94-142) was enacted by the United States Congress in 1975, in response to discriminatory treatment by public educational agencies against students with disabilities." The EAHCA was later modified to strengthen protections to students with disabilities and renamed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). IDEA requires states to provide special education and related services consistent with federal standards as a condition of receiving federal funds.

Special needs is a term used in clinical diagnostic and functional development to describe individuals who require assistance for disabilities that may be medical, mental, or psychological. Guidelines for clinical diagnosis are given in both the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and the International Classification of Diseases 9th edition. Special needs can range from people with autism, cerebral palsy, down syndrome, dyslexia, blindness, ADHD, and cystic fibrosis. They can also include cleft lips and/or palates, port-wine stains, and missing limbs. The types of special needs vary in severity, and a student with a special need is classified as being a severe case when the students IQ is between 20 and 35. These students typically need assistance in school, and have different services provided for them to succeed in a different setting.

Developmentally appropriate practice is a perspective within early childhood education whereby a teacher or child caregiver nurtures a child's social/emotional, physical, and cognitive development by basing all practices and decisions on (1) theories of child development, (2) individually identified strengths and needs of each child uncovered through authentic assessment, and (3) the child's cultural background as defined by his community, family history, and family structure.

Learning disability range of neurodevelopmental conditions

Learning disability, learning disorder or learning difficulty is a condition in the brain that causes difficulties comprehending or processing information and can be caused by several different factors. Given the "difficulty learning in a typical manner", this does not exclude the ability to learn in a different manner. Therefore, some people can be more accurately described as having a "learning difference", thus avoiding any misconception of being disabled with a lack of ability to learn and possible negative stereotyping. In the United Kingdom, the term "learning disability" generally refers to an intellectual disability, while difficulties such as dyslexia and dyspraxia are usually referred to as "learning difficulties".

Dr. Barbara Landau is a professor in the Department of Cognitive Science at Johns Hopkins University and also chairs the department. Landau specializes in language learning, spatial representation, and the relationships between these foundational systems of human knowledge. She examines questions about how the two systems work together to enhance human cognition and whether one is actually foundational to the other. She is known for her research of unusual cases of development and is a leading authority on language and spatial information in people with Williams syndrome.

Junior Blind of America organization

Junior Blind, which was founded in 1953 as the Foundation for the Junior Blind, now serves thousands of people each year. The organization’s mission is to help children and adults who are blind, visually impaired or multi-disabled achieve independence. Located in Los Angeles, Junior Blind offers individualized methods of early intervention, education, recreation and rehabilitation to nearly 10,000 children and family members throughout California.

A sighted child who is reading at a basic level should be able to understand common words and answer simple questions about the information presented. They should also have enough fluency to get through the material in a timely manner. Over the course of a child's education, these foundations are built on to teach higher levels of math, science, and comprehension skills. Children who are blind not only have the education disadvantage of not being able to see: they also miss out on the very fundamental parts of early and advanced education if not provided with the necessary tools.

Speech and language impairment fonoaudiologia

Speech and language impairment are basic categories that might be drawn in issues of communication involve hearing, speech, language, and fluency.

The Vanguard School is an approved private school in Malvern, Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States, approximately 22 miles northwest of Philadelphia on the campus of Valley Forge Educational Services.

Multiple disabilities is a term for a person with several disabilities, such as a sensory disability associated with a motor disability. Additionally, in the United States, it is a special education classification under which students are eligible for services through the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA.

The Council of Schools and Services for the Blind (COSB) is a consortium of specialized schools in Canada and the United States whose major goal is improving the quality of services to children who are blind and visually impaired.

Institutionalization of children with disabilities in Russia is the placement of children, who have been abandoned or whose parents cannot support them, into a facility which can be similar to an orphanage. This often occurs in countries where alternative methods of care are not available. The definition of an institution can be ambiguous; the "Report of the Ad Hoc Expert Group on the Transition from Institutional to Community-based Care" defines an institution based on the following guidelines:

An inclusive classroom is a term used within American pedagogy to describe a classroom in which all students, irrespective of their abilities or skills, are welcomed holistically.

References

  1. 1 2 About Dr. Lilli Nielsen:CV Archived 2007-10-06 at the Wayback Machine .
  2. 1 2 3 About Dr. Lilli Nielsen Archived 2007-05-29 at the Wayback Machine .
  3. ↑ An Introduction to Dr. Lilli Nielsen's Active Learning
  4. ↑ Nielsen, L. (1992). Space and Self. Copenhagen, Denmark: Sikon Press
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