Inhabited by stories

Our long and multifaceted experience as consultants in the Educational Consulting Service team of the Francesco Cavazza Institute has made us aware that for visually-impaired children, reading is very often (at least at first) very complicated and tiring. They focus on decoding the letters and words to the detriment of understanding, pleasure, and the inner enrichment offered by this experience fundamental for the learning process, but especially for growth. It is therefore essential, starting in nursery school, to stimulate the development of aptitudes and interests needed to consider reading an experience that offers pleasure and involvement, able to enrich the emotions and imagination, as well as stimulate individual and shared thought. In a world that emphasizes the expanding, all-pervasive use of new technologies, one’s attention tends to become increasingly fragmented and short-lived, with less and less time devoted to reading (which risks being limited to school assignments). In this perspective, the I.Ri.Fo.R. "G.E.S.T.I. per crescere 2024” announcement gave us the opportunity to organize the “Inhabited by stories” laboratory, whose participants were 5 children, age 5-8, living in Emilia Romagna, with visual disabilities (2 visually impaired, 2 partially blind, 1 completely blind), all managed by our Educational Consulting Service. This 15-hour laboratory was designed and coordinated by Dr. Paola Gamberini (tiflopedagogical coordinator), Serena Cimini (psychologist), Martina Belvisi (specialized coach), and architect Fabio Fornasari (curator of the Tolomeo Museum).

Reading a story was the starting point for imaginative, creative, expressive and sensory experiences, with the following goals: introduce the children to reading through various sensory channels (visual/tactile reading, listening); explain the existence and the equal value of different reading/writing codes; accustom them to summarizing short, simple stories; promote the absorption of contents by means of creative and expressive activities, stimulate curiosity and the interest in discovery.

It was a delightful, enjoyable experience in which the story we read took flight with games, handicrafts, dramatizations, and physical animation.

Antonella Abbatiello’s illustrated book “La cosa più importante” (“The most important thing”) inspired us to lead the children on a path to discover themselves and their inner resources. Reading the book out loud generated manual activities and dramatization linked to the story’s content and characters. The story was then retraced by means of play therapy and physical representation. We also used some music and costumes by Fabio Fornasari to further enrich the images and ideas.

These moments of thought and discussion stimulated the children’s social skills and their interaction with their peers, making the reading a rewarding, shared experience.

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