Tools and Activities for the Development of Visual Skills (TADPOLE) is an array of activities, materials, and tools for use with 0-2 level learners.TADPOLE is a set of standardized tools that helps practitioners perform functional vision evaluations or visual skills development activities. It is similar to APH’s Tools for Assessment and Development of Visual Skills (ToAD) kit, but is geared for younger learners. TADPOLE is a natural precursor to APH’s ToAD Program.
The TADPOLE Practitioner’s Guidebook is a collection of suggested activities, primarily for use with students who are very young (0-2 level), or who have communication and/or cognitive delays. These activities are functional, and uncomplicated, natural to the learner’s environment.
Practitioners should purchase the ToAD kit prior to use of the TADPOLE kit, since items from ToAD are needed when a student’s personal items are not available. Items from the ToAD Program are used with TADPOLE because they embody visual characteristics of objects that are typically helpful to students with low vision and cortical visual impairments. Some of these characteristics are:
Simple, single color backgrounds
Simple design
Shiny or metallic objects
Objects or materials colored red, yellow, and sometimes blue
Familiarity of objects
Note: The CD-Rom contents, including the Practitioner’s Guidebook and Tasha Tadpole’s Puzzle Book, are available for download in the Manuals section of this page.
