Research: Needs of Visually Impaired Children

The Unique Needs of the Visually Impaired Children

Vision is the primary learning modality and source of information for most children. No other sense can stimulate curiosity, integrate information or invite exploration In the same way, or as efficiently and fully, as vision does. A child who comes into the world without a dependable visual system, or without vision at all, has to navigate through the incomplete messages received through the other sensory modalities in order to put a whole picture of the world together. The visually impaired child needs to determine how to organize this incomplete information and then respond to what may remain a confusing view of the world.

The child who is legally blind may not learn to do things by visual imitation, an integral pathway to learning during early development. Thus, her ability to understand basic life concepts, and the process by which most life tasks are accomplished and brought to completion, is seriously compromised.

Without these essential pieces of information about the world, the ability of the legally blind child to develop effective problem solving skills, a cornerstone to cognition, is seriously challenged. The legally blind child Is often left to depend upon the verbal description of the world given him by a sighted person whose view of reality does not match with what the blind person is experiencing. Instruction specific to his disability is essential for the young child who is blind or visually impaired in order to meet his unique needs.

Cognitive Needs
-Strategies to compensate for the lack of dependable sensory and experiential information available to the visually impaired infant.
-Exposure to a wide variety of environmental experiences in natural settings to allow the child to generalize learned skills in new settings.
Gross and Fine Motor Needs
-Physical Therapy and/or Occupational Therapy to overcome the effects of limited motor experiences on muscle development.
-Training and support to move out into the environment. The infant who is blind or low vision does not have the visual motivation that prompts the development of early motor milestones.
Vision Needs
-Regular functional vision evaluations.
-Caregiver understanding of and response to, the unique characteristics of the Visually Impaired child's visual diagnosis.
-Vision stimulation activities in the context of naturally occurring events to encourage the use of residual vision, when appropriate.
-Access to adapted visual aides (glasses, contacts, sunglasses, etc.).
Communication Needs
-Early nurturing interactions with a consistent, significant caregiver.
-Recognition of the unique responses of visually impaired infants to the introduction of new voices and sounds.
-Simultaneous verbal description of activities in which the visually impaired child is engaged.
Social and Emotional Needs
-Early exposure to age- appropriate skills for daily living: eating, dressing, toileting.
-Additional support to motivate the child to interact with family members and others within the extended family and community.
-Play opportunities with selective adult encouragement to interact with age mates takes on added significance for the legally blind child who is unable to visually imitate the play skills of other children

Adapted from: http://www.tsbvi.edu/Education/infant-needs.htm

Done by: Lim Yu Shan(13)