The Early Years: Strategies and Resources for working with very young visually impaired children
Presented on Thursday 6 March 2008
Support for Families
Early Support - Developmental Journal for babies and children with visual impairment
Lynn Lymer,
Visiting Teaching and Support Services
Why vision matters
- Main distance learning sense
- Coordinates all early experience
- 90% of infant learning is visual
- Key to movement and exploration
- Key to communication and relationships
Use of the Journal
- Gives clear information in everyday language
- Can be left with the family
- Gives parallel checklists for vision and for overall development
- Acts as a prompt for discussion
- Provides suggested activities
Words of caution
- It may suit the more able child best
- Some families might be overwhelmed
- If may suit children with some vision, better than those who will learn by non-sighted methods.
The families
- Sighted parents with a son who has Norrie's Disease and a younger daughter
- Sighted parents whose second child is a boy with Leber's Congenital Amaurosis
- Blind parents with a son who has inherited Leber's Congenital Amaurosis
- A carer who is looking after a little boy with no perception of light
- Sighted parents with a sighted daughter and a son with bilateral coloboma of the iris and retina
- Sighted parents of three girls and a son with complex needs.
Taylor
Age 3 years 10 months. Attends his local nursery. Norrie's Disease
Angus
Age 3 years 11 months. Attends his local nursery. Leber's Congenital Amaurosis
Parents' comments on using the Journal
- I like the activity cards
- It gives suggestions for activities that Gran can carry out
- It relates my son's progress to normal (her word) children
- It gave me confidence that we were not overlooking anything.
More comments
- It helps me to think of questions to ask
- I enjoy working together (with VTVI) to see what progress my son has made
- I feel more in control with the Journal than I am with medical assessments
More comments
- I keep the Journal in the house, so I can show off my son's achievements
- We are building up this detailed record together - I might use it for my daughter too!
- It lets us write in things we like doing together
VTVI comments
- The Journal is infinitely flexible
- It sill depends on your professional judgement and knowledge
- Be careful how much you deliver to a family at any one time
- Only start ticking boxes in the section when you are sure there will be successes to record
Contact details
Lynn Lymer, VTSS, 154 McDonald Road, Edinburgh EH7 4NN
Telephone: 0131 469 2850
lynn.lymer@ea.edin.sch.uk