Developing Early Skills with the Visually Impaired Child
Presented on Thursday 6 March 2008
An OT and SLT perspective
Julie Orr and Eleanor Douglas, Royal Blind School
Why the need for a booklet?
- Often asked for advice from other therapists in the community/hospital/children's centres
- Asked for advice from other professionals visiting children at home, eg; parent counsellor
- Wanted to give advice in multi-disciplinary format.
OT role with under 3's
- Assessment and advice for development of motor skills
- Strategies to encourage play and self-care activities
- Advice regarding specialist equipment (eg; seating, bathing, toys/switches) and home adaptations for children with additional difficulties
- Eating and drinking advice can be given from a very early age
- Advice on strategies for developing communication in a baby with VI from early on
- Assessment and advice on communication and language development
Aims of developing this booklet
- Aimed at children age 3 and under, with a Visual Impairment
- Wanted to produce something suitable for all stages and pace of development
- Wanted to have therapy based ideas that could be used easily by therapy colleagues
Aims:
- Ideas for practical activities that could be lifted straight from the book
- Clear explanations and no jargon
- Currently in draft form
Development of motor skills
- Head control
- Rolling
- Sitting up
- Crawling, cruising, walking
- Using hands - grasping, reaching, exploring and using 2 hands
Development of self-care skills
- Washing hands/face/teeth. Reinforce body awareness
- Dressing/undressing - eg; anticipating lifting up arms to put on vest, pulling off socks and shoes
- Toileting - introduce potty, explore toilet, describe how to use toilet
Play
- Encourage exploration of auditory, tactile and visually stimulating toys
- Describe and explain what toy does
- Vary play positions and environment and include 'rough and tumble' activities
- Introduce 'pretend' play
- Encourage play with similar age children
Early communication
- Difficulties the VI baby/child may have - faces, sounds, babble, real experiences
- Talking to the young child
- Activities to help focus and develop early language skills
Verbal communication
- Difficulties with participation in real experiences, making choices, initiating interactions, learning from others etc
- Talking to your young child
- Activities for developing language
Eating and drinking
- Early days - building routines, sensory issues etc
- Weaning - position, communication, food etc
- Using a cup
- Finger feeding
- Feeding
- Sensory issues
Group actvity
- Split into 2 groups
- Select 2 sections (per group) from the booklet and evaluate
- On flipchart write down comments on: usefulness, detail (enough/too much), clarity, relevance, jargon and any other comments
Discussion
- What works best? a) booklet on own; b) booklet and individual advice
- What contact have you had with therapists?
- How easy is it to contact therapists?
- Any examples of models of good practice to share?
Contacts
Eleanor Douglas (SALT)
Telephone: 0131 446 3112
Julie Orr (OT)
Telephone: 0131 446 3108