Visually impaired children need support, especially since they know significantly less about the world than adults. How to help a visually impaired child?

How to Help a Visually Impaired Child: What is Visual Impairment?

Visual impairment can be used to refer to blindness or any kind of vision loss that isn’t really correctable. This could be due to:

• Birth defects
• Injuries to the eyes
• Unaligned eyes
• Trauma to the eye

Living with the loss of seeing might be difficult in general but so much more for children. With the help of parents and professionals, there are multiple opportunities that can be opened up for learning, playing, and working even without sight.

How to Help a Visually Impaired Child: What are the Causes of Visual Impairment?

Being visually impaired doesn’t exactly mean total darkness. Blind people can see, but not as much as we do. It’s either they only see shadows, or a little bit of light, but they cannot see the world clearly enough.

Children who are visually impaired need help as they are considered “legally blind” if their eyesight cannot be corrected medically.

Eye or brain function

These can develop even before a child’s birth because there are parts of our eyes that don’t form the way that they should. Even if the eyes look normal, the brain sometimes has trouble with information processing, causing visual impairment.

Genetics

Blindness can be inherited or genetic. This means that a child’s problem could have come from their parents through the genes.

Illness

There are illnesses that can damage eyesight as time continues to pass by, such as diabetes. Cataracts can cause vision problems and blindness, and can be really painful. However these diseases more likely appear in older people than in children.

How to Help a Visually Impaired Child: Providing Support

Babies who are blind are not at all different from those who have perfect sight. Development and learning go as they would usually, but parents will need to seek professional help as blindness can be difficult to manage with babies.

Learning programs

It is recommended to aid the child better by enrolling them in special learning programs which cater towards children who have trouble with their sight.

These can help them develop their capabilities in hearing, touching, tasting, and smelling, which will make life easier for them.

Medical help

Babies and children who have serious visual impairment are required to see ophthalmologists, or doctors who specialize in eye problems.

Services for these kind of problems are commonly available as it is not that rare of a condition for children to experience, and the earlier the treatment, the better the development for the child and how they navigate life.

Diagnosis and assessment are the first steps, and intervention is the second. Visually impaired children are normal despite the problem, and proper care for them is the best route to take in making them feel at ease.

Learn more about Growth and Development here.