Common Characteristics of Children with VI

Myths about People who are Blind  They need help in order to survive.  They should be pitied.  They have very little potential for being successful economically.  It is dangerous for them to move through space by themselves.  They need protection, and their dog guide would take care of any problem that arose.

Myths and Facts  People who are blind have a sixth sense.  People who are blind only see blackness or grayness.  People who are blind do not dream.  People who are blind need to be spoken for.

 People who are blind are easily able to recognize who a person is just by hearing the person’s voice. People who are blind have better than average musical abilities. People who are blind should not travel alone unless they have dog guides.

 People who are blind are sad, depressed, and angry.  When speaking with people who are visually impaired, never use such terms as see or look.  When you talk to a person who is severely visually impaired, you must speak loudly.  People who are blind cannot hold self supporting jobs and are on welfare.

Lowenfeld (1981)  Lowenfeld identified three critical ways in which blindness effects the characteristics of the person: –The range and variety of experience. –The ability to move about. –In control of the environment and the person’s relationship to it.

Adventitious vs. Congenital Visual Impairment  Congenital – visually impaired since birth  Adventitious – visual impairment occurs after birth; the later the impairment – –The greater the visual mapping and visual memory. –The greater the emotional impact.

Differences between students who are sighted and students who are Visually Impaired  Babies who are blind are very slow to develop the coordinated motor skills which are needed.  If the student has low vision, adaptations in contrast, color, complexity, size, style, proximity, lighting, and time may be beneficial.

 Children with visual impairments are likely to be late to walk.  They are also likely to be late to talk.  They may be echolalic.  Tactual defensiveness is very common.  Repetitive motions (blindisms) are often observed.  Resistance to wearing glasses or using equipment that would help them in class is common.

 Sometimes very poor social skills.  Problems with grooming are fairly common.  Being overly dependent on one or more adult happens fairly frequently.  Unwillingness to take risks or confront challenges.

Cognitive development  Cause and effect are harder to develop  One to one correspondence is more difficult because it must be experienced tactually.  Relationship between words and objects or actions may be inaccurate or difficult to establish.

Cognitive development (cont)  Self-help skills are slow to develop because children are often given little opportunity to work with them.  Social skills are difficult because some of the subtle nuances of social communication may be impossible for the child to perceive.  If the student is congenitally visually impaired there may be significant misunderstanding of basic concepts.

Concepts  Concept development helps us all make sense of a “variability of the environment” (Warren 1984)  Most of all, our students typically have a very distorted perspective on even the most basic concepts.  This has a compounding effect since a child who is visually impaired has more demand placed on there conceptual abilities than a child who is sighted.

Concepts  Most of all, our students typically have a very distorted perspective on even the most basic concepts.

SO WHAT  Intervention works – earlier the better  Students may talk a “good game” but not have a basic concepts  Areas of need will have to be assessed and possibly remediated  Whatever you do for the client (no matter their age) should be meaningful to them