Children With Visual Impairment
Many children are visually impaired. Some of them are born with this deficiency, while others acquire it over time. For this reason it is important for parents to be aware of the symptoms that reflect this difficulty in the vision of their children.
What is visual impairment?
Visual impairment is an eye condition that clouds the visual field. In general, children with visual impairment are the most affected at a young age.
Visual impairment may be due, among other reasons, to:
- Hereditary factors.
- Congenital factors.
- Viral infections
- An accident that directly affects the eyes.
- Problems during the pregnancy process.
According to what was mentioned by Doctor José Belda, specialist in ophthalmology:
Classification of visually impaired children
Children with visual impairment are generally classified according to the level of impairment in terms of the degree of alteration in the structure of the eyes. For example, those who see absolutely nothing are considered blind.
In order to give them a correct classification, it is important to keep in mind 2 important characteristics. These characteristics are the following:
Children with visual impairment who have visual rest
Keeping in mind the visual remainder that young children still have, it is possible to determine the following:
- Those who have a moderate functional deficiency urgently require the help of a specialist ophthalmologist.
- Children with visual impairment who have reduced central vision are considered blind.
- Those who have a very poor vision function and whose deficiency in central vision is very pronounced have a deep need to be helped with reading.
- Finally, children who are blind need special education and rehabilitation therapy to gradually gain a degree of independence.
Main characteristics present in children with visual impairment
Although it is very logical that children with visual disabilities need the help of adults, it is worth mentioning that they can usually compensate for this lack of vision with other senses, such as touch, taste, smell or the ear.
In fact, some of the main characteristics that visually impaired children have are those that will be presented below.
Development of the motor part of the body
Blind babies generally do not have the ability to crawl since they have very limited control over their arms, in addition to some motor stereotypies. They almost always present many difficulties in the development of their motor part since their visual part is very limited.
They also have very fundamental problems at the level of orientation and mobility, ignorance of the location of objects in their environment, insecurity when taking their first steps and learning difficulties compared to other children their age.
Development of the cognitive part
The cognitive part and the motor part of the body will always remain in a very close relationship. For this reason, it is extremely important that the child progresses in the development of his motor part.
However, something that can represent a real obstacle to achieving the development of their cognitive part is the lack of direct contact with the environment, added to mobility problems.
Development of the perceptual part
The perceptual part usually represents a real problem, since the integration between external stimuli is usually very slow. For this reason, the strengthening of the use of the hands should be essential, as well as doing exercises aimed at the upper muscles. It must be part of learning in a fundamental way.
Development of the linguistic part of the child
One of the main signs is the difficulty for the child to understand the words well, and what they mean. Especially when it comes to adverbs, such as: down, back, up, forward, outside inside, etc. However; this difficulty tends to decrease when the visually impaired child begins to reach 10 or 12 years of age.
Blind people are almost always able to record speeches in their minds from beginning to end. They tend to repeat themselves as a means of communication with other people. Another characteristic is that they often have difficulty in making an association between some words and their concepts.
Development on a social and emotional level
Children with visual disabilities, in general, will have needs very similar to those of other children. Despite the fact that the process and the way to provide satisfaction to them will require special knowledge from the parents, as well as constant attention. Similarly, development on an emotional level is often different.
This development will depend to a large extent on the attitude that family members have towards the visually impaired child and the interest they show. It should be noted that from the first days of his life, the contact he has with his parents is very important and significant.
Something that turns out to be vital in the care of children with these difficulties is the fact of increasing oral and tactile communication as much as possible so that they have more security and confidence in themselves.
