Supporting Life Skills for Young Children with Vision Impairment and Other Disabilities

An Early Years Habilitation Handbook

Fiona Broadley

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• eBook ISBN: 9781000097672
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

This practical resource is designed to help professionals, parents and carers as they support children with vision impairments to develop independence in everyday tasks. Using the Early Years Foundation Stage framework as a basis, it provides a wealth of strategies and activities to develop key skills, including dressing, maintaining personal hygiene, eating and drinking and road safety.

This is an invaluable tool that can be dipped in and out of to help make learning fun, boosting the child's confi dence and helping create a positive 'can- do' attitude when faced with new challenges.

This book:

? Addresses the main problem areas for babies and young visually impaired children and their families, by providing simple explanations of skills and offering strategies and techniques to support progression onto the next stage.

? Is written in a fully accessible style, with photocopiable pages and additional downloadable resources.

? Provides a variety of documentation to chart the child's development and show progress over time.

Research shows strong indicators that early intervention can reduce or eliminate developmental delays in children with a vision impairment. The supporting strategies in this book help busy professionals and carers to make every opportunity a learning opportunity, allowing children with a vision impairment to become confi dent and independent individuals.

Part One

Introduction

Introduction

If you have no previous experience, it can be very daunting supporting a child with a vision impairment. You want to do the best for the child, but don’t know where to begin. The aim of this handbook is to introduce you to a range of practical activities, skills and strategies which will help a child with vision impairment to be as independent as possible. It is aimed at children of all ages, but specifically targets the Foundation Stage (ages 0–5), with Intermediate and Higher stages to follow. These divisions are artificial, as targets should be stage, not age, appropriate. You should use your own judgement about whether any task is age or ability appropriate or seek guidance from your habilitation specialist.

Whilst a number of these skills should be achievable in the Early Years, this does not always happen, and the majority of the tasks and skills in this handbook can also be incorporated into a life skills programme for older children. There are some activities that require greater developmental maturity to provide progression. Chronological age is no indicator of maturity, ability or skill, and for some children delays could stem from factors not related to sight impairment. Bear in mind that there are optimal learning windows for developmental skills. If you miss a window, the skill can still be learned, but it may take longer. Think of it as a roadblock in the brain: it’s not insurmountable, it just needs a detour.

The UK Government (2014) published a Code of Practice for organisations who work with and support children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), 0 to 25 years which applies in England. They maintain that:

All children and young people are entitled to an education that enables them to:

achieve their best;

become confident individuals living fulfilling lives; and

make a successful transition into adulthood, whether into employment, further or higher education or training.

However, this begins with early, effective intervention and there are not enough specialists to meet this need. With appropriate early intervention, children with vision impairments would achieve the same developmental milestones at the same time as children who are fully sighted (Norris et al. 1957, quoted in Mason and McCall 1997). Vision impairment is regarded as a low incidence, high impact condition. This means that, whilst the numbers are quite low, the specialist teaching, adaptive strategies and devices are time-consuming and expensive. With such a small market, most devices never make it to mass production.

Achieving an appropriate level of independence cannot be valued too highly. Apart from gaining practical skills, learning to undertake independent living tasks improves self-esteem and confidence, and prepares a child for greater involvement in society and the world around them.

There is still a shortage of registered, qualified habilitation specialists (RQHS), which cannot be immediately addressed. Therefore, this handbook is intended to set you on your way to supporting children with a vision impairment achieve a variety of independent living skills. It is specifically UK based, so the terminology, services and equipment are relevant and available here. You don’t need to read from cover to cover, but rather dip in and out as the need arises.

This handbook primarily targets children and young people with vision impairment. However, a high proportion of the children also have additional disabilities. From personal experience, it has become clear that many of these strategies work equally well with children without a vision impairment who (for whatever reason) have struggled to absorb the necessary skills. Many are particularly suitable for children with autistic spectrum or sensory processing disorders. Much lateral thinking will be needed, because the most obvious way is not always the best. There is no correct way; safety and success are key. Consider each child as an individual and help them achieve as much as they can, safely within their own capabilities.

Most sighted children learn incidentally – that is, by observing their parents and siblings and modelling behaviour. Many exhibit an innate desire to achieve tasks independently. Those who have limited or no vision are at a great disadvantage in the learning process. Without the visual prompt and stimulation, it can be difficult to self-motivate. This is where you come in, as these children need to be specifically taught each of these skills that, with vision, are absorbed effortlessly. Most parents begin encouraging independence from very early on without even realising. Once aware of what you can do, the possibilities are endless!

Bear in mind your aim is to build independence. Your child may need a high level of support and intervention initially, but this should gradually reduce over time as your child learns and takes responsibility for their own development.

Basic skills and strategies you will need

Patience

Repetition of tasks may try the patience of you both. Persevere but try and add in other activities to break monotony, and always try to build in some element of...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Common terms used in this book
• Part one Introduction
• Part two Habilitation skills:: Foundation skills (Early Years) curriculum
• Part three Appendices
• Glossary
• Further reading
• Bibliography