VIDBE-Q Volume 64 Issue 4
59
grips with their feelings about having a child with VI as it is to provide
opportunities to learn about braille.
But, you might be saying, that's not my role on the team. I'm
supposed to be the visual impairment specialist. Young children with VI can
be fundamentally and developmentally different than other young children
without sensory and developmental challenges. Through our practice as
the VI specialist, we also support the motor therapist with ways to help
facilitate motor activities when typical motivators (visual in nature) don't
work. We work alongside the speech therapist to help her determine what
kind of communication system will be most efficient for the child with VI.
Even if we have an IMH specialist on the team, they are often working on
eye contact, reciprocal games, and other visually motivated behaviors and
may not understand how vision may drastically impact the attachment
relationship between child and another. When we provide consultation to
the rest of the team, even the IMH specialist, then we can assist everyone
on how impactful the child's VI can be to the social emotional development
within the family, as well as potentially on all other areas of development.
In closing, here is another quote from a mother of a child with VI.
After the birth of her second child, who happens to have vision, she was
