Impacts of Vision Loss on a Child’s Development

Visual impairment affects all areas of your child’s development. Babies and toddlers gain knowledge and skills by interacting with objects, the environment, and other people.  Since visual impairment may decrease motivation to explore and interact, teachers and families must make adaptations to both materials and instructional methods.  This session will describe each of the 5 developmental domains, how visual impairment alters skill acquisition in each area, and what parents can do to encourage their children to reach for the next developmental step.

Instructor:   Sara Edwards and Julia Bowman

Instructor’s Title: Sara and Julia are both TVIs, DT/Vision Specialists and Evaluators in the IL Early Intervention Program.

Instructor’s Affiliation: Illinois School for the Visually Impaired (ISVI)

Primary Core or ECC Area:  Compensatory

Target Audience: Professionals and caregivers

Pre-requisite knowledge:   None

Lesson Plan Goal:  

The webinar will focus on the five developmental domains and how visual impairment alters skill acquisition in each area. The instructors will share strategies for parents and teachers that will encourage their children and students to reach the next developmental step. Lesson plans and activity ideas will also be shared for each developmental domain.

Learning Objectives:  

The participant will identify the five developmental domains impacted by a visual impairment.

The participant will identify three ways in which a visual impairment may impact the development of a child.

The participant will identify two strategies a parent and/or teacher may incorporate into the child’s daily routine or lessons to encourage developmental progress.

The participant will review the importance of adapting materials and instructional methods for children so that they can continue to make progress in all five developmental domains.

Materials Needed:  None