By Supriya Das
The following article is in continuation of the first blog piece that appeared here, on Preparing Visually Impaired children between two and five for school. In the previous piece, Supriya Das talked about certain key areas where parents need to work in order to help their children to get into mainstream education system. One of those key areas focuses on Self Help and Independent Living Skills. To understand this better, we can further divide this into the following focus areas.
1. Toilet Training
Learning to indicate or use the toilet is an important milestone as it brings independence, confidence and self sufficiency in children.Apparently many of our children with visual impairment or blindness may take a little longer to achieve this skill because of their delayed milestones. Therefore, as parents of a child with visual impairment you have to train regular practice to your child to use the toilet properly. You can start to toilet train your child between 18 months to 3 years of her/his age. Some of the ways to toilet train is to baby talk with your child about what is going on, every time they get wet and you change their diaper. Record their frequency and timing of urinating and going to the toilet for a few days. This will help you to anticipate their toilet behaviour and you can take them to the toilet at the right time. If you are using a pot for your child then you can place the pot in the toilet area. This will condition your child that s/he needs to move from the current position, show some uneasiness, and notify the person near them through speech, vocalization or gestures every time they get an urge to pass urine or motion. Remember to praise every little success and be casual about accidents. Your child may take a long time to master this skill and that is absolutely normal.
Another important aspect of toilet training is when you are with your child in a group or public place; ensure that you do not check her/his diaper for wetness or worse change the diaper in front of people. Never expose your child in front of people, even including those that you know. Visually Impaired children need to realize that using the toilet is a private act. Children without visual impairment learn this naturally through incidental learning. Hence, this is something that needs to be taught to visually impaired children from the very beginning to avoid embarrassments and most importantly harassments.
2. Eating and Cleaning Up
Learning to eat independently is always fun and a messy activity for visually impaired toddlers. Encourage your child to feed himself/herself, either with his/her fingers or a spoon In addition, washing their hands before and after eating, cleaning up their own spills and setting up their own table are some necessary skills that you should teach your toddler. Also, let your child know and eat a variety of age appropriate food as well as vegetables and fruits that are common to your culture.Children who are blind or visually impaired should be given choices of food and verbal instructions of all the eatables that are placed on the table. Try to keep everything within their reach so that they can reach and explore. Always remember that training for eating skills will be messy and your toddler won’t always eat much but rather spill more, and keeping it messy always provides an excellent opportunity for sensory play, prevents tactile defensiveness and provides positive chances of self-feeding and cleaning.Your teaching of independent eating skills will serve them well in the future.
3. Dressing and Grooming
Dressing is an excellent skill to teach your visually impaired child about body awareness, sequencing and organization. It helps in improving finger dexterity and increases upper body strength. Begin with undressing as that is much simpler than dressing. Keep reducing support with the increasing participation of your child. Always try to do such activity only when your child is willing and interested.
Grooming includes washing, brushing teeth, combing, and keeping self clean and tidy. Children who are blind or visually impaired should be able to do these chores even if it’s semi-independently and by the time they are ready to attend an inclusive school.
Note: Never dress or undress your child in front of people.Also, do not let anybody or everybody help your child to undress or dress up. Educate your children about setting boundaries and privacy.
Grooming includes washing, brushing teeth, combing, and keeping self clean and tidy. Children who are blind or visually impaired should be able to do these chores even if it’s semi-independently and by the time they are ready to attend an inclusive school.
Note: Never dress or undress your child in front of people.Also, do not let anybody or everybody help your child to undress or dress up. Educate your children about setting boundaries and privacy.
4. Moving Around
Help your child to move around and explore the surroundings in order to get an experience and gain autonomy in movement. Give them the training and practice to use their remaining senses to get an understanding of the environment. Such kind of training will help your child later to form a mental map of the school set up while enabling them to move around independently and locate places. For instance, a well-trained child will be able to locate places like the canteen area and music room in the school by using their olfactory and hearing sense respectively. They will be able to navigate to places in the school independently.
Introducing cane to your toddler is another step towards independence.Using white cane enables your child to achieve four developmental milestones- Sensory, Physical, Social and Emotional development. A toddler who uses a cane will be fearless and confident in his/her movement; will be curious to learn about the objects that he/she encounters on his/her way; and will be able to mingle with peers because of his/her active mobility.
Cane mobility training can begin as early as your baby starts to walk. You can give your child a wooden walker or a toy stick to hold and use it like a cane. You will get plenty of such toys in the market like the children hockey sticks, any mobile toy with a long handle etc. Just ensure that the cane should not be too long or too short for your child to hold and walk.Go for something that is between their low-mid waists.
You will need support to train your child to achieve the above mentioned skills and developmental milestones. The best would be to enrol your child in a special school or an intervention centre. Your child will naturally pick up a lot from the environment. The service providers and you have to work as a team for a timely and successful inclusion of your child in a mainstream school.
Remember: Never limit your child to your own thinking. If you can give something to your child, give her/him opportunities.
Introducing cane to your toddler is another step towards independence.Using white cane enables your child to achieve four developmental milestones- Sensory, Physical, Social and Emotional development. A toddler who uses a cane will be fearless and confident in his/her movement; will be curious to learn about the objects that he/she encounters on his/her way; and will be able to mingle with peers because of his/her active mobility.
Cane mobility training can begin as early as your baby starts to walk. You can give your child a wooden walker or a toy stick to hold and use it like a cane. You will get plenty of such toys in the market like the children hockey sticks, any mobile toy with a long handle etc. Just ensure that the cane should not be too long or too short for your child to hold and walk.Go for something that is between their low-mid waists.
You will need support to train your child to achieve the above mentioned skills and developmental milestones. The best would be to enrol your child in a special school or an intervention centre. Your child will naturally pick up a lot from the environment. The service providers and you have to work as a team for a timely and successful inclusion of your child in a mainstream school.
Remember: Never limit your child to your own thinking. If you can give something to your child, give her/him opportunities.
To be continued...
About the Author
Supriya Das is Program Coordinator at the Infant to Toddler Program at Saksham, an NGO that works in the domain of disability. Her area of expertise involves working with children with visual impairment, deaf-blindness, and multiple disabilities. She also works with parents, caregivers, and communities to create awareness and provide training.
At Saksham’s Infant to Toddler Program, early intervention services are provided to children with sensory impairment (age 0-4) and training support to their families. Connect to Saksham on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/SakshamIndia2003/. For more information, Supriya can be reached at supriya.das07@gmail.com. She also writes a blog on teaching and learning strategies for children with visual impairment, deaf-blindness and multiple disabilities which can be accessed athttp://igrowup.weebly.com/
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