Parent Q&A

Question: Is my child with a visual impairment too young to use assistive technology? What age should children start to be exposed to enlargements/braille?

Answer: Oftentimes, parents believe that children should wait to be exposed to braille and enlargements until they are ready to read. Tactile books can be used to encourage touch. Tactile books are adapted books that have a tactile aspect so that reading the books also involves touching them. They will engage blind/low vision students more in the reading experience. It is important, that children who are blind/low vision be exposed to both braille and tactile books as toddlers so that they can begin to gather information from their environment. Exposure to braille will help them to gain valuable information by touch and increase their knowledge of textures. Parents can support children by getting a braille label maker and making labels for objects in the child’s environment. Clear adhesive braillable sheets can be used to make labels that are placed over print in books. To prepare your child for reading, talk to your child about ‘reading with your fingers’. Expose children who have visual impairments to books!

Question: Is TV exposure helpful to young children who are blind?

Answer: TV provides human voices and sound sources that are not in the child’s functional environment. For that reason, the voices heard on the TV do not afford your child with an opportunity for interaction. There is no way for your child to consistently determine which voice is coming from the TV and which from the immediate environment. Except through small pieces of dialogue, the child who is blind or visually impaired is unaware of some of the important visual elements of the TV presentation such as scenery, scene location, body language and the other visual elements that help those without visual impairments understand the events and action as they occur. As an alternative to exposing your child to TV sound sources at a young age, you can benefit your child more by verbalizing what you are doing, moving to the immediate environment of activity, and allowing for hands-on experiences. When your older child wishes to share TV experiences with others, descriptive video may enhance the TV watching experience.