ISaR Projekt

"This pack has been compiled for the purpose of enabling you to develop your young, visually impaired, child’s understanding of early concepts, language and eventually books and symbols. Children with severe sight loss need help to develop concepts that the sighted child can pick up with relative ease, by watching and imitating others. Children with visual impairment need to find things out for themselves by joining in and physically experiencing what the people around them are talking about. The environment needs to be brought within their reach.

In the pack we have outlined activities that you, the parent, and your child can do together as part of your everyday routine. We explain the importance of these activities in helping your child to understand the world and build on her understanding of language and symbols. The child with visual impairment will need to develop her use of all the senses, visual, auditory and tactile. We introduce some fun activities that you and your child can do together when going to the shops, going out for a walk or during a quiet afternoon in the house. The emphasis is on concrete experience and personal involvement. Without this, a child with visual impairment may pick up language, but often without fully comprehending its meaning. We suggest many activities that will help to avoid such difficulties.

Finally we introduce the different ways that reading can be made accessible to a child with visual impairment, either through large print or tactile methods. There are many activities that can be carried out at home that will give your child a firm grounding in the basics and a head start when it comes to entering school for the first time."

(source: author)