E: vi-asds-etal.org.uk

Hello and welcome

Your child has the same needs as any other child. Although having low vision, autism or multiple disability s/he still requires,

• Love
• Attention
• Security

S/he also likes to,

• Play
• Be picked up
• Carried
• Talked to

Homing in on low vision s/he will hear and sense things missed by sight. S/he will grow and develop in the same visually centred world as a fully sighted learner. What will be different however, is the way s/he does it.

Children progress at different rates whether disabled or not. A difference being if your child has low vision for example s/he might need encouragement and a little help to reach out for a toy.

Therefore, s/he might need support to listen, touch, feel and even see in order to learn and develop.

Your pre-schooler will learn to use her or his senses together in order to learn about the surrounding world. Together they will give her or him a ‘picture’ and therefore the more experience s/he has the better developed her or his understanding will become.

Sensory Development

The information following is designed to help your child learn about her or his senses and how to use them. The senses included are,

• Sight
• Hearing
• Taste
• Smell
• Touch

Using the senses

We can use our senses all at once or one at a time. Whilst addressing information from a single sense we are still receiving information through other senses even if not consciously attending to it at the time.

As with all new skills we must learn how to use them. This applies to our senses too. We must learn how to tune into sensory information when it’s needed and respond to feedback received.

Why teach these skills

Your child must be able to stimulate a sense and a sense must be able to receive a physical stimulus.

S/he can absorb and learn a great deal from a sense even if it is partly dysfunctional. This involves learning how to interpret and respond to sensory information.

Even if impaired we nevertheless need to stimulate the sense so that it can increase its potential to offer up information.

Sensory awareness

The sensory system receives information from the environment and then transmits it to the brain. Your child requires sensory awareness to use the sensory information once it reaches the brain. For example, actively teaching your child about her or his senses and then encouraging their interpretation and development will later support the maximising of safe and efficient travel skills. That is,

• Looking and seeing
• Listening and hearing
• Touch
• Balance
• The proprioception system; that is, the coordination of body parts and motion

Suggestions

Sensory boxes, bags or treasure baskets can stimulate the different senses; for example,

• Sound boxes containing a variety of items making different sounds
• Smell boxes containing a variety of different smells from inside and outside the home
• Touch bags containing objects made from different materials some hard some soft for example, different grades of sand paper, wooden and metal spoons an acorn, conker and feathers
• Sight baskets containing visually stimulating items
• Taste box containing sweet and savoury items

Teach your child to become familiar with everyday items; for example, their

• Sight
• Smell
• Sound

Draw attention to them when out and about. However, avoid bombarding your child with information to a point where s/he misses out on the simple pleasure of being out of the home.

A word of caution: when young, many items may find their way into your child’s mouth – if only to draw information from them. Therefore be present when s/he is being encouraged to explore new materials.

Mannerisms

It is not uncommon for children who have for example very low vision developmental delay to develop mannerisms, These might include,

• Rocking
• Twirling
• Rubbing eyes
• Eyes poking which might manifest as pressing on one or both of the eyes
• Jumping up and down especially on the spot

Eye poking

If your child starts to persistently rub or poke her or his eye you should have the situation checked by an ophthalmologist via your GP.

Assuming that s/he is not pressing her or his eye for medical reasons discourage the practice. It is better to stop the behaviour before becoming habitual. Try a deflection technique to include,

• Giving your child a toy or other object to occupy her or his hands
• Take her or him for a walk

Empirical evidence suggests that few children who suck their thumb engage in eye poking. This suggests that these activities serve the same purpose.

Rocking

Rocking is a self-stimulating activity. This often presents when a child is standing or sitting, not playing with anything, just simply rocking backwards and forwards. To address this,

• Put your hand on her or his shoulder and ask the child to stop
• Then, give her or him something to do

S/he may be bored and unable to look or move around and find something stimulating to do. S/he may therefore need help to find something stimulating.

Jumping on the spot

Jumping on the spot may have developed as a means of using up excess energy. To address it try setting aside a regular part of the day for physical activity. If this doesn’t work try setting aside a specific time for jumping up and down. This might include allowing the use of a trampoline. At all other times discourage obsessively jumping up and down. If necessary, use a suitable deflection technique.

Obsessive behaviour

If any of these behaviours persist and could be defined as obsessive seek medical advice via your GP. They may not be routed in your child’s visual impairment or other disability consequently another area of need.

Other mannerisms

Other inappropriate mannerisms may include,

• Staring at lights
• Waving fingers in front of the eyes to include doing so in front of a light
• Rolling the head
• Constantly rubbing her or his hands together

Addressing the issue

It is important to remember that your child may be unaware about how s/he looks to others when carrying out the mannerism. After all, your child may be unable to see that others are not doing the activity. S/he is therefore dependent on you to address the behaviour. If you don’t who will?

Pride

Try appealing if age and understanding appropriate to a sense of pride. That is, pointing out that the behaviour isn’t,

• Appealing
• Attractive
• Acceptable
• Carried out by others

This is probably better than continually saying for example, ‘stop rocking.’ Remember also, saying something like this at an inappropriate time might be embarrassing and upsetting to your child.

Code

You might try using a specific word, a code, which reminds your child to stop the mannerism. Only you and your child will know what this means and as a consequence be more acceptable to you both.

Routine

Try routinely maintaining activities so that your child is not,

• Bored
• Lonely

Encourage other children to play with yours.

Checking

Check your child when s/he is playing alone. If s/he is doing the same thing time and again show her or him another thing to do. If for example continually spinning the wheel of a toy truck work with her or him to fill the truck, move its load and dumping it in a spot a little way off.

Avoid passive activities

Try to avoid leaving your child alone listening to the TV or music for too long. Spend some time asking her or him questions about what s/he is looking at and/or listening too.

Avoid nagging

Avoid nagging regarding a repetitive action; for example, continually saying ‘stop poking your eye.’ Instead, gently remove her or his hand and then give your child something else to do.

As with teaching more generally compliment someone for not doing something rather than criticise when doing something undesirable. That is, say well done for not doing the mannerism rather than ‘stop doing that’ when s/he is.

Nursery

Being with children of the same age may encourage socially acceptable behaviour through your child interacting with those not behaving in this way. Enrolling in a nursery may help. However, ensure those working in the nursery are following the same strategies and routines as you. This is important. Having someone else reinforcing what you are doing will also give you a brake. Your child may not get away with things quite so easily too!

Next month

Next time we will devote the whole article to the extremely important topic of,

• Movement
• Orientation

And,

• Mobility

We will start within pre-school years and then move into independent travel techniques more generally.

Don’t forget

If you don’t do it who will and education is the great equaliser. And, all the information above is developed extensively in books for under £10 from Kindle.

Rgds

Clive

• Independent living skills in general
• Cooking techniques more specifically