Discover how tailored support in early childhood and during school years can improve the development and quality of life of children who are blind or have low vision. From perceptual development to individualized school support, learn about effective approaches to successful support.
Blindness in children does not always mean total blindness. This term also includes children who still have some vision. Blindness is a term within the broad spectrum of visual impairments. The targeted support options for blind and visually impaired children in kindergarten and at school are listed here.
Understanding blindness
We often think of blindness as a child who cannot see anything or recognize objects. However, this clear distinction between sighted and blind children is too narrow. Blindness is a term within the broader spectrum of visual impairments.
According to the German Federal Care Medicine Ordinance (Versorgungsmedizin-Verordnung), a person is blind if they have no eyesight at all or if their visual acuity is no more than 0.02 (1/50) in the better eye or when looking with both eyes. This means that a child with this level of vision can recognize an object from a distance of one meter, while a child with normal vision can recognize it from a distance of 50 meters. The WHO defines blindness as the absence of perception of light. These definitions show that there are different approaches to classifying blindness (see Pfau, Destatis, Kern, Wolfram & Kalcklösch, 2017).
A blind person can often still perceive differences in brightness and darkness or the outlines of people and objects. That is why early intervention is crucial for the optimal development of children with visual impairments. Unfortunately, in Germany, only estimates and projections are available regarding the number of visually impaired children. For Bavaria, the ZBFS recorded a total of 12,397 persons with visual impairments in 2020, including 372 minors. However, these figures are a lower limit because people with severe visual impairments are not included (see Deutscher Blinden- und Sehbehindertenverband e. V., 2022).
Challenges and support
In 2014, the scientist Prof. Dr. Renate Walthes reported 0.021% blind and 0.247% visually impaired children. For 2021, this would mean about 111 blind and 1,295 visually impaired children for 524,000 births. This small number poses a challenge for children, parents and professionals. In 2014, there were only 62 early intervention centers for blind and visually impaired children in Germany, while there were a total of about 33,000 child day care centers (cf. Sarimski & Lang, 2020).
Professional support for blind children
The complex area of early intervention must be considered holistically, especially for children with limitations and disabilities. In this context, the parents and the child’s environment play an important role. After all, the parents are exposed to a great mental burden in this situation. What happens next? Do we have funding opportunities nearby? How is it all going to be financed? Is there a daycare center that can deal with this limitation can deal with this restriction? How do I have to change my place of residence to prevent or minimize dangers? If none of this applies, what happens now professionally? There are many changes and challenges for the children and their parents.
The following graphic illustrates this again:
Targeted support options
Support options in kindergarten
- Promoting perception and movement:
- Tactile and audio games: Use of toys with different textures and sounds to train tactile and auditory perception.
- Exercise trails: Design of exercise landscapes that offer physical challenges and enable orientation through haptic and auditory signals.
- Visual perception training:
- Aids: Use of magnifying glasses, magnifying lenses, high-contrast images and light boxes to support remaining vision.
- High-contrast materials: Use of materials with high contrasts to improve visual recognition and orientation.
- Early support for braille:
- Braille books and games: Introduction to Braille through age-appropriate books and games for the early development of a feeling for writing.
- Braille learning materials: Use of tactile learning materials for a playful introduction to Braille.
- Basal stimulation:
- Tactile experiences: promoting through targeted tactile stimulation such as touching shapes, surfaces and textures.
- Physical closeness: ensuring regular physical closeness and touch to support bonding and a better understanding of the environment.
Support options at school
- Individual learning plans and support:
- Differentiated teaching methods: Adapting teaching methods and materials to the specific needs of the child, using magnification, tactile materials or digital aids.
- Assistance from specialists: Provision of specialized professionals such as special education teachers or school assistants for targeted support.
- Enhanced visual support:
- Adaptive technologies: Use of technologies such as screen readers, speech output software and magnification software to support the learning process.
- Braille and tactile materials: Integration of braille readers, tactile cards and other aids to facilitate learning.
- Literacy support:
- Braille integration: Regular and early introduction to braille through braille writers and readers.
- Literary activities: Use of tactile books, braille literature, and interactive materials to support literary understanding.
- Social and emotional support:
- Peer mentoring programs: involving mentors or peers to support and promote social interactions.
- Social skills: targeted development of social skills through group games and projects tailored to the needs of blind and visually impaired children.
- Mobility training:
- Orientation and mobility training: Training to improve spatial orientation and independent locomotion, often in collaboration with specialized professionals.
- Basal stimulation at school:
- Environmental design: Adaptation of the learning environment to optimize sensory stimuli and support orientation.
- Reducing stress: Using stress management techniques and promoting emotional stability through targeted stimulation and rest periods.
- Working with parents and professionals:
- Parental counseling: Regular counseling and training for parents to support their children in their school life.
- Interdisciplinary teams: Collaboration between teachers, therapists and other professionals to ensure comprehensive support.
These support options are designed to provide blind and visually impaired children with the best possible support in both kindergarten and school, and to promote their individual development.
Everyday problems and solutions
Everyday problems for blind children can be alleviated by targeted measures such as contrasts in the home or special learning methods. Interdisciplinary cooperation between parents, educators, early intervention centers and doctors is essential to ensure the best possible support.
Despite the challenges, targeted and individualized support for visually impaired or blind children offers an opportunity for positive development and integration into everyday life.
Conclusion
The comprehensive support concept for blind and visually impaired children in kindergarten and at school shows how important targeted and individual support is for the optimal development of these children. In kindergarten, we lay the foundation for this by specifically promoting perception and movement, providing visual support and introducing Braille at an early stage. These early measures are crucial to helping children better understand their environment and express themselves in a variety of ways.
At school, this approach is continued and deepened. Here, differentiated teaching methods and specialized professionals are used to adapt the educational process to the children’s needs. The integration of adaptive technologies, targeted literacy support and social support provide children with the tools and resources they need to successfully learn and navigate their environment. Mobility training and basal stimulation help to promote children’s independence and improve their quality of life.
In summary, the targeted support of blind and visually impaired children is a complex but indispensable process that requires close cooperation between parents, professionals and educational institutions. Taking individual needs into account and offering customized support is crucial to helping these children reach their full potential and flourish in all areas of life.
Sources
- German Federation of the Blind and Partially Sighted (ed.). (2022). Facts and figures. There is hardly any reliable data on visual impairment and blindness in Germany. An exception is the data on the frequency of eye diseases in Germany. Accessed on 01.03.2022. Available at: https://www.dbsv.org/zahlen- fakten.html
- Heyl, V. & Lang, M. (2021). Pädagogik bei Blindheit und Sehbehinderung (Kompendium Behindertenpädagogik, 1. Auflage). Stuttgart: Kohlhammer.
- Künnecke, I. (2017). Bildung von Schüler_innen mit schwerer Mehrfachbehinderung. Christy-Brown-Schule. Accessed on 01.03.2022. Available at: https:// www.christy-brown-schule-vs.de/downloads/Bildung von Sch%C3%BCler_innen mit schwererMehrfachbehinderung.pdf&chunk=true
- Sarimski, K. & Lang, M. (2020). Frühförderung blinder Kinder. Grundlagen für die Arbeit mit blinden Kindern und ihren families (bentheim, vol. 1, 1st edition). Würzburg: edition bentheim.
