Provide opportunities for the child to engage in interactive play. NARRATOR: A graphic slide provides these summary points regarding the chapter: Parent & Child: The First Interaction. And I think it's striking that happy balance that is so important, and having those expectations throughout a child's life. Sometimes those expectations can be way too low, and sometimes they can be way too high. SACKS: The other element I think that's really critical is for families and professionals to have realistic expectations for their student who is blind or visually impaired. His two older sisters stand on either side of him. NARRATOR: In a photograph, a boy who is visually impaired and wears thick glasses rolls a bowling ball down the alley. So children who have siblings tend to be more risk-takers, I think.Īnd what we want for our children who are blind or visually impaired and have additional disabilities are really to be risk-takers, really to engage with the world around them. And they want that child to be part of the gang, if you will. They treat the child who has a disability - whether it's a visual impairment or another disability - just like another child. And they don't think about kind of having a hands-off attitude. They allow the child to engage in rough and tumble play. And I think siblings are wonderful teachers because siblings allow children to just be themselves. Because by engaging in real-life experiences, the child is learning about their social world.įamily gatherings, the extended family is so critical. SACKS: Letting them play in the kitchen when they begin to develop motor skills or even if they don't have that motor ability, giving them real objects to feel, to touch, to explore. ♪ Hug with Riley, hug with Riley, ♪ ♪ hug with a joyful heart ♪ The mothers sing songs and encourage the young children to interact. NARRATOR: In a video clip, a group of mothers with visually impaired children gather for play time. Getting the child to begin to play, to engage in play, to engage in real world experiences. I did this with my own kids.Ĭlap the feet, and eat the toes, and tickle the tummy, and beep-beep the nose because you're developing that body awareness, and you're having fun with it.
I talk about with very young child to do something like. It could be even a lot of goo-ing and cooing, but it's a back and forth kind of game playing. if the child can't see, but maybe getting that face-to-face contact through mommy-child games or family-child games, getting that child to look at the individual, getting that reciprocal relationship where the. So for a baby, you want to get that child in the baby seat maybe up on the counter, talking to the child, getting that social proximity, getting the child to. if they're quiet, maybe they're not engaged, to just kind of leave them be.īut what you want to do is to get them involved in all family activities. It's so easy, I think, for a child who is blind or visually impaired, or a child who has additional disabilities, to sort of be left alone to quiet. Families, siblings, relatives engaging the child in the family milieu is so important.
SACKS: Families are the first teachers, and they're probably the most important teachers. So it's really an essential part of what we teach students who are blind or visually impaired.ĬHAPTER 2: Parent and Child – The First Social Interaction And without a social presence, visually impaired students may encounter isolation, may encounter difficulty with personal relationships, may encounter difficulty with employment and independent living as adults. SACKS: The research that I've done and others have done have demonstrated that social skills are really the foundation upon which other skills are built. And the teachers prompt the girls to take turns passing a ball. Sitting behind each of the girls is a teacher. NARRATOR: In a video clip, two young girls who are visually impaired sit on the floor facing one another. They need to be modeled, they need to be practiced.Īnd many individuals believe that the social world needs to be brought to the child who's blind or visually impaired, that we can't just assume that a child's going to learn them - we have to help them learn those skills. And that reciprocity back and forth, that joint attention that's so critical with very young children is encountered through the visual sense.Īnd so for blind or visually impaired kids, learning those social skills need to be taught at a very early age. Very young children, babies for example, learn to smile by watching what their mothers do, and engaging with them.
And if you think about how we learn to interact and how we learn to engage socially, we do it through observation. Almost 80% of what we acquire is through vision. SACKS: Well, so much of what we learn is through the visual sense.