With help and encouragement from family and community, a child with loss of vision can usually develop early skills as quickly and as well as other children. Helping Children Who Are Blind shows ways children can learn to feed, bathe, dress, and care for themselves, and to find their way around the home and village without help. They can develop an outstanding ability to use hearing, touch, and even smell. And they can be helped to make the best use of whatever vision they have. These children can learn to read and write with special devices and will be able to learn as well as other children.
When children receive a good education, they can enter almost any profession open to others. They can work:
with their hands, in the fields or repairing machines.
with their minds, as teachers, lawyers, or scientists.
with their talents, as musicians, artistis or in sports.
Unfortunately, children with vision loss often are not given a chance to develop as quickly or as fully as they could. In some countries more than half of the children who are born with vision loss die of hunger or neglect before they are 5 years old. Following are 2 stories of children that will help you realize the difference that understanding and help from family and community can make.
SHANTI
(Story adapted from How To Raise a Blind Child.)
Shanti was born in a small village in India. When they found that she could not see, her parents and grandparents tried to hide the fact from the other villagers. They thought all blindness was sent to a family as a punishment for sin, and that people would look down on them.
Secretly her parents took Shanti to an orphanage and left her there. Nobody in the orphanage had ever cared for a child with vision loss, and they did not know what to do. There were so many other children who needed care, that there was no time left for her.
Shanti was kept alive, but that was all. Nobody talked to her or held her lovingly or tried to stimulate her. Her blind eyes and unresponsive face made the nurses think she could not understand or recognize anything around her. So when other babies began to reach out for objects they saw, and then to crawl toward things they wanted, Shanti was left lying silently on her cot.
People got used to Shanti. She was picked up when necessary, and cleaned and fed. They fed her with a bottle, or pushed food into her mouth. But nobody tried to teach her how to feed herself or how to walk and talk.
As she grew older, Shanti spent most of her time sitting on the doorstep, rocking herself and poking her eyes (see "Strange Behavior"). She never said a word and only cried when she was hungry. Other children stayed away from her; they were afraid of her dead eyes. Everyone thought she had cognitive delay and that nothing could be done about it.
In time, Shanti did begin to talk and walk. But the sad, stony look on her face never disappeared. Now, at age 7 she is in some ways still like a 2-year-old. And in other ways she is no longer a child. We can only guess at her future.
RANI
Rani was born in another village in India. Like Shanti’s family, when her parents learned she had visual impairment, they were worried about what the villagers would say. But the baby’s grandmother, who had slowly lost her sight 5 years ago, said, “I think we should do everything we can for the baby. Look at me. I, too, am now blind, and yet I still have all the same feelings and needs as I did when I could see. And I can still do most of the things I used to do. I still bring water from the well, grind the rice, milk the goats,...”
“But you could already do all those things before you went blind,” said the father. “How could a blind baby learn?”
“We must help her learn,” said Grandma. “Just as I’ve learned to do things by sound and touch, so Rani must learn. I can help teach her, since I know what it’s like. But we can also get advice from the health worker.”
The village health worker came the next day. She did not know much about loss of vision, but she knew a little about early child development. She suggested they give the baby a lot of stimulation in hearing and feeling and smelling things, to make up for what she could not see. “And talk to her a lot,” she said.
The family took the advice. They put all kinds of things in Rani’s hands and told her what they were. They gave her bells and squeakers, and cans and bottles to bang on. Grandma, especially, took Rani with her everywhere, and had her feel and listen to everything. She played games with her and sang to her. At age 2, Grandma taught her to feel her way along the walls and fence, just as she did. By age 3, Rani could find her own way to the latrine and the well. When she was 4, the health worker talked with the neighbors, and did some CHILD-to-child activities on blindness with their children. After, a few children came to make friends and play with Rani. Sometimes they would all blindfold their faces and try to find something or tell different things apart. At these games, Rani usually won.
When she was 6, Rani started school. The neighbor children came for her every day. When the villagers saw them all walking down the road together, it was hard to guess which child had difficulty seeing.
