Helping the school get ready for your child

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HealthWiki > Helping Children Who Are Blind > Chapter 14: Getting Ready for Child-care and School > Helping the school get ready for your child

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In this chapter:

 

In this chapter:

To help the teacher understand your child

A teacher who has not worked with children who are blind or cannot see well may be unsure about how to teach your child. You know more about your child than anyone else, and there are many things that you can share with the teacher. Here are a few things you may want to talk about with the teacher:

• Tell the teacher about your child's skills and abilities.
• Show the teacher how to help your child move around the school.
• If your child can see a little, explain what she can see and how your child uses her sight.
• Remind the teacher that your child cannot see gestures or facial expressions, so instructions have to be spoken.
• Discuss any challenges your child has.
• Share information about blindness and how it affects a child's development.

I’m a little worried, because I’ve never had a blind child in my class, Mrs. Gomez.

Angela is a smart little girl. I know she’ll do well here.

Maybe I can help by telling you ways we’ve learned how to help her.

The section on how community members can help, has suggestions the teacher might find useful too. You may especially want to share some of the ideas for helping children understand more about blindness and ways to include children who cannot see well in children's games.

To prepare the classroom for your child

Talk to the teacher about the classroom, and see if there are simple ways to make the room
safer and more comfortable for your child. You may want to:

• explain how a child who is blind can bump into things and how it helps to keep doors fully
  open or closed
• explain the importance of keeping things in the same place so that your child can move
  around with confidence
• decide if it will be better for your child to sit in the front of the room near the teacher

If your child can see the letters of the alphabet, the teacher should write on the blackboard in large thick letters and check often to see if your child can see them.

This page was updated:05 Jan 2024