Visual impairment is a term that refers to all forms of vision reduction. Blind, on the other hand, refers to a state of lack of vision, as such, there is a lack of light perception in all eyes, and corrective lenses would not serve a significant purpose. Currently, the world has a visual impairment prevalence of one per 2000 people in the western world (Majumdar, 2015). Visual impairment that begins at birth can emanate from genetic abnormalities or because of an injury that develops in the visual system during gestation. On the other hand, other presence of other similar impairments may be stated like rubella. Acuity is the term given to the level of residual functioning of vision and refers to the ability of one to interpret visual detail in practicality under conditions where residual vision is at its optimum. People that are visually impaired vary among themselves and so does the extent of impairment, intelligence, personality, background, and the presence of other disabilities show varying effects. For instance, the cognitive ability of a person will influence their ability to conceptualize the surrounding in the absence or rather when there is a reduction in the visual detail (Majumdar, 2015). However, such aspects like temperament and personal traits facilitate or rather interfere with the adaptive tasks of an individual. Visual function shows growth and improvement in a growing child that has a visual impairment. However, it is well to note that the acuity of such a child may remain constant, but the visual function improves as these children learn how to use their residual vision properly and more often (Peterken, 2013). The following paper discusses the implications of sensory impairment for students that have complex difficulties and disabilities in learning.
Vision remains very important both in the early stages of developmental learning and academic learning. One pertinent or common rather, characteristic that all children vision impairment share is the limited ability to learn incidentally from the surrounding (Majumdar, 2015). It is true that vision is the basic sense via which a student explores, organizes, synthesizes, and integrates information regarding their environment. Therefore, the absence or the limitation of the attribute significantly influences the curiosity, exploration, and ability to gather information of the involved student. Such inabilities or limitations that render it very difficult for the student to pick up cues of vision make them highly susceptible to helplessness in learning. Students begin to show helpless or passive behavior if they have the above issues. Moreover, the visual impairment can cause a delay in the development of other areas such as the cognitive, emotional, neurological, and physical maintaining that the students will struggle to attain significant strides such as obtaining communication skills as well as social skills (Peterken, 2013). Other skills that they may fail to obtain include orientation, life skills, mobility and the comprehension of abstract concepts and ideas.
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According to Majumdar (2015), visual presentation accounts for 80% of traditional education. The numbers thus suggest the need to optimize special education that supports the student regarding particular instructional techniques, assistive gadgets, and materials that prove vital in the engagement of the student in their learning. The learning rates vary from child to child and no middle cluster of children that have little or no sight that qualifies as average or common.
It is imperative to take into account some factors to determine the special needs in education and abilities that a student with vision impairment requires (Peterken, 2013). Such factors include the kind of eye condition, an age of the onset, the degree of functional vision, and the type of provided intervention. An understanding of these factors helps obtain and master the support requirements in education that a student with vision impairment has. Moreover, the impact that the visual impairment has on learning closely relates to coexisting disabilities. According to a study by Mevis, approximately two-thirds of visually impaired children had a comorbid diagnosis and hence implied a significant prevalence of complex requirements among the student population (Peterken, 2013). Moreover, persons with difficulties in learning show to be between 8.5 and 200 times more likely to get impaired visually as compared to the rest of the population (Willings, 2015). Some of the key techniques in instructions for students that have vision impairments include marinating accessibility to a qualified teacher of visually impaired persons or a specialist rather. It further involves offering appropriate resources such as braille, giving opportunities for experimental learning and offering information via tactile and oral methods such as verbal instructions (Peterken, 2013). According to Majumdar (2015), certain things must be considered in the endeavor to cater for the needs of children and youths that have visual impairments. Consideration must be given to the transition to services of the adults, emotional wellbeing, the timing, habitation, and equipment. Transition to the adult services entails involving the student as well as their families and care specialists to the various service networks of the involved individual. The above facilitates smooth running of the adult services. The emotional wellbeing suggests consideration of the effect of the emotions of such students throughout their lives. Equipment suggests that there be an emphasis that enables a young person to develop their skills to make the best use of the sight they currently have. Timing demands that the offered support be accessible and timely (Majumdar, 2015). Habilitation, on the other hand, refers to the process of enabling students to develop their independence and life skills which are inclusive of the practical skills of their day-to-day livelihood and mobility.
A classroom makes a suitable environment for these visually impaired students because they require opportunities to help them familiarize with the same environment in the absence of other students (Peterken, 2013). Furniture and other physical objects must be used to make proper distinguishing of the areas in the classroom. Also, a specialist or rather a habitation must be employed to see to it that the children travel independently both between and outside the classes. (Majumdar, 2015), further, insists that a person should take into consideration the glare in the classroom that comes from lighting reflection from the sun outside. Such settings must have indirect lighting as well as dimmers to ensure that optimum lighting conditions are availed in the room. Many students that suffer from visual impairment need help with their organizational skills and offering them specified paces to store their items as well as containers to store things proves vital and efficient in achieving the above. As earlier observed, the students seriously need an understanding of abstract ideas and concepts and will thus need to learn frequently through multisensory learning sessions. Developmental understanding of the concepts is imperative to the visually impaired students that have reduced skills in conceptual understanding (Peterken, 2013).
As seen above, children with visual impairment are different and thus the common notion that all blind children are dependent to learning language skills as compared to their peers with a normal sight which is wrong. Early and severe impairments have the likelihood of significantly affecting the language development of the involved children (Majumdar, 2015). However, differences occur in the limited accessibility to the environment and a reduced integration of parental information. Recent studies confirm that children with visual impairment have a self-oriented language having limited words that those of the normal children. It is common knowledge that vision allows people to perceive objects in both context and totality.
Children that have severe cases of visual impairment depend on sequential observation implying that they can comprehend a sight or touch of an object part and build up images from the limited information. The awareness of the relationships that exist between the objects takes place at a later stage (Peterken, 2013). The relationship of sounds and objects comes later than the rest of the other stages. Blind children stand to take alternative directions in developing language due to the different forms of environment conceptualization (Majumdar, 2015). Both nature and usage of language differ in the non-verbal patterns employed in communication, posture, loudness, smiles and other gestures of the face. However, problems may occur that further delay and complicate the entire process of making links between the early language and environment. Such issues include parents to blind children less interested in amplifying the meaning of what they communicate to the visually impaired child or children for that matter. Memory skills of the auditory part are very crucial because they determine whether the development will lead to a skewed perception of the ability of the visually impaired students to use language.
The memory auditory skills show different role in the development of language that is likely to give a skewed perception on the usage of language (Willings, 2015). The verbal skills have been proven to be dragged by the auditory skills that lie significantly with the memory. Also, there is close syntax and grammar in similar children and manner of how they are sighted. However, the blind child and sighted listener will have problems listening or rather communicating with one another. One such scenario is that reported by higher incidences of echolalia that occurs for both the immediate and delayed blind children (Majumdar, 2015). It could have been an implication of the auditory skills that have been better developed in children with visual impairment. It is imperative to appreciate that the visually impaired children may have more awareness of the auditory clues and their presence in conversations but may fail to identify correctly with the implied meaning (Peterken, 2013). The process of adapting to the society is completely different from one that the normal sighted children’s have. Most social clues occur in the form of body language and hence necessitate good vision for one to understand. Therefore, the same may not be available at all or available in partiality when it comes to children with visual impairment. Blind children lack congenital awareness of reactions that others have on their bodies unless they are taught in specifics (Majumdar, 2015). On the other hand, children that are partially sighted may make the sight better in functionality and more so because of behavioural adaptations. Nevertheless, it is not at all well to forget the most crucial thing that these students or children undergo. The visually impaired children face immense problems when it comes to integrating into and with the society. Usually, they have fears towards relating with a certain group even though they may have the urge to belong to the same. Such shifts from the norms of the family to those of peer groups prove extremely difficult and immense pressure on an individual to belong to a certain group. SO much is the pressure that it inhibits the ability of the involved individual to partake in social integration and may lead to the impaired children denying their status (Majumdar, 2015).
Visual Impairment and the mental state
The character of the children with visual impairment takes shape determined by the limitations on their visual input. The above does well to alter all environmental perceptions as well as the understandings of the children based on cause and effect of the interrelationships of people and objects. The behavior shown by these children confirms a difference reaction that is highly dependent on the received information and less likely a deviation (Peterken, 2013). Numerous studies have proceeded to report very many incidences of psychiatric disorders present in the blind children. However, the diagnostic methods employed are those used in assessing normal sighted children. It remains of great importance that these diagnostic methods entail different means because it becomes difficult to tell if a person is dealing with the external symptoms of a psychiatric problem or the impairment of vision. According to Majumdar (2015), physicians must take care to familiarize with the visually impaired people before conducting such assessments.
The concept of self may delay in those that are blind congenitally courtesy of a delay in the communication that comes from the lack of eye contact with responsive smiles and the mother. Usually, the representational play comes than expected and an individual can easily be assumed as autistic (Majumdar, 2015). Furthermore, some of the blind children tend to exhibit a pronoun reversal similar to that found in autistic children. Therefore, it is such a common thing to have autistic behaviours in these blind children with such behaviours including licking of the fingers and body swaying. It is imperative not to label the child as autistic before confirming how they are as persons and what exactly influences them from the blind aspect. The degree of behavior should be minimized so that it can be carefully and strategically analysed. On the other hand, it is not well to speculate such things as a movement because they may come from stimulation. The above is a common feature among children that have cortical visual impairment and resort to a repetitive kind of behavior where the environment becomes an extremely competitive surrounding for them (Region XII, 2016). In these cases, it is well to reduce the deviant behaviours of these kinds of blind children (Majumdar, 2015). Children that have cortical visual impairment further have issues with an environment that is made visually clear to them. It is hardly ever a psychiatric problem. Regardless of the condition or state in discussion, the deviant behavior may not be discovered or assumed based on the visual impairment only but must take precedence of other key factors like the intellectual disabilities, language disorders and emotional issues of the child.
Seeing that the visually impaired children lack accessibility to a visual form of modelling and shaping or more so, a definitive pattern of behavior, it is likely that the involved physicians diagnose many of their behaviours mistakenly. For instance, depression could be diagnosed as a pathological disorder (Peterken, 2013). Secondly, children with visual impairment usually have a low tone of muscle and will always sit with their heads facing downwards because they do not use the visual ability to grasp knowledge. Moreover, the child is likely to misinterpret the language meaning and begin using overdramatic sentences that carry completely different meanings (Majumdar, 2015). There is always a congenital delay in the distinction of “I-YOU” among such children which remains a very symbolic language in the development of symbolic language among the blind children during their cognitive development (Region XII, 2016). Congenitally, the blind adults could have relationships that lack a personal touch due to the same effects. Moreover, according to Majumdar (2015), such persons show increased senses of being unmotivated and schizoid. Usually, the professionals would underestimate the signs or rather the mood shown by these adults as well as their intelligence and personality which reflects a reduced behavior of expression. It is extremely difficult for one to stay upbeat with the environmental changes when they are not fully fit.
A child may have inconsistent and discrete with usually unverified pieces of information. Hearing becomes the only way of communication with the environment (Majumdar, 2015). However, the child lacks proper or any form of control over the absence and presence of the environmental sound. It is crucial to appreciate that sound that lacks visual is noise as it amounts to a sound without a source. It is until after immense tactual, motor and the auditory interactions that sound bears meaning and it is only then that it can offer information on both the location and source or cause. The sound is hardly a motivator or rather does not near the level of motivation that vision has (Majumdar, 2015). A blind child will reach for a particular object based on sound in a span of twelve months. Therefore, the exploration of the environment is usually delayed when the child gets to this particular point. Numerous visual dimensions such as color and location, on the other hand, supply tactile exploration. All these dimensions are absent to the blind child and hence imply that their tactile activities are at its minimal due to the environment remaining both uninviting and unknown.
The motor development is reduced as can be seen with the hand development of these children. Hands make a significant organ and the child with visual impairment experienced delays in their abilities to use such an organ. Infants that have a visual impairment will still have their hands fisted and held to the shoulder height at five months. It will lack mutual fingering and hardly any engagement at the midline (Region XII, 2016). The contrary holds for a child with normal sight because they would be practicing proper coordination by reaching and transferring objects from one hand to the other. The visual aspect is important for such motor development because it facilitates the working of the hand (Majumdar, 2015). However, for a blind child, coordination of the ear and hand must be successful for them to achieve the same goals as their normal sighted counterparts (Region XII, 2016). It is difficult for the era-hand coordination to work in ample time and as such, the children will always have a delay in growth.
Conclusion
Visual impairment is a term that refers to all forms of vision reduction. Blind, on the other hand refers to a state of lack of vision, as such, there is a lack of light perception in all eyes, and corrective lenses would not serve a significant purpose. Visual impairment that begins at birth can emanate from genetic abnormalities or because of an injury that develops in the visual system during gestation. On the other hand, other presence of other similar impairments may be stated like rubella. Acuity is the term given to the level of residual functioning of vision and refers to the ability of one to interpret visual detail in practicality under conditions where residual vision is at its optimum. Vision remains very important both in the early stages of developmental learning and academic learning.
One pertinent or common rather, characteristic that all children vision impairment share is the limited ability to learn incidentally from the surrounding. It is imperative to take into account some factors to determine the special needs in education and abilities that a student with vision impairment requires. Moreover, the visual impairment can cause a delay in the development of other areas such as the cognitive, emotional, neurological, and physical maintaining that the students will struggle to attain significant strides such as obtaining communication skills as well as social skills. Therefore, it is imperative for physicians to appreciate the vast challenges that transpire in the lives of children and individuals with visual impairment. Such persons require the best care in diagnosis and teaching to keep up with persons that have normal sight.
References
Majumdar, S., Dasgupta, A., Das, S., & Mukhopadhyay, M. (2015). Impact of visual impairment on day-to-day visual functioning: A cross-sectional study among geriatric population in a rural area of West Bengal.
Peterken, A. (2013). The Impact of a Vision Impairment on sensory, motor, communication an… . Slideshare.net . Retrieved 14 November 2016, from http://www.slideshare.net/aimeepeterken9/the-impact-of-a-vision-impairment-on-sensory-motor-communication-and-congitive-development
Region XII. (2016). The Impact of Visual Impairment on Development Pm ENT Sensory Development . Assessment of the visually impaired . Retrieved 14 November 2016, from http://www4.esc13.net/uploads/vi/docs/52_Impact_VI_Dev.pdf
Willings, C. (2015). Social Skills in the Expanded Core Curriculum for Students who are blind or Visually Impaired . Teaching Students with Visual Impairments . Retrieved 14 November 2016, from http://www.teachingvisuallyimpaired.com/social-skills.htm
