How can being visually impaired affect communication?
Two months ago I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl but unfortunately she got an infection during pregnancy. This has meant she was born blind and is likely to have learning difficulties in the future. I feel that without her vision we are not bonding well, she doesn’t seem interested in me or things around her. Is this normal in blind children or is there something I can do to get her attention?
Newborn babies are active learners; they are immediately focused on people’s faces, as they are interested to learn about the world around them. Sight plays a key role in this so visually impaired babies are often more passive and are not impelled to explore their environment. They will show little interest in the world or in trying to communicate.
The affects of being visually impaired
When a parent approaches a visually impaired baby, the baby will be listening and concentrating on what they can hear meaning they are less likely to smile, babble and look excited as their parents get close. They may also startle or shy away when being picked up. All this gives the impression to parents that their child is not interested or is nervous around them. This can significantly affect the bonding between baby and parent and will reinforce the passiveness of the child as they have less reason to communicate.
Newborn babies will learn early communication through eye contact. When a sighted baby unintentionally looks at their mother, the mother engages with the child, responding naturally to what the child does. The child will learn and practice ‘turning their mother on and off’ by looking away and back again. From this they will get essential feedback about intentional communication (the idea you can make something happen through communicating in some way).
A child who has visual impairment does not give these signals of interest, making it much harder for parents/carers to respond to them. This means that these babies miss out on this learning experience and important early interactive patterns are not easily established. Consequently, a passive child will rarely take the initiative to spontaneously communicate what they need or want and this will be very restricting for their development.
What can be done to encourage communication?
For visually impaired children it is important to create a responsive environment for them to learn intentional communication. A responsive environment is one in which a person gets responses to what they do, is given opportunity to respond to others and can lead interaction. This can be created through the principles of Intensive Interaction (see previous article ‘Intensive Interaction Therapy’ for explanation). It will take a lot of patience and is most effectively put in place by a specialist speech and language therapist. The key principles are:
- Understanding that everyone communicates in different ways (not always the way you expect).
- Observation is key: Look and listen very closely to your child. Look for the smallest sound, movement or reaction.
- Wait! Waiting will teach a child that they need to sometimes take the initiative in communication. If an adult always initiates communication it can reinforce a child’s passivity.
- Respond immediately with lots of encouragement. Try to follow the child’s lead; copying back what they do.
Be patient! It can take much longer to create a bond with a visually impaired baby. Do not be disheartened if you do not get a reaction from you baby straight away, if you keep trying it will be worth it.
Here at Integrated Treatment Services we have a team of professionals with years of experience working with children who have visual impairment. Integrated Treatment Services specialise in speech and language therapy but also have occupational therapists, physiotherapists and creative expressive therapists on the team who work together to give clients the very best care.
For more information about how visual impairment can affect communication or to arrange for a therapist to come and meet you and your child you can call 0845 838 2921 or simply email: info@integratedtreatments.co.uk. Alternatively, if you just have a quick question or have a suggestion for other articles you would like to read you can simply click ‘Ask us a Question’.
