Vision is one of the senses that motivates infants and toddlers to reach toward a person or object, and discover what’s there. A young child with a visual impairment will discover movement, interact, and begin to memorize his world—if we help provide him with the motivation to move. Before a child will creep or crawl across the room, he needs lots of practice with his head, shoulders, knees and toes. He learns about the movement of his arms and legs when being dressed or having baby lotion put on after a bath.What does moving through space feel like? Dancing with Daddy? Reaching out with hands or feet to touch a metal bowl? Let him discover the toy–or discover you!–just out of reach.
When a child moves his head, hands, feet or his whole body, he tells us what he’s interested in, or what he is cautious about touching. We need to set up safety zones where little hands and feet have a chance to discover how things work, again and again, until the child is confident in his own abilities and the predictability of what’s around him.
