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It is important to focus on how your child uses their eyes. Blindness or Low Vision is not typically easily detectable. Observe how your child sees things and uses their eyes and whole bodies to navigate the world! It could help you consider the possibilities early on!

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"A term that describes people who cannot see well even with correction"

In other words, Troubles in sight/vision even with supporting treatments/technology or enhancements, affecting education performance.

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A Look Into Visual Impairments (Pun Intended)

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A Look Into Visual Impairments (Pun Intended)

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Vision Impairment and Blindness - What It Is, Causes, Treatments & More

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Few Signs of Vision Function Problems in Children:

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Few Signs of Vision Function Problems in Children:

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1. Unusual head, body, or eye movement

2. Holding objects very close/far away from themselves

3. Excessive eye rubbing

4. Frequent Headaches

5. Often squinting

6. Difficulty properly writing and reading letters and numbers or seeing colors

7. Slight clumsiness when in movement

8. Difficulty seeing colors

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Here is a list of infections that can lead to blindness, I don't know much about any of these diseases, but I'm sure here are at least a few on here that could be within families and therefore it is good to know and do research if the question of blindness is ever raised in concern for your child!

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GENERAL PRACTICIONER:

Be sure to take your child to annual eye appointments or general healthcare check ups that may also provide eye exams, if at any point you feel there's more to their condition, there are other specialists you can go to for proper analysis and diagnosis.

PEDIATRICIAN: Specialists that GPs look to for a second opinion. They focus on development and health of babies, children, kids, and teens.

OPTOMETRIST: Should be seen before your children start school, then every 2 years. Their purpose is to do vision assessments and treat vision and sight issues. They can give you specific and more accurate diagnosis.

OPHTHALMOLOGIST: They are your experts. They can evaluate eye and vision problems in connection to diseases and injuries they may have derived from. There are Pediatrician Ophthalmologists specifically for working with children!

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How Will I teach the Children who are Visually Impaired?

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How Will I teach the Children who are Visually Impaired?

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As a teacher I will make sure to encourage independence for my children, ensuring that they get to try and experience new things as they go, assuring my guidance if and when it's wanted and needed. This will come from the challenge of overprotection, which may make them feel incapable and the last thing I want to ever do is make the feel inferior to their peers.

I will read out loud, making sure I project my voice for my students to hear me and understand instruction. I'll make sure they can have somewhere to store their belonging, or any devices they use to help them function within my classroom.

I think it'll be cool to educate my general ed students who may not have any exceptionalities on the way that my students with vision impairments function, allowing the student(s) themselves to tell of their experiences, and show their peers how cool it is for them to navigate both the outside and educational world! This will aid in diminishing the possibilities of bullying and exclusion.

I will be sure to project any small print texts onto my whiteboard for my students to see better. Be mindful of light sensitivity of certain students. A big issue even outside of exceptionalities is that students gain headaches, eye aches, and feel physically sick from the amount of technology and eyestrain put onto them daily! I will be sure to hear my students out and adjust my room to their liking. I can provide low light lamps to substitute for my classroom lights when necessary.

I can provide visors for my students to wear in my classroom to protect their eyes, I can make sure I seat my vision impaired students as close to me as possible or as close to where I'll be instructing. I can go out of my way to provide braille versions of texts for my students.

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1. Cannot initiate conversation with eye contact

2. Spend more time alone

3. Eyes wonder or move side to side slightly or at a fast pace, uncontrollably or involuntarily

4. Lack of following movement in front of them

5. No reaction to bright lights

6. Cloudy or seemingly white pupils (in pictures or videos)

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Low vision and blindness: babies, children and teenagers

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Blindness and low vision includes reduced, blurred and restricted vision. Early intervention is important for children who have low vision or are blind.

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Legally Blind: Vision cannot be improved past 20/200 in at least one eye

Low Vision: Vision that can't be corrected with glasses or contacts

Totally Blind: Complete loss of sight

Partially Sighted: Some vision in one or both eyes

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Understanding Children with Visual Impairments: Meeting Their Unique Needs

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Understanding visual impairments in children. Effective strategies for inclusive learning and support

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PHYSICAL TRAUMA(S):

Blunt Force Trauma- Causes contraction and expansion in the eye which can lead to blindness whether it be long or short term.

Penetrative Trauma- When physical objects enter the eye or the part of your brain that is needed for sight and vision.

May derive from incidents such as very rough fights/boxing, motor vehicle accidents, fires or explosions

HAZARDOUS EXPOSURE:

Chemicals in cleaning products can cause eye damage

Chemical burn from sunscreens, soaps, and other ingredients in our everyday products that may cause irritation to the eye

Work Space chemical exposure

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What Types of Injuries Can Lead to Blindness?

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Eye injuries from physical traumas and chemical burns can lead to blindness. Learn what legal actions you can take if this happens to you.

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Did you know Diabetes could be a factor to blindness? Me neither! The website sited has shown a list of non-infectious diseases that could contribute to vision loss. (Check out the link for further info.)

Retinopathy (which is a a disease infecting the light-sensitive tissue in the back of our eyes) when in relation to diabetes, can damage eye vessels and without proper care and treatment, can lead to blindness. Also, having strokes in areas of the brain that contribute to site, along with Cancer or Orbital Tumors are factors!

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What are the symptoms of blindness?

With complete blindness there is a lack of vision and the inability of the eye to detect light.

Symptoms that you may have while vision loss develops include:

Blurry vision.

Floaters and flashers.

Sensitivity to light (photophobia).

Sudden loss of vision, or the sudden appearance of black spots in your vision.

What causes blindness?

There are many causes of blindness, including injuries, infections and medical conditions.

Eye injuries and blindness

Eye injuries, or ocular trauma, can happen in many ways. It usually affects only one eye. Damage can result from:

Chemical burns.

Exposure to toxins

Fights.

Fireworks.

Industrial accidents, including falls.

Motor vehicle crashes.

Sports.

Infections and blindness

Many infectious diseases can lead to vision loss and sometimes blindness. These include:

Non-infectious diseases and blindness

Many non-infectious diseases can cause blindness, but some in only the most severe stages of the disease. These include:

Retinitis pigmentosa. This term refers to a group of conditions that affect your retina, the part of your eye that has special cells that react to light. As the condition progresses, the retinal cells break down. This leads first to problems seeing at night and then subsequent loss of your peripheral vision.

Age-related macular degeneration. This condition affects the macula, the part of your retina that controls central vision. When substantial central vision loss occurs, tasks like reading or recognizing people's faces become very difficult, but your peripheral vision often remains intact.

Retinopathy of prematurity. This retinal condition happens to some premature babies. Blood vessels grow into parts of their eye where they don't belong. Scar tissue forms and can damage their retina, leading to significant vision loss and blindness.

Cataracts. Cataracts cause vision loss by clouding the lenses of your eyes, leading a blurring of the vision and loss of contrast. Without access to surgical care, advanced cataracts can lead to blindness.

Diabetes-related retinopathy. This condition may happen when you have diabetes and the blood vessels in the eye are damaged. The vision loss may be mild at first, but with progression or lack of treatment, blindness can occur.

Glaucoma. With this condition, you have optic nerve damage. The vision loss often starts in the periphery but can lead to blindness in advanced stages of the disease.

Leber hereditary optic neuropathy. This term refers to an inherited type of gradual vision loss. For unknown reasons, it affects males more than females.

Anophthalmia. This disease happens when you're born without one or both eyes.

Microphthalmos. This disease happens when you're born with very small eyes. Sometimes these smaller eyes don't work as well as they should, or at all.

Stroke. You can lose your eyesight from a stroke that occurs in an area of the brain that is involved in seeing, like the occipital lobe or along the visual tract. The stroke reduces or blocks blood flow to your brain.

Cancer. Cancers, like retinoblastoma or orbital tumors, can cause eyes to become blind.

Nutritional deficiencies. A poor diet can cause vision loss. Vitamin A deficiency is one cause, but you also need B vitamins and other minerals and vitamins for healthy vision.

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Blindness (Vision Impairment): Types, Causes and Treatment

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If you're completely blind, you can't see anything at all, even light. It's different from low or impaired vision, where you can often see shapes or light.

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BRAILLE: Learning braille as a second or first language is essential for those who may be born with or develop blindness/low vision at an early age! There are different adaptations for braille such as:

Braille Embosser- An electronic device that translates text from a braille keyboard to a printer

Braille Translator- A program that takes text files from computers and converts it properly for printing

Braille Writer- A machine with keys that creates all characters of Braille coding

GLASSES: There are all different kinds of spectacles out there! Consult with your specialists and doctors for which would best suit your child!

Magnifiers: Are a type of eye glass lens that helps things appear bigger. The link provided above gives a thorough breakdown of the different types of magnifiers

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Whether you have low vision or just a need a bit more magnification, a magnifier can be very handy for performing certain tasks. Choosing the right magnifier, however, can be challenge in itself. How many types are there and how to know which one you need? Find out here.

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For more lower vision or less severe cases of bad vision, you have the most common forms of correction:

CONTACTS: Personalized for the individual to be able to see without wearing spectacles. Comes in all different colors that may have cool and usual pupil shapes such as stars and hearts... also may contain cool patterns!

LASER EYE SURGERY: A lot of adults or teenagers may seek to this option to completely "cure" their vision. Since it is unlikely for this to be a treatment for children, I won't go into much detail, but there are many risks to consider once they're old enough to consider this option.