Ours is a visual world and yet we take things for granted when it comes to our sight. In fact, when asked about what we would miss most if we lost our sense of sight, the majority of us would probably answer, being able to navigate on our own or being able to see people, places and things. Now, compare this to a child who is blind or visually impaired. The child will miss more than what we will miss, especially when it comes to mental and skills development. Consider the following facts.
Sensory and Motor Skills Development
Development occurs through continuous input into the brain. These inputs are detected by the senses so a child who is blind or visually impaired has intermittent input. When a child is blind, the input usually comes in fragments. To a blind child, hearing for example, the sound comes without any visual verification so every sound comes as a noise without a source. It is difficult, therefore for a child to put a sound in their right context unless an intervention becomes put in place to substitute for the missing vision.
Despite this challenge however, sound remains the only motivation for a child who is visually impaired or blind. Until the child learns to put sounds in their right context, it is only then that the child will learn to reach for objects based on the source of the sound. This usually starts at the age of one year. A normal child will start reaching for objects at 4 months of age. Thus, when it comes to the motor skills development, a visually impaired child is also delayed.
Ear and Hand Coordination
Under ordinary circumstances, the hand and the eyes are baby’s major perceptual organs. At five months of age, a child with normal vision can already reach for objects in the midline and can already transfer objects from one hand to another. A visually impaired child at the same age still has his hands in fists and arms close to his body. The eye and hand coordination is not yet developed. The delayed use of hands affects the development of fine motor and gross motor skills. Without the sense of sight, there is no eye and hand coordination; instead, there is ear and hand coordination. The experience is therefore different and mastery takes longer to achieve than that of the eye and hand coordination.
The normal child and the visually impaired child both have the same development when it comes to sitting, rolling back, crawling, standing and taking steps. However, self-initiated mobility becomes delayed with a child with vision problems. Thus, it will take longer for a child to raise himself in a sitting position, to stand on his own and to walk without assistance. As a result, it will take him longer to move out in his given space or explore his surroundings.
Sugarland Eye & Laser Center, the leading LASIK or laser eye surgery center in Houston, helps patients with visual problems. If you think your child has vision problems, you might want to visit us.
Sources:
http://www.babycentre.co.uk/a6476/milestone-chart-one-to-six-months
http://www.tsbvi.edu/infants/3293-the-impact-of-visual-impairment-on-development
Sugarland Eye & Laser Center leads in providing premium LASIK technologies to Houston, Sugar Land, and the surrounding region. The Center’s award-winning medical director introduced revolutionary technologies such as iLASIK to the region. This technology is used by NASA astronauts, Navy SEALS and Air Force fighter pilots. At Sugarland Eye & Laser Center, you can now receive the same treatment. For more information, please call (281) 240-0478 or visit us at www.houston-lasik.com.
About the Author
Amjad Khokhar, M.D. is Chief LASIK Surgeon at Sugarland Eye & Laser Center. Add Dr. Khokhar on Google+ here.
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