Visual impairment/ blindness

Hi, Sorry that I just noticed this. I don't have experience with a blind/visually impaired foster child but my own Bio Son is blind. How old is the placement that you are considering? The small pieces of advice that I would give, not knowing more, are: 1- He/She is a child first and blind second. Don't stress too much about it. They probably have a lot of adaptations to live. It is amazing how fast kids come up with a way to do what they want/need. 2- Help them learn to do whatever they can. You do them no favors by doing everything for them. Help them learn to dress themselves, wash themselves, eat .... You get the point. They need to learn skills and home is the best place to start. Even if it is a temporary home.

Pardon my delayed response to your post, MamaTay! The placement I am considering is a two (almost three) year old little girl. She has some serious medical needs in addition to her visual impairment/ partial blindness. Before I moved in with my blind roommate, the person I called for his personal reference made sure I understood that I would do him no favors by doing things that he could do for himself. Basically she said exactly what you said, LOL. My roommate is funny, smart, alert, generous and a great cook and baker. He also has a great "radio voice" (he is looking to get into broadcasting). I actually live very close to a school for the blind, so there are many visually impaired folks around town. On the whole, they seem to function very well. I suppose my concern is in raising a child with a visual impairment. I now know several blind or visually impaired adults, but no kids. I worry about the normal parent things, like traffic and strangers... Thank you for any further input you can give. Oh, and if it matters, I hope to stay in this town for a while so if I foster this little girl, she would have some great, "real live" examples of successful blind folks around her.

Hehe. Looks like both of us are slow to reply. My apologies to you back. I know at the 2 and 3 age, for my son, it was all about getting him to explore his environment. We had what was called "the little room". It was a sort of wood box on 3 sides and plexiglass on the top. We would put textures and things attached to the walls and plexiglass ceiling then lay the box over the top of him. Everything was within arms length so he could reach and explore. This was also the age he started cruising around. He didn't walk in the open till he was about 4 years old but he would readily cruise around looking for things. We would play "hide and seek" by making a noise distinct to an area of the house so he could then come find us. Our biggest help during that time was the Early Intervention team who had OT and PT and a rep from the school for the blind come to our house once a week and help us learn the skills we needed to help our son. We started on early braille skills and orientation and mobility. At that age my son was also deaf so they also helped with touch signs. Traffic and strangers weren't so bad. Snurf learned quickly who we were by touch. We even had individual touch signs we would do when we picked him up so he knew who we were. You may be able to do similar with your placement. I really didn't have to worry too much about strangers though because he had an adult with him constantly. Same with traffic. Always an adult. But as he has gotten older, the orientation and mobility teachers he has in school have taught him cane navigation and how to safely cross the street. I'm babbling. I guess my biggest suggestion is get her into early intervention. For us those were the greatest services, especially the school for the blind consultant. They were able to answer our individual questions and lead us along the path. At age 12 Snurf is now a proficient braille reader and can run a BrailleNote (a sort of braille PDA) faster than I can think. He is learning to navigate a PC. He does all of his homework by himself. He can navigate the house, school and church all on his own using a cane. He plays the piano, participates in boy scouts and takes karate. So, there is a great potential in these kids. I don't know the other issues your little girl has but Snurf was considered "institutional level" disabilities. The outlook at that age was so dim. It took A LOT of work but Snurf did it all happily as long as we did it happily along with him. THERE IS HOPE!!!!

Definitely get early intervention involved. Then when school age a teacher of the visually impaired and an orientation & mobility specialist. Honestly, the medical issues might be a bigger problem than the VI/blindness. Let me know if you have "professional" type questions about teaching things - I am an O&M specialist and Vision Rehab Therapist (for adults). When I started fostering, I thought it would be neat to be able to have a VI kid because I could help foster independence... but that wasn't the road we were taken down. :)