Family Support and Early Intervention Services for the Youngest Children with Visual Impairments

The newest generation of professionals in the field of educating learners who are visually impaired (that is, those who are blind or have low vision) have both preservice training and an abundance of professional materials to assist them as they work to address the early intervention and specially designed instructional needs of the youngest children with visual impairments, those from birth through 5 years of age. University preparation programs in visual impairment address the professional competencies that professionals need to provide education services across the life span from birth to 21 years. Federal grants from the U.S. Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) have supported the development of both preservice (for example, the Early Intervention Training Center for Infants and Toddlers) and inservice (for example, Vision Impaired Inservice in America, VIISA) modules or training resources for services for young children (birth to age 5) who are visually impaired. There are a plethora of books and resource materials that detail research-based findings for the developmental trajectory of young children who are visually impaired, as well as evidence-based interventions and family-support strategies. The field of visual impairment has a long and proud history of providing educational services to children under the age of the 5 years. Such services began before the U.S. federal mandate (that is, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, IDEA) for Part B services for school-age children with disabilities, including preschool-aged children, and later Part C services for infants and toddlers with disabilities. These specialized early educational services were offered traditionally by entities who worked exclusively with children who are visually impaired. Today, the field of visual impairment has evolved to expect the timely provision of specialized and visual impairment-specific early intervention services and supports as soon as a young child is diagnosed with early-onset visual impairment. Or do barriers still remain to early intervention services? It is important to ask whether every family of a child newly diagnosed with a congenital or early-onset visual impairment has access to a certified teacher of children with visual impairments and a certified orientation and mobility (O&M) specialist. For that matter, are all children diagnosed with visual impairments as early as possible to ensure the soonest possible medical interventions and referrals for specialized early intervention services? Are the visual impairment experts well trained enough in early childhood education that they can differentiate practices that are appropriate for infants and toddlers from those that are appropriate for preschoolers or those that are appropriate for kindergarteners or older children? The life span of birth to age 21 has many unique phases of development that are described in the research of Piaget, Erickson, Vygotsky, and other recent theorists of early neuroscience-based learning. Early childhood and early childhood special education are fields onto themselves. As such, practitioners need considerable knowledge to offer family-centered and developmentally appropriate practices that address and support routines-based interventions in natural environments that include the unique and important early intervention services and supports that are needed by infants and toddlers with disabilities and their families. It is simply not enough to understand the effect of and general intervention needs related to pediatric vision loss when working with young children with visual impairments. Teachers of children with visual impairments and certified O&M specialists, in roles as early interventionists, need to first understand general child development, then the potential impact of vision loss on the development of children, and, most importantly, the need for individualized supports for children and families based on their priorities, culture, and self-identified needs. …