Provincial Stakeholders For Quality And Equitable Services To Young Children With Visual Impairment And Their Families

Provincial Stakeholders for Quality and Equitable Services to Young Children with Visual Impairment and their Families

Issue / Infants and preschool children within the province of Ontario do not receive the appropriate, sufficient, and equitable specialized early intervention they need to facilitate their optimal development during the early years. Provincial stakeholders, families and Government need to collaborate and take responsibility for providing adequate services to infants and preschoolers with visual impairment.
Background / ·  Mustard (2004) report states that early intervention is directly linked to success in school
·  Health Canada (1999) states that the acquisition of school readiness skills is a strong predictor of healthy development in children and youth
·  Preschool support exists for other low incidence disabilities (e.g., deaf,
deaf blind, autism)
·  One child in 1000 is identified with a visual impairment (Bishop, 1991; Kirchener, 1990; 1994)
·  Vision accounts for 80 – 90% of all learning in sighted people
·  Increased immigration, teen births, and premature births have resulted in an increase in children with visual impairment
·  Practice, experience, research, and the literature in the field of visual impairment support the fact that early intervention services enhance the development of young children with visual impairment (Chen & Dote-Kwan, 1995; Farel & Hooper, 1995; Ferrell, 1998; Hatton, Bailey, Burchinal & Ferrell, 1997).
Rationale / Infants and preschoolers with visual impairment receive inadequate specialized early intervention services throughout Ontario:
·  Inequitable distribution of specialized services across Ontario
·  Lack of province-wide standards
·  Lack of trained and appropriately qualified professionals
·  Lack of universal infant vision screening
·  Lack of specialized services at time of diagnosis
·  Insufficient stable funding
Children with visual impairment are at significant risk for delays in development unless they receive appropriate intervention during the early years. Parents must be supported in obtaining the knowledge and essential skills to assist their children to grow and develop. This specialized service to the child and family needs to be provided by knowledgeable professionals in the area of visual impairment and child development.
The learning that occurs during the early years forms the foundation for successful learning in school. Currently, most of the children with visual impairment entering the educational system do not have the prerequisite skills necessary to assist them in achieving the curricular expectations set by the Ministry of Education and Training. To ensure children who are visually impaired have opportunities to develop school readiness skills, they must receive specialized intervention services from the time of diagnosis.
Vision is the most powerful of the senses in the learning process. It is estimated that vision accounts for 80 – 90% of what is learned (Brasher & Holbrook, 1996) during the early years. Vision is the primary sense that enables sighted children to organize and integrate other sensory information received from the environment incidentally. What occurs instantly and automatically for sighted children takes much longer for children with visual impairment to perceive through their remaining senses (touch, taste, smell). These senses are rarely used well by the child who is visually impaired unless specific training is provided.
Since the perceptual abilities of children with visual impairment differ from those of children with sight, it follows that they learn differently. Thus, to support the development of children with visual impairment in the same manner as children who are sighted is inappropriate and is a disservice to children who are visually impaired and their families.
Current Resources / Services to infants and children at risk are provided through a variety of Ministry-funded programs:
·  Ministry of Community and Social Services: Infant Development Programs (Developmental Services Act), Special Needs Resourcing (Day Nursery Act); Intensive Early Intervention Program for Children with Autism; Children’s Mental Health 0 – 6 years.
·  Ministry of Children and Youth Services: Healthy Babies, Healthy Children; Preschool Speech and Language Initiative; Children’s Treatment Centres
·  Ministry of Health: Community Care Access Centres (Health & Long Term Care)
·  Ministry of Education: Deaf and Hard of Hearing; Deaf-Blind (Education Act, Reg. 298, s. 30)
Consequences for Children & Families / ·  Parents/caregivers of children with visual impairment do not receive specialized, frequent, and continuous support needed during the early years to avoid unnecessary and sometimes irreversible developmental delays.
RISK: Without specialized, frequent and continuous support during the early years, families experience increased stress and their children are unprepared for entry into the school system.
·  Families are not connected with other families facing similar issues or with community service providers—essential services that teach families how to cope with having a child who is visually impaired.
RISK: Lack of networking with other families facing similar issues create a delay in the family’s ability to adjust to the child’s disability, which can lead to denial, anxiety, guilt, depression, and anger.
·  Parents do not know how to interact with a child who is visually impaired so that natural bonding and attachment between the parent and the child occurs.
RISK: Lack of a natural bond between the child and parent(s) negatively impacts the child’s development of social skills and independence; and puts the emotional attachment process at risk.
·  During the early years, the visual system develops rapidly. Since specialized systematic stimulation of residual vision and the remaining senses is critical to young children with visual impairment, it is imperative that vision and the remaining senses be developed as much as possible.
RISK: Infants and preschoolers who do not receive early visual stimulation, visual efficiency training, and other specialized training have reduced visual potential and missing/delayed acquisition of developmental milestones.
·  Children who are visually impaired are currently not being taught pre-braille skills by certified Teachers of the Visually Impaired, which should begin when the child is at least 3 years of age. This is essential if children with visual impairments are to begin school with literacy skills commensurate with their sighted peers.
RISK: Preschoolers who do not receive pre-braille and tactual instruction require additional resources at school to overcome the delays in literacy development, which in turn, further hinders academic progress and other school readiness skills (e.g., turn-taking, orientation & mobility, interactive play, fine motor skills, general concept development).
·  Many children who are visually impaired do not receive appropriate orientation and mobility instruction on a consistent basis.
RISK: Infants and preschoolers who do not receive orientation and mobility consultation/instruction are at increased risk for delays in gross motor skills, spatial orientation and develop postural abnormalities. This results in their inability to move about their environment safely, freely and independently.
Summary / The early childhood years are critical to the overall development of children who are visually impaired, as the skills and knowledge that are acquired during this time provide the foundation for later learning. Infants and preschoolers with visual impairment and their families must have access to coordinated, consistent, and specialized services because they do not learn in the same manner as their sighted peers. Without access to appropriate and consistent services in the early years, the unique needs of children who are visually impaired and the psychosocial needs of their families cannot be met. Consequently, these children do no acquire the necessary skills needed for academic and personal success in Ontario schools.
Appendices / ·  Number of Children Active in Service as at December, 2003
·  Summary of Preschool Services by Provider
Recommendation / In keeping with the Best Start Program of the Ministry of Children and Youth Services and the Government’s priority of Readiness to Learn, provincial stakeholders need to collaborate with Government to ensure the provision of adequate services to infants and preschoolers with visual impairment so they too, can enter our school system on par with their sighted counterparts.
Provincial Stakeholders / Ms. Wendy Nichols
Association of Education and Rehabilitation of the
Blind and Visually Impaired (AER),
Canadian Representative
AER Canada
c/o 151 Dundson Street
Brantford Ontario N3R 6N3
Beverly Ginou
Director, Rehabilitation Ontario Division
Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB)
1929 Bayview Avenue
Toronto, Ontario M4G 3E8
Dennis Finucan
Vice President
Canadian Council for the Blind (CCB)
396 Cooper Street, Suite 401
Ottawa, Ontario K2P 2H7
Tom Dekker
Rehabilitation Teacher
Member of CCB, Robert Troughton Memorial
Brandford, Ontario Chapter
Sue Archibald
Director
BALANCE
4920 Dundas St. W., Suite 302
Etobicoke, Ontario M9A 1B7
April Cornell
Executive Director
Ontario Foundation for Visually Impaired Children, Inc. (OFVIC)
P.O. Box 1116, Postal Station D
Toronto, Ontario M6P 3K2
Susan Wolak
Director
VIEWS for the Visually Impaired
c/o 506 Hillfair Place
Burlington, Ontario L7N 2W5
Dr. Kevin A. Stewart
O&M/VISION Consulting Services
39 Natalie Place
Toronto, Ontario M4M 3P6
Dr. Carol Farrenkopf
Toronto District School Board, Vision Program Consultant
Yorkdale S. S. Room 158
38 Orfus Road
Toronto, Ontario M6A 1L6
Ellen Goodman
Itinerant Teacher of Students with Visual Impairments
Ottawa-Carlton Education Program for Students with Visual Impairment
Ottawa-Carlton District School Board
133 Greenbank Road
Nepean, Ontario K2H 6L3

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