Dallas

A major focus that we do here at the Lighthouse is employment, so you might wonder what that has to do with the little ones. But when you think about it, all the exploring, learning, listening and experimenting that kids are doing every day contributes to building lifetime skills they will need, to live and work independently in the future as persons who are blind.

In fact, kids with visual impairments need to master all the same things that sighted children do, plus they need an additional set of unique vision related skills. For example, if you have ever watched a baby chasing a Cheerio around the highchair tray and negotiating it into their mouth somehow, you can appreciate how much more challenging that might be when you cannot see the Cheerio. Blind babies with visual impairments need to first figure out how to find that Cheerio using other senses, and then how to get it from the tray to the mouth. These are extra steps in the process that kids with visual impairments need to master, and ones they will be using for the rest of their lives.

Another very important lifetime skill that little ones are working on every day is how to move around safely in their environment. Sighted kids learn just by observing and imitating. Taking those first few steps towards welcoming arms and smiling faces is a tremendous achievement for any baby. Taking those steps without vision is a leap of faith and hoping someone will be there to catch you is a wonder. This can be scary for blind babies, but with training they can develop confidence to move around safely and independently too.

Dallas is one of our wonderful little ones who is just about ready to take those steps. He was born 3 months prematurely and had to spend months in the hospital. Because he was born so early, he developed ROP which is retinopathy of prematurity. In the most severe cases, the retinas can become detached and this is what happened to Dallas so a lot of surgery ensued.

Today, Dallas has some limited vision that he is learning to use. Dallas has high myopia, in which objects at a distance are blurred. This is very common with children such as Dallas who were born prematurely. Dallas’ major preoccupation these days is figuring out how to get himself moving. Just a few months ago when he started crawling, he would take off with his head down, moving in the direction of an interesting noise or movement. Now, he has learned to slow down, listen and even to use his peripheral vision to negotiate around obstacles.

Recently Dallas began to stand up and move on his own 2 feet using a push toy to get himself all over the house. The toy bumps into everything first, letting Dallas know when to stop or change direction. We call those pre-cane skills, knowledge he will use one day if he uses a cane to navigate his environment. Dallas just calls it FUN.

The Lighthouse Early Intervention Program uses a specialized curriculum for working with children with visual impairments. The program covers eight developmental categories: cognitive skills, vision skills, compensatory skills, language skills, social skills, self-help skills, fine motor skills and gross motor skills. The program is individualized because children with visual impairments may acquire skills at a different rate or order than those who rely on their vision predominantly.

The Lighthouse has worked with Dallas and his family since he was 6 months old. Children are eligible for early intervention services from birth until they are 6 years of age, after which they will be working with teachers in the school system. Of course, they can continue to stay connected through our Kids Program and participate in activities such as the summer day camp program and the beeping Easter Egg hunt which is held annually. Then, when Dallas is a teenager, he can come back and participate in the transition program and prepare for that big wide world of work. Many of our babies return for Lighthouse services as teens and young adults. As with most of our programs, the Lighthouse Early Intervention Program is under-funded – people who are visually impaired and blind need your help! Please consider supporting our kids and, if possible, give generously.