It has been suggested that young children learn as much as 80% of what they know using their vision or using sight in combination with other modes of sensory input.  It is not surprising then that children with visual impairment may demonstrate delayed or disrupted concept development.

The understanding of object permanence is an important milestone in both cognitive and language development.  Object permanence simply refers to children being able to realize that objects and people exist even if they are not directly experiencing them (e.g. touching, hearing, seeing).  Research has suggested that young children with vision loss experience some delays in achieving this concept; however, the nature of the delay is still unclear.  For example, is the concept of object permanence associated with motor development such as reaching or locomotion (Hatton, Bailey, Burchinal, & Ferrell, 1997), or is it impacted by spatial and language concepts such as “next to” or “underneath” (Warren, 2000)?

To promote the understanding of object permanence, it is important to provide young children with repeated concrete, multisensory experiences with the people and objects they interact with in their environment.  Here are some simple suggestions:

• Safely attach a rattle or squeaky toy to a child’s shirt so that it remains close to her body when dropped and stays within reach.
• Provide the child with a contained play space so toys are within easy reach.  Examples include trays with raised sides, lids of boxes, hula hoops, etc.  For bath time, a plastic clothes basket can be placed in the bath tub for the (supervised) child to sit in which keeps toys from floating away.
• Select toys that have bright or flashing lights and/or make noise.  Place the toy a few inches away from the child to encourage successful reaching and searching.  
• When a child drops an item, give him time to search for it.  Encourage searching using comments such as, “Where did the ball go?”, “Can you get the ball?”, and “Let’s look for the ball.”
• Teach the child ways of systematic searching.  Be sure to use language and spatial concepts like in front of, behind, beside, and under.
• Have a designated place in the home/classroom where favorite items are kept.  Encourage the child to get the item herself and then return it when she is finished.

Some of these ideas and much more information about working with young children with visual impairments are in a new resource available through the LINK lending library:

Return to Tip Archive