What Is Visual Impairment?
Visual impairment happens when there is a problem with one or more parts of the eyes or the parts of the brain needed to process the images sent from the eyes. This prevents a person from seeing properly. ("Impairment" means something is not working correctly or as well as it should.) You may also hear the words "blind" or "blindness" when you hear people talk about visual impairment.
Although many people think blindness means a person can't see at all, this isn't always true. Some kids who are considered blind can still see a little light or shadows, but they can't see things clearly.
What Causes Visual Impairment?
A kid with visual impairment may have been born with parts of his eyes that weren't formed properly. The optic nerve that sends the picture to the brain may not have been formed correctly or the eyes may be damaged or have some other problem with their shape. Sometimes the eyes look totally normal, but the brain doesn't correctly use the information the eye sends to it.
Blindness can be caused by heredity (say: huh-reh-dih-tee) or genes. An unborn baby might develop a visual impairment if his mother gets certain diseases while she is pregnant. Blindness can also be caused by an accident that hurts the eye, which is why it's so important to wear equipment that protects your eyes if you play certain sports. Some kinds of infections can cause a kid to become visually impaired, although this is unusual in the United States. There are also some diseases that can cause blindness:
· Although diabetes isn't an eye disease, it can cause vision problems and even blindness.
· Macular degeneration (say: mack-you-lur dee-jen-er-ay-shun) is an eye disease. It almost always affects older people. The center and most important part of the retina is called the macula. When a person has macular degeneration, the middle area of the retina becomes scarred. This causes eyesight to degenerate (or become worse) over many years. No one knows what causes macular degeneration, but it tends to run in families, meaning that genes or heredity are involved in some cases.
· Glaucoma (say: glohk-oh-ma) is another eye disease. Your eyes are filled with a thin fluid called aqueous humor. The fluid is made in the back of the eye, where it then passes through to the front and drains through tiny holes called outflow channels. When something stops the flow of this fluid, pressure builds up inside the eye, causing problems with vision. Doctors can test for glaucoma during eye examinations and if it's treated early, glaucoma doesn't lead to blindness. It is unusual for kids to develop glaucoma, but some kids are born with it or can develop it during childhood.
· Another cause of blindness is the formation of cataracts (say: cat-uh-racts). Cataracts are cloudy spots in the eye's lens that block light and change vision. Babies can be born with cataracts, but they usually affect older people and not kids. No one knows what causes them, although too much sunlight exposure over the years may cause cataracts to form at a younger age in adults. That's why it's important to wear sunglasses outdoors to protect your eyes, so you'll be able to use your peepers when you're older!
How Does a Doctor Test for Visual Impairment?
An ophthalmologist (say: opp-thal-mol-oh-jist) is an eye doctor who has special training in dealing with eye problems. When a child goes to see an ophthalmologist, the doctor asks the parents about the child's symptoms because parents are often the first to notice a child's eyesight problems. A mom or dad may tell the doctor that his or her baby doesn't seem to focus on him or her or doesn't react to lights that are turned on or off. If another doctor notices a problem during a regular eye exam, the doctor usually will send the child to the eye specialist for a closer look at the problem.
Older children can answer questions about their vision. A doctor might use an eye chart to find out how well they see. You may have seen one of these charts if you've had a vision test. You were probably told to cover one eye at a time and read numbers or letters from a chart on the wall. This chart helps measure your visual acuity (say: vih-zhe-wull ah-cue-ih-tee) or how well you see. The doctor or nurse compares your eyesight with what is considered very good vision, which is the ability to see letters and numbers of a certain size clearly from 20 feet away. Eyesight this good is called 20/20 vision, although some normal people can see even better than this. The numbers change depending on how clearly you can see at different distances.
A person is considered blind if he sees clearly at 20 feet what someone with very good vision can see at 200 feet, and if glasses or contact lenses can't make him see better. This is called 20/200 vision. A visually impaired person's vision is 10 times less clear or worse than that of a person who has 20/20 vision.
In young children and babies, a doctor will check that the child can focus on an object like a toy. When the toy is moved, does the child follow it with his eyes? If the doctor raises his or her hand suddenly in front of the child's face, does the baby flinch? If the baby flinches, it means he can see the doctor's hand and responds by moving his head out of the way. The doctor may also use cards with black lines on them to test vision. Some of the cards have thick lines that can be easily seen. But if the doctor pulls out the cards with thinner lines that are more difficult to see and the child loses interest and looks away, it may mean he is visually impaired.
After those tests, the ophthalmologist does an exam of the eye itself, using special medication and lighting that allows him or her to see into the eyeball. The ophthalmologist looks for a possible cataract or other structural problem in the eye. Once the doctor knows what causes the visual impairment, he or she makes a diagnosis.
How Is Visual Impairment Treated?
Some kids who are visually impaired can have an operation to correct their vision. If a kid has a cataract, doctors may do surgery to remove it. For smaller, less severe cataracts, glasses can sometimes help the child see. One of the newest treatments for older kids with cataracts is intraocular (say: inn-tra-ock-you-lur) lenses. These are manmade lenses that are put into the eye during surgery. They replace the eye's lens when it is removed because it is clouded by a cataract.
How Do Kids With Visual Impairment Learn?
A baby who is not blind wants to explore the world around him. If you've ever seen a baby lying on his tummy, you might have noticed him trying to push up on his arms and look around. But a baby with a visual impairment won't be as interested in a world he can't see. Specialists trained to help kids who are visually impaired can help the baby develop normally, even though he can't see. If a baby is born with a visual impairment, most ophthalmologists will tell the mom or dad to put the baby in special learning programs while he is still very small.
Like all kids, visually impaired kids need school and activities to keep them learning, growing, and happy! Because a lot of what you learn in school comes from books, you might wonder how visually impaired kids learn. Well, kids who are visually impaired can learn to read by using a special system called braille. Braille is made up of a series of little bumps that stick up from a surface. The bumps are arranged in different ways to represent numbers and letters. Kids who are visually impaired read by feeling the bumps with their fingertips. You may have even seen braille around before - pay special attention to doorways in big buildings, elevators, and at the automatic teller machine and you may notice it!
There are also special computer programs and devices that can "see" printed material and turn it into braille. Then it can be produced on paper or even spoken into words. Visually impaired kids can also learn from and enjoy books and magazines by listening to voice recordings of others reading the words. With special equipment, a visually impaired kid can read almost anything!
In the past, kids who were visually impaired had to go to special schools where they lived away from home. Most kids today go to training programs when they are very young, then attend regular schools with children who aren't visually impaired. Many visually impaired kids learn in classrooms with kids who can see. They may have special teachers that come in and help them.
Living With Visual Impairment
Kids who are blind rely on their other senses, especially hearing and touch. Remember how you learned to identify different coins by the way they look? Blind kids must learn to tell a nickel from a quarter and a dime from a penny by the way the coins feel. When you go to your closet to pick out clothes, you use your eyes to look for a certain outfit or match up your clothes. A visually impaired kid uses his sense of touch to pick out his clothes.
Kids who are visually impaired use their ears a lot, too. If a car comes down the street, you know to get onto the sidewalk because you can hear and see the car. But a visually impaired kid can't see the car, so he pays special attention to the sound of the engine.
Some visually impaired kids and adults also get help from a furry friend - a seeing-eye dog! Seeing-eye dogs are specially trained dogs that work as a blind person's "eyes" and help him get around in the world. Although seeing-eye dogs are usually gentle and friendly, it's best not to pet or distract them while they're working.
Kids who are blind aren't too different from kids who aren't blind. They can do most things that other kids can do - the big difference is that they need to "see" the world in a different way. Kids who are visually impaired like to hang out with friends and do fun things, and they can go to college, have families, and do many different types of jobs.
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