Communication is crucial for any human being and the children with disabilities are no exception. Due to the number and combination of their disabilities and/or conditions, children with multiple disabilities and visual impairment (MDVI) have especially limitations of the ability to communicate the meaningful and functional way with their…

Since its creation in the early 1980s, Light Box, a product developed by the American Printing House for the Blind (APH) that is designed for working on functional vision tasks with children who have visual impairments or multiple disabilities, has been an effective tool to help teach children with visual impairments to locate and track items…

Every year, under the federal law known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), millions of children with disabilities receive special services designed to meet their unique needs. Early intervention services are provided through the state to infants and toddlers with disabilities under three years of age and their families. For…

Social routines based on rhyming verses combined with co-active participation with adults were developed to permit visually impaired young children with additional handicaps to associate communicative responses with attention to and action on objects. (Author/CL)

The study involving two visually impaired developmentally delayed infants, investigated the role of child/adult interaction in eliciting intentional (goal-directed) communicative behavior. It was hypothesized that child/adult interaction would increase the child's awareness of how his or her actions influence adult behavior and would lead the…

A survey of visually impaired children (from birth to age 12) in the Rocky Mountain/Great Plains region indicated that the majority were multiply handicapped, and that within this group, the greatest number were in the mild to moderate range. Data are presented on age ranges, current service delivery options, vocational and alternative-living…

Twenty-four congenitally visually handicapped infants, aged 6-24 months, participated in a study to determine (1) those stimuli best able to elicit visual attention, (2) the stability of visual acuity over time, and (3) the effects of binaural sensory aids on both visual attention and visual acuity. Ss were dichotomized into visually handicapped…

Presented is a rationale for implementing early transdisciplinary intervention in behalf of blind and visually handicapped, mentally retarded infants. (Author/BD)

The Georgia Parent Infant Network for Educational Services (PINES) is a home intervention program currently serving over 300 hearing impaired, visually impaired, and multihandicapped sensory impaired (MHSI) preschoolers. The infant-toddler evaluation component is described, with sections on screening and diagnosis, parent education concerning…

Described is a home teaching program at the Boston Center for Blind Children which provides assistance to families of children (0- to 3-years-old) who have visual impairments, often accompanied by severe developmental disorders such as seizures and psychomotor ratardation. It is noted that during home sessions the teacher instruct the child,…

This article reviews eight resources for working with infants, toddlers, and young children who are blind or visually impaired. Resources include a guide on early intervention with young children with multiple disabilities, a manual on developmental guidelines for infants with visual impairments, a video on early concept development, and Web…

The paper addresses issues involved in the management of and curriculum for children with sensory impairments combined with cerebral palsy. The first part details typical deformities and their causes in children with cerebral palsy, and describes (with illustrations) techniques for therapeutic handling and positioning in daily living tasks at home…

This article discusses the need for mobility devices for visually impaired and multihandicapped infants and preschoolers, describes a range of suitable mobility devices, and outlines considerations in evaluating and selecting mobility devices to encourage independent movement. A chart of approximately 20 types of mobility devices specifies their…

This study found that 51 mothers of children (aged 8-87 months) with visual impairments experienced more stress than did 47 mothers of typical children, particularly in areas involving the children's behavior and when the children had multiple disabilities. The major resource for the families was the availability of social support. (Contains…