What Can You Do For Your Multiply Handicapped Blind Baby

What Can You Do For Your Multiply Handicapped Blind Baby

Future Reflections Spring 1999, Vol. 18 No. 1
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What Can You Do
For Your Multiply Handicapped Blind Baby?
by Sheila McElhern

Reprinted from a 1998 issue of
Steppingstone, a publication of the Long Island Parents of Blind Children.
Hold your baby
and talk to him face to face. Make eye contact even if your child can’t.
This provides vision stimulation and places the child in a position to reach
out and touch you. It encourages imitation and adds to the bond between you.
Stimulate all
the senses: sight, touch, taste, smell, and hearing. This is best accomplished
by including your child in everyday activities. Bring her into the kitchen,
laundry room, bathroom, etc. Talk to her about what you are doing. Let her touch
things before you use them: her diaper before she’s changed; her washcloth
before she’s washed; her spoon before she eats.
Movement is
good. Gently sway, rock, and bounce your baby. Wait in between and see if he
gives you some indication that he would like to continue.
Comment on
baby’s movements. Respond to her sounds with words. If your child is hearing-impaired,
touch her to respond to movements and sound.
Tell your baby
what is about to happen before you begin or end an activity.
Avoid clutter;
it’s confusing. This is true of clutter you can see and clutter you can
hear. Don’t provide more than two or three toys at a time. Don’t have
the TV or the radio on at the same time. If your child is playing with a sound
toy or you are singing to him, turn the TV or radio off.
Pay attention
to your child’s reactions. If he’s over-stimulated, he’ll
let you know by tuning out, turning away, and pretending he’s asleep or
crying. Try to end activities before your child has had enough of them.
Encourage your
child to play on his belly (unless there is a medical reason not to.) If he
doesn’t like this, start with him lying facedown on your belly. Sing to
him and rub his back. If he’ OK with this, place him on his belly every
day for as long as he will tolerate it. Place one or two toys near his hands.
Avoid being
overly protective. Take the baby out, as health permits, to any place or function
that you would take any other small child. This allows the child to be exposed
to language, touch, tastes, and smells and allows for more varied social interaction.
Choose one to
three favorite songs, poems, or stories and do them every day. This will help
develop your child’s memory as well as interactive skills and help to stimulate
speech.
[Editor’s Note:
Never place an infant to sleep on his or her stomach; if he or she falls asleep
this way, turn him or her onto one side or onto his or her back. The American
Academy of Pediatrics reports that infants under one year of age placed on their
stomachs to sleep run a higher risk of succumbing to sudden infant death syndrome
(SIDS).].
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