The basis of our work is the deep understanding that vision affects all areas of development, it is the organizing sense that pushes us to connect with the environment, stimulates curiosity and through which we perceive and understand the world. Vision affects motor, cognitive and behavioral ability, the severity and nature of visual impairment, are the important factors in the effect of visual impairment on development.There are 6 main skills for visual functions, they develop simultaneously and do not necessarily depend on each other.
The purpose of the practice is to preserve and strengthen existing vision skills.
With the help of the practice, the therapist can "enlighten" the child's attention and thus improve the functioning of his vision and daily functioning. As the child develops, his visual function seems to improve, but the vision remains as it was. In other words, it seems as if the child sees more but not so he is, his vision remains and only the functioning of the vision improves.
Visual functions
- Awareness – the distinction of the existence of something, recognition of it and alertness towards it.
This is the most primal and basic skill, it teaches us about the ability of the child to use the visual system in a functional way, for example, a distinction between light and darkness , directionality in space – because it indicates that the child knows where he is and that he knows that there is space– this is a functional aspect (how my vision leads me in the world).
Functionally, we will test and practice:
- Response to a light source
- Reaction to the movement of stimulation.
- Object Response
- Response to the front
What is a response:
You turned a momentary glance, a physical change in the child – raising the tonus, changing breathing rate, blinking, vigilance and any previously never before seen changes.
- Focusing a look/ staring: the ability to bring both eyes together (or one eye) for a visual purpose.
Eye contact: nonverbal communication, in which two people look into each other's eyes at the same time.
Actions such as outreast and eye-to-hand contact require the ability to focus, even if for a fraction of a second.
Functionally, we will test and practice:
- Short/prolonged gaze
- Focusing a glance towards a light source, up to the distance of outreaguing or depending on developmental age.
- Focusing a glance at an object.
- Focusing a view towards an object/face in motion.
- Focusing a view towards a face.
- Focusing a glance at images.
- Normal/abnormal eye contact
- Short/prolonged eye contact
- Eye contact towards a figure/object.
- Tracking visual stimulation:
Tracking: movement of the eyes / head, another object / person.
Functionally, we will test and practice:
- Tracking a light source.
- Tracking an artifact.
- Tracking a character.
- Continuous/un semantiguous tracking.
- Hand eye coordination: reaching out while focusing/staring at an object, using visual supervision (vision leads to hand movement).
The ability to focus a view towards an object that is within reach of reaching out and act / respond to its existence with an eye-to-hand coordination.
Functionally, we will test and practice:
- Reaching for a light source.
- Reaching for objects.
- Reaching out to characters.
- Reaching for pictures.
- Hand-eye coordination.
- Scan-scans ("jumps") :
"Bone scan is done by a series of "jumps" look.
The ability to move the gaze from place to place, in order to perform another scan: the environment, objects, figures and pictures. The movement (scan) can be spontaneous or deliberately detectable. This ability allows the child to learn to take advantage of the eyes for learning purposes.
Functionally, we will test and practice:
- Is there a spontaneous, proactive scan (without mediation)
- Scanning in the immediate/distant environment in a familiar and unfamiliar environment
- Scanning in a custom/un-adapted environment
- Scanning for objects
- Scan for characters
- scanning pictures
- Decryption – the ability to understand the role / meaning of the object in front of me.
Functionally, we will test and practice decoding objects in the immediate/distant environment
- Decoding an object.
- Decoding a character.
- Decrypting an image.
- Decoding object/figure/image.
Factors that affect vision function:
Environmental factors:
- Adapted/Un-Adapted Environment
- illumination
- Field of View
- vowel
- Visual load
Use visual cues
The child's visual function relies on the use of visual identification clues of the object, such as:
- Color and Contrast
- Size of object, picture, or type
- distance
- The perspective of the children with visual impairment – the angle of view is very significant in the ability to use the existing vision and therefore the head tilt or distance from which the child sees should not be "corrected".
- A visually impaired child sees details before he sees the whole.
Additional considerations related to the child
- Envy and motivation (is a significant factor in vision function)
- The position in which the child is located affects the functioning of vision and therefore the optimal position must be checked for each child.
- Mixing with other tasks – When a visually impaired child focuses on seeing him on one focus, he cannot pay attention to vision in the periphery.
- As the child develops, the skills required of him increasingly consume precision and attention to detail, so it seems as if the visual impairment is getting worse.
Here are ideas and exercises that can be performed at home with the children for the purpose of maintaining and strengthening your child's visual skills.
Slomit Monahite, Petah Tikva's vision practitioner in collaboration with Sarit Levy, a national vision instructor of elia, prepared several visual exercises that can be done at home in order to preserve and develop vision funds.
To download the exercises, download the presentations in the link to your computer and sit with the children in a small environment and allow them to look and answer the questions.
Exercises suitable for detectors 2-3 years
Practice Vision 3
Practice Vision No. 4
Practice suitable for elia children with additional disabilities, up to age 3 in favor of follow-up and living
And it is worth laying a cellophane, depending on the excess color on the child, on the iPad it gives a different background to the black objects and the contrast is excellent for cvi children
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