Educating young blind children for a better future

Rith was only 4 years old when he got referred to Early Intervention Programme at St. Nicholas’ home. He was diagnosed with multiplanar nystagmus with bilateral optic nerve atrophy when he was only 2 years old. Despite being low vision, he was an active child who loves running around the house and jump on his parents. He was able to understand simple sentences and respond with one word answers. He was such a jolly kid, playing with his brother even though he was a bit apprehensive towards his teachers at the beginning.

After months of visiting Rith in Perak, he started to warm up and play with his teachers. He began actively engaging in all the activities and play therapy prepared for him. We started to see progress in his cognitive thinking and fine motor skills. His vocabulary also improved and he was able to answer questions addressed to him in short sentences.

His parents were very happy that Rith has improved so much and is very thankful that he was growing up at a normal pace like his siblings. However, in March last year, we started noticing that he has been talking and interacting less with everyone, including his parents.

We urged the parents to get him to the hospital for a thorough check up. He was attending speech therapy when he is not responding to the environment around him. A subsequent visit to the hospital found that he has hearing impairment.

His mother is very concern with the pace of Rith’s development which has been slowing down since he was diagnosed with hearing loss in 2018. At the beginning of 2019, he was given a hearing aid which will be beneficial in improving his learning ability as we prepare him for formal schooling. As teachers, we have had to change that our teaching approach for Rith as appropriate to his current condition. The parent also have enrolled him into community based rehabilitation center in the hope he will socialize more with children his age and encouraged to learn.

Hammad was only 2 years old when he enrolled into the Early Intervention Programme (EIP). He was diagnosed with two different diagnoses for both his eyes. Hammad’s right eye is diagnosed with micro cornea whereas his left eye was diagnosed as Anapthalmous which is the absence of the eye itself, as a result of a congenital malformation.

Hammad’s condition was never an issue for his family who love and took care of him.  They live in a closed knitted community in the village where his aunts and uncles take turns to care for Hammad when his parents go out to work at the rubber estate.

In spite of being born with no vision, Hammad was able to move independently at the age of 2 and is also able to interact well with his family members. Be that as it may, he was still very dependent on his family especially his mother for his daily routine and was very afraid of strangers. His speech was also not coherent.

These were all in the past. Hammad is now an active child who loves to play and he can even boss his younger cousins around sometimes.  He enjoys moving about the house on his own. His aunt mentioned that sometimes she just needs to keep an eye on him as he is able to take bath and play by himself.

One of the significant improvements seen recently was when Hammad cheerfully greeted and helped the teachers to carry toy boxes into his house. His attitude is the polar opposite of when we first met when he hid behind his mother the entire time. The parents are very happy and thrilled that Hammad is able to do these things independently as he is going to attend regular school soon.

Working with Hammad these past years has been an inspiration as he has shown us that being born without vision is never a limitation. Just like the quote by John Milton which goes something like “To be blind is not miserable; not to be able to bear blindness, that is miserable.”