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.