How to Help a Blind or Visually Impaired Infant

Caring for Your Infant

Bond with your infant using touch and hearing. Physical touch, like cuddling, is essential to forming a bond with your blind or visually impaired infant. Since they are unable to see you smile or wave, speak with a higher, exaggerated pitch to communicate positivity. Even though your infant doesn’t understand words yet, they will begin to associate the sound with your presence. For example, before picking your child up, gently rub their arm or stomach and say, “I’m going to pick you up now.” They’ll come to understand that these touches and sounds mean they’re about to be lifted.

Treat your baby as you would any other child. Despite their blindness or visual impairment, your infant is no more fragile than any other child their age. Tickle, hug, rock, and kiss them as you would any other baby. If they have head control or can sit up, bounce them on your knee or play as you would with a sighted child. This will help them adapt to their visual disability without feeling too different as they progress through infancy and early childhood.

Help your infant sleep. Blind and visually impaired children can have difficulty going to sleep. The key is to stick to the same daily routine: wake up, feed your infant, schedule naps, and put them to bed at the same times every day without deviating. Placing a comfort object, like a plush toy or stuffed animal, in their crib can help relax your infant and let them know it’s time to sleep. However, be sure to remove any object such as blankets or toys once they fall asleep to avoid SIDS risks. When you put your infant down for a nap, tell them, “It’s still daytime, so this is just a nap.” They won’t yet understand the words, but using this and other phrases early on will help them develop pre-literacy skills.

Make your home safe for your developing child. As your infant develops, they’ll start reaching and using their hands and mouth to understand their world even more than a sighted infant. Make sure anything within their grasp is too big to be swallowed. Take extra precautions as they become more mobile: Keep hazards like window treatments’ cords out of reach. Install sturdy baby gates at staircases’ tops and bottoms and anywhere else you want to restrict your baby’s access. Keep rugs to a minimum, removing as many as possible to prevent slipping. Install baby bumper linings on table corners and other sharp edges. Avoid tablecloths that hang within your baby’s reach.

Help your infant play with toys. Choose sturdy, unbreakable toys without sharp edges and no removable parts. Toys that have a sound component, stimulating textures, and wiggling or moving parts (provided moving parts are securely fastened) are good choices. Your baby will find these appealing and, importantly, toys with a touching, pulling, or listening component will help them develop motor and sensory skills. Introduce a new toy by guiding your child’s hands over it to help them explore its features. Encourage them by saying with an exaggerated, happy tone, “This is your new toy - Toy,” to introduce the word and reinforce its meaning. For more help selecting toys for blind or visually impaired babies and toddlers, check out wikiHow's guide: Choose Toys for Your Blind or Visually Impaired Infant

Obtain early intervention services. Seek out public and private agencies that can connect you with early intervention programs. These programs provide education for parents, help you ensure your child’s developmental needs are met, and help you understand your assistance options and how to obtain them. For locations outside of the US, check with your local government’s ministry or department that oversees health and human services or early childhood education.

Helping Your Infant Communicate

Talk to your infant constantly. Narrate all of your actions when you’re with your infant. Say things like, “We’re going into the kitchen now,” or “Up, up, up,” when you lift them. Using words early will help encourage your infant’s pre-literacy abilities, setting the stage for them to learn how to read and write using Braille in the future. Try to limit outside noises to help your infant distinguish your voice and associate it with your presence. Since they don’t have the ability to see print, visually impaired or blind infants need extra reinforcement between words and concepts from birth to lay the foundations for literacy.

Imitate your infant’s vocalizations. Before they can talk, infants will imitate sounds and behaviors within their abilities. Imitate their coos and other babbling, and take turns vocalizing to each other. In addition to being a fun way of bonding, it’ll help your infant learn to imitate your words and use speech in the future.

Give your infant time to learn and explore. As your infant’s communication and cognitive skills develop, be patient and allow them to understand things on their own. It can be easy to fall into a pattern of doing things for them, but it’s important to let them figure out how things work from an early age. This will help encourage them to develop independence as they mature. For example, introduce your child to blocks using a hand over hand technique. Place your hands over theirs, and guide them over the blocks. Introduce their shape and show your baby how to stack them. Provide a couple of initial demonstrations, then give your child lots of time to manipulate the blocks independently.

Meeting Motor Milestones

Help your infant reach with their arms. Use a crib mobile that targets touch and hearing instead of sight. Suspend objects with interesting textures or that make sound within arm’s reach, so that accidental arm movements will swipe the objects. Guide their arms and hands to touch the objects at first if necessary. Help your child learn to reach from birth through three months. Be patient about meeting this and any other developmental milestones, and don’t be discouraged if your infant takes a little longer to master a motor skill.

Encourage your infant to roll over. With your infant on their stomach, gently bend their arm and tuck it under their chest. Roll them over onto their back, and repeat to encourage them to roll over on their own. Practice every day, and provide lots of verbal praise. To roll from back to stomach, gently extend your infant’s arm and bring it near their head. Carefully roll their head and body and lift their leg in the direction of the extended arm to place them on their stomach. Work on stomach to back rolling between three and four months. Practice back to stomach rolling between five to six months.

Help your infant sit independently. Starting at around three months, prop your infant up with pillows for a few minutes at a time. Be sure to prop their head up and lean them slightly back until they can hold their head up on their own. After around three months of propped sitting, have them sit in your lap with their back to your stomach, and place their hands palm side down in their laps to independently support themselves while sitting. Practice daily, and place toys in their hands to encourage them to sit independently.

Teach your infant to stand. Practicing independent sitting will help your child develop their core muscles and, eventually, they’ll be strong enough to stand with your help or by bracing themselves on a sofa or chair. Place toys on the sofa or chair and guide their hands to encourage play. Use your hands to support at first, and gradually withhold your support as they become strong enough to brace themselves. Practice daily and start by having them stand for a only few minutes. Extend the time as they become stronger. Try to start working on standing by 10 to 11 months.