ROPARD Children's Low Vision Center

A goodie bag from ROPARD's Children's Low Vision Center

We made an appointment to visit the ROPARD (Retinopathy of Prematurity and Related Diseases) Children's Low Vision Resource Center as soon as we arrived in Detroit. It was the best decision! The Low Vision Center is fabulous and well worth your time.

So many resources at the center!

We learned so much! I only wish we had more time to spend there during our visit. We will be back to visit the center every time we visit Detroit. If you have a child with low vision/blindness and are ever in the Detroit area make it a priority to visit!

We met with Paula Korelitz, a former TVI and current Outreach Coordinator for ROPARD. She handed me a tablet and then proceeded to both get a history from us, as well as provide us with as many resources and suggestions as she could in the three hours we had.

Some of the ideas we already had heard but hearing them described in such concrete ways really energized us as parents to bring these practices into our home.

This toy was adapted to turn off the sound. 

It's not all for the parents though. There are tons of special toys and ideas for how to customize your home for your child. The toy in the picture above was adapted so that you can turn off the sounds. This allow you to see if you child is responding to the toy visually or just using sound.

So your child should come ready to play and explore and you will come away with many great ideas. There are so many little things you can do to make play spaces for your child. And it doesn't have to be expensive. Do you have a cardboard box? Spare household items? A cookie sheet? Then you can make some fun and educational play spaces for your child. Check out some great ideas here!

Here are some of the main points of our visit and how we plan to implement them:

• Go BIG with black and white- We all know this one but how far have you taken it? Tom's room was designed before he was born in greens and blues so it's time for a redo! There may be one red wall or at least a wall with a big red square. Maybe a chalkboard wall. Paula gave us a blanket that was 1/2 black and 1/2 white.  This creates ideal backgrounds for locating toys. Thank you to the wonderful ROPARD volunteers that make these for the kids. Tom is already napping with it. You can see the blanket in action below.

Easy to find the bug

Hard to find the bug

 Another concept she talked about was Clutter, Contrast and Glare. To make it easier for low vision kids to use their vision reduce visual clutter, use items with good contrast, and reduce glare.

• Incidental Learning - Put Braille Labels on Everything  Everywhere you look you see words and long before you knew what those words meant you noticed them. Eventually you begin to associate meaning with those words. For example - Kids learn early that if they go to the building with the big yellow M they are going to get a cheeseburger! Kids recognize the McDonald's sign way before they can read.  You need to do the same thing for your blind child -put braille everywhere! You can get a braille labeler for about $30 on Amazon. Then start putting labels at child height all around the house. Label toys, furniture, walls...everything! They will start recognizing patterns and learning the significance and the importance of braille just like a sighted child experiences print.

Lots of Resources!

• Plan for the Future - Start looking at resources now! Tom just turned two and we are already thinking about how he only has one year left of Early Intervention Services. Our plan is for Tom to enter the Western PA School for Blind Children for two years at age three and then transfer back to his own school district for kindergarden. We are going to work on intensive pre-braille at home and with his TVI so he gets a good foundation. That means lots of reading with Mom and Dad, braille exposure, braille ABC's and 123's, and finger strenthening. It also means learning about how to fight so that your child gets a proper education. Learn about IEP's (Individualized Education Plan) and how to write one. Did you know that braille is the standard and assumed learning method for blind and visually impaired children? That's how the law is written and it is often circumvented by schools that don't want to provide braille instruction regardless of need. So you need to be prepared before your start meeting with your school district. It might not be a fight but resources are tight these days and it effects everything.

          IEP Links (just a few to get you thinking)

• American Foundation for the Blind - Education Issues
• Perkins Scout - Education for Students with Blindness or Visual Impairments
• NFB - IEP Services Checklist

We spent about three hours at the ROPARD Children's Low Vision Center and we could have been there all day. There were movies to watch and books and braille items to explore. We learned so much! 

Ms. Korleitz also gave us a gift bag of pamphlets, booklets, small braille toys, and accessibility items. These are the result of generous donations to ROPARD. I know how much this visit meant to us and how much it will improve Tom's life by what we learned. It has really spurred us to action on improving his visual environment and focusing on braille NOW. 

Please donate to ROPARD so they can continue to provide these important services to blind children. You can donate online by going to the ROPARD WEBSITE. Every little bit helps!

Please note ROPARD is a non-profit organization dedicated to eliminating the problems of low vision and blindness in children caused by premature birth and retinal disease. Donations are tax-deductible. 

Donations are used to support the highest levels of clinically relevant research and the Children's Low Vision Resource Center.

Thank you for helping Thomas, and the many children like him. And thanks to Paula and everyone at ROPARD! We will be back for another visit.

Do you want to visit The Children's Low Vision Resource Center?
Call (800) 788-2020 or email ropard@yahoo.com to schedule an appointment. Try to block out a whole afternoon or morning for your visit.