Helping Children Who Are Blind : Family and Community Support for Children with Vision Problems

Children develop faster during their first five years than at any other stage in their life. And while children who are not visually impaired learn to move around, communicate, and understand the world naturally as they interact with people and things they see, children who are blind need extra help learning how to rely on their other senses - hearing, touch, smell, and taste - to explore, learn and interact with the world around them. The simple and engaging activities in this book can help parents, caregivers, teachers, health workers, rehabilitation workers, and others help a child with vision problems develop all his or her capabilities. Topics include

• assessing how much a child can see
• preventing blindness
• helping a child move around safely
• how to include learning activities in daily work
• preparing for childcare and school
• supporting parents of blind children
• and teaching common activities like eating, dressing, and keeping clean

Sandy Niemann, MA, M.Div., has acted as the Humanities Coordinator for the PACE Program at Vista College since 1994 and has been an English instructor in the program since 1989. Ms. Niemann holds an M.A. in English from the University of California, Berkeley, an M.Div. in Religious Studies from the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, and a B.S. in Nursing from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. She has been a medical writer and editor for Hesperian Health Guides and the Northern California Biotechnology Center, and has rewritten eight books on politics and current affairs for Odonian Press.


The Rev. Devorah Greenstein is on the Board of Directors of Equal Access, a group which promotes equality and access for Unitarian Universalists with disabilities, and Program Coordinator for the Office of Accessibility Concerns for the Unitarian Universalist Association.
She has also authored The Power of Language, the Language of Power and Backyards and Butterflies: Ways to Include Children with Disabilities in Outdoor Activities.



Darlena David has a graduate degree in education and mass media from Manchester University and undergraduate and graduate degrees in English. Her academic expertise is on evaluating complex interventions in agriculture and other policies that impact and affect food systems with a focus on policy-level determinants of access to healthy food. She also has experience in curriculum development and leading community health management training.