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Early Childhood Program

The Sight Center provides individualized services in the home or community for children with a vision impairment from birth to three years old.

Philosophy

The Early Intervention philosophy is that parents and caregivers are the most important teachers in a child’s life. Appropriate Early Intervention services foster meaningful bonds with children.

Purpose

Early Intervention assists a family in understanding the diagnosis, teach specific strategies to encourage their child’s development and help them gain the skills necessary for meeting the challenges of parenting a child with a visual impairment.

What To Expect

  • Early Intervention for a child with a visual impairment under the age of three will begin with a review of medical records.
  • An individualized assessment using a nationally recognized measure called The Oregon Project Skills Inventory will be completed. Results from this assessment are discussed with the family, caregivers and other service providers.
  • A plan is created to address development in the areas of Cognitive, Fine Motor, Vision and Compensatory Skills.
  • The Early Intervention Specialist suggests strategies for activities and provides encouragement to guide each family through the first three years of the child’s life.
  • Our program focuses on helping a child learn to maximize use of remaining vision and to develop non-visual skills to increase independence in communication, play, movement and self-care.

Certified Staff

Our program is staffed by Certified Early Intervention Specialists with support from other Sight Center staff, including:

  • Low Vision Optometrists
  • Occupational Therapist
  • Certified Orientation & Mobility Specialist
  • Certified Vision Rehabilitation Therapist
  • Social Work & Counseling Providers

Collaborations

The Sight Center of Northwest Ohio EI staff collaborate with other providers including Help Me Grow, local Boards of Developmental Disabilities, private therapists and physicians to provide a cohesive team approach to intervention to maximize the child’s progress toward individualized goals.

Possible Indications of a Vision Problem

If a child’s eyes…

  • look cloudy or have unusual shape or size
  • turn in, out, up or down or make jerky movements

If a child…

  • looks through, rather than at people
  • looks away to reach or reaches over/under objects
  • tilts or turns his/her head to the side to look
  • shows a preference of looking with one eye over the other
  • is overly sensitive to bright light
  • rubs or pokes his or her eyes

Download the Early Childhood brochureDownload the Early Childhood Low Vision Services brochure (PDF)

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