Dual Sensory Impairment

Noah is deaf-blind. He does have some vision and a little hearing, but he is impacted in both of these areas enough to make a negative impact on his life. Most people who know Noah would agree that he is deaf, but are surprised to find out about his visual impairment. He doesn't crawl into walls that often, he can tell mommy and daddy apart, and he is able to play with his toys in an appropriate (although developmentally delayed) way. What they don't understand is how well he compensates. Noah can put pieces in a puzzle without looking. Amazing? No. He can't do any better when he is looking. He just learned to do it by touch. Yesterday a special educator came to our OT appointment to make suggestions on how to modify things for Noah's visual impairment. We used lots of electrical tape with one goal in mind - high contrast. What a difference! Noah has been hit or miss with his shape sorter, stacker, etc. He knows what to do but sometimes he misses the mark. We outlined things with electrical tape and now he can see the contrast and is an expert. We're going to be looking for more ways to contrast and start using a light box and we expect to see big changes. Great job, Noah!