Children with disabilities

Learning how to tie your shoelaces, brush your teeth or use a knife and fork can be daunting for any young child. But for children who are blind, unable to watch and copy, learning these everyday skills can seem impossible.

Now, with the help of an ARC grant, the University and the Royal Blind Society (RBS) have joined forces to create the Vision and Living Skills Project which has resulted in the production of a teaching package designed for parents and carers of children who are blind.

The recently launched kit condenses the expertise of RBS occupational therapists into a simple and logical package, emphasising benefits such as increased self-esteem and independence for the children.

As part of the project, researchers from the Faculty of Nursing interviewed hundreds of children and young adults about the difficulties they experience with everyday tasks.

Dr Christine Johnston, a senior lecturer in the Department of Family and Community Nursing, said many parents opt for speed, for example by tying their child's shoelaces for them. But in the long term this can prevent the child being able to take part in normal school and social activities - to attend overnight camps or play sport, children need the ability to change their own clothes, she said.

Aimed at children aged three to 18 and their carers, the kit has already attracted world-wide attention, with requests from Sweden, Slovenia, the UK, Portugal and Poland.

The research project involved the assessment of more than 220 children and interviews with older people who are blind. "We now have clear evidence about how vision affects independence and which children are most at risk," Dr Johnston said. "In most cases, children who are blind performed significantly worse than their age peers.