Stop Underestimating Blind Kids
Give Them the Tools and Watch Them Beat Your Estimates
Children with a mobility visual impairment or blindness (MVI/B) learn, explore, move, communicate, solve problems, and develop in their own ways. Some will also have additional developmental, motor, cognitive, or sensory challenges that genuinely affect their development.
But there is one question we should always ask before drawing conclusions about what a blind child is capable of: Have we given this child adequate access to information about the world around them?
Sighted children receive enormous amounts of environmental information simply by looking.
They see the person across the room.
They see the toy on the floor.
They see the step in front of them.
They watch another child walk around an obstacle.
They can visually scan a new environment and begin figuring out where things are and how to get there.
Before deciding what a child with a disability can or cannot do, make sure they have the tools and opportunities they need to show you.
Blind children learn through touch - mobility tools extend touch.
MVI/B children receive enormous amounts of environmental information simply by touching.
They're cane frame touches the person two steps ahead.
They're cane frame touches the toy on the floor.
They're cane frame touches the step in front of them.
They're cane frame prevents another child from being an obstacle.
They can tactilely scan a new environment and begin figuring out where things are and find the clear path to get there.
Blindness/mobility visual impairment means they cannot learn visually. But Vision is just ONE sense. It is not the ONLY sense.
Touch is the sense that blind children use to learn about their world. Blindness/mobility visual impairment accesses same information through touch.
And when we don't extend their touch, we risk underestimating what they can truly do.
Don't confuse lack of access with lack of ability
A child with an MVI/B who isn't independently exploring may need more information about the environment.
A child with an MVI/B who isn't walking may need a safer way to discover what is ahead.
A child with an MVI/B who doesn't reach for something across the room may not know that the object is there.
A child with an MVI/B who relies heavily on an adult for mobility may simply have had few opportunities to experience independent movement.
None of these observations tells us, by itself, what the child is capable of.
They tell us what the child is doing under the conditions we've provided.
That's an important distinction.
Give them the tools
Children with a disability in using vision need tools that allow them to gather information through touch about their surroundings while they move.
They need extended touch to generate similar opportunities to discover surfaces, obstacles, changes in elevation, distances, directions, and the location of people and objects.
They need extended touch to generate similar opportunities to make choices and learn from what happens next.
They need extended touch to be active participants in their environments—not simply transported through them.
This is one reason Safe Toddles developed the Pediatric Belt Cane. The Belt Cane provides extended touch feedback ahead of the child, helping the child receive information about the environment before reaching it with their feet and hands. The belt design helps keep the frame positioned appropriately while reducing the burden of tracking a handheld device.
The tool doesn't explore the environment for the child with an MVI/B.
The child with an MVI/B wearing a Belt Cane explores naturally.
The child with an MVI/B wearing a Belt Cane encounters information, responds to it, makes adjustments, and learns. And with more opportunities to practice, we are able to see abilities that were previously difficult to observe.
Then watch what they do
Give a child with an MVI/B a Belt Cane for better access to information, and you will see everything change.
They explore more.
They move more.
They initiate more.
They become more confident about trying something new.
They begin solving problems independently.
And sometimes they surprise the adults around them.
Not because the child with an MVI/B wearing a Belt Cane suddenly became capable. Because we finally gave the child with an MVI/B a better opportunity to demonstrate those capabilities.
Don't lower expectations. Remove barriers.
This doesn't mean pretending every blind child has the same abilities.
They don't. Children have different strengths, different developmental profiles, different challenges, and different rates of development.
The point is not to deny those differences.
The point is to make sure we aren't adding an unnecessary limitation by failing to provide access.
Before saying, “They can't,” ask:
Have they had the opportunity?
Before saying, “They're not ready,” ask:
Do they have the information they need to participate?
Before lowering expectations, ask:
Have we given them the tools they need to meet those expectations?
Because children with an MVI/B can only demonstrate what they have had an opportunity to practice.
Give MVI/B children the tools.
Give them access to information.
Give them opportunities to explore.
Give them time to practice.
And then—watch them beat your estimates.
Learn more using our Blind Baby Safe Mobility Curriculum
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