November 2, 2007
THUNDER BAY – Through funding from the Ministry of Children and Youth Services, as part of Ontario’s Best Start strategy, the Thunder Bay District Health Unit will now be able to help children who are blind or who have visual impairments. The Health Unit will work with a number of community agencies to be sure that help is provided to these children beginning right at birth so that they can achieve developmental milestones.
The Preschool Hearing and Vision program will help identify children with visual problems much earlier and will offer a one-stop shopping approach to parents ensuring that the right services are available when they are needed. Services such as those provided by CNIB, Children’s Treatment Centres, Infant Development Services and child care will be offered to parents along with family support and counseling as needed.
“We know that 85% of what we learn is through our vision”, says Cathy Farrell, Acting Manager of the Health Unit’s Healthy Families Program. “Can you imagine what it would be like as a baby not to see well enough to feel safe crawling and exploring your environment? Not to be able to distinguish something to eat from something to play with? Vision impairments can really hinder a child’s development in so many ways.”
Training will be offered to both parents and professionals to help them learn how to work effectively with children who rely on senses other than their sight in order to learn. When newborns have their hearing checked at birth now, the Health Unit is also delivering the message to parents that baby’s vision should be checked at the age of six months. Although the incidence of blindness and vision impairment is quite low, its impact on a child’s development is extremely significant.
Children who have low vision are sometimes not identified until well into their toddler years and vision problems can often be mistaken for other syndromes that affect development. The Health Unit, in partnership with community physicians and optometrists, hopes to be able to identify vision problems much earlier so that children can receive the help they need as early in life as possible.
Referrals to this program are made by calling Thunder Bay District Health Unit’s Preschool Vision and Hearing Program at 625-5922.
- 30 –