Using my senses to understand where I am

These activities are suitable for children aged 4-12months and align with stage 1b of the Developmental Journal Babies Visual Impairment (DJVI).

Safety first

What you'll need

No additional resources needed.

Tips

When you’re caring for your child with a vision impairment, you may find that they often use their hearing together with their sense of touch to find, learn about and recognise objects. Helping your child to develop their listening skills will help them to understand the objects in their immediate surroundings and learn in a different way. 

Activity

• Let your child spend time in different rooms of the house so that they get used to the changing sounds around them. For example, the bath taps running for bath time, the washing machine in the kitchen combined with the smell of food cooking.
• In a carpeted room the sounds will be more muted than in an area where most surfaces are hard. Exposing your child to multiple sound sources helps them to build an awareness of their surroundings, as well as encouraging listening skills linked to specific items. For example, the washing machine spinning or your cat meowing. 
• Actively engaging in listening activities encourages your child to form an understanding of the world around them through sound.
• Sounds clues can help your child to create a map of the house and link areas together, supporting their orientation skills for later independence.