ABSTRACT
Adults can generally exert much more control over learning environments, teaching resources and strategies than they can hope to over the qualities and characteristics of the individuals they teach. For pupils with visual impairments there will be important questions about how best to encourage mobility, exploration, play, language and learning. Many aspects of development are inter-related and depend to a greater or lesser degree on the integrating qualities of vision. When a child’s vision is affected, there is a reduction in the information necessary for understanding how the world is organised and how it can be acted upon. To help overcome the isolating effects of a severe visual impairment, adults play a very important role in bridging between the child and the environment. A responsive caregiver can enable the child to build up a coherent picture of the world by providing more information through
different sense modalities, making links between areas of experience, and by giving more time to assimilate the new.
