The information below is particularly relevant for practitioners working with children in the early years or those at a similar developmental stage.
‘Practitioners need to decide what they want children in their setting to learn, and the most effective ways to teach it. Practitioners must stimulate children’s interests, responding to each child’s emerging needs and guiding their development through warm, positive interactions coupled with secure routines for play and learning.’ (Early Years Foundation Stage EYFS 1.16)
Visual difficulties range from mild through to profound. Many children have their vision fully corrected by spectacles. A child should be considered to have a vision impairment if the visual difficulties are not due to basic refractive errors and cannot be fully corrected by glasses.
Many children with vision impairment will have their needs identified early and will be supported by the SENSS Vision Impairment (VI) team. Some children may have needs that go unrecognised until they are expected to undertake tasks that require them to use visual skills in a different context. Some acquire a visual loss through illness or accident.
A vision impairment can impact on many areas of child development, for example a child’s social and emotional development, learning and independent living skills.
Websites
- The Royal National Institute for Blind People (RNIB) is the UK's leading sight loss charity. It provides practical and emotional support to blind and partially sighted people, their families, and carers.
- The RNIB Play Guide provides resources and play ideas for young children with vision impairment.
- My Vision, Oxfordshire is Oxfordshire’s local charity supporting people living with a vision impairment. The website includes information, advice and activities to support visually impaired adults, children and young people.
Self-help resources
The SENDCO Helpdesk is a free early advice service that can discuss concerns at an individual or whole school/setting level. It is aimed to help support SENDCOs (or practitioners supporting SEND in early years) to consider the next steps when implementing the Graduated Response so that the needs of children with SEND are met as early as possible.
Voluntary Organisations offering Information and Support Contact details for VI support
Training
If a child appears to have a visual difficulty that has not been previously identified parents should be referred to an optician or the child’s GP. The optician or GP will be able to make a referral to an eye hospital if necessary. Diagnosis of a difficulty by the eye hospital will trigger the involvement of the SENSS Vision Impairment team who will work alongside the school or setting to support the child’s access to learning.
Early Years SEND Advisory Team training offer The Early Years SEND Advisory Team provides a comprehensive range of training to assist settings in the identification and support of Early Years children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). The training offer includes: Early Years SENDCO Core training, SEND training for Childminders, the Graduated Response, planning and reviewing SEN support and outcome plans, effective communication and partnership with parents and carers as well as specific sessions to address particular areas of learning need.
Specialist support in setting
The SENSS vision impairment (VI) team is a countywide Special Educational Needs (SEN) teaching and advisory support service.
The Vision Impairment team can be contacted via senss@oxfordshire.gov.uk.
A Single Point of Request for Involvement (SPORFI) is a multiagency form used to request support from various educational and health teams for children under 5 with special educational needs and/or disabilities. For further information see the Single Point of Request for Involvement (SPORFI) Flowchart.
Complete the SPORFI form to make a request. Services that can be requested include:
- Speech and Language Therapy
- Speech and Language Therapy (feeding)
- Physiotherapy
- Occupational Therapy
- Early Years SEND team
- SENSS – Physical Disability
The Occupational Therapy service helps children participate in everyday life and become as independent as practically possible at school and at home. The service provides assessments, advice, activity programmes and therapy for children with a range of physical or developmental conditions that affect their daily life.
Health Visiting Services offer support to families at home and in the community from pre-birth until the child turns 8 years old. See information on how Health Visiting and early years settings working together.
Early Help Children’s Services Early help refers to the collaborative approach taken by all services working with children and families to provide support for a family before problems escalate. Accessing early help can address potential issues and improve outcomes for children, young people, and families. More information can be found here.