Required Reading List
When we first discovered that our baby was blind, we began reading, reading, reading. Here we'll sift through the good and the bad and recommend only the best books for you to read (in order of most important to least). Of course, there are still some books out there that we haven't read yet. If you have a book that you want to add to our list, please Contact Us.
Helping Children Who are Blind: Family and Community Support for Children with Vision Problems—Written in a very easy-to-read style with lots of pictures to help explain concepts, this book is a great place to start. Helping Children Who are Blind covers visually impaired infants to teenagers and is full of practical advice. A really great book!
Children with Visual Impairments: A Parents' Guide (The Special-Needs Collection)—The first two chapters of this book are a great place to start learning about how the eye works and what can cause visual impairment. The book also covers important topics like family life, dealing with the doctor, and finding an early intervention program. The chapter on legal issues can be particularly useful.
However, as Carol Castellano points out in her review, this book does often take a rather negative stance toward vision impairment, so take what you need from it but don't let it get you down!
Living and Learning With Blind Children: A Guide for Parents and Teachers of Visually Impaired Children—This book takes you through different scenarios and teaches you how to raise an independent child. It's full of examples that are both easy to read and easy to remember, helping to solidify the concept. The chapters on language development and games and crafts are our favorites!
Reach Out and Teach: Meeting the Training Needs of Parents of Visually and Multiply Handicapped Young Children—A great set of books that will guide you through exercises and lesson plans. These two books are usually recommended by vision specialists.
What Can Baby See? Vision Tests and Intervention Strategies for Infants with Multiple Disabilities—This video takes you through different tests doctors can perform on your baby's eyes. It also follows a couple of families and interviews them about their child's visual impairment. This video is very informative, but we don't recommend buying it. Instead, try to find it through your local library or early intervention program (it's just too short to justify the cost). Also, this video contains the same information as Vision Tests for Infants, but includes the interviews, so you don't need to watch both.