Friendship in the Teen Years for Individuals Who Are Blind or Low Vision

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Watch teens at a high school or a mall, and you’ll see them enjoying time with friends. Friends are really important, especially for teenagers. For them, fitting in and being part of a group is a big deal. When teens move to different high schools, they often leave old friends behind. High school life is also about new, more grown-up activities. This includes going out around town and dating. Teenagers who are blind or have low vision might find these changes tough. They face extra challenges in making and keeping friends in this new phase of life.

The Challenge of Social Life for Teens with Visual Impairments

Tips for Helping Your Teen Make Friends

Suppose your child struggles to make friends and to be included in his classmates’ activities. In that case, it can be helpful to talk with his educational team members about specific strategies that you can use to help him develop meaningful friendships. Also, consider the following suggestions:

Most friendships are built on common interests. If your teenager enjoys music, they are more likely to make friends with someone who also likes music. Helping them get involved in activities or hobbies and encouraging and supporting his interests are ways to get them together with potential friends who share a common interest.
Other ways to help your child get in touch with other children who share their interests include:
- Encouraging them to join clubs or informal groups, including online groups that focus on specific interests or
- Send them to a special interest program or camp, if affordable.

What Can You Do Outside School Hours

Give your child opportunities to socialize outside of school. Suggest that your child invite an acquaintance over for a movie night or offer to drive your child and a friend to the bowling alley. If they have the chance to socialize with classmates outside of school, some of their acquaintances may become friends. When it’s appropriate, ask your child to come with you to events or gatherings where other youngsters their age will be, such as parties, community events, or religious activities.
Make sure your teenager has the orientation and mobility (O&M) skills to get to the places on their own where other teenagers gather. Social interaction at school is more likely to happen during the time between classes or at lunch, so they are more likely to meet other kids if they have the skills to navigate the halls and move through the cafeteria independently. If your child always has to rely on you for transportation to the mall or to a movie, your presence as an adult may put a damper on any conversation.

Help Your Teen Appear Friendly to Others

The teen years can be a time of questions and doubts for teenagers in general. Many worry about their appearance and any differences they have from other teenagers. This can be especially true for a teen is blind or low vision who may tend to focus on the ways in which they are different. Your child may feel as though they are the only one in school who doesn’t have a learner’s permit to drive, or they may be self-conscious about using a cane or about the appearance of their eyes.

You can help your child realize that each person is unique, with strengths as well as weaknesses, and that they not the only teenager who feels isolated. Sometimes negative attitudes can prevent any of us from making friends. When people are unhappy and inwardly focused, others may think they’re uninterested in socializing. You might point out that focusing on others and showing an interest in them is more likely to appeal to potential friends.

Helping Your Teen Engage

Here are some suggestions to help your teenager appear more open and friendly to others:

A teen who isn’t able to see the interactions of others may not be aware of the many nonverbal ways in which people communicate. You can describe the ways you’ve seen other teens communicate and help your child practice standing in a relaxed way, smiling, nodding, or gesturing when your child is with other kids their age so that body language conveys interest in them.
Humor goes a long way when it comes to making others feel comfortable about blindness or low vision. If your teen can laugh about their blindness or low vision and the mishaps that are bound to happen and convey a relaxed attitude about it all, they’ll put others at ease and be more likely to want to spend time with them.

Role Play and Positive Encouragement

Friendship is a two-way street. Friends do things for each other and listen to each other. Your teenager needs to know how to be a giver, not just a taker, in a relationship. Help your child find ways to lend a hand to another person, whether it’s through listening, offering to help with a school subject the other person is struggling with, or having you drive your child and a friend to the movies.
Give him realistic feedback about his social skills. For example, if you notice that your child is engaging in distracting mannerisms or stereotypical behavior while talking to another teen and that it’s making the friend uncomfortable, discuss this with your child when the two of you are alone. The may need help to understand how their actions might affect other people.

All of us benefit from having friends. Though time with family is important, friendships allow your child to talk with others their own age and make emotional connections, practice skills they’ll use when dating, and develop behaviors that will benefit them in their daily and work life. Friendships are worth the investment!