Helping a Child with Multiple Disabilities Develop Their Senses

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Our senses are our gateway to the world. They are how we obtain information, gain understanding, and interact with the objects and people around us. Suppose your child has blindness or low vision and additional disabilities. In that case, your child will need to use all of their functional (remaining) senses—vision, hearing, touch, smell, and taste—to get the most information possible about the world and what is happening in the environment. Learning to use information from their senses together and effectively will help them integrate input gathered from different parts of their body to enable them to understand what is happening at any given moment.

Vision

The majority of children who are low vision have some usable vision. Vision is the sense through which children potentially learn the most about their world. It is used for gathering information nearby (what can be touched) and at a distance (beyond arm’s reach). For young children whose vision is typically developing, 80 to 90 percent of what they learn about the world comes to them through vision. Therefore, if your child’s low vision or is absent, in all likelihood, learning is going to be affected in some way. For this reason, it is important for children with low vision to learn to make effective use of all their senses.

The eyes are involved in using vision but so is the brain. The eyes gather information, but the brain has the job of interpreting and making sense out of that information. Some children’s eyes may be fine, but they may have sustained damage to the brain or to the pathway from the back of the eye to the brain. Thus, even though their eyes are functioning well, these children may not be able to process or fully understand the information they are gathering. If your child has such a condition, usually known as cortical or cerebral visual impairment, and the teacher of students with visual impairments may be able to work to improve the processing of what your child’s eyes see.

A physical disability might interfere with your child’s visual abilities. If they struggle to control their head and upper body, preventing falls or sideways tilts, using vision efficiently becomes challenging. If your child faces such physical challenges affecting head or upper body control, consulting a physical or occupational therapist can be beneficial. The educational team may also have valuable strategies to support your child’s posture. Once your child is stable, you might notice an improvement in their visual efficiency.

For many children, understanding their surroundings comes from diverse experiences. These experiences enhance their vision-based information gathering. Take a blender, for example. Your child might not recognize it on the kitchen counter if they don’t know what it is. Involve them in using the blender. Let them help pour ingredients and press buttons to make a milkshake. This way, they learn what a blender is and its purpose. After gaining familiarity, they might start noticing it on the counter themselves.

Hearing

In a typically developing child, hearing and vision work in tandem. When vision is decreased or absent, hearing does not replace vision. Hearing continues to provide important information, but vision isn’t available to confirm much of what is heard.

As with blindness or low vision, a child whose hearing is impaired needs to have many different kinds of experiences in order to give meaning to what they hear. For example, if your child notices a sound from an object that can be touched, show the object and help them explore it so that they understand it more fully. When touching what your child hears isn’t possible, describe what they are hearing so that they understand the meaning of the sound.

Children also use their hearing as they listen to others talking. Through hearing language, they usually begin to understand and learn to use language. Therefore, it’s important for you and others to talk to your child. Try to remember not to overwhelm your child with too many words. If you can, select the vocabulary you use based on your child’s current level of understanding of language and be consistent.

Touch

Touch is an extremely important sense for a child who has blindness or low vision. Many children with blindness or low vision and additional disabilities use touch as one of their primary means for gathering information. Therefore, it’s a good idea to encourage your child to touch objects to explore the world, beginning in infancy. You can use the hand-under-hand technique to help your child reach out to touch things in the environment. Also, point out the different characteristics of what they are touching. If your child has limitations in using one or both of their hands, you might want to talk with members of the educational team about strategies for getting both hands to work together to explore and gather information through touch.

Some children resist touching; you may hear this referred to as “tactile defensiveness.” Dealing with a child’s aversion to touch can be tough. It’s vital for them to explore and learn, yet their feelings and preferences matter too. If your child shies away from touch, find ways to make them feel secure when touching things.

For children potentially using tactile symbols or braille, touch skills are crucial. Regularly introduce raised symbols or braille to your child. Encourage skill development by incorporating tactile symbols or braille in home and school activities, as well as in everyday life.

Touch is also critical in techniques that people who are blind or low vision use for travel. For example, if your child uses a cane or other mobility device, they will learn to identify surfaces and obstacles they touch with their cane, or may use a travel technique called trailing, in which they lightly touch the wall using the back of their hand as they walk in order to get tactile information about the route.

Smell and Taste

Smell and taste are not often thought of as significant senses for gathering information about the environment. They are important for a child with a visual impairment and additional disabilities. Like vision, hearing, and touch, they can aid your child in gathering information about the world. For example, your child may use her sense of smell when she is traveling to seek out clues in the environment to help her be more independent. She may know that to get to her favorite clothing store at the mall, she needs to walk straight from the entrance until she comes to the cinnamon bun store, which she can identify by smell, and then turn right.

Your child can also use both smell and taste to identify foods. Your child might resist new foods or dislike certain textures. If they hesitate to try different foods, consider consulting the educational team. An occupational therapist or speech therapist can offer strategies to spark their interest and willingness to explore new tastes.

Sometimes children use their sense of smell to investigate their food before eating it. Bending over their plate in a way that may be socially inappropriate. If this is something your child insists on, look for a more acceptable alternative.

Using the Senses Together

People generally use more than one sense at a time. When your child snacks, they engage multiple senses. They see and smell the food, taste it, and use their hands to handle a spoon. If you’re heating the snack, they might hear sizzling. You might also describe the food to them or guide them in using a spoon correctly. For children with blindness, low vision, or other disabilities, a multisensory approach is often more effective. Involve as many senses as you can in activities. This helps your child learn through various methods.

Consider how you can incorporate more than one sense into your child’s activities. Taking a task like getting dressed:

Vision

Divide items in the drawer by color.
Place dividers in the drawer that provide good contrast with the items inside.
Put a visual label on the drawer, such as a picture or words, to indicate what is inside.

Touch

Use bins or dividers of different sizes or textures to separate items.
Show your child how to tactilely scan the contents of the drawer, working systematically from left to right.
Place a tactile label, such as a symbol or braille, to indicate what is inside.

Hearing

Place an auditory marker on the drawer, such as a bell tied to the handle. This will help your child in identifying the drawer.
Use consistent language when explaining to your child how to locate items in the drawer.