At a glance

Seminar title: Helping children who are blind develop in the early years – a programme for low resource settings.
Date: Wednesday 26th November, 2014
Time: 12:45 pm – 1:45 pm
Venue: Bennett Room – LG80, LSHTM, Keppel Street, London, WC1E 7HT, UK

Speaker: Dr Melissa Gladstone, Department of Women and Children’s Health, Institute of Translational Medicine, University of Liverpool (In Collaboration with Dr. Paul Lynch from the Vision Center for Teaching and Research at the School of Education, Birmingham University)
RSVP: https://helpingchildrenwhoareblind.eventbrite.co.uk

About the seminar

Early child development and the promotion of programmes to improve are increasingly high up on the agenda of global health organisations and funders as evidence has shown that in some settings, interventions in the first 1000 days of life can lead to huge benefits in school attainment, mental health and psychosocial outcomes at later stages in life. For children with visual impairment, a body of evidence demonstrates how lack of developmental stimulation can lead to poor attainment of milestones in children who might otherwise progress well. Training packs have been created for the use of families in the UK to stimulate development in these children but the packs are detailed and complicated for local workers. Our recent innovative research has harnessed the WHO/UNICEF training tools for early child development. We have used a mixed methods feasibility study to adapt and pilot the use of these training tools to support early play and communication for children with visual impairment in an African setting.