Increasing awareness of cortical visual impairment (CVI), the leading cause of visual impairment in children
Back to school means, once again, thinking about how to explain cortical visual impairment (CVI) to educators who are new to your child’s educational team. When your child is in Phase III CVI (Roman-Lantzy) this means starting with the basics – the CVI ten characteristics, the three Phases and their goals, and the CVI guiding principles – then making the light speed jump to Phase III CVI and why it is different. Continue reading “Back to school with Phase III CVI”
Moving is hard. Yesterday was about learning what a Great Big Deal the CVI characteristic of novelty still is for my son who has cortical visual impairment (CVI). After driving across the country, itself an exercise in novelty, among many other things, our belongings arrived in a small portion of a vast shipping container. Prior to its arrival, we talked about having our “stuff” again. For several days, we occupied our new home with limited possessions and no furniture. It was the perfect low complexity environment for a child in Phase III CVI to learn about and explore a new living space. Continue reading “Novelty is a Great Big Deal (moving with your child who has CVI)”
When your child is diagnosed with cortical visual impairment (CVI), you cannot help but ask, What does my child see? As a parent it was hard to even wrap my brain around the words “cortical visual impairment” – or “cortical blindness” – the first time the neurologist said them. Along with the outdated term cortical blindness came other misinformation such as “because it involves the brain and not the eye, there is nothing you can do.” Some people like to say that having CVI is like looking through a slice of Swiss cheese, which does not fly because the eyes work together to create the image in your brain and those gaps get filled in. Others claim that the world appears pixellated to people who have CVI, except that your brain is not a computer. It is far easier to simulate an ocular impairment – such as the grossly distorted world of somebody with myopia. Or the blacked out central vision of a person with progressive macular degeneration. But what does a child with CVI see? Continue reading ““What does my child with CVI see?””
On an unhurried summer day, at last, we stopped at a favorite playground. For my son who has cortical visual impairment (CVI), favorite playground means ample tree shade (photosensitive, though he won’t always admit it). It also means a good selection of slides, such as “curly slide.” Slides have been his preferred playground play for some time. Slides are downhill, his favorite. Slides are fairly easy, once you figure out how to navigate to the top, not always accessible or obvious to a child with CVI. Ladder can look like lots of different things. Lastly, slides are fast. Continue reading “Waiting to play”
This one is just for fun, because kids with CVI like to have fun. We can play a game and approach it from the perspective of cortical visual impairment (CVI). A good friend recently gave Jasper a game called “Guess Who?” My worry was that it was about recognizing facial expressions. Turns out it is more about recognizing visual details than expressions. And turns out that my son adores this game. Continue reading ““Guess Who?” game in Phase III CVI”
Start Seeing CVI 