Was your visually impaired child a late talker?

[Birdie B.]

Nothing about my daughter's development has been on a "typical" timeline, so I guess I shouldn't expect her speech to be either. But....she has very low vision, no lenses and only one functioning eye. She also has low muscle tone and is just now starting to walk (she'll be 2 next month). She seems very bright, and communicates with sign language, a few words and gestures. She usually gets the point across. But I have noticed that other kids her age use many more words and talk much more than my daughter. We are getting her evaluated by a speech therapist soon, but I just wondered if anyone else has had this experience? I have read that blind/visually impaired children talk later than others.

Thanks!

[missnoodlesmom]

Hi Birdie, I don't have experience with my home children, but I'm a teacher for preschoolers who have visual impairments. When children have significant vision problems, it's very VERY typical for them to have language delays. For one, she is missing a lot of our social language cues - she's probably not seeing mouths open and how they look when they are forming different sounds. For another, she's working very, very hard to understand what is going on around her so often times it takes years for VI kids to really participate in social situations because it's intimidating when they are missing large parts of the "picture" of what is going on around them. She's very likely just taking it all in. It sounds like she has good receptive language skills and understands what is going on around her, so I have a feeling that her expressive language (barring any type of processing issue of course) will be following behind. Try not to stress and just explain everything that is going on around her and encourage her to try words in very safe situations - her room where she knows what everything is, within a predictable room, with an adult she knows very well.

I hope I helped
Haley

[hadleys_mom]

My soon to be 7 year old DD is visually impaired with no vision in one eye (also hypotonia..didn't walk until 22 months) and was a late talker. I think she was around 2.5 when she started with simple sounds and coos, nearly 3 for her first word but then she ramped up pretty quickly. At 6, she is talking nonstop but her articulation is delayed due to apraxia.

And just in case you are struggling with potty learning, my DD was 5.5 before she was full time using the potty. Her low tone made it difficult for her to feel when she had to go.

[Birdie B.]

Thank you both for posting! I am relieved to hear that this is common. She is doing so well in other areas, and babbles constantly, so I am confident she will talk when she's ready.