Play in Your Own Kitchen Band

Bang a pot with a lid! Tap a plastic cup with your finger! Rattle and shake measuring spoons in a colander! Everyday objects in your kitchen or around your home can be played with to introduce your child who’s blind or visually impaired to new sounds, textures and sources of vibration. Playing in a kitchen band is endless fun and different every time. Learn how to choose the “instruments” and make your first sounds, including your own voice, HERE . Board certified music therapist Amanda Bryant shares nine short, two- to four-minute videos HERE on how music affects a child's sensory development. No musical experience or special instruments are required!

Easy, Breezy Wind Chimes Even if you don’t grow your own garden, you can go outside and experience nature as if you and your child are in a garden. Experiencing the smell of cut grass, touching a fuzzy leaf or describing the color of the sky gives your child rich and meaningful access to her world. A sound garden might be something as simple as listening to the birds chirping.You can also make a sound garden with wind chimes. Build your own, homemade wind chime with pipe cleaners, plastic beads and jingle bells or by stringing together everyday objects like empty aluminum cans, shells, plastic lids, or metal washers.  HERE are some other garden ideas.

More Stay-at-Home Activities! Paths to Literacy is a website produced by the Perkins School for the Blind and the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired with helpful resources and ideas for teachers and parents on providing literacy experiences for children who are blind or visually impaired. Read their blog on “Stay-at-Home Activities for Children with Visual Impairments” HERE .

Survey Says... The results of our annual 2020 Caregiver Survey are in! For another year in a row, families overwhelmingly felt that their needs and their children’s were met, the frequency and schedule of visits – now via telehealth – were appropriate and convenient and the education and coaching provided were beneficial. One hundred percent of caregivers would recommend A Shared Vision to other families who have a child who’s blind or visually impaired.  As one parent commented, “our provider is so much more than our vision teacher. She has become family and has taught me so much about advocating for my son and that what I have to say matters.”

Sign Up NOW for Vision Screening Training 200 Early Intervention professionals in Colorado have completed the free Continuing Ed course conducted by A Shared Vision -- “Vision Screening – Birth to Age Three – Scoring the Parent Questionnaire.” And 100% would highly recommend this valuable, one-and-a-half hour, online training to other early intervention providers. Sessions are filling up fast! Sign up HERE for classes in August .

A Shared Vision is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and the leading provider of in-home and community early intervention vision services in Colorado. We inspire and empower families to nurture the development of their very young children who are blind or visually impaired so that all children may discover their brightest future.

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