THE ROLE OF THE QTVI 

                                 Jean Cavanagh            

Family Support specialist at Moorfields Eye Hospital and a qualified teacher for visually impaired children with a vast experience of helping children and families born with a visual impairment.

As a Qualified Teacher for Children with a Vision Impaired (QTVI) visiting a family with a baby with anophthalmia, it’s vitally important that you are aware that the family will be grieving. Your visit can be an imposition as the family are coming to terms with the diagnosis.Some parents want all the information and equipment you can provide immediately, some parents need a more gradual process. 

It’s important for the QTVI to develop a rapport with the family and for them to be aware that you are there for the family and will do everything they can to ensure their baby learns to make sense of their world and achieves their potential.

Babies that are blind respond differently to babies with vision. They often appear passive because they are ‘stilling’. They are learning to use their others senses to understand what is happening around them. At this point, parents can feel rejected because there is no eye contact and a smile.

A QTVI will provide access to sensory materials/toys that are age appropriate to help with the baby’s development. In some local authorities there are groups for pre-school children with a vision impairment that enable families to meet with other families who are on a similar journey. 

Access to Music Therapy and Baby Massage sessions can be provided and are of huge benefit. Braille skills needs to begin early. Developing tactile discrimination and Braille learning skills is fun because the child is learning a skill through play.

Parents of a child who is blind, understandably, are keen to protect, which can limit their mobility and independence skills. All children have scabby knees at some point, so it’s important that a child who is blind is allowed to be independent. The QTVI will be able to provide Mobility & Orientation input to enable the child to have a sense of achievement when they independently learn to find their away around the house or a route outside of the home. 

Once the family have decided which early years session they would like their child to go to, the QTVI will visit to ensure the staff develop the skills needed to help their child to be fully included. One of these being Touch typing an important skill for all children and will be provided by the QTVI.

The QTVI will be there for the child throughout their education, providing advice, specialist equipment and training to the staff and their peers.

The QTVI, the child and the parents become a team, with their main aim to ensure the journey together is a smooth as it possibly can be.