LightHouse Little Learners - LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired

Working with their families, the program is designed to help young children, birth to age three, who are blind, deafblind, have low vision or neurological visual impairment, or whose developmental delays include blindness or low vision. 

Neurological Visual Impairment is also known as Cerebral Visual Impairment, or CVI, a brain-based visual condition which influences a child’s ability to process visual information. CVI is the most frequent cause of visual impairment during childhood in industrialized countries, including the United States. 

Early childhood services for children, three to six years of age, will soon grow within the LightHouse Little Learners Program to bring preschool age children and their families together to share their experiences, learn from each other, have fun and make friends. Through these gatherings, the preschool program will support and build on specialized services available through school districts and county offices of education. 

It is widely considered that up to 80% of a child’s early learning comes through vision, and because infants and toddlers learn by watching and imitating others during daily activities, blindness or low vision can impact their development in myriad ways. To have their best start in life, young children who are blind or have low vision and their families benefit from specialized intervention at this early age. 

When a specialist in blindness and low vision partners with the family to enjoy all aspects of the child’s development, and at the same time the child explores the world more freely through hands-on activities and adventure, the path to accessibility and possibility goes beyond the diagnosis, and unfolds in spectacular ways. 

LightHouse Little Learners expert staff will walk alongside families on this path.