Manual for Child and Vision Development Milestone

By Lucien G. Prince

Manual for Child and Vision Development Milestones is a precious guide that discusses the physical, social, motor, cognitive, and emotional development that occurs from birth through early adulthood, for children with and without vision. It also discusses the possible effects of maltreatment on child and vision development. This book contains the most recent researched theories, and findings of child and vision development, investigated by psychologists and eye care professionals.
The content is designed to educate and guide a broad range of readers (students, parents, child specialists, etc.) on developmental norms at different stages of a child's life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jan 28, 2020
• ISBN: 9781796083903

Lucien G. Prince

Dr. Lucien G. Prince, MD, MBA, MS-CVRT, CLVT is the CEO of Express Health Services where he is responsible for more than one hundred and five medical examiners who provide medical and paramedical services to insurance companies throughout The New York metropolitan area. His experience consists of working with patients of all age groups with visual impairment or blindness. Dr. Prince is a Low Vision Rehabilitation Specialist where he serves children with multiple disabilities including visual impairment and blindness. He also currently serves as an advisory board member for Blindness and Low Vision Studies at Salus University. As a guest lecturer, he devotes time to prepare, present and lecture on the anatomy and physiology of the eye to several Haitian organizations, New York State agencies and special needs educators of visually impaired children. His work exemplifies the importance of applying scientific methods to ensure appropriate assessment and instruction of visually impaired or blind children. Dr. Prince is a medical doctor and graduate of State University School of Medicine and Pharmacy. He specialized and trained in low vision rehabilitation therapy at Salus University. He also holds a Masters of Business Administration with a focus on Health Care Management from American Intercontinental University.

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Copyright © 2020 by Lucien G. Prince, MD, MBA, MS-CVRT, CLVT. 787343

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Xlibris

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ISBN: Softcover 978-1-7960-8391-0

Hardcover 978-1-7960-8392-7

EBook 978-1-7960-8390-3

Rev. date: 01/28/2020

Contents

Preface

Foreword

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Child Development

Brain Development

Genesis of Visual Impairment or Blindness

Learning with Vision Loss

Embryogenesis of Affection Between Mother and Child

Developmental Milestone in Children with and without Vision loss

Adolescence, Policy and Adulthood

Understanding Child’s Vision Development

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and Comprehensive Vision Rehabilitation Evaluation

The Art of Visual Perception and Early Learning

Sports Performance and Vision Disorders

Tests For Fixation and Eye Alignment

Let’s look at the diversity in the day-to-day classroom

Technology in Day-To-Day Classroom

Literacy and Braille Teaching Media Assessment

Cortical Visual Impairment (CVI)

Vision Loss and Adjustment Phases

Reassessment and reaffirmation

Passing behavior (Internal factors) in the Adjustment Process of Vision Loss

Surveys

Understanding Low Vision Exam

Scenarios

References

Preface

Manual for Child and Vision Development Milestones is a precious guide that discusses the physical, social, motor, cognitive, language, and emotional development that occurs from birth through early adulthood for children with and without vision. It also discusses the possible effects of maltreatment on child development. This book contains the most recent researched theories and findings of child and vision development investigated by Eye Care Specialists and Psychologists. The manual also consistently relates information to real-life situations; and demonstrates the usefulness of psychology in everyday life situations involving children.

The content is designed to educate and guide a broad range of readers, including; students, parents, child specialists, and doctors on developmental norms at different stages of a child’s life.

Foreword

This book provides a widely useful compilation of information, practical strategies, and cases for understanding the overall development of children ages 0 to 17, with or without vision.

Doctor Lucien Prince is a practicing Low Vision Rehab Specialist. His main interest is in Vision Rehabilitation for clients with vision loss or blindness. He has worked with numerous amounts of children who suffer from mental, and/or visual impairment. In this book, he provides an enormously useful range of information to help in understanding the important milestones of development in children in five developmental domains: physical, social, motor, cognitive, language, and emotional.

This book is an important resource for schools, parents, researchers, and doctors who are interested in understanding and learning what to expect about how children typically develop. It is useful to keep an eye out for any potential developmental problems. The way a child behaves or uses his/her eyesight may be a sign of a problem with the way he/she thinks or sees. It is important to act early because severe vision, and/or behavioral abnormalities can affect children’s development and learning. Early intervention can help them reach their full potential.

Edrouine Gabriel, Intern

Acknowledgments

First and Foremost, I would like to thank my Intern, Edrouine Gabriel, for her intelligence and leadership which motivated me to write this book. She has motivated me to continue to improve my knowledge and has assisted me at every point during the making of this book. I am grateful for my CFO, Jeanine Johnson, for her guidance, support, and patience. She has provided me with the tools and resources necessary to make this book possible. I would also like to give thanks to Luke’s Mom and family- Andre and Nicole Innocent for their endless support. I would like to give a special thanks to my Son, my niece Christelle D. Prince and my IT Berny Lamy for their support and encouragement.

Many thanks to the talented Pre-Medical Students, I’ve had the pleasure to coach. I’ve watched these masters of their craft make a huge impact on the lives of their future clients—building trust and mutual respect within the time constraints demanded by our modern healthcare system. You’re the reason this book is as long and I hope–as helpful as it is.

Introduction

Child Development

Child Development involves the biological, psychological and emotional growth that occurs in human beings, from birth to early adulthood. During this process, a child becomes less dependent and more autonomous. Although children develop and grow through predictable sequence of milestones, they proceed through these steps in different ways, and at different rates. Genetics and the environment greatly influence these changes. There are various age-related development periods: newborn (ages 0–5 weeks); infant (ages 5 weeks – 1 year); toddler (ages 1–3 years); preschoolers (ages 3–5 years); school-aged child (ages 5–11 years); adolescents (ages 12–17).

The early years of a person’s life are very important because those years have a direct effect on their overall development and shape their adult life. Children who flourish in the early years are more likely to become healthy, productive citizens during adulthood. Therefore, it’s important to encourage healthy development because it can be both ethically and economically beneficial. Child developmental psychology allows us to better understand children, determine if a child’s behavior is normal, have realistic expectations of children, provide developmentally appropriate learning activities, and detect delays and abnormalities. It also allows us to observe, predict, guide, and control children’s behavior. Continuous research and interest in this field has resulted in the improvement of the learning process within the school system [1].

Brain Development

According to many Scientists (Neurologists and Psychologists), the brain controls most parts of the human body. It contains specialized cells whose function is to receive sensory stimuli and to transmit them to the effector organ, whether muscular or glandular, for the wellbeing of an individual. When looking at the brain development, we can see that different organ systems develop at different times in prenatal development. Also, different brain areas proliferate and are pruned at different times postnatal (assignment). This may be explained by the presence of inter- connections between levels of organization in the brain – cellular, neurochemical, structural and child development as it is observed in behavior. For example, the rate of synaptogenesis differs in different brain areas with more primitive functions, like vision and hearing, peeking before language (speech), which peaks before complex cognitive functions (Davis). Very often, the neurons (brain cells) are organized in groups (synapsed together) to carry out special functions that will be interconnected through elaboration of brain circuitry. In this way, the rate of synaptogenesis or linking of neurons is the base of the development of human function, including motor ability, sensory capacities, emotional response and cognitive skills.

"How does this affect the developing organisms both physically and behaviorally?

The affectation may be positive or negative depending on the origin of the occurrences:

Prenatal Development: The electrical activity of the brain changes physical structures. During months 1 – 4 of gestation, there is an incredible rate of proliferation of the neurons (brain cells), which gradually lead to information of layers of structure of brain. This will continue throughout childhood, adolescence, to adult size. Prenatal events can cause neuronal mistakes. This can affect the development of fetus physically and behaviorally:

• Genetic Conditions: Chromosome abnormalities leading to – miscarriages

• Nutritional Conditions: Folate deficiency leading to neural tube defects and anencephaly (Brain may not develop) incompatible with life.

• Environmental Factors: Exposure to ray ultraviolet, smoking, some medications, exposure to stress or trauma …etc. These factors may compromise brain development. In normal conditions, the brain development is protected by the overall health of the mother during the pregnancy, adequate nutrition pre and post-natal and full – term gestation.

Postnatal development: The brain has over 100 billion neurons at birth, which will continue to proliferate until age 2, constant till age 10 and their drastic pruning of synaptic connections. Here, the brain development can be enhanced by secure and stimulating relationship. However, the following factors may lead to compromised brain development.

Physical changes due to:

1. Genetic abnormalities:

a. Chromosome abnormalities such as trisomy 21 (Down syndrome), Trisomy 13 (Patau Syndrome) which may lead to Holoprosencephaly (incomplete separation of cerebral hemispheres leading to affections to the head and face)

2. Infectious diseases like: Toxoplasmosis, Syphilis, Rubella, Cytomegalovirus Virus, Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Herpes Simplex (TORCH). These viruses and parasites can cross the mother’s placenta and damage brain development. (Small head size (microcephaly), seizures, motor problems and mental retardations (Aylward 2009 pp 48)

3. Environmental Factors:

a. Exposure to alcohol is the most serious effects on brain development. It occurs in the third trimester when neurons and synapses are being produced at their highest rate (shonkoff 7Phillips, 2000). The alcohol can lead to microcephaly (small head) due to the death of a large number of neuronal cells.

4. Nutritional Factors:

a. Vitamins (folate, iron) deficiencies, inadequate breastfeeding, malnutrition can cause a limitation on the productions of neuronal and glial cells. They will slower myelinations and poor brain growth, which result to a lower IQ and other cognitive deficit (skonkoff 7 marshall 2000).

Behavioral Change:

Here, the change may be beneficial or counterproductive depending on the quality of the individual transactions with the environment, exposure to stress, deprivation or trauma and even some genetic disorders. Research proves that the positive influences such as responsive caregiving, appropriate stimulation and learning experiences support optimal brain development which can lead to a positive behavior toward society. For example, as the mother touches, soothes and feeds the infant, she creates a set of specific sensory stimuli which are translated into specific neural activations in areas of the developing brain destined to become responsible for social-emotional communication and bonding (Perry, 2002a, p95). This also explains why the infants show better self-regulations and attentiveness happiness and a greater amount of calm when Mom is present. Recent researchers also found that group of neurons called mirror neurons are located in