The early years (birth to five years) are crucial for a child's development. Most parents and professionals find that if a child receives the right support and gets access to the right resources, they make great progress.
Early years settings
The Early years settings section offers information on choosing an early years setting, including features of a good setting, specialist advice and information on developing an early years curriculum.
Early Years Foundation Stage
A revised framework for early years - the Early Years Foundation Stage - has recently launched. We have updated our Focus on Foundation booklet to help early years practitioners implement the framework. The booklet offers practical ideas for the successful inclusion of children with sight loss in early years settings including reception classes.
Learning through play in the early years
The guides within the Learning through play section focus on learning through play including finding accessible toys, building treasure baskets, and encouraging play to support the development of social skills, mobility and more!
Social inclusion
The Social Inclusion section looks at social inclusion and social bonding including ideas to encourage blind and partially sighted young children to learn to socialise and make friends which is crucial in these early stages.
Mobility in the early years
The Mobility section offers information on developing mobility skills in these early stages. It suggests ways of encouraging mobility from birth onwards, including for children with complex needs. It also explores ideas and tips to help you with teaching daily living skills for this age group.
Latest news and resources!
New Early Support resources
RNIB have worked with the Early Support Consortium to develop materials to meet the information needs of parents/carers of blind and partially sighted children and young people. There are four sets of materials - general information, early years, school age and into adulthood.
These have now been launched on the
Early Support website. Work is now continuing to make them available as interactive web pages on the Early Support site.
Funding for Booktouch
We are delighted that Bookstart will continue to receive a book-gifting grant for children and young people. This includes Booktouch packs for children who are blind or partially sighted.
You can find out more about Book Touch and how to get a free pack on the Bookstart website.
Babies and visual impairment - Optimum VI project
This major new project is arousing huge interest across the whole of the UK. In the first few months over thirty babies and their parents and practitioners have entered the project and a projected figure of over a hundred babies is anticipated. The project is a funding partnership between Fight for Sight, RNIB and Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity and is investigating support and intervention for babies and young children with visual impairment.
Read the project flyer and contact the GOSH research team if you want to be involved. You should email either e.sakkalou@ucl.ac.uk or michelle.o'reilly@ucl.ac.uk.