Blog: 'Visually impaired children can become much more active'
The English Federation of Disability Sport (EFDS) website features a blog post every Friday through the year.
This month's theme is sport and physical activity for disabled children, with Friday 20 November being United Nation's Universal Children’s Day.
As British Blind Sport celebrates its 40th anniversary this week, chief executive Alaina MacGregor talks to us about their First Steps activity packs for visually impaired children.
Alaina’s blog:
This year is a special one for British Blind Sport, as we celebrate 40 years of making a visible difference through sport. We aim to support and provide blind and partially sighted people with opportunities to get active and enjoying playing sport.
There are 1.86 million people in the UK living with sight loss, and there are an estimated 40,000 people aged 25 or under who have a visual impairment. About 16,000 of them are younger than 16 years old.
Additionally, people with sensory impairments (hearing and visual impairments) have the lowest level of participation of any impairment group. Around just 12% of people with a visual impairment take part in sport for 30 minutes once a week.
Some of our own research indicates that visually impaired children are often hampered by the perception that having an impairment means they cannot participate in sport.
This perception may be held by parents, often trying to protect their child from harm, or teachers, and particularly PE teachers who have not had specialised training.
It could even be held by the child themselves, if they have not had the opportunity to participate in sport and are unaware of their own capabilities.
In an effort to address this, British Blind Sport launched First Steps in January of this year. A six month pilot made possible by four funders, including BBC Children in Need and The Big Lottery. The project’s primary objective was to encourage young visually impaired children between the ages of five and 12 to become more physically active.
British Blind Sport felt that First Steps would put to the test the theory that, with the right equipment, encouragement and support, visually impaired children as a group can in fact become much more active.
An activity pack containing a jingle ball and booklet containing games and activities was sent to the homes of 30 children. To avoid negative connections that may exist in a child’s mind about sport in an educational setting, the pack was specifically designed to be used at home.
The games were suitable for playing indoors and outdoors and either on their own or, to encourage teamwork and bonding, with a friend or family member.
We worked with the children and their families to maximise use of the pack and received a satisfying amount of positive feedback on how appealing and engaging the participants found it.
We also monitored what impact the pack had on the children’s activity levels and participation in sport, plus other important lifestyle indicators such as their confidence, social interaction and overall health.
The feedback from the children has been incredibly positive, with all of them loving the jingle ball and the games they could play with it. The inclusion of a variety of solo and group activities struck a balance between encouraging initiative and independence, while promoting engagement with other family members and friends.
Even children who already enjoyed sport and were fairly active found the activities interesting and challenging. Positive comments from children and their parents re-enforced our sense of the project’s success:
“It’s good that she can do something at home. She’s definitely getting more exercise.”
“It’s brilliant to have something specifically for him with everything in one box.”
“It’s helped me see what he can do. He is more willing to have a go than I expected.”
“I’m getting better. When Dad thinks I’m finding it too easy he puts the bottles further away, but I still hit them!”
Parents told us they welcomed the fact that British Blind Sport had provided something fun, easy to use and specifically designed for a visually impaired child. Many reported that that as a result of playing with their child their activity levels had also risen, which was particularly pleasing.
I have been delighted with the results of the pilot project. We have seen how receptive visually impaired children are to adapted equipment that is specifically for their use.
Blindness and partial sight loss can be an isolating experience, so it was great to see how effective the First Steps activity pack was in engaging a child’s wider family and social circle.
Additionally, there was evidence of a shift in the parents’ attitude, with 72% of them agreeing that they were now more likely to encourage their child to participate in sport or other physical activities.
British Blind Sport is now reviewing future channels for the development and distribution of the First Steps activity pack, so that more children can benefit.
British Blind Sport provides visually impaired people with opportunities to participate in sport and physical activity. More on First steps can be found on the British Blind Sport website.
