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S. DIKIC, J. MAKSIMOVIC, B. ESKIROVIC, V. VUCINIC

EARLY DETECTION, DIAGNOSIS, TREATMENT AND

PRE-SCHOOL EDUCATION OF CHILDREN WITH SIGHT DAMAGE

Sight damages can appear in every period of the human life, from birth till very old age. The disorders of the sight function retard and hinder the possibility of learning, proper informing as well as recognizing the objects in reality. The possibility for rehabilitation and adaptation is bigger and the psychical consequences in the person development  are smaller, if the person with damaged sight is younger and rehabilitation and correction of the incorrect sight function start at proper time, i.e., immediately after the detection of the damage.

The developmental deviation with children with damaged sight can be recognized in the general physical development, in poorer fund of real ideas in the sensomotor development, in the space notion and space relations, in reduced motivation for certain activities and so on. However, these children have the same needs as the children with normal sight, such as: love, sympathies, care, discipline, learning, understanding, patience and so on. It should be taken into consideration that each child is an individual which means a special approach to the rehabilitation. In fact, more often we find children who, besides the sight damages, have other damages such as: cerebral paralysis, hearing damages, mental retardation, emotional disorders and so on.

The preventive measures contribute to the decreasing number of children with more difficult psycho-physical anomalies and they mean obligation of the community to organize: Advisory Institutions for pregnant women, quick and prompt intervention of the ophthalmologists and other experts, increasing of the general culture of the population and so on, and the systematic sight check-ups of every child should be performed in the first, third and sixth year of their lives.

The expert treatment of sight handicapped children should start from the very detection of the sight damage (blindness and low vision). For small blind and low vision children the Developmental Advisory Centers should be organized as well as the expert help for the family of such a child. In that way, the children acquire adequate experience and conditions for their correct psycho-physical development are made. That means we should provide conditions for getting the world closer to the child: with words, motions, feelings, explanation ... The blind child uses his/her hearing, the sense of smelling, his/her hands and the hands of the others to acquire necessary knowledge of the environment.

The children with damaged sight at pre-school age should be placed in younger, middle and older educational groups in order to provide correct and educational work, specially adapted to each group of handicapped children. In such a way, the children with damaged sight can get ready for starting the adequate school, according to the sight and the level of the sight damage, intellectual and other abilities.