Junior Blind's Infant & Early Childhood Program provides a wide range of services for children, birth to 6 years, with visual impairments and other disabilities. A key component of these services is helping families gain the knowledge to become successful advocates for their child's education and care.
Infant Services
Serving infants from birth to age 3, these in-home services are designed to help increase visual functioning, sensory awareness, communication and social skills, as well as improve physical, cognitive and emotional development.
- Weekly in-home visits from experienced specialists
- Visual and auditory development
- Cognition and play
- Social and emotional development
- Communication
- Fine and gross motor movement
- Self-help skills
- Educational workshops
- Family Camp at Junior Blind's 40-acre Camp Bloomfield in Malibu
Early Childhood Services
Serving children ages 3-6 and their families, these services provide essential support to help children successfully transition into the special education public school system and maximize their developmental progress.
- Parent support and advocacy training
- IEP support and guidance
- Phone consultations and periodic home visits
- Accompany families to Ophthalmologist or Optometrist appointments
- Classroom teacher consultations
- Orientation & Mobility consultations for specific geographic areas
- Family Support groups
- Educational workshops
- Family regional picnics and social activities
- Family Camp at Junior Blind's 40-acre Camp Bloomfield in Malibu
Who We Serve
Our specialists are trained to work with children who have all types of visual impairments and disabilities. Since a formal diagnosis can be difficult to make for visual impairment in infants and toddlers, it is not required. If a child exhibits any sign of visual impairment, we will help conduct assessments and make referrals to professionals who can make a formal diagnosis.
Our Staff
Highly experienced and educated in the field, our Infant & Early Childhood Program Specialists hold a bachelor's or master's degree in early childhood special education, low-incidence disabilities, child development or related fields and have extensive training in visual impairment and assessment. Services are offered in English, Spanish and Tagalog.
Our programs are also closely connected with physicians, therapists, educators and service coordinators to help ensure a comprehensive support network is available to our children and their families.
Service Areas
We serve hundreds of children and their family members in Central and Southern California.
Referral Procedure
A child may be referred to our Infant & Early Childhood Program by a family member, healthcare or blindness professional, Regional Center or school district.
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