Karnataka - Bangalore   

Offering tips on visual rehabilitation

Bangalore: Twenty-eight-month-old Sithil Dilnuk from Sri Lanka could not stand, sit, walk or even talk till recently.

Born after just six months of pregnancy, he suffered from retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), a potentially blinding retinal disease that can affect body movements. After doctors at Narayana Nethralaya performed a surgery on one of his eyes and rehabilitated him for three weeks with the help of various therapies, he is almost a normal child now, except for his vision impairment.

This child and 13 others, along with their parents, participated in a workshop on “Infant Vision Assessment and Paediatric Visual Rehabilitation” organised by Narayana Nethralaya under the aegis of the Karnataka Ophthalmic Society at the hospital’s Hosur Road campus on Saturday.

Paediatric ophthalmologists Lea Hyvarinen from Finland and Namita Jacob from Chennai interacted with parents of each of the 14 children to see how they could be rehabilitated with the help of occupational therapy. Dr. Hyvarinen, a vision expert and early interventionist, has invented Lea symbols that are used across the world for infant vision assessment.

She also inaugurated the Department of Paediatric Visual Rehabilitation at the hospital. The department will organise a week-long in-house programme called “SMILES” (A steady MILE towards Sight).

Under the programme, the child and the parent or caregiver will stay in the hospital and participate in a tailor-made rehabilitation programme each day of the week.

“A new therapy will be used to rehabilitate the child every day and at the end of their stay, the parents will go and follow similar exercises at home for two months after which there will be a follow- up,” said Anand Vinekar, Vitreo-Retina Consultant at Narayana Nethralaya.

“This unique concept has been developed keeping in mind some basic principles such as art, music, motor, speech and language development. The programme is focussed on training the child to perform activities of daily living and integrating him or her into the mainstream,” he said.

Dr. Vinekar said “SMILES” would start in the first week of September and not more than two children would be enrolled for the programme every week. Details can be had by calling 66121307.

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Offering tips on visual rehabilitation

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