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Throughout the year we host regular sessions for parents on accessing and understanding entitlements as well as practical hands-on workshops on mobility, adaptive technology, feeding and other topics relating to the needs of visually impaired children with multiple disabilities.
Throughout the year ChildVision hosts informative sessions and practical workshops for professionals in the field of visual impairment. We also provide the following Professional Courses:
Learn Braille Course INBAF Approved
Click on the link above for ‘Learn Braille’ Course for details.
Continual research and professional development is a highly valued part of the ethos of ChildVision and encouraged for all members of staff. As the profile of disabilities our young people present with grows ever more complex, our staff use their learning to participate in research projects, both on an individual basis and with professional peers in a European setting as part of MDVIEuronet. This research helps us innovate and react with agility to adapt our services to meet the needs of our ever changing student profile.
Below is a link to commissioned research and some research by staff.
Ahessy, B. (2013). Creative Arts Therapies: what psychologists need to know. The Irish Psychologist. (39)1
DownloadAhessy, B. (2020). Creative arts therapies in disabilities settings. Frontline Magazine
DownloadAhessy,B. (2014). Music therapy at ChildVision: The National Education Centre for Blind Children. Slainte Magazine.
DownloadBrosnan, T. & Darby, A. (2018). The effects of equine assisted occupational therapy on the greater family unit, a pilot Study by the Childvision Equine Unit. Presented at The International Congress of Equine Facilitated Programmes (https://heti2018.org/) and The International Society for Anthrozoology (ISAZ http://www.isaz.net/isaz/conferences/ in Sydney)
DownloadHeffernan, K. (2016) The effect of an equine assisted therapy (eat) programme on children’s occupational performance – a pilot study, accessed at https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/IJOT-02-2017-0005/full/html
DownloadO’Leary, J. (2019). The labour force status of people with visual impairment. ChildVision publications.
DownloadO’Leary, J (2019). Trends and Patterns in visual impairment amongst young people in Ireland. ChildVision publications.
DownloadChildVision host conferences, National and International on the subject of sight loss and multiple disabilities. In recent years we have been hosts of the International Council for Education and Rehabilitation of People with Visual Impairment and the International Mobility Conference.
In 2022 ChildVision as part of the Visually Impaired Service Providers Alliance (VISPA) was host to Vision 2022.