Objective: To help children with visual impairment develop healthy relationships

• Previous modules in this series have addressed the limitations imposed by vision loss and the risks that they pose to development. These modules have also focused on strategies that help children who are visually impaired learn in different ways that minimize the limitations and develop age-appropriate skills.
• Relationships with those outside the family depend on the development of social skills and a healthy self-concept.
• Relationships with members of the opposite sex are never easy; but they are never easy for children and adolescents without disabilities either. The added complication is that the blind adolescent, deprived of visual cues, will necessarily resort earlier and more often to touch; and in many societies touch has become irremediably sexualized.
• Tactile graphics are poor substitutes for 3-dimensional models. A tactile graphic cannot convey the sensations or movement involved in intercourse. Even 3-dimensional models cannot do that. But as part of a health education curriculum, 3-dimensional models provide a better concept of male and female body parts.
• Children who experience love will know how to love as they grow older. The mechanics will come naturally, as part of feelings (from the heart as well as from touch) and experimentation.
• Parents can describe the details about love, intercourse, and sex to their blind children, although this is probably somewhat uncomfortable for all parents. If they do not do this, educators or medical personnel must do so. The choice of when and how to do this should be part of a discussion between family and school staff.
• Evidence world-wide indicates that vulnerable children and adolescents are frequently abused by family members and caregivers, and this requires particularly sensitive treatment so that children know when a relationship is reaching a danger point.
• Health education includes information about puberty, menstruation, respect for others, and how to avoid sexually-transmitted diseases, pregnancy, rape, and abuse.