20 Outdoor Activities for Blind and Visually Impaired Children

In our June 2018 article on our blog, child life specialist Jocelyn Leworthy, describes how playfully engaging the senses aids development in babies and young children:

“As children grow, they also acquire more complex skills through sensory experiences.  For example, when playing with sensory materials like water, play dough, blocks; sand etc., they begin to develop fine motor skills – use of the small muscles in the hands. This is achieved through molding, manipulating, stacking, grasping, pouring etc.

“Children learn about concepts like cause and effect when their play involves complete actions like pouring, mixing, stacking and moving. They also learn about physical properties (shape/size/colour/texture), and conservation. Through exploring with the materials, they also develop foundation skills for math and science, including measurement, observing physical changes when materials are mixed or altered, and making comparisons.  Sensory experiences also promote imaginative play and encourage social development like turn taking, sharing, and perspective taking when other children are involved.

“In summary, the senses play a critical role in a child’s holistic development, and their ability to make sense of the world around them. As a parent or caregiver, there are endless opportunities to engage the senses through fun, stimulating interactions and experiences.  Take time to try some new approaches today.”

For a simple sensory play experience, half fill a washing-up bowl with water and provide a selection of silicone or plastic utensils and containers for play. Encourage your child to experiment with the equipment. Make their play even more interesting by adding new items to explore, like ice cubes dyed with food colouring, or natural materials that respond to water in different ways, such as a sea sponge, sand, shells, leaves, twigs, flower petals, pebbles and pine cones.

Landscaped gardens tend to be very visual, which can be rather dull for a person with limited or no vision.  A sensory garden is designed specifically to stimulate all five senses, using carefully selected flowers, herbs, shrubs, landscaping, and other features.  These environments are very engaging for children and adults with sight-loss, empowering all visitors to connect with nature in multiple ways.

Fabulous creative sensory gardens exist throughout the world, from botanical gardens to small oases within city parks.  Find out what options exist near you.  Your visit may even inspire you to create your own sensory garden at home.

If you don’t have a garden, or don’t want to take on a big sensory gardening project, you can make a super sensory garden box with your child. The creative possibilities are endless, even with a small herb planter.

Take a walk with your child, and encourage them to search for items themed around the five senses.  Keep this very simple with a list of open-ended items, such as looking for something that

• Is green
• Feels soft or hard
• Makes a noise
• Can be eaten
• Smells sweet

Help them to find items by drawing attention to points of interest with description as you walk, and help your child explore with their hands if needed.

If you’re visiting the beach, encourage your child to explore a small area and collect different seashells, pebbles or rocks.  Take some time together to investigate each item in the collection through the sensory range.  What do they look like?  Do they make a sound?  What is the texture?  Do they have a scent?  What do they taste like (or what does the child imagine they might taste like)?  How are they similar and different from other items in the collection?

Art and crafts are always a great way to occupy children. Go for a walk with your child in search of natural materials they can use in their next art project.  For example, fallen blossoms, petals, cut grass, leaves, bark, feathers, sticks, berries, and seed pods.  Use them to create a tactile collage picture or card, to decorate a box or photo frame, or any number of imaginative projects.

Outdoor games are a core part of childhood summer fun, and they can easily be adapted to include children with sight loss.  Use high contrast for children with some sight, and auditory and tactile cues.  For example, use bright materials, duct tape or sound sources to define the different elements of your game “board” or pitch, and contrasting colours for each participant’s marker.   Glow sticks or brightly coloured mini pool noodles taped together into rings make great highly visible substitutes for ring-toss games.

Walk around your neighbourhood or visit your community park at different times of day.  Or take some time to explore a nearby country trail. Encourage your child to help you choose the location for your walk, investigating the options together and what they could experience along each route.  Many trails throughout the USA have been made accessible for blind hikers.  Consider your child’s orientation and mobility skills and endurance when looking at the route’s terrain and complexity.  If your child uses a white cane, ensure they use it, and assist with guiding when needed.

As you go along, take regular breaks so your child can safely explore the environment around them with their different senses – this can be hard to do when they are using their senses for orientation.  Blind children miss the visual element of potential destination – the vista up ahead.  So Immediate surroundings, and the sensory experience they generate, become much more important. Describe the delights of nature, and encourage your child to share what they experience.

Serious summer fun for everyone, whether at a pool or in a warm summer sea. Be sure to orient your child around the pool, especially which end is shallow and which is deep, where the step entry points, showers, and changing areas are, and where your group is located.  Define your location with something easily visible like an umbrella, or an audible marker like a wind chime.

Discuss with your child what they should do if they become disoriented in the water, and practice the steps so they feel confident.  Never let children play in the water unobserved or unaccompanied.

Jumping waves at the beach, or splashing about in a paddling pool is also wonderful fun for little kids.  If your child can’t yet swim, consider arranging swimming lessons – learning to swim and stay safe near water can be lifesaving.

With quality instruction and thoughtful adaptations, a wide range of sports become accessible to blind and visually impaired children.  From horse riding, tandem cycling and sailing to tennis, cricket, football and mountain biking.  If your child expresses interest in a particular sport, research adapted options in your area.  Ask your local and national rehabilitation representatives what accessible sports services are available for blind children, and ask your child if they would like to have a go.

A simple pleasure on their own or as part of another activity, picnics offer great opportunity to teach life skills with some fun and excitement.  Involve your child in planning, preparing, and packing the food.  If you are grocery shopping specifically for the picnic, consider paying in cash so your child can practice making purchases. Encourage them to identify the notes and coins needed, and count any change.

With simple demonstration and instruction, children can help with many food and picnic basket preparation tasks, such as:

• Locating ingredients and utensils
• Counting out food items or utensils
• Washing fruit and vegetables
• Spreading fillings onto slices of bread with a spoon
• Combining, mashing, stirring, or scooping ingredients
• rolling pastry and cutting into shapes
• Lining a baking tray

You don’t have to go far for a fun family picnic. Enjoy al fresco dining in your own garden, or even a carpet picnic in front of the TV.  A vacation from the table can be a great adventure for children.  Breakfast in the garden is especially good as sunlight exposure first thing in the morning boosts the body’s daily biological clock and is the most effective source of natural Vitamin D.

If you don’t have a garden and you can’t visit green space near your home, or you just need a little extra oasis of calm, guided imagery meditation can be an excellent way to unwind. Carefully prepared recordings transport the listener to beautiful places and a meditative state with soothing spoken word and creative soundscapes.

The narrator will talk you and your child through the process step by step, with easy to follow instructions for breathing and visualization. You can simply listen, let go of the day and all burdens, and relax.  The soothing effects of guided meditations often result in you falling asleep before the meditation ends, with little or no recollection of the story when you wake up.

Get Sleepy, Sleep Cove, and Guided Sleep Meditations are all podcasts with wonderful natural guided imagery episodes suitable for both children and adults in their extensive backlist repertoire of meditations and sleep stories.

In this episode from Get Sleepy, Thomas Jones narrates a mystical story about a girl named Ella, and a magical lake where beautiful wonders await.

Birdsong is beautiful, relaxing and uplifting to listen to, and can be especially rewarding when we recognise individual birds in the chorus.  The marvellous range of songs and calls in the avian kingdom offers blind and visually impaired people an alternative route to identifying birds, and the process can be very meditative.

Being aware of the birds in our local environment at different times of year is an important part of learning about life, growth, global environments, migration, and conservation.  Empowering children without sight to recognise individual species, and even differentiate between male and female calls, opens up a realm of connection with the world around and far beyond them.

There are many learning resources and guides online, tailored to the range of birds found in different locations around the world – search for resources covering your region or country.  You can also use birdsong apps to identify birds in the wild, or learn the songs and calls and test your knowledge.  This comprehensive birdsong app guide is particularly useful for North American residents.

Encourage your children’s creative writing or storytelling skills with one of the following challenges (or use your own). If your child is too young to write, encourage them to tell you their story so you can write it down for them.

1. Describe a magical woodland using all five senses.
2. Find an object on a nature walk and tell the story of its life.
3. Write a story that involves at least two of the following:
   • a magnifying glass
   • oak tree
   • bee hive
   • bear
   • kingfisher
   • spider
4. Describe a day in the life of your garden or street from the perspective of:
   • sitting in a tree;
   • a bird in flight;
   • a hunting cat.
5. Describe one of the following:
   • a picnic from an ant’s perspective;
   • a zoo from an elephant’s perspective;
   • an ocean sunset from a dolphin’s perspective;
   • an African rain storm from a zebra’s perspective;
   • the summer thaw from a polar bear’s perspective.

Share the stories together at a family reading.