Success Stories

Zoe is a sweet little 4 year-old girl who was born prematurely at 24 weeks. As a result of Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP), Zoe is totally blind. Zoe attends the Preschool Classroom at Blind Children’s Learning Center. In addition to the preschool curriculum, she receives speech, vision and orientation & mobility services through BCLC.

Zoe has blossomed this year in the preschool classroom, showing remarkable progress. She is beginning to explore the indoors and outdoors. She is learning to trail along the walls and pauses to feel the object cues for outdoor equipment. She enjoys playing with push toys which is a pre-skill for holding a cane.

Zoe enjoys circle time and participates by clapping her hands and playing cymbals. Raj Singh, Preschool Classroom teacher says, “Zoe is working hard at building pre-literacy skills for Braille. She is able to isolate her fingers and push the keys of a brailler and the keyboard. She likes to feel the Braille lines and the raised pictures of the Braille books.”

Willingness to feel Braille lines is a triumph for Zoe. She was tactilely very defensive and would not tolerate touching play-dough or objects with different textures. “Since Zoe loves music, we began to present art and sensory materials on a musical board,” notes Nancy Edwards, Assistant Teacher. “This motivated Zoe to explore different textured materials and learn about things in her environment.”

Zoe enjoys coming to school, and is eager to learn in her preschool classroom. “We see Zoe gaining new skills every day in the classroom, which will help her to get ready for Pre-K. It is a pleasure to have her in our classroom,” says Classroom Aide Sergio Valderrama.