Outstanding early years care for vision impaired toddlers comes to Stratford

Parents with young children are warmly welcomed to join the RLSB at its new Parents & Toddlers group at the Chandos East Centre in Stratford on 12th June at 10am.

RLSB (The Royal London Society for Blind People) has run a specialist nursery for vision impaired children in Kent for 15 years. The new Parent and Toddler group in Stratford is an expansion of the charity’s unique and OFSTED rated outstanding service.

The free group is a weekly service that runs from 10.30am to 12.30pm on Wednesdays. Children up to the age of five from across East London are welcome with their families to play and learn in a safe and fun environment. The friendly, expert staff, work with children to develop:

• Knowledge and understanding of the world
• Communication and social skills
• Ease of movement and mobility
• Self help skills
• Confidence and creativity

Maggie Bindon, RLSB’s Head of Early Years and an UK expert in this area said of the importance of early years development:

“85 per cent of a child’s essential early years learning is visual, so for a vision impaired child, specialist techniques and support need to be introduced for
healthy development. We are delighted at the prospect of working with toddlers from the area so we can use our expertise to help give them the best start in life.”

It’s understood that there are up to 200 vision impaired children in East London aged 0-5.

RLSB firmly believes there is a need in East London for a service specifically helping vision impaired children. “Newham has a wonderful track record of supporting children who are living with a disability or sensory impairment. We hope to be able to complement the great work that is already happening in the borough.” says Maggie Bindon.

Families who are interested in coming to the group can either turn up on the day at 90 Chandos Road, Stratford, London, E15 1TT or email Maggie at Nursery@rlsb.org.uk




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For further information please call Claire Kidman, RLSB Press Team on 0207 808 6172.


Editor’s Notes
The Royal London Society for Blind People, created in East London over 175 years ago, has a clear goal which is to support blind young people to learn to cope with their sight loss, and then help them live beyond it. The launch of this new service follows the success of a similar group set up in Eltham, which works with nine families.

In addition we have helped hundreds of children over twenty years at our existing nursery, Dorton House Nursery near Sevenoaks in Kent. We want more children and their families to benefit from our expertise.

RLSB’s nursery services are led by a QTVI early years specialist and a highly experienced staff team with relevant qualifications. They have specific early years VI expertise and are skilled and experienced in working with children, families and multi-disciplinary teams to ensure maximum benefit is gained from their specialist early intervention.

The new Parent & Toddlers group will ensure the improved development of visually impaired children in a variety of ways:

• Personal, Social and Emotional
• Communication and Language
• Physical Development

Support for parents will include:

• Increased parental knowledge of visual impairment and its impact on their child’s development
• Improved parental confidence around childcare routines and play
• Enhanced parental wellbeing