Mission Statement
Wisconsin Families of Visually Impaired Children is an
organization dedicated to providing families of visually
impaired children, including those with additional
disabilities, support, connections, advocacy, and
information.
Purpose
To provide emotional support to families of visually
impaired children.
To connect families, professionals, and organizations;
in an effort to help children with visual impairments
reach their greatest potential.
To advocate for the educational needs of visually
impaired children.
To promote and provide information through
meetings, correspondence, publications, etc. which
will help parents meet the needs of their children who
are visually impaired.
Calendar - Check our "Calendar" page for more information!
Recent Forum Posts
In the News....
Check out Board Member Debi Meng's incredible story! - http://www.nbc15. com/crystalapple (click on Linda Figi)
The Sheboygan Press - http://sheboyganpress.com/article/20090412/SHE04/904120386
Prevent Blindness Wisconsin - Eyes on Capitol Hill - http://www.preventblindness.org/wi/040109_2.html
Recent Blog Entries
Gift Ideas for Visually Impaired Children
Gifts for older kids get to be tougher and tougher, other than technology. One of the best gifts we ever gave our son was a tactile world map, US map and state map. You can either buy it already done or take a regular laminated map from the book store and use hot glue and wicky sticks to indicate the different kinds of boundaries – we used hot glue for the land-water boundaries and wicky sticks for the political boundries and Braille labels for country names. We put the map on the wall in the staircase so it was easy for him to reach all of it. He won his school’s geography bee in 5th grade! We traveled to Europe a year later and did the same thing with some of the European country maps, and then he went to Costa Rica on a class trip and we did the same thing again. Doing your own gives you the chance to put in interesting things without having too much information, which many commercially prepared Braille maps seem to have – it gets way too confusing. It IS a little time consuming, though!
Gwen Botting –President, Michigan chapter of NAPVI (MPVI)
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Julie Urban, NAPVI V.P.: Any book from National Braille Press. Braille Christmas Cards; for young children: puzzles; stringing beads; braille legos;
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My 6 month old loves toys that light up or that make squeaking or music sound, like Fisher Price "Sing-Along Stage".
When she was 2-5mo she loved toys with large black and white patterns. I believe Lamaze makes good ones, and possibly Tiny Love; both can be found at Babies R Us.
Benjamin (2 1/2 blind in left microphthalmia eye, bilateral coloboma of
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My 2-1/2 year old likes small toys (crayons, blocks, balls) he can hold up close and
examine and roll around in his hands. He likes toys that make noises, music, and light up.
Anything colorful he can look at. He likes to swing, climb, and play in the water.
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Modeling clay - the kind that doesn't harden, Hot Wheels cars, action figures, video games, guitar, music, computer.
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I think the Geo Safari Taking Globe would be a wonderful gift for older children. I has lights and sound effects and quizzes built in.
Doreen Frappier
President Missouri NAPVI Chapter (MOPVI)