It is often very difficult to explain to a child why some children are different. As a rule children don’t care about differences in their friends. However, when it’s something as major as blindness you may get the question, “Why can’t my friend see?”
Depending on the age of the child you are explaining to you may want to go into more or less detail. Sometimes children are just born blind. If that is the case then you can simply say that they were born that way. If you are religious you can say that God them made them that way and they are special. I believe that God gives everyone different challenges to overcome in their lives so I would explain those beliefs to my child and you can change that around depending on your belief system.
If you have an older child you may be able to go into a more scientific explanation. There are many reasons that people are blind and so you will have to know why that particular friend is blind. There may have been a disease that made them blind. They may have been involved in an accident where they were hit in the head and they lost their sight that way.
An important thing to include when explaining blindness to your child is to let them know that while they are different that doesn’t make them scary. Adults will often where sunglasses if they are blind, but children do not. It may be scary for a child to look into their friend’s eyes and see how different they are then theirs. Explain that while their friend cannot see, their other senses are stronger than theirs. You can explain that when our bodies lose one of the five senses the other four get stronger to make up for the lost one.
You can explain that their friend will learn to read something called Braille and while the words are the same they will look different because Braille is made up of dots that they can feel with their fingers. So their friend will read with their fingers instead of their eyes.
Other aspects where the blind child will differ will be in how they play. They won’t be able to play catch with their friend, but maybe they can do other things like listen to music or play games. They make special versions of games like Uno that either have very large letters or they have Braille. Encourage them to find out what their friend likes to do for fun and see if they can join in.
Helping them understand that there will be obstacles for their friend to overcome may be helpful as well. Let them know that their friend may need to hold their arm if they walk some place new and that it’s okay that they do that. But let them know that they should not grab their friend assuming that they need help. Many blind people would prefer to do things for themselves and do not want help.
Explaining why their friend walks with a cane or has a seeing-eye dog can also be helpful. The cane helps them walk without falling or running into things that they don’t know are there. Make sure they are aware that if their friend has a seeing eye dog that the dogs first job is to help their friend and not to be playful like other dogs might be. That’s not to say that seeing-eye dogs aren’t friendly and playful when it’s the right time, but they know that they have a job to do and they will do it.
Most importantly let them know that it’s okay to be curious and that there is nothing wrong with asking questions if they don’t understand something. I’m sure their friend has been asked lots of questions and will be willing to answer them. Emphasize that blind people grow up just like them and live full and happy lives like everyone else. They have different challenges to overcome in life, but there is no reason not to be their friend.
