Abstract

Habilitation involves one-to-one training for children with vision loss to enhance their various independent life skills. There are limited or no known guidelines for it. Aim: Development of habilitation for mobility & object permanence of children with ROP. Methods: Mixed methods were used to develop packages; an extensive literature search, observation, and clinic-based interaction with parents. An open-ended tool with a topic guide was employed during the interactive session. Findings were documented and used in developing the guidelines. Results: Designed two-parent techniques, one parent with and without musical toys techniques for mobility. For independent mobility, we customized a push-walker. The fingers-over-fingers technique was developed for object permanence training. Piloting was done, followed by the implementation. Conclusion. Observation and interactions are critical in developing habilitation. There is a need to develop further habilitation packages for ROP children.