Sensory Compensation in Children Following Vision Loss after Trauma and Disease

Typically when someone loses a sense due to trauma, injury or disease, the loss is considered to be deprivation and the person is often labelled with a disability. Loss of a body part not only impacts functionality but it can also affect the individual cosmetically and, in turn, affects the individual’s psychological and psychosocial wellbeing. Historically, restorative measures towards the sensory loss has focused on the perception that it is a loss, rather than a change that may, in fact, leave the person with a different set of senses as compared with fewer senses. This has been because our understanding of the environment has placed great emphasis on the reliance of sensory feedback [1].However, there is a growing trend towards regarding sensory losses as changes to lifestyle that render the person with a new growth and direction for life goals, termed post-traumatic growth [2], rather than sensory deprivation. In the research literature, there has been a trend towards case histories and anecdotes from practitioners’ notes, rather than controlled trials with significant patient numbers becauseof rarity of conditions and because of the individual differences of the losses and impact that these sensory losses may cause.