Support for children and young people

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Children and Young People

When a child is diagnosed with a serious sight condition or a dual sensory loss, it can feel overwhelming for the whole family. It’s completely natural to have lots of questions and to want clear, supportive guidance during such an emotional time.

Recreation

Our Children & Young People’s Recreation Programme offers a wide range of fun, engaging opportunities designed to suit the different interests, ages, abilities and needs of the children, young people and families we support.

If you’d like more information about any of the groups below, the Children and Young person’s service (CYPS) Team would be very happy to help.

Please note: Before attending any of our activities, we ask families to complete a consent and information form. This gives us the details we need for insurance purposes. If you’d like to know more, simply email: cypsrec@sightforsurrey.org.uk

Family Events

Our Recreation Activity Workers plan a variety of enjoyable experiences that help children with a vision or multi‑sensory impairment explore and understand the world around them. These events also give children the chance to meet others with similar experiences, helping to reduce feelings of isolation and offering opportunities to make new friends.

Family involvement is at the heart of these activities — parents remain responsible for their children, and siblings are warmly welcomed.

If your family would like to attend an event but you have any worries or concerns, please get in touch. We may be able to help you.

11UP Activities & Events

Our 11UP group is open to young people from school year 7 up to age 18. Young people can attend without parents or carers if they are able to manage their personal care and toileting needs independently.

We provide a high adult‑to‑young‑person ratio at all 11UP events to ensure everyone receives the support they need. The group takes part in a range of adventurous activities, all designed to build confidence, develop independent life skills and, of course, have plenty of fun.

Young Ambassadors

Our Young Ambassadors are selected from the 11UP group. They represent Sensory Services by Sight for Surrey at events and talks, helping to raise awareness of their needs and those of the wider VI community.

They share their experiences of living with a vision impairment and explain how communities can make small changes to support greater independence. Many have written articles, contributed to blogs, spoken in schools and even appeared on the radio.

VI Young Adult Group

Our Young Adult Group is for 18 to 25‑year‑olds with a vision impairment or multi‑sensory impairment. The focus is on having fun, socialising and taking part in a variety of activities in a relaxed, supportive environment.

If you’d like to find out more about any of these groups, the CYPS Team would love to hear from you.

Habilitation Specialists

Habilitation Specialists (sometimes called Mobility Officers) are trained professionals who assess the needs of children and young people (C/YP) and create personalised training programmes for them. They teach children who are blind or partially sighted the concepts and independent life skills that sighted children naturally pick up by watching and copying others.

Because children with significant vision impairment learn differently, they may miss out on some early developmental milestones. To give them the same opportunities as their sighted or hearing peers, these skills need to be taught in ways that make sense and feel meaningful to them.

Learning skills in different ways

When children are young, they need to build an understanding of their own bodies and the space around them. For example, a sighted child learns to crawl because they can see something they want to reach. They watch others stand and walk, and they copy by pulling themselves up on furniture.

When a toy drops, they gradually learn where it has gone. These early experiences help them understand how the world works and what different words mean.

Children without sight can learn all of these concepts too — they just need to be taught in different, tailored ways.

Developing these foundation skills is especially important for children who have additional challenges, such as multi‑sensory impairment (deafblindness) or other complex needs.

Supporting parents and carers

Habilitation skills are most effective when they begin early. A Habilitation Specialist can guide parents and carers with practical strategies and teaching techniques. As a child grows, their training becomes more advanced, and the Habilitation Specialist will often take a more hands‑on role.

Lessons may include:

long cane training
road‑crossing skills
travelling on public transport
cooking
managing money
shopping
asking for and refusing help
staying safe in different environments

Keeping children and young people safe

Risk management is an important part of habilitation, helping to keep each child or young person as safe as possible during activities. We work closely with parents to make sure they feel confident and comfortable with the programme. Habilitation Specialists also provide regular updates on progress.

Each child or young person’s programme is reviewed regularly, and the Habilitation Specialist contributes to annual reviews and planning meetings when needed.

If you’d like to learn more about our services, please get in touch.