News

Changing the future for children with low vision

Mon, 09 Jan 2017 06:48:00

Six-year-old Brenna Hyde was born with a genetic eye condition, but it wasn’t until this year that her family received the help they needed to change their lives for the better.

Little Brenna inherited nystagmus – an involuntary wobbling of the eyes – from her dad Matthew Hyde, and is also short sighted like her mum Megan Oswin.

Ms Oswin said Brenna had been seeing an ophthalmologist since she was three months old, after her health nurse noticed she wasn’t responding to anything.

“When we see something our brain takes a picture and says, ‘that’s a chair’, ‘that’s a bird’, or ‘that’s a car’, but with the eye wobble everything is blurry, so it’s hard for the brain to tell what it is,” she said.

“It took so long for Brenna to start reacting to things as a baby because she had no idea what she was seeing.

“She gradually got better and started recognising things, but we still have good days and bad days.”

Knowing that Brenna would need extra help when she started school this year, Ms Oswin reached out to Mildura’s Vision Australia team.

She said the organisation had become a voice for the family, helping them access services and funding they didn’t know were available, and make changes at home and school.

“We’ve relied on Vision Australia to tell us about what will help, because we would never have thought to do these things on our own,” Ms Oswin said.

“Brenna’s dad didn’t have much help growing up – he didn’t have any help in the classroom and got sick of school because it was so much harder for him.

“We don’t want that for Brenna.

“She went all through kinder sitting up the back of the class because she’s a taller kid, but Vision Australia has said she needs to sit front and centre.

“They’ve made learning accessible to her – she doesn’t have to sit at the back of the class not know what the teacher is doing.”

Ms Oswin said Ranfurly Primary School was fantastic, and the teachers had worked with Vision Australia to make school easier for Brenna.

“Simple things like making bigger photocopies, and knowing all the posters on the walls won’t help her because they’ve used the wrong colours, they’re up too high, or the writing’s too small – make all the difference,” she said.

“The school even painted their brown steps with a yellow stripe, and her teacher moved the classroom around because of the sunlight.”

This year’s Vision Australia Carols by Candlelight will be raising money to help Brenna, and other children who are blind or have low vision.

Ms Oswin said she loved watching the carols, especially when Brenna was first diagnosed.

“I saw another girl on the carols who had nystagmus, and it was nice to see someone who you can relate to,” she said.

“It’s great to know that there’ll also be help available to Brenna as she gets older and her vision needs change.”