Poppy’s Story.
Poppy has just turned 9. She was diagnosed with Retinal Dystrophy, Nystagmus, and Amblyopia, likely from birth (she was born with only half a heart and her brain was deprived of oxygen twice during emergency surgeries in her first 5 months so the doctors have never been sure on timescale).
We have been working with Poppy, her parents, and her Qualified Teacher of the Vision Impaired (QTVI) for a while regarding the correct equipment for Poppy. After just a few days we were delighted to hear from Poppy's parents who informed us Poppy was using her NEW Compact 10 HD Speech "for everything" (Poppy's words).
For school, she uses it for reading books and worksheets that cannot be easily or quickly reformatted. Her sight is variable so she particularly likes being able to increase the magnification gradually or instantly swap to speech depending on how tired she feels.
For leisure, it is enabling her to enjoy a much wider variety of crafts and games like Hama beads, Lego, top trumps, board games, and jigsaw puzzles. When covid restrictions ease, we’ll be making the most of how portable it is to take it to museums and other days out so Poppy can read information boards leaflets independently and help to choose activities.
Poppy was becoming increasingly frustrated with being different from her friends, so it’s lovely to see her being enthusiastic and energised to join in with similar things to them that she felt were not accessible before. She’s really keen to grow in independence, too, and the magnifier is a huge boost because she can operate it with minimal help and make her own choices with how to use it.
Poppy has tried other electronic magnifiers but did complain they weren't focussing quickly enough or were too heavy. We're delighted to have found the right solution and has regained some independence.