Why Does My Visually Impaired Baby Seem So Quiet?
One of the first comments many parents make about their blind or visually handicapped children is that they are quiet – that 
they seem to lie still in their cribs. Other parents have said that their babies do not like to be picked up – that every time they are, they arch their backs, or get stiff, or seem to push away. This does in fact happen with many babies, but for a good reason.
When you have good vision, you can see what is going on around you at all times. If you want to, you can close your eyes anytime you want and not see. With good vision, you are in control.
When you do not see very well, however, it’s a different story. What you can see may be all fuzzy, or maybe you can only see light and dark. Closing your eyes doesn’t make much difference. You have to depend on your hearing, smelling, and touching senses to find out what’s going on around you. If you move around in your bed, you can’t hear vary much except the sound of your own movement. Blind and visually handicapped babies are quiet and still much of the time because they are listening to what is going on around them. Furthermore, they cannot close their ears to stop listening - they have to learn what each sound means and why it is important.
The reaction to being picked up is related to this keen attention the baby is giving the world. If he is intent on listening and feeling safe and secure lying in bed and all of a sudden finds himself being moved around and jostled in mid-air – of course he’s going to feel scared and upset. And the natural way for him to react is to scream and push and want to be put back where he was before.
This does not mean that you should never disturb your child or pick him up. What it does mean is that you should put yourself in your child’s place and think about how you would like to play and be picked up. You would want some warning, and some idea of what was going on. This is true for your visually handicapped child, too. Tell him what you are doing, give him a chance to respond to you, and tell him what’s going on as you do it.
While it may be tempting to let your child learn about the world on his own terms, it is not always the best idea.
Movement experiences – whether being carried or moving on your own – teach a lot about the body, where it is in space, and how it can be used. Since vision is one of the ways we learn about movement, children with poor vision may not move as much as they should, precisely because they haven’t had a chance to learn why movement is fun.
So do the same thing with your blind, visually handicapped or multi-handicapped child that you would do with your other children – pick him up, rock him, tickle him, carry him on your back. If your child is multi-handicapped, do the same things, but check with a doctor and/or physical therapist o find out if there are special ways you should handle him.
Suggestions for Raising Young Blind and Visually Impaired Children, By Kay Alicyn Ferrell, American Foundation for the Blind
