Play as a means for increasing multiple skills of young children with visual impairments

Play may represent an age-appropriate, normalizing means for intervening on the development of young children with visual impairments. This article presents findings demonstrating positive changes in collateral behaviors of three young children with visual impairments that occurred during involvement in an intervention of shared teacher-child play. Changes were observed in addition to those targeted by the intervention even though they were in no way targeted or addressed by the intervention. These findings provide preliminary support for the pervasive impact of play and suggest the possible use of supported play as a means for incidental intervention in multiple behaviors of young children with visual impairments.