Online Community
Videos / Multimedia
Find Information On...
Did You Know?
Meeting Street practices inclusion whenever possible making sure that typically developing children and children with special needs have the opportunity to learn and play together.
Where every child thrives
Meeting Street, Providence, Rhode Island, leader , experts, early intervention, inclusion, education, therapeutic services, special-needs students, childhood development, infant, preschool, kindergarten, elementary school, middle school, high school, physical therapy, occupational, speech, language, sensory processing disorder, sensory integration services, low vision clinic, audiology services
Meet our Community » Meet Our Kids » Haylee

Haylee’s Story

How the Low Vision Clinic Changed Her Life

Haylee, Meeting Street, Providence, Rhode Island, leader , experts, early intervention, inclusion, education, therapeutic services, special-needs students, childhood development, infant, preschool, kindergarten, elementary school, middle school, high school, physical therapy, occupational, speech, language, sensory processing disorder, sensory integration services, low vision clinic, audiology services Haylee Mota is a bright, inquisitive and friendly 4-year-old who is a student in our Bright Futures Early Learning Center. Because she is legally blind, a special learning plan has been designed for her by Meeting Street’s new state-of-the-art Low Vision Clinic in conjunction with her educators and her one-on-one assistant.

The Low Vision Clinic is a vital new resource at Meeting Street for children who are visually challenged, their parents, and their educators. Until the advent of the clinic, children throughout Rhode Island with low vision had to travel out of state for a comprehensive medical and educational evaluation that would be used to help maximize the child’s independence, learning, and quality of life.

A family would often have to wait months to get an appointment. Now with the new clinic staffed by experts right here on the Meeting Street campus, the evaluation can be done immediately along with the design of a tailored program for the child.

Haylee has benefited from specific suggestions on lighting in her classroom, devices for magnification, the use of contrasting colors (Haylee sees darker colors best) and helping to map the room for her so she can move freely about it without fear.

And move freely she does ... hobnobbing with her fellow students and having fun being a little kid, despite her visual impairment. She can identify every student in her class and the teachers by voice recognition.

She is learning Braille and has already begun writing her name. She is a fast learner and in her seven months in the program is succeeding in preschool and will be well prepared to move on to pre-kindergarten next fall.

“Meeting Street is so amazing. From Haylee’s teachers in her classroom to her doctor in the vision clinic, everyone here has been very helpful. I am so grateful she is getting the support she needs,” said Haylee’s mom, Antonia, in a recent interview.
  Print   
Meeting Street | 1000 Eddy Street | p. (401) 533-9100 | info@meetingstreet.org | directions