A Systematic Review of the Literature on Parenting of Young Children with Visual Impairments and the Adaptions for Video-Feedback Intervention to Promote Positive Parenting (VIPP).
VIPP needs sound, touch, and explicit joint-attention steps when the child cannot see.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team looked at every paper on VIPP for toddlers who are blind or have low vision.
They added a Delphi survey with experts to turn ideas into a clear recipe.
The goal was to list exact tweaks so VIPP fits visual impairment, not sighted kids.
What they found
Six themes came out, such as ‘talk more, touch more’ and ‘use sound cues for joint attention’.
No kids were treated; the paper is a map, not a scoreboard.
The map shows where typical VIPP skips steps for kids who cannot see.
How this fits with other research
Klein et al. (2021) took VIPP ideas into community NDBI for autism toddlers and ran an RCT. They proved the method works in real clinics, while C et al. only drew the blueprint.
Kunze et al. (2025) went fully virtual with DD toddlers and showed single-case gains. Their tele-health style extends the blueprint to living-room coaching.
Hippman et al. (2023) scoping review says virtual parent coaching boosts behavior skills most, but warms that attachment gains are weak. That warning matches C et al.’s call to target intersubjectivity first.
Why it matters
If you coach parents of visually impaired toddlers, swap silent gaze prompts for rich voice and hand cues. Add sound toys to create joint attention moments. Track these moments; they are the usual blind spots in standard VIPP checklists.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Secure parent-child attachment may help children to overcome the challenges of growing up with a visual or visual-and-intellectual impairment. A large literature exists that provides a blueprint for interventions that promote parental sensitivity and secure attachment. The Video-feedback Intervention to promote Positive Parenting (VIPP) is based on that blueprint. While it has been adapted to several specific at risk populations, children with visual impairment may require additional adjustments. This study aimed to identify the themes that should be addressed in adapting VIPP and similar interventions. A Delphi-consultation was conducted with 13 professionals in the field of visual impairment to select the themes for relationship-focused intervention. These themes informed a systematic literature search. Interaction, intersubjectivity, joint attention, exploration, play and specific behavior were the themes mentioned in the Delphi-group. Paired with visual impairment or vision disorders, infants or young children (and their parents) the search yielded 74 articles, making the six themes for intervention adaptation more specific and concrete. The rich literature on six visual impairment specific themes was dominated by the themes interaction, intersubjectivity, and joint attention. These themes need to be addressed in adapting intervention programs developed for other populations, such as VIPP which currently focuses on higher order constructs of sensitivity and attachment.
Journal of developmental and physical disabilities, 2017 · doi:10.1016/j.spen.2009.09.005