Guide Dogs - services for children & young people

Our experts can help children, young people and their families to live actively, independently and well with sight loss. If you know any children or young people with sight loss who might benefit from our services, encourage their families to speak to a member of our friendly team for more information. Call Guide Line on 0800 781 1444 or visit our website guidedogs.org.uk

Our information and advice service can help you with:

Family support

Our team is here to give advice and emotional support from the moment your child is diagnosed with a vision impairment. Our experts can share their experience to build your whole family’s knowledge and confidence and provide tools that are right for your child’s specific needs.

Education support

Our specialist team can offer independent and tailored advice to help your child receive the educational support they are entitled to. From supporting you when you are choosing the right nursery, school or college, to working with teachers and special education staff or advising on assistive technologies.

Technology grants and sensory toys

For children with sight loss, technology and sensory play is vital. Our expert team can provide personalised advice to help you choose the right technology or sensory toys for your child’s age and stage. We can offer grants to help buy the specialist technology or sensory equipment your child needs. We also have a range of sensory packages with toys carefully selected by our experts for different age ranges.

Other services include: 

My Life Skills 

My Life Skills is a service designed to help children and young people navigate the world around them. While sighted children typically learn things like movement and direction from watching others, children with a vision impairment often need a little extra help.

From day one, our specialist support helps stimulate movement through play and games, helping your baby reach key developmental milestones. We help your child learn how to explore the world, developing their confidence and independence. And we enable teens to develop the more advanced social and life skills they need to reach their full potential.

My Time to Play

Our My Time to Play service helps children with a vision impairment aged 0–4 develop through play. It provides parents with the opportunity to network, share experiences and pick up skills and knowledge to support their child’s development. We offer a virtual programme on Zoom where people can join other families for structured, fun and supportive group sessions from the comfort of home, as well as in-person sessions where families can meet and get support from our habilitation specialists.

CustomEyes

We believe all children deserve the opportunity to develop a love of books. CustomEyes Books is a tailor-made service producing large print books, so that children with a vision impairment can read just what their friends and classmates do.

From Dr Seuss to Shakespeare, from inspirational fiction to educational textbooks, we have over 4,200 large print books available (and counting). What’s more, if the book you want isn’t already in our catalogue, we’ll do our best to add it. Every book is custom made, with colour, spacing, font size and more, all tailored to your child’s needs.

Thanks to a generous Guide Dogs subsidy, all books are available at the recommended retail price, regardless of format.

Tech for All

Tech for All is a pilot service which provided children with a vision impairment aged 3-18 with a free Apple iPad or iPhone to use outside of school. Each child has been supported by a digital learning programme, to make sure they get the most out of their device. We know how important these devices are to children’s development – both to support their learning at home or to explore the activities and interests they enjoy. To register your interest in this service please visit the Tech for All webpage; we hope to support more children with tech in 2022.

Family events

Every year we host a UK-wide programme of family activity days. Here, children and their siblings can play and take part in activities together – alongside other children with sight loss. Meanwhile, parents can share experiences, support each other and access specialist advice from our Children’s Services Team. We also host an early diagnosis weekend to support families at this critical time.

Buddy dogs 

Our buddy dogs bring a new friend into the lives of children with sight loss. By helping to develop their self-confidence, improve relationships and build a greater sense of trust, these dogs can have a hugely positive effect on your child’s wellbeing – and your family, too. Call us on 0800 781 1444 to sign up for a Discovery Session.

Guide dogs 

Our guide dogs give people with sight loss the confidence to get out and about safely. Whether helping young people get to school or college, to an exercise class or to meet their friends, they provide life-changing practical support every single day.