Perkins Stories

Perkins' Infant-Toddler Program offers the educational services and family support that are vital to every child with visual impairments or deafblindness during the earliest years of development.

The CVI Family Vacation is designed to bring families of children with cortical visual impairment (CVI) together, families learn from CVI experts, while enjoying recreational activities on our Watertown campus.

A Perkins track and field runner sprints down the track holding a guide wire and the arm of a sighted guide.

Two upper school band members, playing a cello and a sax, as they perform in the upper school spring music concert. Samuel G. Howe, the first Director of Perkins, considered music as important as intellectual and physical education. By 1873, Perkins had established a department for special instruction in music.

During Perkins Hacks, a college-aged student sits at a table and examines a small circuit board. Two teammates look on intently.

Enock uses a small high pressure nozzle to blow on a piece of Perkins Brailler. After his 1-year program he returned to Kenya to train additional brailler repairers and to establish repair workshops.

In a packed conference hall, two hands extend above the crowd, cheering in sign language.

A TVI bends down to speak with a standing student, who is looking straight up a her. They both extend their hands to a black fabric square mounted on a wall.

A Perkins upper school student wearing an orange jersey races in a meet next to a sighted guide wearing a yellow jersey. Just behind them, Howe Tower rises in the background.

A volunteer TVI crouches next to a kneeling small child on the asphalt path during the Early Connections Conference, at which parents and professionals throughout New England come together to network, share ideas and strategies for helping children with visual impairments from birth to age 7.

Ellis Hall, sings out and reaches up with his right hand, as he sits behind a keyboard. Behind him roughly a dozen upper school choir members wearing gray Perkins teeshirts accompany him on stage at the Perkins Gala.

During the deafblind program's Spring Fling festival, a student in the deafblind program squints his eyes and touches noses with a miniature sheep that is being held by an adult.

A volunteer in the assistive device workshop reaches across a work table and uses a metal ruler to measure a large piece of cardboard.

An artist volunteers for the assistive device center and paints a large cardboard tray with a jungle theme that includes tigers in tall grass.

A brailler repair workshop student's hands navigate the underside of a Perkins brailler.

For a group cheer, four people reach out their arms and stack their hands.

Joel, a young boy with cortical visual impairment (CVI) gazes up at a vase full of greenery and illuminated at the base by a purple light. He reaches toward it to add another stock of greenery.

A lower school student walks across the sidewalk holding the hand of his teacher.

Max leans forward to climb up a padded ramp into the outstretched arms of a TVI.

A child with cortical visual impairment (CVI) snuggles in between her mom and dad and squeezes them around the necks as they all lie on a blue mat during CVI Family Weekend.

Faith smiles excitedly and reaches toward the famous antique globe on which Helen Keller learned geography. A TVI in the background has his hand next to hers on the globe, and Faith's mother takes a photo with her iPhone.

Elizabeth, a toddler in the deafblind program, guffaws at a plastic bumble bee that she holds close to her face.

A student in the brailler repair workshop lifts the front end of a perkins brailler and looks intently at the bottom of the machine.

A teacher reaches across a large calendar set on a table to add a classroom activity to one of the days on the grid.

Grace, a child with cortical visual impairment (CVI) grins as she looks at a bouquet in a vase that is lit by a purple light in its base. A TVI smiles and looks on from her side.

Tanja kneels down next to her guide dog Nabu and reaches toward him as he lifts his paw to shake with her.

Hannah, a child with cortical visual impairment (CVI) gazes at red slime that a TVI stretches out vertically in front of her.

Two student-visitors from Nanjing China examine a large red button remote.

Three visiting students from Nanjing China lean on a work table and watch a member of the assistive device workshop drill into a cardboard panel.

A group of seven students in the college success program walk down a sidewalk on the first day of school.

Seen from ground level, a toddler in the infant toddler program takes a long stride directly into a puddle. His mother walks on his right in the lower school playground.

A mother kisses her toddler daughter on the cheek, seen across a reflecting pool in the horticulture center's greenhouse.

A toddler in the infant-toddler program and his typical-sighted older sister reach into a reflecting pond in the horticulture center's greenhouse. Their mother crouches and smiles between them.

A toddler stands smiling at the outer edge of a colorful ball pit during play time in the infant-toddler program.

During play time in the infant-toddler program, a toddler in a checkered flannel shirt, stands at a piano and reaches toward the keys.

A student in the deafblind program's preschool plays spikeball.

During the white cane parade, a young student with a cane and their TVI smile at the camera as they walk across the pond's bridge.

Hope, an upper school student, stands in front of tree limbs full of bright yellow fall foliage.

Matt, dressed up as Hagrid fills the right side of the frame. Two TVI's stand in the background on the left raise their wands, during the Outreach Program's Harry Potter weekend.

Jonah stands under a spotlight wearing a green robe and performs a solo during the 2018 holiday concert. Just behind him a wreath illuminated by small blue and white lights hangs on the backdrop.

Gavin, using a walker, emerges from an elevator to a hallway of his public school in Reading - his Perkins TVI Emily walks behind him.

5-year-old Gavin leans in close to read a sheet of paper on a cardboard slant board, while his Perkins TVI leans over and points at a word.

Will looks at his reflection in the mirror. A vocal specialist leans over smiling to his left.

Will, a student in the deafblind program, holds a spinning LED sphere/wand close to his face while working with a vision specialist.

As he marches down he aisle following commencement ceremonies, Alex looks over his shoulder with a beaming smile at a couple of spectators.