How Ellie See's The WORLD

When most people think about seeing the world, they think about what their eyes take in. For Ellie, the world is experienced differently. It’s built from voices she recognizes, hands she trusts, textures she explores, and the feeling of being safe and loved.

Ellie lives with blindness and Septo-Optic Dysplasia (SOD), but her story isn’t defined by what she can’t see. It’s defined by everything she feels, learns, and experiences in her own way.

Ellie sitting on the floor, sun in the face side profile, smilling.

This space is where we share her world — the milestones, the challenges, the small victories, and the moments that show just how much life can be felt beyond sight. If you’re here because your child sees the world differently too, know that you’re not alone.

This space is meant to be honest, supportive, and real — not just the medical pieces, but the everyday moments, the learning curves, the fears, and the pride. Ellie’s journey is still unfolding, and through sharing it, we hope to create connection, awareness, and a place where other families feel understood.

If sharing Ellie’s story helps even one family feel less alone, then it’s worth telling.

A Journey That Took Time

Ellie’s story didn’t begin with one appointment or one diagnosis. It unfolded slowly, over nearly three years, as we tried to understand what was happening with our daughter.

At around four months old, we began noticing signs that her vision might not be developing typically. That led us to SickKids Hospital in Toronto, where we were told Ellie was blind. Hearing those words so early in her life changed everything. It marked the beginning of a journey filled with appointments, testing, and learning. Between six and nine months old, Ellie underwent an MRI and met with neurology at SickKids.

Ellie laying on Mom, face on mom's shoulder, has ECG sticky's on her head. Hospital Visual testing.

By nine months, she also began physiotherapy, occupational therapy, and mobility support to help her learn how to move safely in a world she couldn’t see. Around that time, social workers and family support workers also stepped in to help guide us through appointments, resources, and the emotional learning curve that came with raising a blind child.

This wasn’t just a new journey for Ellie — it was a new world for mom, dad, and big sister too. At a year and a half, we met with endocrinology in Orillia for blood work to monitor her hormone levels. Around age two, she had an echocardiogram and additional testing at Health Sciences North in Sudbury, along with ECG testing and continued eye exams both locally and at SickKids. Each appointment gave us pieces of information, but for a long time there was no single answer connecting everything together.

Just shy of Ellie’s third birthday, we finally received the diagnosis that brought those pieces into focus: Septo-Optic Dysplasia. Receiving that diagnosis didn’t change who Ellie was. But it gave us language, clarity, and understanding after years of searching.

Who Ellie Is

Beyond diagnoses, appointments, and therapy sessions, Ellie is first and foremost a little girl with a personality all her own. She is goofy, playful, and loves to make the people around her laugh.

Her facial expressions are hilarious, and she often mimics sounds or words just to get a reaction. She understands far more than people expect and communicates clearly in her own ways. Ellie experiences the world through connection. She recognizes voices, responds to routines, and builds trust through repetition and familiarity. With her dad, she finds grounding and reassurance. With her big sister, she finds play, excitement, and encouragement.

Ellie placed under big moose antlers at Science North during a CNIB Event.

And with me, her world is built on narration, closeness, and reassurance — describing what’s happening, helping her explore, and guiding her through each new experience. Ellie may experience the world differently, but she experiences it fully — with humor, curiosity, and determination.

Growing With Support

Since Ellie was a baby, support has been a major part of her life. Physiotherapy, occupational therapy, mobility support, social workers, and family workers have all helped guide her development. They’ve also helped guide us — teaching us how to advocate, how to adapt, and how to support Ellie’s growth in ways that make sense for her.

Ellie sitting in her C cushion with drum toy. Hands to the side of the cushion pressing the button with a big smile.

We learned how to describe the world out loud, how to use sound and texture to guide her learning, how to create safe spaces for exploration, and how to celebrate progress that might look small to others but feels enormous to us. These supports didn’t just help Ellie grow — they helped our whole family grow.

Ellie Moves in Her Own Way

Ellie’s development doesn’t follow the typical timeline, and it doesn’t always look the way people expect. She isn’t walking yet, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t progressing. Ellie does things in her own time and in her own way. She learned to sit independently when she was ready. She scooted and moved on the floor when she figured out how it worked for her body. Even with therapy helping guide us toward what the next step might look like, Ellie often finds her own version of how to get there. Instead of copying what other children do, she adapts movements to what makes sense to her.

That might mean approaching a skill from a different angle, using different muscles, or taking more time to understand how her body fits into the space around her. Ellie now sits, lays down, and moves between positions independently. She eats on her own using her hands, which helps her understand what she’s about to eat before it reaches her mouth. Using utensils can actually remove that sensory information, so her hands are how she learns.

Ellie sitting in her high chair, plate of food alsmot empty, food in hand, sauce all over her face and hands making a goofy face.

To others, it might look different. To us, it’s progress. It’s independence. It’s Ellie figuring out the world in a way that works for her. Ellie may take her own path, but she’s unstoppable on it.

A Different Way of Seeing the World

Ellie’s journey isn’t about overcoming blindness. It’s about learning how to experience the world in ways that work for her. She learns through touch, sound, movement, and relationships. She builds understanding through repetition and connection.

And she reminds us every day that development doesn’t have one single path. Ellie’s world may look different, but it is full — full of laughter, discovery, love, and growth. Her story isn’t finished. It’s unfolding every day.

And if sharing her journey helps another family feel less alone, more understood, or more hopeful, then her light is already reaching further than we ever imagined.

Ellie and her big sister Mia side by side smilling.