[blindkid] extremely difficult to wake child from nap

[H. Field]

Hello Jason,
Your son is probably still functioning on Indian time. Check online to 
see what time it is in India.

However, as an early childhood teacher, I would like to make the 
following comments and give you the following suggestions.

Your child is five years old. He does not need a nap in the 
afternoons. I would not be putting him down for a nap at all. He needs 
to get used to not having a nap in the day.

You also say that he does a lot of self-stimulating behaviours. This 
is because he has lots of energy. I would do lots of things with him 
that use up energy.

Through my work with parents of blind children, I have found that 
people tend to forget that, although a boy is blind and sits still a 
lot if left to his own devices, he is still a boy and needs to be 
encouraged and taught to do what boys his age do. He needs to run and 
jump, to roll and climb, to walk and crawl, to push and pull. I 
wouldn't start with toys. I would start teaching him to play by 
physical interaction. Roll him over and try to get him to roll 
himself. Take him for very long walks. Get him to run to you in a 
large open area. Take him to the park or local play-ground and teach 
him to climb and slide and swing. Wrestle with him yourself and give 
him horsey rides, bouncing him on your knee, and piggy backs. Give him 
bear hugs while he lies on your chest as your lie on the floor. Roll 
over and lift your body up over his as he lies on the floor. Play hide 
and seek, pretending you can't find him. Then find him and grab him up 
in your arms and, standing up, throw him up and catch him. He needs to 
feel his energy buzz and know he is alive. He will also learn language 
more quickly when the words are associated with an action. One of 
those mini trampolines would be a good investment for him. They are 
available new at Walmart or K-mart for a reasonable price, but used 
ones of higher quality are also available on Ebay.

When your son starts to get sleepy at around 4 in the afternoons, what 
is he doing. If he is sitting doing nothing much he may well be dozing 
off to sleep out of boredom. I suggest that you make sure he is doing 
something active at that time. Having lots of energetic activity 
during the day, as well as having no nap, will ensure that your son 
develops normal sleeping patterns at night.
Regarding toilet training, I would use traing pants, and not diapers, 
with him so that he can feel the wetness and discomfort.

Although your son has developmental delays, it is vital that you head 
him towards age-appropriate behaviour as quickly and unrelentingly as 
possible. I would stop him mouthing immediately. This is a learned 
behaviour and must be unlearned as soon as possible. If he continues 
to be allowed to put stuff in his mouth, why would he bother looking 
for more socially appropriate things to do. It is always amazing to me 
why people will let blind children continue to do inappropriate 
behaviours, when they would not tolerate the same from sighted 
children of the same age. I must point out to you Jason that I am 
disagreeing with common proceedure. However, my experience has shown 
me over many years that children can be taught to stop mouthing and 
that it is just a bad habit that should have been stopped years ago. 
It is usually allowed to persist because of some misguided assumptions 
on the part of sighted people that the child needs the extra 
stimulation of mouthing because of his lack of vision. However, it is 
neither socially or educationally appropriate for a blind child to be 
allowed to constantly use his mouth instead of his hands for exploring 
objects. As the child doesn't know that others don't stick everything 
in their mouths all the time, he needs to be told to stop doing it and 
given alternative ways of exploring his world. He needs to stop 
inappropriate behaviours as soon as possible. You have way more of a 
chance now than you ever will as he grows older.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Heather Field




----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jason Fayre" <jfayre at gmail.com>
To: <blindkid at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, December 02, 2008 6:54 PM
Subject: [blindkid] extremely difficult to wake child from nap


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Hello,
First, let me say thank you to everyone who responded to my earlier
questions about our adopted child.  I have another one.

Our child, who is 5 years old, usually takes an hour or hour and a 
half
nap in the afternoon.  It is almost impossible to wake him up from his
nap.  When we do try and wake him, he will often begin crying. 
However,
it appears that he is not actually awake.  If you lay him back down, 
he
will instantly go back to sleep.  He will also not interact with us
during these episodes.  It can litterally take an hour for us to wake
him.  When he sleeps at night, he will wake on his own without any 
trouble.

This sounds similar to the description of night terrors, but I'm not
sure.  We tried just skipping his nap, but he will fall asleep on his
own at around 3-4 in the afternoon.

Has anyone ever experienced this?  Thanks!'
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