[blindkid] talking to a child about blindness

[Richard Holloway]

Interesting perspective. It is always nice to hear about things like  
this-- small details that can come together to help build a concept.  
Several of those things would not have dawned on me. Especially the  
under the door thing-- I must have been a poor hide-and-seek player as  
a child-- I suspect I would not have thought of that,  I am rather  
embarrassed to say...

For quite a while, I was stumped about how to convey any reference or  
understanding of light and shadows to Kendra at all, then standing in  
front of the oven with the door open one day I had an idea--

Shadows work with heat too-- pass an object between yourself and a hot  
oven or a fire and there is an instant cooling effect from the shadow  
of the heat projected. I tried it and apparently it was enough to  
satisfy her curiosity-- suddenly she could actually feel a shadow. It  
was the first time I felt like I had managed to convey anything close  
to a concept of light and how it moves and behaves to my daughter.

I expect there will be better ways down the road, but my thought was  
that any way to get that making some sense to her at whatever age she  
was (5 or 6 I guess?) had to be progress.

Richard



On Mar 11, 2010, at 5:55 PM, Deborah Kent Stein wrote:

>
>
> Playing hide and seek with sighted kids taught me a lot about sight  
> when I was growing up.  I remember being shocked when I discovered  
> that sighted kids could see under doors; if I wanted to hide in a  
> room by closing the door I had to get up on a piece of furniture and  
> keep my feet off the floor. I also found that kids could find me  
> when I hid behind a door because they could see through the gap by  
> the hinges.  And I found out that bathroom windows are tinted so no  
> one can see in.  Hide and seek is just one example of the myriad  
> ways blind kids pick up working knowledge about vision.  The  
> opportunities are endless, especially if kids feel comfortable  
> asking questions.
>
> Debbie