[blindkid] Low Vision Clinic

[Kim Cunningham]

Dear Eliza,
You are correct with your thinking that your daughter could be both a print and braille reader. You also have a plus that she is only two years old! I am the parent of a low vision young lady who is now 18 yrs. old. While my daughter could read print with her eyes, it was a great strain on her. When the amount of reading and homework increased, she became more fatigued and her speed in completing her homework/tests took twice as long to complete. It was a nightmare for her! She has been learning braille the past few years, however we don't anticipate her reading speed to increase the same as if she had learned braille at a young age. Had we have know then what we know now, we would have started braille instruction when she was little. If you think about it, how can a low vision child ever compete equally with her peers when she doesn't have full vision? Braille is an equalizer. She will have a equal if not a higher reading speed as her sighted peers.
 Reading print will always be slow. Using low vision to accomplish a task is slow and laborious. Once non-visual techniques are learned, she won't have to rely on unreliable vision to carry her through life.
You will also want to consider that she will need to learn the nemeth code for math, braille music, and the abacus. These are all tools for the blind and low vision child. Don't be alarmed if she needs to use sleep shades (blindfolds) while learning braille. The sleep shades take away all the visual clutter and allows the child to concentrate on the braille. It is not harmful and will not take away from the vision she has.
I wish you luck and I commend you for reaching out to learn more about raising your daughter. 
Regards,
Kim Cunningham
--- On Tue, 9/14/10, elizaellett at yahoo.com <elizaellett at yahoo.com> wrote:


From: elizaellett at yahoo.com <elizaellett at yahoo.com>
Subject: [blindkid] Low Vision Clinic
To: blindkid at nfbnet.org
Date: Tuesday, September 14, 2010, 10:06 AM


Hello,
So we just went to our daughter's first low vision clinic appt and I'm not surprised by the results, but I am a little confused about a few things. First off she tested at 20/300, we'll take that, she's only 2yrs old, and they said she could possibly make it up to 20/200-20/100!!!! Briefly about Miranda, she is a very stubborn, determined, humorous, and devilishly adorable little girl. She was born with cong cataracts, aniridia, foveal hypo, optic disc abnormalities, optic nerve colobomas, mild microapthalmia, and is moderate to severely deaf in both ears. So her pressures have been fluctuating a bit the last year, we're waiting to see what is going on there before placing her IOLs and helping on her pretty severe esotropia. What then though? We're trying to teach ASL and  spoken language, we're still on the fence about a cochlear implant. The next ABR will make it easier for us to decide on what path to take.  I guess back to the real question, the
 optometrist stated she's pretty visual, so she will definitely be a print reader and if I want to back her up with braille I could. I've always planned on her reading print, but I planned on her reading majority braille, am I wrong here? I know the difficulties associated with aniridia, I don't want her being 18 and her pressures high, possible corneal opacification and who knows what else and teaching her braille then.  I would love any ideas and thoughts, what else at this age I should be starting her on. 
Thank you for letting me put my thoughts down, my mind races A LOT!-)
Eliza
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile
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