[blindkid] Hello

[Carol Castellano]

Hi Sarah,

Welcome to our list.  I'm so glad you wrote.  I think you have 
received some great ideas--Lilli Nielsen's work and Joe Cutter's book 
are the best!

I thought I would say a few more words about Lilli's approach.  She 
developed it for blind children who are up to three years old, 
developmentally speaking.  As others have said, the idea is to create 
an environment that encourages the child to move and act upon the 
world, rather than being passive.  Instead of the adult leading the 
play, the adult joins the child in play.  The child gets to make 
discoveries and eventually make comparisons--this is learning.

If you read some of Lilli's work and learn the basics, maybe you can 
pass the information along to her daycare providers and perhaps some 
of her day can be set up so that she can have these active learning 
experiences.  Regarding her therapies, I think you have to try to 
find the balance between putting the baby into positions that will 
help her physical development and keeping her calm and cooperative so 
that she can actually benefit from the positioning.  Our daughter, 
when she was little, also used to cry when the therapists worked with 
her.  I could see that she was getting so upset that she was not 
benefiting from their actions.

Our solution was for the therapists to show me the positions using a 
doll and then I would work with my daughter, who tolerated my putting 
her into those positions much better than the therapists doing 
it.  Another benefit was that this enabled me to incorporate these 
positions throughout the day--changing her diaper, playing with her, 
etc.  Maybe you could do the actions with your daughter and then 
teach them to her daycare providers.

Lilli Nielsen also created equipment that placed the baby in good 
positions for development and learning.  I think you will get a lot 
out of investigating this.

Good luck and please feel free to call or email me offlist if you 
would like to continue this conversation.

Best wishes,
Carol

Carol Castellano
President, Parents of Blind Children-NJ
Director of Programs
National Organization of Parents of Blind Children
973-377-0976
carol_castellano at verizon.net
www.blindchildren.org
www.nopbc.org

At 09:12 PM 12/29/2011, you wrote:
>Hi. My daughter, Ellie, is almost 16 months old and completely blind. She
>had a VEP two months ago and it came back inconclusive. She may have had
>her eyes closed or she's completely blind with no light perception. It
>helps me to go ahead and think she's completely blind, I'd rather have the
>surprise then to have to lose an expectation, if that makes any sense.
>Anyway, she has other health issues (septo-optic dysplasia, optic nerve
>hypoplasia, hypo-pit, diabetes insipidus, so on and so forth). Those are
>all back seat drivers to her vision in the sense of development.
>
>She doesn't walk, crawl, or stand. She likes laying on her tummy but more
>for sleep so we're working on her pushing up and reaching for things. She
>can roll.
>
>My husband and I are both active duty Air Force so she goes to daycare
>about 10 hours a day. I'm having problems with my confidence in her daycare
>and therapists. I'm debating on whether or not I should switch my
>daughter's OT and PT. She is always unhappy and crying during therapy. They
>force her hands and body into positions and make her stay there or do
>something. She's not quite 16 months and her PT session lasts 45 minutes.
>What do you all think? She also receives feeding therapy but she's showing
>more progress withth at then she is with OT or PT.
>
>In my signature block the second link is to Ellie's blog if you want to
>read more about her. Thanks for your time and I look forward to hearing
>from you all!
>--
>
>Sarah Dallis
>
>Pampered Chef Consultant
>
>Order 24/7 Online: http://www.pamperedchef.biz/sarahdallis
>
>Mom to Ellie: http://elliesgrace.blogspot.com
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