[blindkid] Which Direction Should I Go?

[Ashley Bramlett]

Haley,

I'm a young adult like arielle; I'm career searching after finishing a 
liberal arts degree.

Anyway,  I am legally blind and I have a little stable central vision.
My eyes have always been deamed structurally healthy too; we think my vision 
impairment is caused by a brain issue but no one knows for sure.

I would say I recall some of the same behaviors as a young kid before 
getting a cane. This puzzled my parents. I mean the things like tripping 
over toys, walking into walls and misjudging the terrain.
I also can only read large print for a short time due to my nystagmus and I 
have trouble with glare outside as well.

Anyway, I can understand the mixed signals. On the one hand medical 
professionals say he is not blind and his eyes are healthy. But 
functionally, you know as a  parent he acts blind.

My advice would be to seek out more medical information and more diagnosis. 
I would guess two issues cause his behaviors: 1. a field loss would explain 
why he cannot see toys in front of him.
2. the visual processing disorder causes him to see it, but he cannot 
interpret it. Therefore he ignores it and acts blind.

If you get him diagnosed legally blind, he will be eligible for more 
services.
If he is tested and found to have a field loss, then he will likely be 
legally blind. BTW legal blindness means acuity of 20/200 in the better eye 
or a field loss of 20 degrees or more.

I cannot state whether your child is blind in the eyes of the government and 
society. Only your doctors can measure and test his field of vision and note 
legal blindness.
However, I can definitely say the behaviors he displays coupled with the 
adverse impact his bad vision has on his life makes him functionally blind.

So, toward that end, I echo others remarks. He would do well to learn 
nonvisual skills.
I also think he should use his vision optimally. I'll explain later.
I do promote braille but that is going to be easier said than done to get 
taught given he is home schooled.
While you seek out braille instruction for him, my advice is to get him 
started learning auditorily.
I would guess as a parent you can get textbooks via Learning ally and 
bookshare.
These nonprofits distribute audio and electronic books to print disabled 
people
Check out www.learningally.org and www.bookshare.org.
He could read a bit and then listen when his eyes fatigue or even follow 
along with the audio.

If he needs to teach himself braille, hadley school for the blind's 
corespondence classes may help him, although I think they mainly serve high 
school students but you could always ask.

Finally, here are ideas for using what he has now.
You want to see that he reduces eye fatigue and strain. So, modify the print 
and environment to do that if needed.
Try white on black letters rather than the traditional black on white.
Try different fonts and styles.
When I read print, I had trouble tracking and keeping my place.
He might try these things if that's an issue.
1. Place a card under the print to cover the other lines, so only the line 
he needs to read is shown above the card. its kind of hard to describe. In 
this way, you move the card down as you need to read more lines.

2. Use a pen to point to the words.
3. Use a finger to keep your place.

For reading and math, that will be challenging spatially for him with a 
visual processing disorder.
That said, here are some ideas. As a primarily large print math reader, some 
of these worked for me.
I was encouraged to do math visually even though I grew up with literary 
braille. I think this gave me more flexibility in print than braille would. 
for instance, I could see graphs, shade graphs and number lines, and draw 
the charts and graphs needed for math. I'm not suggesting a braille user 
cannot do it and learn math, but just that there are some spatial concepts 
and graphics that are best shown in print.

That said it is challenging. So onto my suggestions.
1. Since you said you do not know what peripheral vision he has, I'm 
assuming his central vision is better.
Do the problems in front of him. Ask him if he can see it clearly. You might 
have to move you and the paper to position it where he sees best. Do they 
still make those plastic slant boards? You TVIs would know!
If so, a slant board where you clip his paper to it may help a lot.

2. Use either a dark pencil or dark pen for writing. I found the contrast 
helped me focus better.

3. To show math concepts such as different bars and lines on a graph, use 
contrasting colors. Crayola  markers or crayons work well for this. The 
different colors can help differentiate a mass of shading on a graph.

4. Have him read math problems aloud; particularly for word problems. this 
usually helps the brain process it better.

5. Reduce clutter. Many math worksheets in schools and made from the text 
curriculum have a lot of problems.
I suggest either making your own worksheets and assignments where you put 
only a few math problems on the paper or enlarging the worksheets and reduce 
the clutter. Do this by covering part of the page as you enlarge. I'm not 
saying have him do less work. the other problems can go on another page; 
just reduce the amount of math per page. example: 6 or 7 problems instead of 
12 per page.

6. Have something to keep the place on the page as with reading regular 
words.

7. Highlight key words he needs to learn.

For glare, I think a sun visor and sunglasses can help this.

He should also see a low vision optometrist.
There are many low vision magnifiers and tools now to make reading easier.

I hope this helps.

I can certainly identify with some of the visual struggles and recall my 
parents' confusion as well. So I do see both sides.

Good luck!

Ashley
-----Original Message----- 
From: Haley Dare via blindkid
Sent: Monday, January 19, 2015 4:38 PM
To: blindkid at nfbnet.org
Subject: [blindkid] Which Direction Should I Go?

Good afternoon,
I haven't posted to this listserve before, but I am seeking some 
direction...hopefully, someone out there has a child who is experiencing the 
same type of problems as my son and can give me some advice.  Okay, here 
goes...
My 8 year old has been dx with amblyopia, huge refractive error, strabismus, 
accommodative esotropia, and a problematic visual processing disorder.  He 
wears very strong glasses with a bifocal/magnifier in the bottom.  We don't 
know how well he sees peripherally, but we know that his acuity is 20/400 in 
his bad eye, and 20/35 in his good eye with correction.  Our ophthalmologist 
says his eyes are structurally healthy and that none of these problems cause 
"blindness", but my son's behavior suggests otherwise.
He walkes into the sides of the wall, misses changes in the terrain, panics 
about leaving the house, and won't go out in the dark (or a cloudy day), 
falls over toys or items that are right in front of him and acts very clingy 
and nervous in large groups of people or in unfamiliar environments.  He can 
read, but not for any length of time, and the light must be bright.  He 
struggles with glare (especially on a bright, snowy day), print size, 
reading and math in school; I currently k12 him at home.  He carries a white 
cane for identification purposes, but I've noticed that his posture has 
improved.
Here's my question...and it probably seems pretty stupid, but I'm going to 
ask it anyway.  Is my son blind?  Should I be trying to get him some 
nonvisual services (like braille, O&M, etc), maybe under sleepshades?  I 
sometimes wonder if I should just "lose" his glasses so he isn't so 
overstimulated (crazy thought, I know, but he does seem calmer w/o them). 
Right now, he has no professional supports, just me trying to teach him a 
few things.  Perhaps permaturely, but I worry about his future...he's a guy 
and needs to be able to read, work and take care of himself and a family.
I've been in touch with so many organizations and people that have provided 
wonderful advice, but I have yet to come across another parent who is living 
with this confusing visual conundrum.  Can anybody out there suggest to me 
which direction to go?  Thanks so much.
hdare
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