[blparent] new parents with some questions

[Shannon Wells]

Could you try music? Maybe he will respond to something soothing. Or toys 
that make music? I don't know, but maybe just waiting for him to become 
comfortable is about all you can do. Praying for you.
Shannon Wells
on the web at
http://www.christianhomeplace.com
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jason Fayre" <jfayre at gmail.com>
To: <blparent at nfbnet.org>; <blindkid at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, November 27, 2008 4:47 PM
Subject: [blparent] new parents with some questions


> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
>
> Hello everyone,
> I am posting this to both the blind parents list and the parents of
> blind children list, so I apologize for the cross-post.
>
> I am blind.  My wife and I just returned from India with our adopted
> son.  He is 5 years old and was born without eyes.  Unfortunately, he
> was abandoned and lived in an orphanage for at least 3 years, maybe
> more.  So, we are looking at some fairly significant delays.  For
> example, he is currently not speaking at all.  He will mimic language,
> which is a good start though.  He is also still in diapers.  He will not
> indicate when he is wet.
>  In observing and interacting with him over the past 5-6 days, I do
> have some questions.  This is our first child, so some of these
> questions may be obvious to experienced parents:
>
> 1.  self-stimulation:  He is in motion almost constantly.  If he is
> standing up, he rocks side to side and back and forth.  If he is sitting
> down, he also rocks almost constantly.  Due to the lack of attention he
> received in the orphanage, he needs to rock himself to sleep at night.
> Does anyone have any ideas to help him overcome this?
>
> 2.  somewhat frantic or manic behavior at nap or bed times:  He has
> quite a bit of trouble getting to sleep during nap time or at bed time.
> He will attempt to fall asleep, and then begin laughing, rocking very
> vigerously and sometimes mouthing various objects.  This is all of the
> same self stimulation, but he seems to get much more agitated at sleep
> time.  The sad part is, due to neglect in the orphanage, he doesn't seem
> to respond at all to one of us holding him, or trying to comfort him.  I
> am honestly not sure how to handle this.  I don't want to just leave him
> in his room.  He will get up out of bed and start walking around.  Do I
> pick him up and put him back in his bed, or just let him work it out on
> his own.
>
>
> 3.  playing:  He does not seem to have much of a concept of toys.  He
> had one toy that he liked at the orphanage, which was a baby rattle.  We
> have lots of toys here for him, but I am not sure how to introduce the
> concept of playing to him.  Most of the time, he seems content to sit
> down and rock.  If you give him something to play with, he will most
> often throw it down.
>
> 4.  School:   I am not sure how to handle getting him into school.  As I
> mentioned earlier, he is 5, but acts more like a 1-2 year old.  I know
> he could benefit from the services in the public schools such as
> ocupational therapy and speech/language therapy.  I'm not sure weather
> to try and start some of that now, or wait until the fall.  I am not a
> huge fan of home schooling.
>
>
>
> I know I will have more questions, but thats it for now.  Any help would
> be greatly apreciated.  We're feeling a bit like a fish out of water at
> this point.
>
>
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
> Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (MingW32)
> Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org
>
> iEYEARECAAYFAkkvFWYACgkQ7qIPzHzsoM3ppwCeMC6cm72NykN2LIEfcESHXiO3
> Sr4AnR39B9aw7Cpn6wuLuTV0TAGDBhOT
> =M9e8
> -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
>
> _______________________________________________
> blparent mailing list
> blparent at nfbnet.org
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blparent_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for 
> blparent:
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blparent_nfbnet.org/pwandmomx2%40suddenlink.net
>