[blparent] curious.

Sun Feb 21 03:44:16 UTC 2016

Hi there! 

My son Dawson is now five years old and has always been extremely verbal. At only 11 months old he said his first word that was not just mama or dada. From that point on he was throwing out words left and right and at 16 months he was speaking simplified sentences. I had heard of studies where the children of at least one blind parent tended to be more verbal but I saw this for myself with my own child.  With this said, I believe that my son developed his auditory and listening skills at such a young age more because I myself am extremely verbal as well as extroverted and his personality is very similar. I have cited friends who are also extremely verbal and well developed in auditory skills and their children in tern have the same skills developed at a young age.  We teach our children. Everything we know and the things that come most natural to us and are especially a talent of ours are bestowed upon our kids with ease.  Something I found extremely fascinating was how my cited friends and family would tell me that my son as an infant would watch and study my mouth when I spoke.  It was really amazing to see how at such a young age he already had such a strong desire to communicate.  I love how adaptable our children are and at only five months old Dawson started showing signs that he knew there was a difference between my cited husband and myself. Dawson would reach out and touch me or make a specific sound when he wanted another bite of his baby food wear with my husband he would make eye contact and open his mouth to show that he was ready for a bite.  Like several other parents mentioned from the list, my son never got his point across by grunting or pointing so he had to learn to say what he wanted early. This helps tremendously in developing verbal skills and I would suggest to all of my cited friends to pretend that they could not see when their children would communicate this way so that it would help develop their verbal skills. My friends that took me seriously discovered a noticeable difference in the development of their child's verbal skills and are grateful for trying this form of communication.

Take care and happy parenting :-) 

Erin

Depend On God!!!

> On Feb 20, 2016, at 6:38 PM, Jo Elizabeth Pinto via BlParent <blparent at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> I think my daughter developed her verbal skills earlier than other children her age did, since whining and pointing didn't get her what she wanted.  She has also developed a good sense of direction when we are out and about, and the ability to notice landmarks.  Kids tend to exercise and sharpen the set of skills they practice and use in their daily lives.
> 
> I'm not really sure how much the eye contact thing affected my daughter when she was a baby.  "Lack of proper eye contact and the fact that my facial expressions are "not always appropriate for the situation at hand" were two of the reasons my brother gave when he decided to take my baby away from me. But he didn't take her and she hasn't seemed to be negatively influenced by either of those two issues as she has grown up.
> 
> The only important thing I've really noticed about eye contact is that now, as my daughter has gotten older and TV and electronic devices have entered her life, I need to make sure I have her full attention when I'm talking to her.  That goes for the other people in my household as well.  We started having communication problems for a while because I would say something and get no answer, so I would say it again, and then my daughter or stepson, or sometimes their dad, would get irritated with me for repeating it.  I would tell them I repeated it because I'd gotten no answer, and if they didn't want me to repeat what I said, they could have given me some indication they'd heard me the first time.  Or sometimes I would say something and it didn't get heard because apparently nobody knew who I was talking to.  I guess it was a sighted thing--I hadn't looked at anybody and directed the conversation to that person in particular--but I still sometimes think it was more of a selective hearing thing because nobody wanted to take responsibility for what I had been saying; usually something about Mom not being the maid or the like.  Anyway, over time, we developed a system where I would say, "Are you listening to me" and use the person's name, and get a "yes" answer, and then go on.  Sort of the verbal equivalent of eye contact. It has at least reaffirmed my confidence in the fact that I'm speaking the same language as the other people in my household.  I used to wonder if I were thinking in English, but speaking some obscure Martian language every time I opened my mouth, since nothing I said seemed to be heard or understood.
> 
> Jo Elizabeth
> 
> "The Bright Side of Darkness"
> is my newly published novel,
> available in Kindle, audio, and paperback formats at Amazon.com.
> -----Original Message----- From: Tara Wiseman via BlParent
> Sent: Saturday, February 20, 2016 5:36 PM
> To: Blind Parents Mailing List
> Cc: Tara Wiseman
> Subject: Re: [blparent] curious.
> 
> Do you guys think the children of blind parents are more verbal? I know my little 18-month-old daughter is extremely verbal. My pediatrician was very impressed with the way that Marie makes eye contact and said it was very unusual for her age. I read a study of children of blind moms. The children of blind mothers made iContact better thanor at the same level as their peers who were children of cited mothers. The theory was that because children were being taken care of by their blind moms and then presumably other sighted family members and friends it was very natural to them to make a switch between auditory and visual worlds.  Anyway just interested in what everyone thinks.
> Tara
> 
> Sent from my iPhone
> 
>> On Feb 20, 2016, at 12:42 PM, Judy Jones via BlParent <blparent at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>> 
>> Very cute.  Then she probably goes on to describe it.  I know our girls were both and still are nonstop talkers.
>> 
>> Judy
>> 
>> -----Original Message----- From: Jo Elizabeth Pinto via BlParent
>> Sent: Saturday, February 20, 2016 11:57 AM
>> To: Blind Parents Mailing List
>> Cc: Jo Elizabeth Pinto
>> Subject: Re: [blparent] curious.
>> 
>> My daughter is almost eight years old, and she still half believes I have a
>> pair of working eyes hiding somewhere under the hair in the back of my head.
>> Sometimes she'll draw a picture or bring a really good paper home from
>> school or something, and she'll be really excited and say, "Look, look!"
>> I'll remind her I can't see it, and she'll say, "Mom!  Look with your back
>> eyes!"
>> 
>> Jo Elizabeth
>> 
>> "The Bright Side of Darkness"
>> is my newly published novel,
>> available in Kindle, audio, and paperback formats at Amazon.com.
>> -----Original Message----- From: Judy Jones via BlParent
>> Sent: Saturday, February 20, 2016 11:07 AM
>> To: Blind Parents Mailing List
>> Cc: Judy Jones
>> Subject: Re: [blparent] curious.
>> 
>> When raising my girls, my husband and I used to say, the eyes in the front
>> of the head may not ork, but the ones in the back do.  We'd joke about it,
>> and the girls knew what we meant.
>> 
>> Judy
>> 
>> -----Original Message----- From: Elizabeth Bowden via BlParent
>> Sent: Friday, February 19, 2016 7:59 PM
>> To: Blind Parents Mailing List
>> Cc: Elizabeth Bowden
>> Subject: Re: [blparent] curious.
>> 
>> What an interesting topic:
>> For my part, I have many nieces and nephews but never had that difficulty.
>> I am a to look like I am looking at them enough so that they don't notice
>> anything till they are about 4 or 5.  Then they wonder why I keep my eyes
>> closed sometimeso.  I just tell them I don't need my eyes like they do.
>> 
>> Sent from my iPhone
>> 
>>> On Feb 19, 2016, at 8:18 PM, Wendy Meuse via BlParent <blparent at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>>> 
>>> i know that our own kids get used to the way we do things.  Eeven when my daughter was quite a small baby, my husband told me that
>>> she could tel that  I was not looking at her. of course I was talking to her as any mother does, and I had my face turned towards
>>> her, but of course our eyes did  not meet.  My daughter took this in stride.  Whenn I was watching other children though it took
>>> them a little while to get used to me not  looking at them. i wondered iff any of you noticed this and did it take say, yourr
>>> nabor's children or your  friend's children long to get used to this situation?  When I started worrking at daycare, it took some of
>>> the kids a while to get used to it.  I had to work harder to win their confidence.  i thought this would be an  interesting topic
>>> and I wondered what you guys thhink?
>>> today is a brand new day with no mistakes in it.  let go of the past and move forward.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
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