[nabs-l] Personal aides and other services in school

[Beth]

First off, kindergarten was a very visual ting for me.  I had to have
a TVI help me learn Braille, which was good, but there were visual
things in kindergarten I never would've learned.  I didn't understand
about colors until first grade.  That's when Mary O'neill's book,
Hailstones and Halibut Bones totally brought colors to life in more
ways than just seeing them.  I learned that marshmallows were white,
grandmother's curls were grey, etc.  Every color had something to tell
us, and that's something special I took with me in elementary school.
I wrote and read Braille throughout my elementary years, but later on,
the textbooks in private school didn't come on time, especially the
ones in religious studies.  I never had a morality book.  In high
school, again, no textbooks on time.  AS far as unnecessary services,
I was forced to have a behavioral technician follow me around.  That
was because I had an issue beyond blindness that stemmed from
blindness.  I was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, which later
turned out false.  I left school with no friends but maybe a handful
and in private school, I wasn't allowed to do much.  In community
college, there was no wayI could get aids and readers for my music
classes, and then the mental health issues came up again.  I was later
diagnosed with bipolar with border line personality disorder.  I was
raised in a really cruel environment with little accountability on my
part and the feeling that my blindness was a punishment for my sins or
the sins of my mother.  It was kind of sad.  I do not believe that a
behavior aid was necessary.  OT was necessary because of the
isuesbeyond blindness.  I had to learn how to get this stuff away from
me, to understand thiissue beyond blindness that stemmed from bad
parenting.  I have no idea why this all happened.  Now, I'm at CCB,
and they're doing their best to help me cope with theissues beyond
blindness, which have left me emotional and unable to do so much with
my life as far as employment goes.  I am attempting to look at jobs,
but still.
Beth

On 9/4/10, Arielle Silverman <nabs.president at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> At this year's NFB convention, improving education of blind children
> was an especially prominent theme, and for good reason-we would all
> say that the ability for the blind to be fully participating members
> of society starts with a quality education. I am on a couple of
> listservs for parents of blind children (the NFB parents of blind
> children list as well as another one that's not affiliated with any
> organization), and discussions frequently come up about the myriad of
> special services that parents often have to fight school districts to
> get for their kids in public school. These special services range from
> Braille instruction and provision of Braille learning materials, to
> O&M, to technology instruction, to having a teacher's aide assigned to
> help the blind student with visual tasks, to auxiliary services like
> occupational therapy (OT), physical therapy (PT), speech, etc. When I
> take part in these discussions as someone who grew up blind, I always
> wonder which of these services are absolutely critical to helping
> blind students get a sound and effective education, and which of them
> may be nice, but not necessary. For example, I think it's clear that
> quality Braille instruction, cane travel teaching and tech instruction
> are top priorities, but what about the other services?
>
> I'm just curious to know what kinds of services those of you who grew
> up blind received, and if you think these services were adequate,
> inadequate, or superfluous. In particular, I'm curious whether you
> guys had classroom aides (or someone besides your TVI) help you with
> classroom activities or getting around and if you think this kind of
> help was appropriate. When I started elementary school (kindergarten
> in 1990), I had a classroom aide in kindergarten and first grade and
> then the aide was discontinued in second grade and thereafter. From
> what I remember (although I know memories from kindergarten can be
> notoriously inaccurate), the aide basically served as my sighted guide
> but didn't help me with classroom activities. In hindsight I wonder if
> not having the aide would have forced the O&M to teach me independent
> cane travel at an earlier age. But, more importantly, I didn't have
> someone in the classroom describing things to me except when the TVI
> was there, which I think was only one or two class periods per day in
> the beginning and eventually she basically served as a braillist. I'm
> therefore a little surprised to hear how common it is for blind kids
> in this generation to have classroom aides working with them, offering
> verbal descriptions of visual activities, etc. I feel like my own
> education was relatively good, in part, because I didn't have the
> luxury of getting so much information and I had to learn how to follow
> what was being taught using nonvisual techniques, as well as actively
> gathering information from others (like the teacher and fellow
> classmates), skills that are critical for success in college. But, I
> can also see the argument that having someone describe goings-on in
> the classroom to a young child might give them an advantage and help
> them gain a stronger understanding of visual concepts. What do you
> think?
>
> Arielle
>
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