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

[Jorge Paez]

Since I spent my first few years in a school for the blind, I don't know about 1/2nd grade.
When I started in 4th grade they, the DOE gave me a para who I've had until now, entering 9th grade.
And although the para has been nice to me, I don't consider it a needed service, as it sometimes blocks students from helping me and makes me a little more isolated I think.
I wouldn't say that it has been completely without its use, specially in doing quick diagrams, and helping my TBI when she was overloaded with next-day or even give-in-half an hour work, but its not something I need personally to survive inside the actual classroom, as all that info I can obtain from my classmates.

Actually what I've done is with my para, agreed that basically all they do is drop me off at class, and get me whatever materials I need, if any.

Usually I sit with my friends, so they read the board to me, and give me descriptions whenever needed.


I had a teacher get mad at me because of it once, but I don't consider it anything to get mad about--since my friends and I only talk about work, and usually never make small talk unless we know we're close to or completely done with the work, plus it gives me a little social skill in the class, and not make me look like a hopeless kid who can't do without services from the state.

But now my parra knows and agrees with me too.


No complaint, just saying its not absolutely needed.

Jorge



Thanks.



Jorge Paez


---
President And CEO:
Paez Production Networks





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On Sep 4, 2010, at 6:27 PM, Arielle Silverman 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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