[blindkid] Seeking advice: Schooling

[Carol Castellano]

Hi Crystal,

It might be helpful if you take a step-by-step approach to your 
daughter's education.  I would say the first step would be an 
evaluation of how/where she is functioning in each developmental 
area--gross motor, fine motor, speech & language, social-emotional, 
self-help, etc.  It is possible that you could figure this out 
yourself using good developmental charts and an instrument meant for 
use on blind children, such as the Oregon Project.

Once you have a sense of how she is functioning, then you can start 
to think about goals for each area of development.  Another way of 
thinking about this would be --what would be the next logical step to 
work on with your daughter in each area.  These goals can become the 
goals of an IEP, if you go the school route, or goals for you and her 
therapists if you go the home/private route.

I don't know if your daughter demonstrates curiosity and an interest 
in finding out about the world, but if she is having difficulties 
with this, you might want to consider the tools and techniques of 
Lilli Nielsen.  Lilli specializes in blind children with additional 
disabilities who are functioning generally at an age of three years 
old or younger.  She has created a curriculum and lots of wonderful 
pieces of equipment to help children with delays become active 
learners.  I highly recommend her books and equipment.

Re Montessori, I am not aware of any books on blind kids using 
Montessori methods, but when my daughter was young, we placed her in 
a Montessori school.  The approach was very good for her and you 
probably know already that Montessori materials stress the use of all 
the senses.

Good luck and keep us posted,
Carol

At 04:43 PM 11/23/2008, you wrote:

>Now I am looking into ALL options for my daughter going into school. 
>Please any and all suggestions would be appreciated. Again my 
>daughter will be 5 in January. She is multiply disabled and 
>developmentally delayed. She is totally blind in both eyes and isn't 
>yet ambulatory on her own or potty/bowel trained.
>
>I talked with the School for the Blind in Salem, Oregon which is 2 
>hours from where we live and the head of the school indicated that 
>he didn't think it best for her to go there until later because the 
>youngest student there at his school now is 9 years old. He also 
>indicate he didn't feel like the separation would be good on either 
>of us because she would essentially be dropped off on a Sunday and 
>picked up on a Friday (I think). The long drive would also be 
>difficult for her and an expense for us in gas. My thought was, ok 
>maybe I could rent an apartment closer and have my children with me 
>(I would have to be away from my husband that whole time she would 
>be in school, but I was willing to do that for her), but then we 
>also run into problems he said...because if we did live closer the 
>public schools would be better and I would be sending my boys to 
>them instead of homeschooling them and then he said they would have 
>no justification to send her to the school for the blind instead of
>  the same school as my boys.
>
>So, here I am in a rut not knowing what to do still.
>
>I would also love more information on homeschooling her... The 
>legallity behind it in Oregon state and what I would have to do in 
>order to get around standardized testing. I also would love to know 
>about the Montissouri or Waldorf approach in teaching her. Are there 
>any good books on teaching a blind child Montissouri or Waldorf?
>
>Also, I would love to find out more about the schools public system. 
>Here in Rainier, Oregon the public schools are not very good because 
>we live in a small town and my daughter's teacher for the visually 
>impaired is an hour and a half away from us so she doesn't come very 
>often (maybe once a month). What are they likely to do with my 
>daughter in class. Will they have someone work with her in a group 
>of students or one on one or both?
>
>My daughter has been taken out of the ESD preschool because of 
>getting sick from germs of other children so easily (she is 
>receiving services at home now). She is imo medically fragile and 
>has been in and out of the hospital a lot this year for various 
>things some of which were quite severe.
>
>Finally, what questions have I left out or should I be asking? Can 
>any of you answer those for me? Thanks!
>
>~Crystal
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