[blindkid] blindkid Digest, Vol 58, Issue 11

Thu Feb 12 01:08:56 UTC 2009

Lauren,
Did you get the posts regarding this earlier from myself and Emily Gibbs?

Carrie Gilmer, President
National Organization of Parents of Blind Children
A Division of the National Federation of the Blind
NFB National Center: 410-659-9314
Home Phone: 763-784-8590
carrie.gilmer at gmail.com
www.nfb.org/nopbc
-----Original Message-----
From: blindkid-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindkid-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of L W
Sent: Wednesday, February 11, 2009 2:36 PM
To: blindkid at nfbnet.org
Cc: blindkid-request at nfbnet.org
Subject: Re: [blindkid] blindkid Digest, Vol 58, Issue 11

I am feeling a little frustrated. I just found out that My daughter
Joli's teacher is leaving the school one Friday. The school will be hiring
somebody new who is not familiar with Joli's vision (corrected 20/400) and
language issues. They haven't decided who they are hiring yet.

I am worried however, I am going to try to use this as opportunity to get
some additional services for Joli. I have some questions:

Do you have a scribe for your child? I have found during homework time Joli
(Age 7 & Vision: 20/400 corrected) is often told to write a few paragraphs
about something, or to use each of her spelling words in sentences showing
meaning. Last week she was given a writing exercise where she had to invent
her own Greek myth where somebody had to send somebody on a task of finding
something. 3 things had to go wrong and each needed to be resolved, and at
the end of her myth the task had to be completed. Joli is able to dictate
such things to me, and I write down what she says. Then she copies what I
have written into her homework exercise book . The process of getting the
ideas out of her head and onto the paper without my taking her dictation
would take forever because of her vision and her language issues. She often
looses her place when writing and so has to go back and find it again. It's
painstaking because by the time she has written one sentence it has
 taken so long that she has forgotten the rest of what she is trying to say.
The physical problem with her writing is that she has to hold her face so
close to the page that it actually gets in the way of her hand. Anytime she
needs to look away from her paper and glance at something on her  worksheet
that she needs to refer to, she must again find her place on her page to
finish writing. I don't want her to be dependent on others but at that same
time it kills me to see her struggle with her nose resting on her paper
trying to squeeze the letters on the line. I am wondering how she is able to
do any kind of writing -- creative or otherwise -- in the classroom because
of this. (Whatever is written on the big classroom board is also given to
her either on her personal hand held white board or as an enlarged
worksheet. I am more worried about the writing that has to come from her own
head rather than note copying.) I am wondering if having her do her
 classwork on a laptop where she can enlarge the text and where it would be
easier for her to self edit on the fly wouldn't be a good idea. Her  teacher
who is leaving has been worried that she may loose her cursive script. To be
honestly I am amazed that she is able to fit her letters on the lines
correctly at all. 

Right now the extras she receives:
worksheets are enlarged. -- (her school doesn't use textbooks as all
assignments are on worksheets. The reading books they have are individual
children?s paperbacks and the kids take out one at a time so each kid works
at her own level) Once a week she has an hour of extra reading and language
help. The nurse puts sunblock on her if they are going outside for more than
5 mins. Her class doesn?t use any over head projectors except during whole
school assembly. She is allowed to wear a hat and sunglasses. I have
provided her regular glasses plus reading glasses, hand held magnification
devices, and a clip board which we find helps with her writing because
otherwise her neck gets stiff from having to hold her face so close to the
papers. She sits in the front in her class for everything. However I
recently attended a whole school assembly and her class was in the 3rd row,
and she remained with her class. I am not sure if this is a good thing or
not. In
 a way I want her to remain with her classmates but if she can't see that?s
not good either.  As I said above she gets anything writen on the board put
on her hand-held board or on her enlarged worksheet.

She isn?t receiving extra time on tests or assignments etc. Her teachers
also complain that she is often restless and will get up out of her seat at
times when she shouldn?t and will talk out of turn. She also sometimes asks
a teacher to repeat himself many times which frustrates him to no end. (She
did this with last year?s teacher too.) I am not sure what the issue is
there. I don't know if she is doing it just because she wants to or because
she can't see who the teacher is calling on. I don?t know if she is restless
because she is bored or hyper or if she needs a break because her eyes are
tired.

Our school doesn't have a TVI or IEP. It's a small private school outside
the US.

Right now I am thinking about asking for a classroom scribe for her at least
for her literacy /writing portions that are more than just copying and/or
letting her use a laptop for writing excursuses in class.

Thoughts? Any other ideas of things I should ask for? 

I am esp interested if people think a scribe is a good idea.  I was thinking
maybe having one for the times when Joli has to write more than one or two
paragraphs...?
Thanks!
Lauren

--- On Wed, 2/11/09, blindkid-request at nfbnet.org
<blindkid-request at nfbnet.org> wrote:

From: blindkid-request at nfbnet.org <blindkid-request at nfbnet.org>
Subject: blindkid Digest, Vol 58, Issue 11
To: blindkid at nfbnet.org
Date: Wednesday, February 11, 2009, 1:00 PM

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Today's Topics:

   1. Re: music at convention (Carol Castellano)
   2. Re: music at convention (Peter Donahue)
   3. Re: music at convention (Barbara.Mathews at sce.com)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Tue, 10 Feb 2009 13:09:13 -0500
From: Carol Castellano <carol_castellano at verizon.net>
Subject: Re: [blindkid] music at convention
To: "NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List,	\(for parents of blind
children\)"
	<blindkid at nfbnet.org>
Message-ID: <20090210180914.53B413373F1 at zcs.tcnj.edu>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed

Oh, that would be fun!
CC

At 04:27 PM 2/8/2009, you wrote:
>Hey, Carrie, since you have nothing else to work on...<grin>What if 
>we were to have the kids bring their instruments and put on a short 
>performance toward the end of convention?  They pulled it together 
>in 3 days for 4-County honor band, why not convention? One more way 
>to showcase our kids' talents, and to emphasize the need for music 
>Braille. Do I see a middle/high school event?
>
>Maybe that's something we could think towards for next year, if not
this one.
>
>  Debby
>bwbddl at yahoo.com
>www.nfbflorida.org/parents
>
>Please support Braille literacy and programs for our youth by sponsoring me
in
>the Motor City March for Independence! Better yet, join the team of 
>the FL Parents of Blind Children!
>http://www.marchforindependence.org/goto/fpobc
>http://www.marchforindependence.org/goto/debbyb
>
>
>
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>blindkid mailing list
>blindkid at nfbnet.org
>http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindkid_nfbnet.org
>To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info 
>for blindkid:
>http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindkid_nfbnet.org/blindchildren%40v
erizon.net

------------------------------

Message: 2
Date: Tue, 10 Feb 2009 12:42:31 -0600
From: "Peter Donahue" <pdonahue1 at sbcglobal.net>
Subject: Re: [blindkid] music at convention
To: "NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List,	\(for parents of blind
children\)"
	<blindkid at nfbnet.org>
Message-ID: <000c01c98baf$55d79820$210110ac at yourfsyly0jtwn>
Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="iso-8859-1"

Hello Carrie and listers,

    Let me find that article about our music festival and will post it in 
the next few days. It was a wonderful event for those who participated.
It's 
too bad it wasn't replaced with an activity such as the NFB Youth SLAM or 
something similar. We're talking about the 1970s. Though the technology 
wasn't there such an event was doable. We proved that with such activities 
like that music festival.

Peter Donahue

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Carol Castellano" <carol_castellano at verizon.net>
To: "NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List,(for parents of blind children)" 
<blindkid at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, February 10, 2009 12:09 PM
Subject: Re: [blindkid] music at convention

Oh, that would be fun!
CC

At 04:27 PM 2/8/2009, you wrote:
>Hey, Carrie, since you have nothing else to work on...<grin>What if
>we were to have the kids bring their instruments and put on a short
>performance toward the end of convention?  They pulled it together
>in 3 days for 4-County honor band, why not convention? One more way
>to showcase our kids' talents, and to emphasize the need for music
>Braille. Do I see a middle/high school event?
>
>Maybe that's something we could think towards for next year, if not
this 
>one.
>
>  Debby
>bwbddl at yahoo.com
>www.nfbflorida.org/parents
>
>Please support Braille literacy and programs for our youth by sponsoring me

>in
>the Motor City March for Independence! Better yet, join the team of
>the FL Parents of Blind Children!
>http://www.marchforindependence.org/goto/fpobc
>http://www.marchforindependence.org/goto/debbyb
>
>
>
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>blindkid mailing list
>blindkid at nfbnet.org
>http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindkid_nfbnet.org
>To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info
>for blindkid:
>http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindkid_nfbnet.org/blindchildren%40v
erizon.net

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------------------------------

Message: 3
Date: Tue, 10 Feb 2009 11:38:37 -0800
From: Barbara.Mathews at sce.com
Subject: Re: [blindkid] music at convention
To: "NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List,	\(for parents of blind
children\)"
	<blindkid at nfbnet.org>
Message-ID: <OF526D672D.25A5909E-ON88257559.006BE800 at sce.com>
Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="utf-8";	Format="flowed"

I agree!

----- Original Message -----
From: Carol Castellano [carol_castellano at verizon.net]
Sent: 02/10/2009 01:09 PM EST
To: "NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List,	\(for parents of blind
children\)" <blindkid at nfbnet.org>
Subject: Re: [blindkid] music at convention

Oh, that would be fun!
CC

At 04:27 PM 2/8/2009, you wrote:
>Hey, Carrie, since you have nothing else to work on...<grin>What if 
>we were to have the kids bring their instruments and put on a short 
>performance toward the end of convention?  They pulled it together 
>in 3 days for 4-County honor band, why not convention? One more way 
>to showcase our kids' talents, and to emphasize the need for music 
>Braille. Do I see a middle/high school event?
>
>Maybe that's something we could think towards for next year, if not
this one.
>
>  Debby
>bwbddl at yahoo.com
>www.nfbflorida.org/parents
>
>Please support Braille literacy and programs for our youth by sponsoring me
in
>the Motor City March for Independence! Better yet, join the team of 
>the FL Parents of Blind Children!
>http://www.marchforindependence.org/goto/fpobc
>http://www.marchforindependence.org/goto/debbyb
>
>
>
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>blindkid mailing list
>blindkid at nfbnet.org
>http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindkid_nfbnet.org
>To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info 
>for blindkid:
>http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindkid_nfbnet.org/blindchildren%40v
erizon.net

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------------------------------

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End of blindkid Digest, Vol 58, Issue 11
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