[blindkid] Do blind kids need personal aides in school?

[Sally Thomas]

The usefulness of an aide is very case dependant.  My son had an aide in 
kindergarten and 1st grade.  He was in a  mainstream class with another 
blind child.  The first aide was terrible.  She isolated the blind kids and 
made no attempt to understand what was helpful for accessibility.  The 
second aide did a better job but she did tend to hover.  Like the others 
said, aides need to understand something about the work the child is doing. 
Helping the teacher make sure that the child has adapted materials and 
helping the rest of the class-not just the blind child-could be a useful 
thing. I've carried on an email conversation with an aide in Texas who went 
out of her way to try to understand what a blind child needs to be 
successful.  She called the O&M instructor and TVI to task for not showing 
up for scheduled teaching.  When the TVI told the parents blind kids don't 
learn braille until 4th grade, the aide took the time to learn the facts and 
get the child braille instruction.  So, it's not clear cut.  Like Barbara 
said, the aide needs to provide a valuable service and the parents need to 
check in to find out if that is happening.

Sally Thomas
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Arielle Silverman" <nabs.president at gmail.com>
To: <blindkid at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Sunday, August 29, 2010 6:15 PM
Subject: [blindkid] Do blind kids need personal aides in school?


> Hi all,
>
> I'm on another listserv with primarily parents of blind children (it's
> a support list for families of people with Lebers congenital
> amaurosis, and not affiliated with NFB or any other consumer group).
> Anyway, a bunch of the parents on the list have kids who are just
> starting preschool or kindergarten, and they've been talking about
> school arrangements and services (how much Braille instruction time to
> get, etc.) Some of these parents are saying that their kids have an
> "aide", or a paraprofessional who doesn't actually teach skills like
> Braille, with them in the classroom for part or all of the school day.
> Some other parents are asking whether or not the aide is necessary and
> I'd like to offer some advice, but I'm not quite sure what to tell
> them. Is it typical for blind kids in public schools (with no
> additional disabilities) to have classroom aides? If so, what does the
> aide do, and do you feel the aide is beneficial?
>
> My intuition is that aides who don't actually teach alternative
> skills, but who simply act as the child's "eyes", are unnecessary and
> could promote superfluous dependence. But, I'm not a parent or a
> teacher, so perhaps the aide does serve a legitimate purpose that I'm
> not aware of?
>
> Thanks for your guidance on this matter.
>
> Arielle
>
> -- 
> Arielle Silverman
> President, National Association of Blind Students
> Phone:  602-502-2255
> Email:
> nabs.president at gmail.com
> Website:
> www.nabslink.org
>
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