[blindkid] talking to a child about blindness

[Debby B]

When Winona (blind) joined our family, she was 3, as was our son (sighted). We'd talked about the fact that Winona would use her hands and ears to "see" as we prepared him for her arrival. After she came we simply continued that type of talk. "Let Winona hold it so she can see it."

And we were sure to include things like, "good listening, Winona! Glad you heard that for me." to go along with the typical "glad you saw that, Daniel, I missed it."

I think, bottom line, treating her like normal is best. We've explained to Winona that she was born so early her eyes weren't ready to see things, but her hands and ears are SHARP! (She always found hiders in hide-n-seek!)

 Debby
bwbddl at yahoo.com




________________________________
From: julietnan <julietnan at aol.com>
To: blindkid at nfbnet.org
Sent: Fri, March 12, 2010 5:58:28 AM
Subject: [blindkid] talking to a child about blindness

Hi, I wondered if any of you could share with me the different ways you have talked to your children about being blind. The ways to explain it, or how to answer questions they might have. My daughter is 2.5 and I want to talk with her about it in a normal sort of way. I don't want to make her feel like there is something "wrong" with her, don't want to use the "your eyes are broken", as from my mind, that would be negative. I want to just be able to talk about it in a gentle normal sort of way, any help would be appreciated. I just don't want to say the wrong thing.
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