[blindkid] talking to a child about blindness

Doreen Franklin doreenproverbs3 at bellsouth.net
Thu Mar 11 15:10:52 UTC 2010


Juliet
We adopted our now 5-1/2 yr old daughter from Guatemala; she's been home for 3-1/2 yrs. At the beginning, especially with the language difference, we just showed her we all have glasses - she hated wearing her glasses and her foster mom in Guatemala would let her take them off instead of wear them. As we went to more evals and docs, I would just tell her she doesn't see the same us mom and dad and her sister. I tell her that she uses her ears, nose and hands and sometimes her taste better than we do. 

She is in pre-k and they have been talking about vision I believe. She has asked me "will I ever see like you mommy" ... so I am honestly answering her -- "probably not. But that is how God made you and He did it for a wonderful reason. But He has you hearing, touching, and smelling better than us." And I give lots of positive praise when she uses her ears and hands to see something instead of her eyes. I also point out when I am using my hearing and touching instead of my eyes to see (you know, eyes in the back of a mom's head). It reinforces to her we don't always use only our eyes.  Also, we have to patch her eye - and she hates it. So I have told her that she can tell Dr Craig she hates the patching .... not that she does, but it gives her "power" just to know she can say "I hate the patching." She is also not getting O&M - we have put the cane in her hand  (a big district argument/battle). I keep reinforcing that the cane keeps her safe and
 that they are her eyes on the ground. Still not happy, but I continuously say she needs to be safe and that is my job - to keep her safe. She is okay then. 

She has heard several people say "blind" around her - and she freaks out. I calm her down and tell her the wonderful people we have met thru NFB who are blind - yes, we have met Winona and Daniel and many others.  And she is very much okay; it is what Barbara Cheadle said. Show them the positives and the positive role models they know. Unfortunately, our district leaves much to be desired and they keep "pushing' for her to "see" and "how well she can see!!!" 
 
Good luck ....Doreen
http://www.raceforindependence.org/goto/TorrieF 




________________________________
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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