[blindkid] Ordered our free cane! wheeee!!!

Thu Mar 25 22:18:11 UTC 2010

I always walk away from your shares with a sense of hope and empowerment for
all things possible. you and your wife are just great. As an educator,
primarily pre-k and kindergarten, I am in total agreement with you on
posting braille words throughout the house to reinforce the processing of
language. I always used the same approach with children in my class. We
would have a list of words which we worked on together usually posting them
on a poster sized sheet of paper. Next to the words which we always worked
on letter by letter, were pictures representing the word. Eventually the
children were able to identify the word without the picture next to it and
thereby acquired language. This is what you are doing for your child blind
or not when you post labels on things around the house that spell out each
appliance or item in your home. We first acquire language through
association and then take that association with a thing and then translate
that to the written word. Eventually as a blind child progresses, perhaps
creating a braille dictionary complete with braille words and tactil
representations would be a great way to reinforce braille and language
acquisition. Maybe using wicki sticks to make sumbolic representations of
the word in lieu of the drawn pictures I used to do when I could see, just a
thought. And again thank you for your words of encouragement   and promise.
You are an educators dream.

Albert J. Rizzi, M.Ed.
CEO/Founder
My Blind Spot, Inc.
90 Broad Street - 18th Fl.
New York, New York  10004
www.myblindspot.org
PH: 917-553-0347
Fax: 212-858-5759
"The person who says it cannot be done, shouldn't interrupt the one who is
doing it."

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-----Original Message-----
From: blindkid-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindkid-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Richard Holloway
Sent: Thursday, March 25, 2010 9:56 AM
To: NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List,(for parents of blind children)
Subject: Re: [blindkid] Ordered our free cane! wheeee!!!

Marie,

This sounds like great progress. That is an excellent start. There are  
no doubt many others here who can offer many suggestions but  
initially, anything that extends a blind child's reach-- even a wooden  
spoon, or certainly a cane held and used to extend what the child can  
discover and offer some sort of tactile feedback is going to be a  
benefit. You are truly expanding the world for your son this way.  
Another really important thing is to get that cane in the child's  
hands to become part of a routine for him, and in fact for the parent  
as well. You can do the same thing with braille, BTW. We had braille  
labels on things all over the house so that our daughter would run  
across braille all the time just like sighted kids see print  
constantly. Your son need not read braille at all to begin to  
encounter it and learn that it has meaning and importance!

Initially, we had to remember to grab our daughter's cane and then to  
remind her to grab it once we had made it a habit. Now it is a reflex  
for us all. It is by the front door when we walk out and she grabs it  
without a thought. It is like putting on your shoes or grabbing a  
jacket on a chilly morning.

As it sounds like your husband has realized, the cane and braille are  
tools in the toolbox. My daughter has no vision at all so she relies  
on these things constantly. Some other kids have more options. If they  
can use some residual vision safely and effectively at times, that's  
just fine, but if you suddenly are having trouble getting around and a  
cane helps you function better or of you cannot work as well with  
large print as with braille then it is obvious which to choose at that  
point, for that particular situation.

If your husband wants to talk with another father of a blind child  
there are no doubt plenty of parents in the NOPBC and on this list who  
would be happy to share and discuss with him. Certainly feel free to  
suggest he contacts me on this list of off and I'll be happy to  
discuss anything he likes.

Good luck with these new areas of exploration!

Richard

On Mar 25, 2010, at 9:34 AM, Marie wrote:

> I am so excited to report that after thinking about it FOR A YEAR, I  
> finally
> ordered my son a free long white cane from NFB. Why a year? Over the  
> past
> year, my husband's feelings about the need for Braille and cane use  
> have
> changed or he has verbalized them more clearly to me<--he's a man so  
> you
> never really know which, LOL! I pushed early and hard for Braille  
> and he did
> not jump on the bandwagon right away. In fact, the last year has had  
> him
> pointing out to me other legally blind people who read really well  
> and fast
> holding books up to their noses. What a relief it was to hear him  
> say one
> day how great that was but then he wondered how much easier it would  
> be for
> those folks to have learned Braille and perhaps they would have done  
> even
> better!
>
>
>
> When I brought up cane use before, it was met with a lukewarm  
> reception and
> much discussion about how Jack gets around really really well and has
> learned to memorize the layout of wherever he is and how fantastic  
> that is.
> Over the past week, I brought up a cane again and now I am hearing  
> my own
> thoughts echoed back to me. If we help Jack to navigate his  
> environment more
> easily and independently, it will free him up to focus on other
> developmental tasks and not use so much brain power to focus on not  
> falling
> or bumping into stuff.
>
>
>
> We had planned to just buy a cane and start working with it. What a  
> nice
> surprise to realize that we could get one for free (I think I knew  
> this
> before and forgot).  The fact that it is free makes it an even easier
> decision to move forward although we have no support for our  
> decision from
> either Jack's school TVI or our vision rehab doc.
>
>
>
> So.tips, anyone? Jack has fine motor impairment so we'll have to see  
> how we
> can work out his grasp on the cane once we get it. Tips for  
> introduction of
> the cane would be welcomed.
>
>
>
> Thanks so much!
>
>
>
>
>
> Marie (mother of Jack, 4 yrs old with Apert Syndrome)
> <http://www.allaccesspasstojack.blogspot.com>
> http://www.allaccesspasstojack.blogspot.com
> Learn more about Apert Syndrome
> <http://www.thecraniofacialcenter.org/apert.html>
> http://www.thecraniofacialcenter.org/apert.html
> Get information and support at Teeter's page
> <http://www.apert.org> http://www.apert.org
>
>
>
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