[blindkid] Justifying a Specialized Environment for a Visually-Impaired Child

[Richard Holloway]

Hi Mary and welcome!

My wife and I have a 9-year-old daughter, Kendra, with no light perception. She has been in a typical, mainstream school environment from her third birthday forward (we had to wait to start her until the week she turned three). Kendra spent the first two years of her schooling in a private Montessori environment. After that, she has gone to public schools in our local district. Overall, we have been very pleased with her progress. 

While Kendra does attend after school classes at a local center for the blind one day a week, mainly to let her interact with other blind peers, she has spent the last 6 years (this being her 7th) in school with all sighted peers. Now in third grade, she is in the gifted program. She remains a "straight-A" student and functions at the top of her class, in some areas working well above grade level.

Sometimes there are reasons to go with a school for the blind, but I would point out that our kids are going to end up in a world filled with sighted people all around them. I think you'll find that many of us here feel that unless there is a compelling reason to do otherwise, it is a good idea to explore keeping your blind or visually impaired child in school in as typical a situation as possible, interacting with a great many sighted kids along the way.

In our case, while Kendra does know other blind children, she has always been the only visually impaired child in her class at any given time. Especially since we do find other ways for her to interact with other blind children, we have not yet (now in third grade) had any serious issues which we feel relate to keeping her in a mainstream setting. The "key" for us has been all about building the right team to work with her at school and to get things adapted properly. With the right training and tools, Kendra will be able to do whatever she wants in life!

Please feel free to ask any questions you might have of me on-list or off. (More detailed info may be better off-list just to keep down the amount of info that everyone filters through.) I can also direct you to a good bit more information about our particular journey if you like, as my wife and I have written a number of articles about our particular situation. May I go ahead and send you some links off-list?

I know you're asking about articles to justify a specialized environment, but I would again suggest (particularly if blindness is the only issue involved) that you look at all options carefully and try not to start with an assumption that a specialized school is the required solution for your young man. For many children, there can be some pretty big social advantages of the mainstream environment as well. Save to say that there is much to consider.

Good luck with your journey. It  may seem frightening at first, but things will all fall into place, especially with you getting an early start and gathering information about what may work best for you. I think the parents who have the greatest challenges and frustrations are the ones who sit an wait to see what happens. Getting involved and asking questions early-on will make a huge difference for you and your son!

Richard Holloway, Vice President
Georgia Organization of Parents of Blind Children
www.gopbc.org




On Oct 13, 2011, at 9:52 PM, Phouka wrote:

> Hello!
> 
> 
> 
> My name is Mary Strahan; among other things, I'm the mother of an absolutely
> awesome little boy who's visually impaired.  Eddie will be 3 in January, so
> we're just starting the transition process from early childhood services to
> the local school district and learning all about IEPs.  I know it's really
> important for him to learn the skills of blindness now to set him up for
> success throughout his life, and I suspect he'll best learn those skills in
> a specialized environment (i.e. a school specializing in the education of
> blind/visually impaired children) rather than in the district's preschool.
> I was wondering if any of you could direct me towards research/articles/etc.
> justifying specialized environments for blind/visually impaired children?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Also, if you have suggestions about navigating the IEP process in general,
> those would also be much appreciated.  We can use all the help we can get on
> this journey.
> 
> 
> 
> Thank you for your help!
> 
> Mary
> 
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