[blindkid] Social behavior

Wed Oct 26 20:02:06 UTC 2011

Wow! I would have really had a whole different adult life now if I would
have had all the chances described here! Wow.
Gerardo

-----Mensaje original-----
De: blindkid-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindkid-bounces at nfbnet.org] En
nombre de Richard Holloway
Enviado el: miércoles, 26 de octubre de 2011 08:50 a.m.
Para: NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List, (for parents of blind children)
Asunto: Re: [blindkid] Social behavior

There are a couple of things to try. First, increase his "motion and sensory
diet" and then later, redirect unwanted behaviors. Your OT is right to try
and address this as soon as possible. Waiting will just make things worse
and you'll no doubt want to let your child "fit in" as well as possible from
an early age to not allow "blindisms" to get in the way of social
development and building friendships.

Our daughter is nine and has no light perception. When kids, especially
young kids new to learning alternative skills of blindness are sitting
about, they begin to try to introduce movement into their behavior that
feels "safe". It starts very early on. If a kid knows that waking, or
certainly running across a room or a field may end up with a trip or a
crash, but feels that it is quite safe to rock or spin, what are they going
to choose? I suspect it is entirely unconscious. Little kids need to move
around and they are going to do so no matter what. The only question is HOW
the movement will manifest itself. Surely my typically-sighted 5-year-old
son moves around a great deal. He reminds me of the old "Family Circus"
cartoons in the Sunday paper where the little boy follows a dotted line
through the entire house just to cross the room at times.

Find movement your child enjoys. Our daughter, Kendra loves to spin and that
is not ideal (another fairly classical "blindism"). We try to redirect the
spinning unless she is "dancing" (more appropriate) and the best thing we
have found has been a small trampoline with sides on it. We have actually
had her jump through something like 8 of them (I have lost count) of various
designs. She jumps until the springs break, and frames tear-- in once case
the frame collapsed entirely. We always keep a small one available to her
inside the house (in our playroom).

We started with the one with a handle on the side and then moved into
several designs from about 4 to roughly 7 feet in diameter with sides. She
uses it a bit less now (though still often) but at age 5 it was not uncommon
to have her jumping for an hour or more a day. When she might try to rock,
or for her more often to just start spinning, we'd take her to the
trampoline. After a while sometimes she would actually get up in the morning
and walk straight to the trampoline and start jumping.

We also installed a heavy duty mount in the middle of our playroom and set
up a way to have several different styles of swings, some of which could
also spin. We went from baby swings to tire swings as well as various cloth
and net "hammock" style swings that offer compression as well as motion.

Compression, much like swaddling a baby may help in many forms. We would
roll Kendra up in blankets and make her a "Hot Dog", adding on various
pretend condiments. She found it hysterical. We would take her in blankets
and swing her with a parent on each end. Be careful how you do this, but if
you know how, gentle joint compression can help too. Consult an expert on
that first but results can me amazing.

Kendra has been taking swim lessons since she was 4 or 5--private lessons to
help her become quite a good swimmer by this point. There is an obvious
water-safety benefit as well, but mainly we wanted to offer her more ranges
of motion. It is much harder to crash into things in a pool so it feels very
safe, especially when you can stand and touch the bottom still. Now that she
swims so well, the depth is no longer an issue. Once we were terrified that
she might walk into a pool one day. Now is it not a concern any more than
with any typically-sighted child who swims well.

Kendra takes yoga lessons, more great safe-feeling movement because there is
no cavorting about to cause crashes. She took it privately at first and now
does classes. Again, years of this. Yoga is especially nice because the safe
movement is also very socially appropriate and shared with sighted friends.
We have taken gymnastics classes too, as well as years of ballet, tap and
jazz classes. Sometimes she likes to bike- she'll go slowly solo, or at
speed on a tandem. When she was younger, we had a couple of the small
"bouncie houses" that she outgrew, so we even went so far as to buy a used
commercial one-- it is huge and heavy but what a grand place for her to go
and jump for hours at a time when it is warm out. Far safer than a large
trampoline. 

We have also had many outings to places like "Monkey Joe's" where they have
maybe a dozen or more flavors of inflatable play structures. There will be
one at a Halloween party this weekend so I'm going to make certain to take
her. We take her to the park where she swings and slides and we built her a
huge playground at home too. The home playground was great for her because
she knew where everything was when she was young. (At age 9, she's more
comfortable exploring a playground.) Another big help is that by her current
age, she had friends at school who will show her around and play with her on
the playground. (We have worked hard to help the "para-pros" learn when to
back away in these cases.) They even show her where to climb on climbing
structures. That's a harder thing to get comfortable with as a parent, but
it is age appropriate behavior and motion. ("If not now, when?")

It should also be noted that her school understands that she is expected to
participate in gym class, and she does. (Get this in his IEP.) Generally an
aide helps keep Kendra informed and oriented as to what is going on. At the
school fundraising run/walk last month, she walked around the block with the
rest of the kids, and wonderfully, several of the "upperclassmen" (5th
graders and she is in 3rd) slowed their pace to let Kendra walk with them
the whole way. I was very touched. I was there walking with her (parents
were invited) and immediately moved aside and gave her friends as much room
as possible to walk with her. Sure there are risks, especially with the
jumping and climbing. She could break something, etc., but so could any
child. All we can do is offer reasonably safe ways to get what she needs to
have in her sensory diet.

Don't forget running either. At first, running may not feel "safe" to a
blind child, and more than that, it frightens parents and teachers, but it
need not be avoided. Kendra will take my hand and run, and on occasion has
taken off running with great enjoyment in an open field or on flat sand
stretches. We even found an indoor place with a huge open areas and
astro-turf-- the thick kind like for playing football or soccer on. Some
people set up ropes with something like a cardboard tube or can on them
stretched between trees (with something to mark when to stop) to offer kids
more ways to run. She's a great cane traveler but so far cane-running has
not worked well for her.

At this point, after so many years of having alternatives, unwanted movement
is not to common for our daughter, but certainly if she goes for a while
with less movement she starts to want to spin. Now with a variety of ways to
redirect, we can usually just say "do you need to go and jump" and she will.
In fact, more often she'll stop herself and say " I need to go to the
trampoline". That is the ultimate goal obviously-- self regulation. 

Good Luck!

Richard

On Oct 26, 2011, at 8:51 AM, Erin Teply wrote:

> Hello everyone,
> 
> I am some questions around social behavior (at least I think that is the
best description!).  My son Max, is 5 and in mainstream kindergarten.  He
has some 'blindisms' as I call them or some different social behaviors when
he gets excited.  He tends to rock his body back and forth and sort of do a
strange 'arm-straightener' thing when he gets excited or really wants to say
something.  We see this at home in just these cases and I believe the same
at school, but because he has to 'sit still' so much more at school, I think
the behaviors are more pronounced and/or more often.  I have a meeting
tomorrow with his OT and mobility teacher on what we can do to replace or
minimize these behaviors.  As we all know, you simply can't tell the child
to *stop* this because then they think, "well then what?".  How have some of
you dealt with this type of thing?  I think the main concern from his OT
that this is socially not acceptable.  Any thoughts are appreciated.
> 
> Thank you,
> Erin Teply
> 
> 
> 
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