Good question: How do you stop a child from doing those things that a) look weird to sighted people, b) may cause physical harm or c) may prevent them from fully participating in society?
The answer is, really, that you don't. You HELP them learn not to do those things, and parents and teachers have used many different methods to help their charges NOT engage in blindisms.
For a very young child who can't be reasoned with, a physical barrier may be the only solution. We tried a lot of things when my son was very little. Most of them didn't work.
Greg was an eye presser. We tried something called "no-nos" which could only be gotten by prescription and were basically a piece of plastic with Velcro fastenings which prevented a child's elbow from bending, hence - so we thought - he wouldn't be able to get his hands to his face and therefore - we thought - he couldn't reach his eyes. It did work, for about 2 weeks, until he was strong enough and/or smart enough to break the grip of the Velcro.
Then I tried making my own "no-nos" out of a softer material so it wouldn't be so annoying to him and hopefully just be a little uncomfortable so the fun of eyepressing - whatever he was getting out of it - wouldn't be worth the bother. What I didn't know was that the drive to get stimulation or whatever is attractive about eye pressing was a REALLY powerful drive, and may explain why there are plenty of adult blind people who still do these behaviors - it's a tough habit to break.
Then we tried to get a prescription helmet with a face shield. I got some really weird responses from the physical therapist who had to measure Greg's head for it - he didn't seem to think there was a need for it. The helmet cost (insurance) $600, it was hideous, and took six months to arrive. By that time, of course, it no longer fit.
In the meantime I was desperate. I made a "Lili Neilsen Little Room" on a vest for those long drives to Royal Oak to see his eye surgeon. I had a lot of things sewn onto it to keep his hands busy - big buttons, sewing machine bobbins, lace, corduroy, webbing, elastic, etc. which helped a little, but still wasn't the answer completely. (Dr. Lili Nielsen is a Danish researcher who has successfully helped many multiply impaired children - especially those who are also blind or visually impaired - to learn to do things most "experts" thought impossible. You should be able to look her up on the web.)
On to what did work: a pair of "Rec Specs", in a very small size (I actually started with racquetball goggles) , with extra straps sewn on over the top of his head and under his chin, and a child's bike helmet over the top of that. Mission accomplished. He could not get his little hands up underneath this contraption and it looked pretty sporty, too.
Greg did continue to do some eyepressing at night, when the helmet and goggles just were too draconian, and once we felt we could take off the goggles and helmet we continued to have to use verbal reminders - a lot - and sometimes take away privileges for eyepressing. We could tell when he was doing it behind our backs because the skin around his eyes would look red and dark. We got some just cheap plain lens glasses to help remind him, which also served to provide a little protection from running into objects face first. Another family used those plastic side shields that fit on the bows of your glasses (you can get these for safety in industrial settings) and that seemed to help remind their daughter not to poke.
Greg tells us that he finally quit for good in middle school. By that time it was his decision. He knew it just wasn't cool to do, and that it made his eyes look weird to other people, and that it could cause more damage. I know a young man who finally quit when he was in his late twenties. It was important to HIM to quit.
It really is a matter of us helping our child learn not to do it!
Monday's blog will deal with the other kinds of blindisms like rocking and spinning and jumping - I hope you can wait until then!
Friday, April 29, 2011
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Blindisms - what they are and why we need our children not to do them!
Blindisms are those characteristic movements that some blind people make that appear unusual to sighted people. These movements may be some kind of compensation for the lack of visual input, although no one really seems to know. Some examples of blindisms that a child might do are: 1) flapping their hands, or shiny objects, in front of their eyes, 2) rocking back and forth or side to side, with just their head or with their whole body, 3) jumping in place for long periods of time, and 4) eyepressing - pressing or poking fingers, palms, and even knees into their eye sockets so that their finger might seem to disappear up to the second knuckle! Another less frustrating blindisms is not looking at a person speaking to them, preferring to have the person speak to their ear, which makes perfect sense, but doesn't work very well in a world of sighted people who expect someone to look at them if they are paying attention.
Blindisms are habits, and the longer a child does them, the harder it is for them to break that habit. They may provide some kind of stimulation for a brain starved of something to do visually, but as far as I know there is no known useful purpose for them, and some, like eyepressing, can cause even more eye damage. In fact, with eyepressing done from a young age, a child's face may become deformed and the eyes appear driven backward into their head.
These behaviors may be tolerated in incredibly talented creative persons, like Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder, where odd behavior is not only permitted but sometimes expected, but not all of our kids are going to be commanding thousands of dollars at every performance or sell millions of recordings.
A blind or visually impaired person has historically had a very difficult time getting gainful, full employment. Visualize your child going to a job interview and doing whatever blindism is their particular choice. Imagine him or her, dressed in suit and tie, jumping, or rocking back and forth so hard in their chair they look like they are on an amusement park ride. Or what if your child flaps their hands constantly in front of their face, or if they drill their fingers into their eyes? What if your darling child becomes, well, ugly to sighted people, because their eyes are sunken into their eye sockets? How would a prospective employer feel about this? Would he or she find this behavior distracting, annoying, or disgusting - even revolting? Would you hire someone like that? Be honest with yourself!
A caveat: it's different if your child has other disabilities that create odd behaviors or appearances that are not physically attractive. I'm not talking about those kinds of things. Behaviors that are inherent to your child's disability, such as cerebral palsy, are still difficult for most sighted people to accept, and we need to give our kids all the skills we can to allow them to advocate for themselves in regard to their particular set of characteristics. We live in a world that is not yet very accepting of those who are different, and children who are blind or visually impaired already have a strike or two against them from the outset because of others' assumptions. I'm talking about behaviors that ARE controllable, and about not giving the sighted "others" even more reason to discount our children.
As parents we need to visualize the future and act on that vision to make it happen. If we visualize a future for our child in which they stand up straight, look people in the eye, and appear to be paying close attention to what is being said to them, then we need to help them learn behaviors that will get them to that goal. When you first adopt a puppy, it's so cute when they jump up on you and want to lick your face and jump up on the couch with you to snuggle. It's not so cute when that puppy becomes a 75 pound Labrador capable of knocking out your front teeth. We need to raise our children with their future always firmly planted in our minds.
Blindisms are habits, and the longer a child does them, the harder it is for them to break that habit. They may provide some kind of stimulation for a brain starved of something to do visually, but as far as I know there is no known useful purpose for them, and some, like eyepressing, can cause even more eye damage. In fact, with eyepressing done from a young age, a child's face may become deformed and the eyes appear driven backward into their head.
These behaviors may be tolerated in incredibly talented creative persons, like Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder, where odd behavior is not only permitted but sometimes expected, but not all of our kids are going to be commanding thousands of dollars at every performance or sell millions of recordings.
A blind or visually impaired person has historically had a very difficult time getting gainful, full employment. Visualize your child going to a job interview and doing whatever blindism is their particular choice. Imagine him or her, dressed in suit and tie, jumping, or rocking back and forth so hard in their chair they look like they are on an amusement park ride. Or what if your child flaps their hands constantly in front of their face, or if they drill their fingers into their eyes? What if your darling child becomes, well, ugly to sighted people, because their eyes are sunken into their eye sockets? How would a prospective employer feel about this? Would he or she find this behavior distracting, annoying, or disgusting - even revolting? Would you hire someone like that? Be honest with yourself!
A caveat: it's different if your child has other disabilities that create odd behaviors or appearances that are not physically attractive. I'm not talking about those kinds of things. Behaviors that are inherent to your child's disability, such as cerebral palsy, are still difficult for most sighted people to accept, and we need to give our kids all the skills we can to allow them to advocate for themselves in regard to their particular set of characteristics. We live in a world that is not yet very accepting of those who are different, and children who are blind or visually impaired already have a strike or two against them from the outset because of others' assumptions. I'm talking about behaviors that ARE controllable, and about not giving the sighted "others" even more reason to discount our children.
As parents we need to visualize the future and act on that vision to make it happen. If we visualize a future for our child in which they stand up straight, look people in the eye, and appear to be paying close attention to what is being said to them, then we need to help them learn behaviors that will get them to that goal. When you first adopt a puppy, it's so cute when they jump up on you and want to lick your face and jump up on the couch with you to snuggle. It's not so cute when that puppy becomes a 75 pound Labrador capable of knocking out your front teeth. We need to raise our children with their future always firmly planted in our minds.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Harvesting - How do you do that when you can't see it?
I spoke with the owner of an orchard shortly after 9/11 when suspicion of "foreigners" was at its peak. It was very difficult for migrant workers to travel and do their regular work at many of the farms and orchards in Michigan where they had worked for years. There was also a fairly high unemployment rate in the area where this orchard was located because of the closure of a local factory, so they hired former factory workers. She told me that the migrant workers could pick 13 of those big wooden boxes full of apples in one day, but their white American counterparts could only pick 1 box a day. A lot of apples went unharvested that year.
I can pick enough lettuce for dinner for four of us in about 15 minutes. It takes my son, who is blind, about 30 minutes to do the same job. But that's OK, because it really is all relative. He will (probably) never get a job picking produce for a living. But he can certainly harvest enough to supplement his family's nutrition and reduce food costs. He will also be able to save on transportation costs to get that food from a store, and contribute positively to the local food movement - you can't get much more local than your own backyard!
The trick to learning to harvest is to start with vegetables that are easiest to pick tactilely. Those are vegetables that can be harvested without having to search all over, and that are picked based mostly on size or other tactile difference. Lettuces and spinach are perfect, as are herbs, green onions, radishes and potatoes. Potatoes are great because you really can't harvest those effectively visually! If you have your crops in the square foot gardening system, you can tell your child to harvest box number 1, squares 1-4. I've sometimes referred to the squares as Braille cells with eight dots (like computer Braille, or Braille cells with a cursor like on a BrailleNote), and sometimes even the location of the boxes themselves are best described as a part of a Braille cell.
From lettuces and crops that grow close to the ground, you can move onto peas. English, or shelling peas, actually sound hollow when the peas are just the right size and when the vines are lightly shaken, so you can harvest these by sound! Green beans are easily done by size, but you might have to look around a bit more to find the beans and differentiate those from the stems.
Most difficult are berries - strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and blueberries, because you generally have to look all over for the berries and it can be difficult to tell if they are ripe or not, but if you are really paying attention, you can tell that ripe fruit is actually a little softer than underripe fruit. When in doubt, just taste it to see! But raspberries and blackberries also have thorns. My son loves raspberries so much he is willing to risk a few pokes in order to get a few berries for our supper.
Zucchini and other squashes are tough, too, because you have to find your way through the spiny leaves and stems or vines to get to the fruit. Eggplants also have spines in surprising places. Tomatoes, however, can be both a real joy - the joy of that first huge beefsteak! and a huge challenge, as there is always fruit that has rotted and you either get your hands in it or step on it, and it doesn't matter if you can see or not!
Again, you need to be patient and have a willing subject! Some kids will want to learn to do this and some won't. But if you are an adult who has always had a garden and you are now losing your vision, don't worry! You will soon learn to feel your way to harvesting just like a pro!
I can pick enough lettuce for dinner for four of us in about 15 minutes. It takes my son, who is blind, about 30 minutes to do the same job. But that's OK, because it really is all relative. He will (probably) never get a job picking produce for a living. But he can certainly harvest enough to supplement his family's nutrition and reduce food costs. He will also be able to save on transportation costs to get that food from a store, and contribute positively to the local food movement - you can't get much more local than your own backyard!
The trick to learning to harvest is to start with vegetables that are easiest to pick tactilely. Those are vegetables that can be harvested without having to search all over, and that are picked based mostly on size or other tactile difference. Lettuces and spinach are perfect, as are herbs, green onions, radishes and potatoes. Potatoes are great because you really can't harvest those effectively visually! If you have your crops in the square foot gardening system, you can tell your child to harvest box number 1, squares 1-4. I've sometimes referred to the squares as Braille cells with eight dots (like computer Braille, or Braille cells with a cursor like on a BrailleNote), and sometimes even the location of the boxes themselves are best described as a part of a Braille cell.
From lettuces and crops that grow close to the ground, you can move onto peas. English, or shelling peas, actually sound hollow when the peas are just the right size and when the vines are lightly shaken, so you can harvest these by sound! Green beans are easily done by size, but you might have to look around a bit more to find the beans and differentiate those from the stems.
Most difficult are berries - strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and blueberries, because you generally have to look all over for the berries and it can be difficult to tell if they are ripe or not, but if you are really paying attention, you can tell that ripe fruit is actually a little softer than underripe fruit. When in doubt, just taste it to see! But raspberries and blackberries also have thorns. My son loves raspberries so much he is willing to risk a few pokes in order to get a few berries for our supper.
Zucchini and other squashes are tough, too, because you have to find your way through the spiny leaves and stems or vines to get to the fruit. Eggplants also have spines in surprising places. Tomatoes, however, can be both a real joy - the joy of that first huge beefsteak! and a huge challenge, as there is always fruit that has rotted and you either get your hands in it or step on it, and it doesn't matter if you can see or not!
Again, you need to be patient and have a willing subject! Some kids will want to learn to do this and some won't. But if you are an adult who has always had a garden and you are now losing your vision, don't worry! You will soon learn to feel your way to harvesting just like a pro!
Friday, April 22, 2011
Gardening with Blind Children - Weeding!
Weeding - how in the world can a blind child or a child with a visual impairment learn to weed? Well, it may take a while, and a child who is really willing to learn, but you can start with plants purchased at a garden center. Even lettuce is sold in trays now. Have your child, or an adult who is blind or visually impaired who wants to learn to garden, feel the texture of the leaves of the desirable plants and contrast those with weedy plants. Also note that plant textures change -sometimes quite dramatically - as the plants mature. Contrast lettuces with broccoli, chinese cabbage, "regular" cabbage and radishes. Check out the tiny feathery tops of carrots compared to the robust growth of new onion plants or spinach. Many plant leaves have a distinct odor. Compare the odd smell and texture of a tomato plant, or a kale or swiss chard plant.
However you decide to do it, learning to weed is an exercise in patience, for both student and teacher.
Many who write books on organic gardening say that you should plant extra so there is enough to share with the "critters". If you are serious about your child learning to garden - and this applies to any child, not just a child who is blind - plant a LOT of extras and be willing to sacrifice a few plants in order to foster that learning.
However you decide to do it, learning to weed is an exercise in patience, for both student and teacher.
Many who write books on organic gardening say that you should plant extra so there is enough to share with the "critters". If you are serious about your child learning to garden - and this applies to any child, not just a child who is blind - plant a LOT of extras and be willing to sacrifice a few plants in order to foster that learning.
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Gardening Choices for Children who are Blind or Visually Impaired
I've been gardening with children who are blind or visually impaired for several years, as I mentioned before, but I failed to mention where that was - and you and your child can join me there in June!
Camp Tuhsmeheta (short for touch, smell, hearing, taste) is a camp for blind or visually impaired children near Greenville, Michigan, just north east of Grand Rapids on the west side of the lower peninsula. On June 17-19, 2011, we will hold Family Camp, and this year is also the 30th Reunion Event. Gardening is just one of the many activities that take place there. All activities are designed to help you and your child learn the skills they will need to be as independent as possible. You can find out more about Camp Tuhsmeheta (Camp T) by going to www.campt.org. Come join us - you'll have a blast!
So you've got your box, your light soil mix, your grids and your templates. Now what?
It's easiest to put in plants that are already started for you from a garden center or "big box" store. This is a little more expensive, but easily more satisfying for those of us who have short attention spans and want instant results! Now! You can show your child how to carefully remove the plant from the plastic tray (usually this means tearing the tray down the sides), digging a hole the proper size within the hole defined by the template, and carefully placing the root ball in the hole, covering the roots with planting mix and watering. You AND your child will know what is the desired plant and what is a weed, because you know what the plant should feel like, and in some cases, smell like.
Sometimes the roots are really tangled and need gentle loosening. IT's OK if a few of the roots break. This is not like unraveling a knotted ball of yarn!
More and more plants that people want to grow are available in plant form, but it is a LOT more expensive than planting from seed, and sometimes those plants in the big box stores have lived a stress filled life - too little water, too much water, too little sun, too much sun, traveling by truck from who-knows-where, etc. Some plants, like carrots, just can't be successfully grown from plants anyway.
I like to plant most things from seed except what I call "tropicals". These are plants that most garden magazines and books will recommend that, at least in the north where we live, you put out fairly good sized plants - otherwise you have very little hope of a harvest of any size before frost in the fall. Included in this group are tomatoes, eggplant and peppers.
Right now, at least in the upper midwest where we are now, is the best time to plant lettuce, spinach, onions, and that favorite of all spring crops - peas. There are literally thousands of varieties to choose from if you get all the seed catalogs the world offers! I like to plant a variety of all these. I often have more than 6 varieties of lettuce and 3 of spinach, and 3 or 4 kinds of peas.
Lettuces come in many shapes and sizes - I love Four Seasons - a lovely red tipped soft butterhead lettuce, and Merlot - a dark red wine colored leaf lettuce. Forellenschluss, or Trout's Tongue (sounds better in German!) is a beautiful red spotted romaine style. Spinach comes in flat leaf or crinkled leaf types, and some comes with red stems.
A special tip! Harris Seed Company, and probably a few others I haven't discovered yet, sell "pelleted seeds". These are the tiniest of seeds - the carrots and lettuces - that are so small they are difficult to feel and very difficult for a blind or visually impaired person to manage. Enter the pelleted seed. Each seed is coated in a bit of clay, so that the seed is much bigger - and possible to feel - and easier to anyone to plant! Another tip - seed tapes? Don't bother. You can hardly get them to stay buried long enough to sprout.
Why would I plant stuff of odd colors with children who are blind or visually impaired? Not all blind children are totally blind, and most kids get a real kick out of stuff with unexpected colors - blind kids are not an exception! So purple "green" beans also get my vote, and white eggplant, and chocolate colored peppers!
Peas are fascinating - snow peas, the kind used in Chinese cooking, are usually the fastest to grow and first to be ready to pick - while the seeds inside the pod are barely there. The pods will just be flat or curved with hardly any bumps on them at all. Snap peas should be picked when the pods feel firm and juicy. The walls of the pea pods will be thick and, like snow peas, you eat the whole pea, pod and all. Shelling peas -also called English peas - the kind our grandmothers might have grown - are the only vegetable I have discovered yet, besides dry beans, that you can pick by sound. I'm serious. A mature, but not yet too mature, pod full of beautiful sweet ripe peas will sound hollow. A person who is blind or visually impaired can go up to the trellis the plants are growing on, rattle a few branches or stems of pea plants and hear where the pods are to pick them. These are the rewards the kids at camp most love - a sweet snap or shelling pea, right off the vine, standing there in the sunlight, eating peas out of your hand. The only thing better, maybe, is doing the same thing with strawberries or a warm, sundrenched peach!
Camp Tuhsmeheta (short for touch, smell, hearing, taste) is a camp for blind or visually impaired children near Greenville, Michigan, just north east of Grand Rapids on the west side of the lower peninsula. On June 17-19, 2011, we will hold Family Camp, and this year is also the 30th Reunion Event. Gardening is just one of the many activities that take place there. All activities are designed to help you and your child learn the skills they will need to be as independent as possible. You can find out more about Camp Tuhsmeheta (Camp T) by going to www.campt.org. Come join us - you'll have a blast!
So you've got your box, your light soil mix, your grids and your templates. Now what?
It's easiest to put in plants that are already started for you from a garden center or "big box" store. This is a little more expensive, but easily more satisfying for those of us who have short attention spans and want instant results! Now! You can show your child how to carefully remove the plant from the plastic tray (usually this means tearing the tray down the sides), digging a hole the proper size within the hole defined by the template, and carefully placing the root ball in the hole, covering the roots with planting mix and watering. You AND your child will know what is the desired plant and what is a weed, because you know what the plant should feel like, and in some cases, smell like.
Sometimes the roots are really tangled and need gentle loosening. IT's OK if a few of the roots break. This is not like unraveling a knotted ball of yarn!
More and more plants that people want to grow are available in plant form, but it is a LOT more expensive than planting from seed, and sometimes those plants in the big box stores have lived a stress filled life - too little water, too much water, too little sun, too much sun, traveling by truck from who-knows-where, etc. Some plants, like carrots, just can't be successfully grown from plants anyway.
I like to plant most things from seed except what I call "tropicals". These are plants that most garden magazines and books will recommend that, at least in the north where we live, you put out fairly good sized plants - otherwise you have very little hope of a harvest of any size before frost in the fall. Included in this group are tomatoes, eggplant and peppers.
Right now, at least in the upper midwest where we are now, is the best time to plant lettuce, spinach, onions, and that favorite of all spring crops - peas. There are literally thousands of varieties to choose from if you get all the seed catalogs the world offers! I like to plant a variety of all these. I often have more than 6 varieties of lettuce and 3 of spinach, and 3 or 4 kinds of peas.
Lettuces come in many shapes and sizes - I love Four Seasons - a lovely red tipped soft butterhead lettuce, and Merlot - a dark red wine colored leaf lettuce. Forellenschluss, or Trout's Tongue (sounds better in German!) is a beautiful red spotted romaine style. Spinach comes in flat leaf or crinkled leaf types, and some comes with red stems.
A special tip! Harris Seed Company, and probably a few others I haven't discovered yet, sell "pelleted seeds". These are the tiniest of seeds - the carrots and lettuces - that are so small they are difficult to feel and very difficult for a blind or visually impaired person to manage. Enter the pelleted seed. Each seed is coated in a bit of clay, so that the seed is much bigger - and possible to feel - and easier to anyone to plant! Another tip - seed tapes? Don't bother. You can hardly get them to stay buried long enough to sprout.
Why would I plant stuff of odd colors with children who are blind or visually impaired? Not all blind children are totally blind, and most kids get a real kick out of stuff with unexpected colors - blind kids are not an exception! So purple "green" beans also get my vote, and white eggplant, and chocolate colored peppers!
Peas are fascinating - snow peas, the kind used in Chinese cooking, are usually the fastest to grow and first to be ready to pick - while the seeds inside the pod are barely there. The pods will just be flat or curved with hardly any bumps on them at all. Snap peas should be picked when the pods feel firm and juicy. The walls of the pea pods will be thick and, like snow peas, you eat the whole pea, pod and all. Shelling peas -also called English peas - the kind our grandmothers might have grown - are the only vegetable I have discovered yet, besides dry beans, that you can pick by sound. I'm serious. A mature, but not yet too mature, pod full of beautiful sweet ripe peas will sound hollow. A person who is blind or visually impaired can go up to the trellis the plants are growing on, rattle a few branches or stems of pea plants and hear where the pods are to pick them. These are the rewards the kids at camp most love - a sweet snap or shelling pea, right off the vine, standing there in the sunlight, eating peas out of your hand. The only thing better, maybe, is doing the same thing with strawberries or a warm, sundrenched peach!
Monday, April 18, 2011
Gardening Season is here!
I've planted lettuce, so all must be right with the world! On Sunday last week, when the Grand Rapids area hit close to 90 degrees, I got 8 square feet of lettuce planted in my square foot garden box.
Last week I gave a talk on how to garden with children who are blind or have low vision at the MAER (Michigan Association for the Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired) . Gardening with blind children is something I have been doing for seven years at Camp Tuhsmeheta, a camp for children who are blind or visually impaired near Greenville, MI. This was before the big boom in interest in growing your own food. The kids at camp have taught me a great deal about what works and what doesn't.
There are three simple tools that nearly anyone with a few square feet of land can use, and if you don't have any land, you can still use pots on your patio or balcony or even your window sill. First, buy or borrow the book, Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew, or look up information on the square foot gardening method online. You build a box from regular lumber or the plastic stuff, put it on the ground in a place where it will get plenty of sun and it will be easy for you to water, and fill it with a light weight soil mix - don't use regular dirt from your yard. The mix is 1 part vermiculite, available at garden centers or home centers as insulation material, 1 part peat moss, and 2 parts compost. Mix it all on a big tarp and fill your box. Then you need a grid - it's like a solid form of graph paper with 1'x1' square sections.. Take some small gauge wood, like 1"x1", and make graph paper using cotter pins to connect them at intersections. This was they fold up and are easy to store for the winter. Screw them down on top of your box filled with planting mix.
Next you need a template. Take 1'x1' squares of cardboard or stiff plastic sheets and use a hole saw or just a utility knife to cut holes in a pattern in the square - 16 holes in 4 rows for onions and carrots and lettuce, or 4 holes for marigold plants or green beans, and 1 hole in the center for broccoli or cabbage plants. This allows a person who is blind to locate where the seeds or plants need to go. Cover with enough soil according to the package of seed and water, and in a few weeks your child or adult friend who is blind or visually impaired will be able to feel little plant sprouts!
Last week I gave a talk on how to garden with children who are blind or have low vision at the MAER (Michigan Association for the Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired) . Gardening with blind children is something I have been doing for seven years at Camp Tuhsmeheta, a camp for children who are blind or visually impaired near Greenville, MI. This was before the big boom in interest in growing your own food. The kids at camp have taught me a great deal about what works and what doesn't.
There are three simple tools that nearly anyone with a few square feet of land can use, and if you don't have any land, you can still use pots on your patio or balcony or even your window sill. First, buy or borrow the book, Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew, or look up information on the square foot gardening method online. You build a box from regular lumber or the plastic stuff, put it on the ground in a place where it will get plenty of sun and it will be easy for you to water, and fill it with a light weight soil mix - don't use regular dirt from your yard. The mix is 1 part vermiculite, available at garden centers or home centers as insulation material, 1 part peat moss, and 2 parts compost. Mix it all on a big tarp and fill your box. Then you need a grid - it's like a solid form of graph paper with 1'x1' square sections.. Take some small gauge wood, like 1"x1", and make graph paper using cotter pins to connect them at intersections. This was they fold up and are easy to store for the winter. Screw them down on top of your box filled with planting mix.
Next you need a template. Take 1'x1' squares of cardboard or stiff plastic sheets and use a hole saw or just a utility knife to cut holes in a pattern in the square - 16 holes in 4 rows for onions and carrots and lettuce, or 4 holes for marigold plants or green beans, and 1 hole in the center for broccoli or cabbage plants. This allows a person who is blind to locate where the seeds or plants need to go. Cover with enough soil according to the package of seed and water, and in a few weeks your child or adult friend who is blind or visually impaired will be able to feel little plant sprouts!
Friday, April 15, 2011
Concert Etiquette
Since I have a blog I'm going to get on my soapbox a little here. We recently went to a fabulous concert of Gold Cup Winners in the National Federation of Music Clubs Festival program. Under this system, children taking lessons from a member teacher - in a number of different instruments, but mostly piano and violin - work on perfecting two pieces of music for a judge who gives them between 1 and 5 points, 5 being the highest. Once the student has accumulated 15 points - meaning 3 Superior ratings in a row (three years) or a combination of lower scores over more years can earn a gold cup. After another 15 points (total of 30) another, larger cup can be earned, up to a 6th gold cup, which must be mammoth!
All of the students in this concert had earned their gold cups, meaning most of them only play in this particular concert every three years - almost like waiting for the Olympics. It's really an honor, and the level of playign ability and musicianship was quite outstanding.
I should say the students were outstanding. Outstanding playing, outstanding stage presence, outstanding politeness. Then there were the parents and others in the audience. Those reading books, or worse, working on their laptops until "their child" performed, and then complained loudly that "that concert was too long". LOTS of people were moving around during performances which were all less than 10 minutes, so you would think, except for a crying baby, you could wait until the slight break between performers before getting up to do whatever you need to do. I won't even try to say what I feel about the cell phone use - fortunately none went off during a performance.
Does this kind of behavior show our children how we value their hard work? That we are proud of every child who has the gumption to perform in front of 30 or 40 of their peers, plus teachers, parents and grandparents? That we honor their talents and abilities and drive to do something well?
Please, at concerts, give students and professionals the benefit of your full attention. They have worked hard on their art and they deserve to be honored for that.
All of the students in this concert had earned their gold cups, meaning most of them only play in this particular concert every three years - almost like waiting for the Olympics. It's really an honor, and the level of playign ability and musicianship was quite outstanding.
I should say the students were outstanding. Outstanding playing, outstanding stage presence, outstanding politeness. Then there were the parents and others in the audience. Those reading books, or worse, working on their laptops until "their child" performed, and then complained loudly that "that concert was too long". LOTS of people were moving around during performances which were all less than 10 minutes, so you would think, except for a crying baby, you could wait until the slight break between performers before getting up to do whatever you need to do. I won't even try to say what I feel about the cell phone use - fortunately none went off during a performance.
Does this kind of behavior show our children how we value their hard work? That we are proud of every child who has the gumption to perform in front of 30 or 40 of their peers, plus teachers, parents and grandparents? That we honor their talents and abilities and drive to do something well?
Please, at concerts, give students and professionals the benefit of your full attention. They have worked hard on their art and they deserve to be honored for that.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
It's IEP Season!
It's IEP (Individual Education Plan) season again, and that means many families with children with special needs feel like their hearts are in a knot. There is no doubt at all that IEPs are scary events for many families, but even more so for single parents. While I could really write a LONG time on this subject, here are a few quick ideas that may make your IEP go smoother.
1) Bring treats - preferably homemade. This shows that you are an open and hospitable person and can drastically change the mood of the room.
2) Bring a friend with you. I have attended a lot of IEPs for other kids, and been remarkably able to keep things in perspective, but when I am involved in my son's IEP, I can sound like a blithering idiot! Bring a friend who can help you calm down and stay focused, even when you hear things you don't want to hear, or know are wrong for your child but you have NO idea how to convince THOSE OTHERS in the room otherwise!
3) Write a parent report, and be sure that this report is the first topic at the IEP Team meeting, and is included in your child's IEP. This report tells what YOU think the priorities should be for your son or daughter. Include your dreams for his future (e.g. "we expect Greg to go to college, to get a job in his chosen field, and be able to raise a family if he so chooses", or "we know that Dana will always need some assistance, but we expect her to be able to find a job in which she can be a contributing member of society".
Please note: if your child is blind or visually impaired and HAS NO OTHER DISABILITIES, there should be no reason that he or she cannot live independently as an adult. All IEP Team members - including you - should have this ultimate goal in mind with all of their proposals for your child's education.
Please note again: If writing is NOT your strong suit, you can ask me for help. Please feel free to email me at gwenbotting@gmail.com.
I hope these three suggestions can help you on your way to a more effective and less stressful IEP for your child.
Gwen
1) Bring treats - preferably homemade. This shows that you are an open and hospitable person and can drastically change the mood of the room.
2) Bring a friend with you. I have attended a lot of IEPs for other kids, and been remarkably able to keep things in perspective, but when I am involved in my son's IEP, I can sound like a blithering idiot! Bring a friend who can help you calm down and stay focused, even when you hear things you don't want to hear, or know are wrong for your child but you have NO idea how to convince THOSE OTHERS in the room otherwise!
3) Write a parent report, and be sure that this report is the first topic at the IEP Team meeting, and is included in your child's IEP. This report tells what YOU think the priorities should be for your son or daughter. Include your dreams for his future (e.g. "we expect Greg to go to college, to get a job in his chosen field, and be able to raise a family if he so chooses", or "we know that Dana will always need some assistance, but we expect her to be able to find a job in which she can be a contributing member of society".
Please note: if your child is blind or visually impaired and HAS NO OTHER DISABILITIES, there should be no reason that he or she cannot live independently as an adult. All IEP Team members - including you - should have this ultimate goal in mind with all of their proposals for your child's education.
Please note again: If writing is NOT your strong suit, you can ask me for help. Please feel free to email me at gwenbotting@gmail.com.
I hope these three suggestions can help you on your way to a more effective and less stressful IEP for your child.
Gwen
Monday, April 11, 2011
How to Succeed by Trying Event
Jackie Paulding and I were the co-directors of the best "How to Succeed By Trying Weekend" yet! "How to Succeed By Trying" is a preparatory experience for older teens who need to work on interviewing, resume building and - yes - eating and dressing skills that are necessary as they enter the adult world. This event has been offered by Opportunities Unlimited for the Blind at Camp Tuhsmeheta for the last 7 years. This year the program was held on the Flint Campus of the MIchigan School for the Deaf in a building originally built for blind students. While Jackie managed all the programming, and I managed all the cooking and food, the real key to success was the collaboration between three different organizations: Opportunities Unlimited for the Blind , Michigan Department of Education – Low Incidence Outreach, and Western Michigan University, and was endorsed by the Michigan Commission for the Blind , which provided funding for a number of students to attend. Two professionals with many years of experience teamed with graduate students in the field of blindness and visual impairments counseling and rehabilitation. Mentor Matt McCubbin , co-owner of AT Guys, stated, “This was the best How to Succeed By Trying ever, and I’ve attended them all!” Some of the workshops included speed interviewing (like speed dating – students had 4 minutes to make a good impression on their interviewers and then got feedback), dressing for success - including sewing on buttons, ironing, and makeup, resume building, feeding yourself on a very tight budget, and eating and etiquette at a formal conference luncheon and much more. Jackie and I wish to thank everyone involved for helping them put together such a fantastic learning opportunity for young adults who are soon to be entering college or the job market.
Friday, April 1, 2011
Welcome!
Hello and welcome to my first blog! Those of you who know me well know that this is a big step for me! My intention is to post many things from my arsenal of great ideas that work for raising children who are blind or visually impaired, including help with cooking, gardening and other ideas for independent living, IEPs, helping you with communication with your child's teachers and school, and many other things.
I am currently the President of Michigan Parents of Children with Visual Impairments, a position I have held for over 10 years, and am a board member of Opportunities for the Blind, the organization which has run Camp Tuhsmeheta - a camp for blind and visually impaired children near Greenville, Michigan - for the last 9 years. I have two children with my husband, Jim. Greg is nearly 17 and has retinopathy of prematurity and has only light perception, meaning he is blind, uses Braille and a cane for mobility. Krista is 15 and a lovely person in her own right. We live in a rural community, have a huge garden, raise angora goats and have a few miscellaneous dogs and cats.
Raising Greg and being involved with Michigan Parents of Children with Visual Impairments has given me so many great opportunities. I have observed carefully, thought deeply, exercised all my creative ability, and learned more than I ever wanted to know about blindness and blind children. It has been a tremendously rewarding experience! I have deeply appreciated all the friendships with parents, teachers, mentors who are blind, and children and students I have been privileged to know. Greg has traveled to Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama with a friend when he was 12 - and no parents! He went to Costa Rica on a service learning project with his school when he was 14 - and no parents! He recently traveled to Harvard University for a national debate competition with his debate team - and no parents! He makes bread for our household every two weeks or so. He knows how to pit cherries, make salad, and roast a chicken. He is a great kid, a good student and very likely to succeed in a sighted world.
So I hope you will join me on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays for new posts on raising children with visual impairments!
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