HEllo ARdith, and Mark   
      
   I've stayed out of this for the most part, as I'm not as   
   familiar as are you folks who've walked the walk with this.   
   I know blindness, and am familiar with helping adults adjust to its onset   
   later on in life.  IT even took me awhile to   
   wrap my head around some of that, because I was born this   
   way, it's the only world I've known .   
   A couple of ARdith's comments prompted this however.   
   On Wed 2011-Oct-12 23:26, Ardith Hinton (1:153/716) wrote to Mark Hofmann:   
      
      
   AH>           Even among "typical" children & adults, generating speech   
   AH> requires a more complex skill set than understanding speech.  Kids   
   AH> who are ready to learn how to express themselves in words may be   
   AH> able to use gestures & sign language to cover the transitional   
   AH> period during which they still have difficulty using oral speech.    
   AH> Nora went to a preschool group in which both were used together. The   
   AH> group included kids who had developmental delays for any number of   
   AH> reasons ... not just kids with DS... and contrary to some people's   
   AH> fears, we found she didn't become overly dependent on sign language.   
   AH> While it's a useful skill to have in one's repertoire, the majority   
   AH> of others don't understand it.  The net result, in Nora's case, was   
   AH> that it faded as her oral speech improved....  :-)    
      
   This is always good, but there are many who've bothered to   
   learn sign.  My lady's eldest daughter learned sign, as she   
   has deafness in one ear, and a Sunday school program she   
   attended in Florida was very inclusive and got their deaf   
   members involved in all their church programs.  HEnce, when   
   she was a clerk at a fast food establishment years later the deaf folks who   
   liked to gather for coffee gravitated toward   
   the line she was working at the counter, as they didn't have to write out   
   their orders on a slip of paper, but could   
   converse with her naturally using sign.   
      
   The point I always emphasize with folks adjusting to   
   blindness later on in life, or parents of blind children is   
   this:   
      
   Even if you can't do things in the "normal" way the   
   important thing is that you get them done, and can live a   
   full life.  This is why you'll never hear many of us blind   
   folks who are considered a little more radical ever use the   
   word "substitute" to describe how we do things differently.   
   Even if that's as simple as using our dry measuring cups to   
   measure liquids, or a different tool to measure material for construction,   
   etc. You'll always hear or read us stressing   
   the term "alternative" because utilization of "substitute"   
   connotes inferiority, not quite as good as.  Whereas, using   
   "alternative" to describe these different methods indicates   
   that it works just as well.   
      
   Examples abound of the stroke victim who might not be able   
   to communicate effectively using oral methods, but who can   
   use international MOrse code, for example, or ARdith's   
   example of ds children learning sign.   
      
   This is the main reason that when we teach folks adjusting   
   to blindness these techniques we teach them with the student under   
   sleepshades, so that he/she learns them as a totally   
   blind person, and understands at the gut level that the   
   residual vision remaining is not the reason they are   
   successful using them.   
      
   Just $0.02 worth from the peanut gallery with my morning   
   coffee.   
      
   Regards,   
              Richard   
   ---   
    * Origin:  (1:116/901)