Hi, Richard!  Recently you wrote in a message to Ardith Hinton:   
      
   RW>  I know blindness, and am familiar with helping adults   
   RW>  adjust to its onset later on in life.  IT even took me   
   RW>  awhile to wrap my head around some of that, because I   
   RW>  was born this way, it's the only world I've known .   
      
      
             But eventually you *did* manage to get your head around it... and you   
   realized the learning curve might be steep for them as well.   
      
             Our young friend & her mother were thrilled to have an opportunity to   
   work on echolocation recently with a blind woman from out of town.  They'd just   
   attended a workshop where this woman was one of the presenters... then she took   
   them out to the street for a private lesson.  When one of Nora's classmates was   
   in a similar situation I'd often see him on the street with a sighted classroom   
   aide.  I think our friend & her mother learned more in just one afternoon.  :-)   
      
      
      
   AH>  contrary to some people's fears, we found she didn't   
   AH>  become overly dependent on sign language.  While it's   
   AH>  a useful skill to have in one's repertoire, the majority   
   AH>  of others don't understand it.  The net result, in Nora's   
   AH>  case, was that it faded as her oral speech improved....  :-)   
      
   RW>  This is always good, but there are many who've bothered   
   RW>  to learn sign.   
      
      
             Yes, there are.  As teachers Dallas & I worked with students who were   
   learning Signed English... going into more detail here because you seem to have   
   some knowledge of the subject matter.  Basically, Signed English is a word-for-   
   word translation of everyday English.  That's the variety of sign language most   
   hearing people are familiar with.  Kids in school love it because they can talk   
   to friends on the other side of the room without making a noise.  Teachers such   
   as Dallas & me turn a blind eye... i.e. assuming you will pardon the expression   
   ... because they recognize it's a project the kids are doing in another class &   
   one has to strike while the iron is hot.  Within a week or so, we'll be back to   
   confiscating notes & reading them aloud or chuckling over the fact that we have   
   replied to what somebody in the back row whispered to a friend across the aisle   
   & carried on without missing a beat.  In the room down the hall we get paid for   
   knowing who forgot a C#, but very few kids understand the implications....  ;-)   
      
             The three of us also took an evening course in American Sign Language   
   during Nora's hospital stay after her stroke.  The instructor was a deaf person   
   ... unlike other instructors we've had.  I noted with interest that the grammar   
   & word order are different, and that it's not kosher to mirror what you see the   
   instructor doing.  You're supposed to copy the hand signals in reverse....  :-)   
      
      
      
      
   --- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+   
    * Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)