HEllo Ardith,   
      
   On Sat 2011-Oct-15 23:56, Ardith Hinton (1:153/716) wrote to Richard Webb:   
      
   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 .   
      
      
   AH>           But eventually you *did* manage to get your head around   
   AH> it... and you realized the learning curve might be steep for them as   
   AH> well.    
      
   INdeed it is, the physical skills can be taught, in fact   
   easier than one might think, but it's the mental that takes   
   them awhile to get.   
      
   AH>           Our young friend & her mother were thrilled to have an   
   AH> opportunity to work on echolocation recently with a blind woman from   
   AH> out of town.  They'd just attended a workshop where this woman was   
   AH> one of the presenters... then she took them out to the street for a   
   AH> private lesson.  When one of Nora's classmates was in a similar   
   AH> situation I'd often see him on the street with a sighted classroom   
   AH> aide.  I think our friend & her mother learned more in just one   
   AH> afternoon.  :-)    
      
   Indeed, that can work, especially when coupled with a good   
   flexible cane to discern what's in front of one that   
   echolocation won't pick up, such as that child's tricycle,   
   or the place where the tree roots have buckled the sidewalk, or other   
   hazards/obstacles.   
      
   sOme such as my first wife can feel the difference in how   
   air currents move around objects such as trees, etc. as   
   well.  I think they call it "facial vision" but may be wrong on the term.   
      
      
      
   AH>           Yes, there are.  As teachers Dallas & I worked with   
   AH> students who were learning Signed English... going into more detail   
   AH> here because you seem to have some knowledge of the subject matter.    
   AH> Basically, Signed English is a word-for- word translation of   
   AH> everyday English.  That's the variety of sign language most hearing   
   AH> people are familiar with.  Kids in school love it because they can   
   AH> talk to friends on the other side of the room without making a   
   AH> noise.  Teachers such as Dallas & me turn a blind eye... i.e.   
   AH> assuming you will pardon the expression ... because they recognize   
   AH> it's a project the kids are doing in another class & one has to   
   AH> strike while the iron is hot.  Within a week or so, we'll be back to   
   AH> confiscating notes & reading them aloud or chuckling over the fact   
   AH> that we have replied to what somebody in the back row whispered to a   
   AH> friend across the aisle & carried on without missing a beat.  In the   
   AH> room down the hall we get paid for knowing who forgot a C#, but very   
   AH> few kids understand the implications....  ;-)    
      
   YEp, that's always one of the things that excites the   
   youngsters about learning it, which I never did, for obvious reasons.  MOrse   
   code sort of holds the same attraction for   
   youngsters when they figure out that writing out that note   
   to be passed as dots and "dashes" can be helpful as a crude   
   form of encryption .   
      
   AH>           The three of us also took an evening course in American   
   AH> Sign Language during Nora's hospital stay after her stroke.  The   
   AH> instructor was a deaf person ... unlike other instructors we've had.   
   AH> I noted with interest that the grammar & word order are different,   
   AH> and that it's not kosher to mirror what you see the instructor   
   AH> doing.  You're supposed to copy the hand signals in reverse....  :-)   
      
   INteresting, never knew that one.  The person with   
   substantial hearing loss I"ve interacted with the most was   
   both deaf and blind, so sign didn't help, and I never   
   learned the finger talk thing.  HOWever, she had a little   
   machine called a teletouch, a typewriter keyboard coupled to a single braille   
   cell which was essentially pins that   
   appeared to represent the appropriate braille symbols, she'd hold a hand over   
   the single cell and you could type away at   
   her and she could actually talk back, as she could speak,   
   thanks to going deaf later on in life.   
      
   She used to like me to interpret for her during meetings and convention   
   sessions as I made a diligent effort to keep her   
   up on what was going on, who said what, etc.   
      
   Once I figured out she knew braille shorthand it got even   
   easier .   
      
      
   Regards,   
              Richard   
   ---   
    * Origin:  (1:116/901)