Future Reflections Winter/Spring 2000, Vol. 19 No. 1
Reprinted from the VIP Newsletter, Volume 15, Number 3, a publication of the Blind Children�s Fund, Michigan.
Editor�s
Note: This tiny little article packs a great big lesson for parents of blind
toddlers and pre-schoolers! If any readers have other suggestions of �the
real-thing, playthings� for toddlers and preschoolers, please pass them on to
me for the next issue!
Marion is a mother, a nurse, and an aunt who knows all
about kids. When she was about to visit her sister�s family, she wanted to
bring along a small gift for her niece.
So, for Susan, who is 2 � years old, Marion bought a
gift-wrapped tin of plastic bandages in several sizes. Her husband thought the
gift was weird, cheap, and inappropriate, and he said so. Marion merely smiled.
Susan, however, was utterly delighted. First, she
looked all over her own body for some place she could use a bandage. She found
a small scratch, and it seemed to qualify.
Then she put two on her doll. After that she sorted
out the big bandages, the middle-sized ones, and the little ones. And she asked
Aunt Marion what kind of cuts, scratches, bruises, or sore spots each one ought
to be saved for.
Over the next few days, the bandages obviously were
her favorite playthings.
What Aunt Marion had known was that at 2 �, Susan�s
play would probably include lots of simple pretending based on the real and
simple events of her own life.
So the bandages were a smash of a gift because they
helped Susan to pretend to do something important that grownups do. And every
bandage�big, medium, or small�became a source of fun and a learning experience.
That�s the very best gift of all.
From Primary News
6/99