American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults
Future Reflections Special Issue on Tactile Fluency FEATURE
Encouraging Exploration
by Carol Castellano
From the Editor: Carol Castellano has dedicated her career to breaking down barriers for blind children and their families. She founded and is the past president of the Parents of Blind Children of New Jersey (POBC-NJ), and she is a past president of the National Organization of Parents of Blind Children (NOPBC). Her books include Making It Work and Getting Ready for College Begins in Third Grade.
We have so many hopes and dreams for our blind children. We want them to develop to their full potential. We want them to be able to do things for themselves and become contributing members of the household. We hope they will learn to play and get along with others. We want them to learn well in school and eventually to do fulfilling work. We wish for a satisfying life for them, complete with friends, family, and fun. As we guide our blind children toward exploration of the world, we lead them closer to the achievement of all these goals.
Exploration is the key to learning for all babies, so it is critical to make sure that our blind babies move out into the world. Through exploration babies discover the world, finding out about all the fascinating things that are out there. As the baby comes into contact with objects in the environment, he/she begins to learn what things look like, how they work, and what to expect. Curiosity awakens, and the baby becomes motivated to learn even more. Concept development begins, and with it come problem solving and the ability to make choices and decisions. The ability to gain information about the world through touch and the other senses is a foundational skill for a blind child to master.
Interesting, stimulating contact with objects "out there" helps the baby perceive himself or herself as an active agent in the world. Blind children are very vulnerable to being acted upon by others. People constantly try to guide them, moving them and turning them and inadvertently teaching them to become passive. In the words of Joe Cutter, the renowned early childhood mobility specialist, blind children need to be doers, not just done-to-ers. We adults in the blind baby's life can provide a stimulating environment that encourages joyful, active, independent, self-initiated movement. The movement will lead to contact with objects in the world. The exploration of those objects will lead to an understanding of the world and the things in it and to a self-image as an active person.
A general knowledge of child development helps parents of blind babies determine where their child is in terms of milestones and figure out the next logical steps. Add to this a familiarity with the alternative skills of blindness (the skills that will enable the blind child to do everyday tasks without or with limited eyesight) and parents will be able to intervene if the child seems stuck. Joe Cutter refers to these interventions as "the alternative techniques of blindness for babies." For example, if blind children do not seem interested in moving and exploring, try enticing them with music or their favorite toys. We got our blind daughter to begin crawling by crinkling a bag with her favorite snack from across the room. She knew that sound well. She may not have been able to see the bag, but she sure could hear it, and that motivated her to go get it!
Parents can observe the activities other children enjoy—and from which they learn—and encourage the blind child to try the same things. One day when my sighted son was two, he crawled into one of our kitchen cabinets and began banging on the pots and pans. It occurred to me that our five-year-old daughter, our blind child, had never done this. I nudged her right into that cabinet with him so she could enjoy the fun and have that developmental experience, too.
As our children move and explore, we parents supply them with words. We name the objects they touch and the actions they perform. We talk with them about people and places, sensations and emotions. These words help children name and organize the information they take in through exploration. As development progresses, children move from the concrete world of sensations to the conceptual world of thought, ideas, imagination, and reasoning. They begin to ask WHY, to wonder HOW, and ponder WHAT IF . . . The combination of exploration, discovery, and language development enables so many other aspects of development—intellectual growth, social ability, even behavior and emotional development.
In order for the process of development to continue, we need to provide lots of opportunities for exploration, learning, and practicing new skills. We must be careful not to let our fears hold the blind child back from movement and activity. Instead, we must learn about the safe, effective methods that blind people use to accomplish various tasks and make sure that our children learn those skills.
As our blind children get older, their exploration moves out into the larger world. They move about more independently and interact with more people outside the family group. Take them with you into the community. Give them firsthand experience with the supermarket, the post office, and the bank. Take them to the park, to a farm, and to town hall. Introduce them to plays and concerts. Read them the newspaper; it has lots of interesting features, plus the sports pages, and of course the comics. All these activities will help your children develop a wide body of knowledge that will spark intellectual curiosity. This knowledge base will enable your children to achieve reading and school success and will facilitate normal social relationships with peers.
At home, continued exploration for the school-age child might take the form of chores and other household tasks. Let the child fully explore the kitchen, the basement, and the toolshed. Encourage all the "how" questions. How does an omelet get made? How does the lawnmower cut the grass? How does the garbage get out to the curb every few days? Remember that the blind child needs to know everything that other children know. If others are learning about something through sight, the blind child needs to learn about it through touch and the other senses, along with words. By building a solid foundation of knowledge the child will grow up to become a fully functioning, fully competent adult.
At school, especially in the early grades, make sure the child is allowed ample time to explore the classroom, the hallways, the cafeteria, the restrooms, and the playground. If our children are given the opportunity to gain an understanding of the school environment, they will not have to rely on someone guiding them, either physically or through a constant stream of information. We want our children to learn to gather information for themselves and to self-orient. Insist that your child have the freedom to move around in the school environment with an increasing level of independence.
Make sure that the child's teachers and classroom aides encourage age-appropriate independent movement. Teach them not to help too much and not to restrict the child's movement on the playground or during class activities. You may have to help school staff put aside assumptions about what is or is not safe for a blind child. At the same time, make sure the child learns the skills necessary for keeping safe. Invite the teachers to be on the team that has as its goal a child who is independent, self-motivated, self-directed, and responsible.
If our blind children are able to discover information for themselves, tap into a knowledge base formed by many life experiences, and perform the alternative skills of blindness, they will have the foundation for self-reliance and good decision-making. They will grow up with confidence, excitement in trying new things, and a lifelong love of learning. This is the future we seek for all children, blind and sighted alike.
Media Share
