Education for the Blind, Mentally Retarded Child: Where and How

Education for the Blind, Mentally Retarded Child: Where and How

Future Reflections Fall 1989, Vol. 8 No. 3
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EDUCATION FOR THE BLIND,
MENTALLY RETARDED CHILD:
WHERE AND HOW
by Colleen Roth
Editor's Note: Colleen Roth is a member of the
Board of Directors of the National Federation of
the Blind of Ohio and the Chairperson of the NFB
Parents of Blind Children Division Committee on
Blind, Multiply Handicapped Children. She also
serves as President of the Wood County, Ohio, Association
for Retarded Citizens. Her daughter
Monica, who had been severely retarded and legally
blind, was killed in March of 1988, in a tragic
school bus accident. Colleen and her husband are
now in the process of adopting an older child who
is profoundly retarded and legally blind. Colleen is
eager to assist anyone who may need advice or
counsel in raising or working with a blind, multiply
handicapped child. She understands the need for
moral support and understanding from parents
who have "been there." Her address is 1912 Tracy
Road, Northwood, Ohio 43611, and her phone is
(419) 661-9171. Here is what Colleen has to say as
reprinted from the April-May 1989, issue of the Braille Monitor.
I am the mother of a blind, retarded child who
would have been seven and a half years old if she
had lived. I am also totally blind. Understanding
blindness as I do and having dedicated my life to
working with and loving multihandicapped
youngsters (my husband and I are preparing to
adopt and provide foster care for such children),
I thought my expertise in educating and caring for these blind youngsters might be useful to other parents making difficult decisions.
When it was apparent that Monica was mentally
retarded, I contacted the Board of Mental Retardation
in my county. Later, other parents asked
me why I had not contacted a program serving the
blind instead. In the first year of Monica's schooling
I summed up the reasons for my decision this
way: If Monica had been a normal blind child
with no other disability, I would have placed her
in an appropriate educational setting near our
home. I would have insisted upon cane travel,
early introduction of Braille, and tactile skills.
Working with the school or battling alone, I
would have fostered in Monica a positive attitude
about her own capabilities and the alternative
techniques which she would have been mastering.
I would gladly have helped teachers find
materials and would have provided them with information
guiding them toward an understanding
that it is respectable to be blind. I would
also have demanded that Monica be expected to
do work equivalent to that of her sighted
classmates and would have assisted with
Monica's class when called upon.
But Monica could not compete with children in
a regular classroom. She needed to be with others
whose primary disability was not blindness but
mental retardation. In teaching a blind
youngster, you can present material and ideas as
you would to any normal child, merely using a few
alternative techniques. Monica, however,
needed a lot of special training. Mentally
retarded children learn things more gradually
than those with higher intelligence. In fact, they
may not learn anything academic at all. In the
early years a good bit of time is devoted to teaching
basic self-care skills, and blindness does not
make the teacher's task more difficult. You can
place blind, retarded children in a class with other retarded youngsters, and they will fit in and learn with a minimum of extra effort on the
teacher's part.
The same cannot be said when trying to place
blind, retarded youngsters in a setting where the
other children are merely blind. Yet parents and
professionals continue to conduct this experiment
with our blind children. Schools with classes
for the visually impaired in my county have
become a dumping ground for children whose
parents believe that blindness is the most
profound of their children's disabilities. Others
cannot or will not deal with the complexities
which arise when multiple disabilities are involved.
People sometimes excuse themselves by
saying that at least they did not abandon their
children by putting them up for adoption, but it
seems to me that when a parent refuses to
demand humane and appropriate treatment for
the child, it is almost worse. There is always the
possibility that an adoptive or foster parent
would have found the right school.
I recognize that some parents truly do not know
where to turn or what educational setting would
be best, but just because a child is blind, a
residential school for the blind or a local class for
visually impaired youngsters is not necessarily
the best choice. When one disability is mental
retardation, the child should be taught in a setting
structured for the mentally retarded.
Schools for the blind then could be required to
increase their expectations of their students by
demanding greater academic progress. They
should, as a matter of course, be expected to meet
the graduation standards accepted in other
schools in the state or region.
We in the National Federation of the Blind must
rise up and fight together to change the current
sorry state of affairs. We must remember that
while we are emphasizing the normality and competence
of the blind and are insisting upon their
intellectual capacity, we cannot forget blind
children who are mentally retarded. They are
also part of our family and deserve to be welcomed.
They too need to receive our help and
support. Sometimes we forget that we possess information
and have mastered techniques that
would immeasurably assist and encourage
parents of multihandicapped children. These
youngsters deserve care and education appropriate
to their actual needs, and very often it
is not and should not be available in programs
primarily for the blind. Let us all fight together
to protect our blind, mentally retarded children
from this manifestation of public ignorance and
misconceptions.
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