Parents Seminar Report

Parents Seminar Report

Future Reflections September- December 1983, Vol. 2 No. 5
(back) (contents) (next)
PARENTS SEMINAR REPORT
On July 2nd, 1983, the National Federation of the
Blind once again demonstrated its concern and expertise
about the needs of blind children and their
parents. A well-organized, informative and thought
provoking seminar for parents and educators of blind
children was held as a part of the many convention
activities of the NFB.
The seminar was first preceded by the elections and
presentation of the constitution of the newly organized
Parents of Blind Children Division of the NFB. After
comments by the national president, Dr. Kenneth
Jernigan, the seminar began with a panel discussion
entitled, "Our Family's Response to Blindness."
Panelists represented a parent of a blind toddler, a
mother whose blind children are now successful
adults, a blind man who was blind from birth, and a
father of a blind teenager. The panel was moderated
by Barbara Cheadle, parent and editor of FUTURE
REFLECTIONS.
The panel discussion was excellent in the way that it
portrayed and brought together the perspectives
parents and children have at different stages in their
lives. It was obvious how the development of a positive
attitude toward blindness could help both parent and
child as children grow from infants to adults.
The next agenda item was a talk about, "Kansas City
School for the Blind Deals with Attitudes; The Blind
Child and Other Children with Special Needs," by
Ralph Bartley, Superintendent of the Kansas School
for the Visually Handicapped. Mr. Bartley gave some
excellent advice on a variety of topics. He first assured
us that, as parents, we knew more about parenting
than we often think we do.
He then went on to talk about mutiplyhandicapped
children. He warned parents to, "Be careful. There are
some definite problems with definitions about who is
blind/multiple-handicapped, or multiplehandicapped/blind,
or multiple-impaired, or severely/
multiple-handicapped, or all this other jargon that is
going on. Be terribly careful if your child is put in one
of these classes." Some personal experiences he had
while teaching multiple-handicapped/blind children
taught him how often blind children are mislabeled
multiple-handicapped when the kids may have just
had a rough deal in life, the school did not have the
program the child needed, or funding problems made
it more convenient to label them so.
In his concluding remarks, Mr. Bartley described some
exciting joint projects of the NFB of Kansas and the
Kansas School for the Blind. For example, a local
chapter of the NFB has sponsored a creative writing
contest for the students at the school. Also, the
National Federation of the Blind provides a vocational
counseling program for the older students. Two
successful blind adults meet with the students at the
school once every two weeks and hold an informal
discussion. To encourage free and open communication,
school staff and administration (including Mr.
Bartley) do not attend these sessions. He was, he said,
very pleased with the results; feeling it was better than
any other career education course the school could
offer the children.
Before the noon break we all watched the video film,
"Kids with Canes." This is a production of the
Nebraska Services for the Visually Impaired. The film
showed children as young as five years of age receiving
cane travel instruction. The film also featured
the feelings and reactions of the parents to their child's
use of the cane. The film made a tremendous impact
upon the audience. Several NFB child-size canes on
exhibit were sold before the seminar ended, and at
least one five-year-old little girl was happily exploring
the hotel -- to her parents' delight -- with her new cane
in hand.
Box lunches were available in the room during the
noon break so parents and blind adults could have a
chance to meet and talk and to check out the displays.
After lunch, the seminar reconvened with some role
playing about Individualized Education Plan (IEP)
meetings.
IEP meetings can be scary and frustrating, but the
role-play helped put some humor into it while giving
some worthwhile guidelines and tips for parents.
Doris Willoughby, an itinerate teacher for the visually
impaired and author of several publications about the
education of blind children, organized the role-plays
and participated as the "resource-itinerate teacher."
Fred Schroeder, the Coordinator of Low-Incidence
Programs of Albuquerque, New Mexico schools,
played a very convincing "mobility instructor" and
Allen Harris, a blind coach and teacher in a regular
public school in Michigan, kept everything moving in
his role as "school principal." John Cheadle, a parent
of a blind son, was by turns, the confused, intimidated
"parent," and then the confident, knowledgeable
"parent." A general discussion involving the audience
followed the role-play. Fred Schroeder was able to
express his "real views" about mobility and gave some
good, practical advice about how cane travel should be
approached.
Following the role-plays were presentations by
Barbara Cheadle and Joanne Fernandes. Barbara
Cheadle talked about FUTURE REFLECTIONS -- its goals and purposes -- and Joanne Fernandes
described the highly successful NFB of Louisianna
Seminar for Parents of Blind Children held earlier this
spring. More state NFB seminars are planned for the
coming year -- which was the topic of the next agenda
item featuring Steve Benson of Illinois and Beverly
Helmboldt of Michigan. Steve and Beverly are respectively
the state president of the NFB of Illinois and the
first vice-president of the NFB of Michigan.
The seminar ended in a most appropriate way with the
discussion of parent support groups and ideas for the
future.
Parents who attended the seminar expressed a great
deal of satisfaction and pleasure from the information
and exposure to other parents and blind adults. One
parent commented about how the mock IEP sessions
really "hit home." Most parents felt there was a real
need for these kind of seminars because, "We are so
scattered all over the country with no one to talk to
who has the same problems we do." Parents repeatedly
commented about how just talking to other parents
was so helpful to them.
One couple described just one of the things they
learned by interacting with blind adults. They said
they were, "Just about convinced there was no need for
a slate and stylus." Then they began talking to the
young blind people at the seminar. "There they were,
whipping out slate and styluses from purses or pockets
to write down our names and addresses," and we
thought, "how convenient, you couldn't do that with a
Braille writer!"
It takes committment to take the time to attend a
parents workshop like this. It can also take courage to
spend a whole day talking about blindness -- dealing
with it head-on and to be around more blind people
then you've ever met or seen in a lifetime. But, when
it's all over, everyone agrees ... it was worth it!
(back) (contents) (next)