What Can Your Deaf-Blind Child Expect

What Can Your Deaf-Blind Child Expect

Future Reflections January/February 1983, Vol. 2 No. 1
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WHAT CAN YOUR DEAF-BLIND
CHILD EXPECT
By: Margaret Warren
Do you have a deaf-blind child in your family?
Perhaps your child has a little useful sight and/or
some hearing, or perhaps he or she has no useful
sight or hearing. What can you expect for your child?
Several years ago, not very much. Things are
changing now. With more research and modern
techniques your child has a chance to live a much
more happy, normal life. Let's look at some of the
possibilities.
From infancy your child should have a specialized
teacher available to offer suggestions and
demonstrate techniques, probably coming to your
home. Then your child will probably go to a special
school, or have special help in a regular school. Each
school has its own ideas on communication
techniques, but most teach the one-hand manual
alphabet and some word signs for the deaf. Your
child will probably also be taught some speech
and/or understanding of others speech -- to what
extent, depends on individual abilities and on the
methods used at the particular school. If your child
masters communication skills, plus the knowledge of
typing and Braille and travel skills, then he or she
may be able to go to a regular high school with an
interpreter. Your child then may want to go to college
after high school. This is possible with the skills
mentioned above and interpreters. A number of deaf
blind have gone through college. He or she may
attend a regular college or go to Gallaudet College in
Washington, D.C. (a special college for the deaf).
After college your child will want a vocation. Here I
cannot name any special ones in detail, but I am
acquainted with deaf-blind people who are in factory
work, computer programming, and rehabilitation
teaching. These are the ones I know of, but there are
many more. There is no reason your deaf-blind child
should be put in a sheltered shop, unless there are
other problems more serious.
Your son or daughter may want to take the
correspondence course, "Independent Living
Without Sight and Hearing", from the Hadley
School for the Blind (700 Elm Street, Winnetka, IL
60093). Also, he or she may wish to take special
training from your state rehabilitation agency, or
the Helen Keller National Center for Deaf-Blind
Youths and Adults (111 Middle Neck Road, Sands
Point, NY 11050). Some agencies are better than
others.
Now that we have looked at educational and
vocational possibilities, let's look at some other
things that can be done.
Depending upon the cause of deafness and the
degree, your child may be helped by surgery. If
surgery is not advisable, a hearing aid may be a
great help -- even if a person cannot understand
speech, he may get useful information from other
sounds.
In communication there are many possibilities. I
have already mentioned the one-hand manual
alphabet and sign language. I, myself, use the
Tellatouch, which looks like a small typewriter. To
talk to me, a person just types what he wants to say,
and tiny pegs form Braille dots under my fingertip.
Other methods of communication are printing on the
palm; the alphabet glove; the alphabet card and
plate; Braille; Morse Code; and special signals. Some
of these have to be studied by the speaker, and some
do not. The ones that do not are called "universal
means". Some deaf-blind persons learn to read lips
by placing the hand on the mouth and throat, but
this takes special training and should not be used
with all people because many will object to having
someone feeling their face.
Those who cannot speak clearly need to develop a
note system to express themselves to strangers who
cannot use signs. Some common things can always
be kept on a card, but the person needs to think ahead
if going to the store, or on a trip alone, and type out
what may need to be said. It is helpful to know
handwriting, so things unexpected can be written.
There are some telephone devices which can help.
One is the Tactile Speech Indicator from the Helen
Keller Center. With this the deaf-blind person feels
vibrations, but the hearing person has to use "yes",
"no", and "I do not know", or Morse Code. Also, the Helen Keller Center is working on a special version
of a Teletype, which will make regular messages
possible in Braille, instead of print.
There is an alarm clock for the deaf-blind, but it
comes in two pieces. A Remind-O-Timer is used. A
vibrator is attached to it and placed under the
mattress or pillow. One of the newest devices is the
Tactile Communicator. It can be wired into a
telephone, Teletype (TTY), doorbell, or fire alarm;
each has its own coded signal. It comes in two parts.
The transmitter, which is wired, has an antenna.
The receiver is run by batteries and carried by the
user. When there is a signal, it will vibrate, alerting
the user to the type of signal being received. There
are other uses also.
For more information on methods of communicatio, contact the Hadley School for the Blind, and ask for the pamphlet, "Touch Communication". For information on the devices mentioned above or a list of special aids and appliances for the deaf-blind contact the Hellen Keller Center. For information about the Telletouch, contact the American Foundation for the Blind, 15 W. 16th Street, New York, NY 10011.
I will conclude with a few remarks from a personal
point of view about meeting people and getting
acquainted. It is difficult to tell personality with the
touch methods of communication. So often, the deaf
blind person can make the mistake of thinking a
person is unfriendly or mad, when he is just one of
those people of few words, or he is just getting used to
our methods of communication. Also, we cannot
identify people with these methods; they must
always introduce themselves. I cannot tell the
number of times people have come up to me and said,
"Remember me? I talked to you about a year ago at
the state convention."
When asked to talk to a deaf-blind person, quite often
people say, "What should I tell her?" The answer to
that is to talk to us about the same things you would
to your hearing friends. We may not always have
experience with the subject you are talking about,
but we can listen and learn.
I hope this information will be helpful to you to
understand the deaf-blind better.
Margaret Warren is a deaf-blind woman who lives in
Des Moines, Iowa. She works out of her home as a
proofreader of Braille material. She also takes an
'live part in her church and goes to a day care
center as a volunteer to read stories aloud to the children.
One of the most serious problems face by blind children is the lack of contact with competent blind adults. Deaf-blind children are much less likely to meet adults who have lived with, and successfully overcome, the problems of deaf-blindness. Miss Warren believes that deaf-blind adults have a responsibility to inform and encourage deaf-blind children and their parents.
Miss Warren also believes that deaf-blind people
need to work together to solve common problems.
That is why she continues to be a leader in the
Committee on the Deaf-Blind of the National Federation
of the Blind. She has written these observations
about deaf-blindess in the hope that parents of deaf
blind children will have the data they need to plan
for the future.
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