Ask HN: My son might be blind – how to best support
11–20 of 168 posts
Re: Ask HN: My son might be blind – how to best support
#12What does your pediatrician think?
Because we respect our fellow HNers, there should be no doubt that OP did (or is about to do) the literal most obvious thing of consulting with a pediatrician. They're asking for support and advice from their community.
It's important to know what the level of impairment is in order to give advice. As an example, I used to play PlanetSide 2 with two legally blind people who could still get more kills than me and with one other who could sit in a tank turret and shoot at the coloured blobs, so "blind" could mean a broad range of ability.
Re: Ask HN: My son might be blind – how to best support
#13Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because we respect our fellow HNers, there should be no doubt that OP did (or is about to do) the literal most obvious thing of consulting with a pediatrician. They're asking for support and advice from their community.
I don't think it's impolite to ask a clarification question. Parents with their first child often have unrealistic expectations of development milestones. We want to get that out of the way first. Crucially, the OP has not provided a diagnosis (source of blindness), which one would get after soliciting medical advice and conducting tests.
I have a friend who got his first daughter a hearing test. The audiologist delayed the test twice until he finally gave up.
His daughter was able to hear instructions like “go get your socks” but since she was two and not talking, they leapt to the conclusion that it was probably hearing related.
Three years later, I still make fun of him for it but at the time I tried to keep a straight face.
Ironically, he’s a medical doctor himself.
Re: Ask HN: My son might be blind – how to best support
#14This book isn’t specifically about how to best support a blind child, but it might still be of interest.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Far_from_the_Tree
Either way, I hope for nothing but the best for you, your son, and your family. It’ll be tough, but you’ve got this and your son is lucky to have you as a parent.
Re: Ask HN: My son might be blind – how to best support
#15Sorry to hear this. I have no experience with blind people, but if I had a blind child I think I would at least during certain interactions keep my eyes closed or covered, to at least better understand his/hers perspective, and have a shared context.
Having said that, we live in a time where there are lots of treatment options and aids, so I’m sure he’ll be able to have all the experiences non-visually impaired children might have :)
Re: Ask HN: My son might be blind – how to best support
#16Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because we respect our fellow HNers, there should be no doubt that OP did (or is about to do) the literal most obvious thing of consulting with a pediatrician. They're asking for support and advice from their community.
I don't think it's impolite to ask a clarification question. Parents with their first child often have unrealistic expectations of development milestones. We want to get that out of the way first. Crucially, the OP has not provided a diagnosis (source of blindness), which one would get after soliciting medical advice and conducting tests.
The comment read to me as disrespectfully implying to check with a pediatrician as if OP hadn't already. But ironically... perhaps that was my own disrespectful reading of the comment.
Re: Ask HN: My son might be blind – how to best support
#17Hopefully this will get you started in the right direction:
Braille Institute of America: Understanding vision loss can be challenging — and scary. It doesn’t have to be. Explore resources about symptoms & conditions, and get connected to ways we can help. https://www.brailleinstitute.org/
American Foundation for The Blind: Since its inception, the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) has served as the leading source of information and research encompassing blindness and low vision in the United States. https://www.afb.org/blindness-and-low-vision
Technology Tools for Children with Low Vision: For children who are visually impaired, technology can play a big role in reaching developmental milestones and closing learning gaps. https://www.aao.org/eye-health/tips-prevention/technology-ap...
I work as an accessibility engineer so I work with and help people with disabilities every day. Let me know if you need any more resources and I'd be happy to send more.
Re: Ask HN: My son might be blind – how to best support
#18I have, I think, no real expert advice to offer you. Except this small anecdote.
One of the kids in my 4-year old son's class is blind. I went along for a day to help out on a school trip to some massive playground, which involved loading 60 kids into a bus (they usually walk/bike to school, so not everyone was used to the idea of large buses); keeping track of them in the playground, feeding them, etc etc. Lots of potential for disaster, haha.
Throughout the day, it struck me that for the most part this blind kid was just another kid amongst peers. It was very wholesome to see the kids understand his limits instinctively, help him out whenever needed but mostly just bantering and playing alongside him.
I never gave these things much thought before, but observing this I saw the importance of having quality, supportive peers to interact with. I hope you can find a supportive, nurturing environment for your boy: one that highlights and reinforces his strengths, not his weaknesses.
Re: Ask HN: My son might be blind – how to best support
#19treat him normally and let him explore the world with other senses. Such senses (especially hearing) in us develop with greater capability than others. Blindness isn't a difficult thing to live with in this age of high-tech, specially when one is blind from childhood, as one doesn't need to carry a baggage of emotions of suffering and has enough time to learn and build one's own path.
Make him also meet with fellow blind children and be part of the community once he's grown to a few years old. With them he'll experience the greatest ease.
Give him toys and tech with audio/haptic feedback and not necessarily ones which look extravagant in appearance.
Best of luck
Re: Ask HN: My son might be blind – how to best support
#20There's a Google Glass reseller + app maker called Envision, which lets you use Google Glass's camera and speaker to have the computer explain what you're looking at.
https://shop.letsenvision.com/products/glasses-home
features: Instant Text, Scan Text, Batch Scan, Call an Ally, Call Aira, Describe Scene, Detect Light, Recognise Cash, Detect Colors, Find People, Find Objects, Teach a Face, Ask Envision, Explore and more