I hope things work out as well as they can for you. I don't have experience with your situation but wanted to offer one suggestion of a resource for help if you are in the US. Before getting connected with them, I was completely unaware of what early intervention services were provided by our county. They have been an enormous help but most importantly, they are a great set of professionals who do everything possible to help the children in their care.
Ask HN: My son might be blind – how to best support
81–90 of 168 posts
Re: Ask HN: My son might be blind – how to best support
#82I won't speak to functional support - there's plenty of responses here and even more resources easily available for that sort of advice. But I would like to talk on how you (and others) approach this disability. There's a lot of commenters saying things akin to "blind people can lead a perfectly normal life, especially with all this tech!" - and I'm not saying a blind person can't lead a relatively normal life - but…
I’m not blind or deaf, but the deaf community in particular has… a reputation…
I worry that so much of these “communities” exist as a cope for a shitty lot in life. Deaf community in particular has elements which are very hostile to correcting deafness.
And frankly, if I ended up going blind, don’t be surprised to find me lose the will to keep living if it’s uncorrectable. I wouldn’t blame anyone in this world who’d make that choice.
Re: Ask HN: My son might be blind – how to best support
#83I am blind, it was degenerative so it sounds different than what your kid has. I have a few pieces of advice. This is more about my own upbringing, so don't take any of it as an accusation towards you. 1) Don't hide things about their condition or prospects. I grew up in a very loving home. However, my parents found out I was going blind when I was ~8, I didn't find out until I was 13. My mother wanted to protect me…
My daughter had a few disabled children in the same group during her kindergarden/school years. No more than one or two at the same time. It was always started with a proper explanation of the handicap and the problems and how to handle the situations. And after that there was just natural playing with eachother in the group. Children are wonderful at learning, accepting and adapting. It just takes a good teacher to…
I see the necessity good intentions behind it, but also believe this singling out can lead to developing this sense of shame the user mentioned.
Re: Ask HN: My son might be blind – how to best support
#84What 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.
"might" in OPs case suggest otherwise.
Re: Ask HN: My son might be blind – how to best support
#85I won't speak to functional support - there's plenty of responses here and even more resources easily available for that sort of advice. But I would like to talk on how you (and others) approach this disability. There's a lot of commenters saying things akin to "blind people can lead a perfectly normal life, especially with all this tech!" - and I'm not saying a blind person can't lead a relatively normal life - but…
I’m not blind or deaf, but the deaf community in particular has… a reputation… I worry that so much of these “communities” exist as a cope for a shitty lot in life. Deaf community in particular has elements which are very hostile to correcting deafness. And frankly, if I ended up going blind, don’t be surprised to find me lose the will to keep living if it’s uncorrectable. I wouldn’t blame anyone in this world who’d…
> I worry that so much of these “communities” exist as a cope for a shitty lot in life
I mean... that's what they are, in some ways? I don't see how coping is a bad thing?
Re: Ask HN: My son might be blind – how to best support
#86Normal schools are not appropriately prepared for blind people. They're bullying hells for blind kids (from social exclusion to assault) and the lectures heavily rely on vision, so a blind kid will be left behind even when he makes audio recordings (can't write braille fast enough for useful notes), which some teachers may even take issue with, for extra drama.
John Hughes deserves to be a pauper for what his films have done to American society. The way that American children have systemized and perfected bullying culture is disgusting and needs to have been shattered two generations ago.
Bullying to anywhere near the same extent as you see in America is so alien to most of the rest of the world. Do you know that nerds have the total opposite reputation in most of the third world compared to America?
Kids in school who are bullying blind kids are sick and deserve the full wrath of their superiors who ought to be catching this.
We should not just accept the idea of our youth being little shits. This is not a clockwork orange, and they are subordinate to us, not the other way around.
Re: Ask HN: My son might be blind – how to best support
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hijacking this to give advice critical for a baby who is only a few months old. OP, are you in the US? Contact your states "Birth To 3" program immediately. You can get a Vision Specialist to come to your house. I imagine other countries have similar programs. --------- Reading the rest of the thread, you HN'ers are very blessed to be ignorant that such a program exists.
> Reading the rest of the thread, you HN'ers are very blessed to be ignorant that such a program exists. By this logic pretty much every single person in existence is "blessed to be ignorant" of the thousands (more?) of potential ailments they aren't facing right now. Seems like a silly POV.
Yes? I don't see a problem with this line of reasoning.
Re: Ask HN: My son might be blind – how to best support
#88Normal schools are not appropriately prepared for blind people. They're bullying hells for blind kids (from social exclusion to assault) and the lectures heavily rely on vision, so a blind kid will be left behind even when he makes audio recordings (can't write braille fast enough for useful notes), which some teachers may even take issue with, for extra drama.
And yet, blind kids must learn to integrate into the mainstream world. And schools for the blind are few and far between; at least in the US, they're typically residential (boarding) schools. One option, if it happens to be feasible in the OP's area, might be for the kid to attend a school for the blind early on, then move to a mainstream school later.
If blind communities are like some deaf communities, they may have a strong separatist bent which does indeed allow their child to avoid integrating with the rest of the world if they so choose. This is an option.
Re: Ask HN: My son might be blind – how to best support
#89Earlier 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.
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.
Guessing you guys played Vannu cus there is no way that legally blind people were seeing their shadowy asses in night battles!
Re: Ask HN: My son might be blind – how to best support
#90Look into the history of blind clicking/echo location, there are many reports on it like this:
The gist seems to be that mainstream culture discouraged blind children from interacting this way and contributed to their disability, the ability of the human mind to figure things out is incredible and I would consider this a compelling approach if it looks feasible.