Harrie.Overdijk@f211.n500.z2.fidonet.org (Harrie Overdijk) (10/30/90)
Index Number: 11369 Dear Julie (and fellowreaders), I'm also brand-new in this echo and was glad to find an international echo on the subject of 'disabled' people in Holland. In another message you already told us: > I have three children, Kelly, my oldest is seven. He was born with > cataracts. Kiyoshi is four and he also was born with cataracts. > Both boys had their cataracts removed at age 6 weeks. But we > discovered last winter that Kiyoshi also is hearing impaired for no > discernable reason. My daughter Andy (Andromeda) just turned two. This is a very young to have a cataract operation... If I understand it well, the kid's eye-lenses had to be removed to give them sight again? Did the surgeons replaced the eye-lenses with 'plastic' lenses? In *this* message you told: > Q. I have a 4-year-old son who is 'legally' deaf/blind. Actually, > he seems to see better than I do and he has steroscopic vision > which I do not. (I read normal print, use no adaptive equipment on > my PC, but I cannot drive or see well enough to recognize people by > their faces... Well I'm 'legally' deaf-blind too.... (Although I can't really agree with it). I suffer from the Usher's syndrome, born hearing impaired and on a later age (18) my sight became *very* narrowed. I can read, but not drive a car or other means of transport. At later age (33) I also got cataract, so both of my eye-lenses had to be removed and replaced by 'plastic' lenses. It worked very well, I can read again... > With his hearing aids, Kiyoshi tests at near-normal (of course this > is over the limited hearing-aid-capturable frequency range) He is > currently attending the local visually impaired preschool program > (Columbus has had one for 20+ years). Should I move him to hearing- > impaired preschool? He is slow on speech development (of course) > and is about at the same place as his just-turned-two-year-old > sister. I also tests at near-normal (of course with restrictions). I sure would consider to bring him to a hearing-impaired school, it worked for me!! But on the other hand I can not judge about how much he sees. Normally, logopedists are also connected to such a school and could learn him to speak well (and understandable) too. > I guess I'm concerned because of the other concepts he doesn't > 'get' because he has problems communicating. (Like how to *play* a > computer game...he *loves* to watch other people, and he likes to > hit the keys, but he doesn't 'get' the idea of using the cursor > keys to move... He is NOT DD, Please Julie, don't forget that the kid is only 4 years old!!!! Don't expect to much at this age. It will come, believe me, it will come. By the way where does 'DD' stands for, there are so many abbreviations used in this echo, I don't understand all of them. > Would it be worthwhile for him to learn sign? I wouldn't think so, you already told that Kiyoshi tests near-normal with hearing-aids, unless you want to bring him in contact with *really* deaf people. Besides that, one should not be narrow sighted to follow and understand the sign-language.... By the way shouldn't we all learn sign language to be able to communicate with the deaf.... Many greetings from The Netherlands (Europe), Harrie Overdijk -- Uucp: ..!{decvax,oliveb}!bunker!hcap!hnews!2!500!211!Harrie.Overdijk Internet: Harrie.Overdijk@f211.n500.z2.fidonet.org