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Contents:
- Don't express pity or show excessive sympathy
towards the visually impaired.
- When speaking to a visually impaired person, speak normally,
address her by name and never raise your voice.
- When greeting a visually impaired person, offer your hand first
grasping his and give him a firm handshake as this is his
equivalent of a smile.
- When walking with a visually impaired person, offer her your arm
first and keep a position just slightly forward.
- When accompanying a visually impaired person, converse naturally
of the surroundings and inform him of what is going on around him.
- Warn a visually impaired person when approaching unfamiliar
steps; slacken speed before climbing.
- Warn a visually impaired person of an obstacle in her path,
describe it to her and guide her around it.
- Never try to seat a visually impaired person by pushing, but
rather guide him to put his hand on the back of the seat and leave him to sit by himself.
- When entering a room where there is a visually
impaired person
talk to her and make your presence known. When leaving, tell her of your
intention.
- In places frequented by visually impaired, never leave a door
half-open; he may walk into it.
- When entering a vehicle with a visually impaired person, place
her hand on the top of the door and on the handle when alighting. Always
precede her.
The treatment and training that a visually impaired child gets at
home is of utmost importance for it leaves a permanent effect on her
character and feeling that remains with her for the rest of her life.
For this reason, it is important that parents know and apply the best possible
methods of bringing up a visually impaired child. The following are general recommendations
that concern the different aspects of a child's life at home.
Personal Life
- Train a visually impaired child to walk alone like sighted
children.
- Make him familiar with the parts of the house,
garden and street.
- Train her to dress and undress alone and to look
after her clothes; to bathe herself; to blow her nose.
- Train him to eat alone and to use a knife and
fork.
- Make her responsible for small jobs in the home
such as tidying his room, dusting, sweeping the floor and washing
dishes.
Social Life
- Teach him that he is not home-bound, and
that like other children he must enjoy going out and being in the
community.
- Encourage her to make friends, but do not ask
special favors on her behalf, allow her to work out her way with
others without interference unless very necessary.
- Train him to behave in an acceptable manner and
to avoid things like putting his fingers in his eyes, shaking his head
from side to side, and sitting with his head drooping.
- Allow her to participate in games that have
action and movement.
- Help him develop his sense of touch by doing
useful hand-work such as cutting paper in various shapes.
- Teach her the proper code of social behavior as she is born to live with others; scold
her if she repeats a
mistake.
Psychological and Mental
- Encourage a visually impaired child to participate in
conversation; answer his questions.
- Limit your discussion with a visually impaired child to serious
subjects and topics she enjoys or initiates; avoid the use of expressions
that make her feel inferior and different from others.
- Encourage him to express himself and
participate in normal activities of other children.
- Always remind her of the importance and value of
education, and inform her of her ability to follow higher
education in university.
Visually impaired people today can attain a high level of education
owing to the teaching mediums available to them. This has been made possible by
the revolutionary Braille embossed dot system used for teaching the visually
impaired
reading and writing.
In 1874, Valentin Hauy introduced the first system for
teaching the visually impaired to read. He used embossed ordinary letters that a
visually impaired
person could distinguish by the tips of his fingers. In 1819, a French officer,
Charles Barbier, introduced a dot system inspired by military code. Barbier used
twelve dots that could be arranged in various combinations. However, this system
was still not found practical.
In 1837, Louis Braille, a Frenchman, who used Barbier's
system developed a more practical dot system. He cut down the number of dots to
6. These he arranged in sixty-three different combinations to form the Braille
letters and abbreviations.
Soon the Braille system found acceptance in all
institutions for the education of the visually impaired in spite of strong opposition by the
supporters of the embossed type (Moon Alphabet).
In 1952, Braille writing underwent further development.
In a conference sponsored by UNESCO, the direction of Braille writing was
unified. All languages, Arabic included, are to be written from left to right.
Also many new abbreviations were introduced and old ones modified.
The advent of computers revolutionized everything and
drastically benefited Braille-printing. The latest advances in the computer
industry with Pentium IV processors reaching speeds over 2 GHZ brought the dream
of voice-recognition software into fulfillment. This development revolutionized the teaching methods for
visually impaired people, and our school introduced three such systems to aid our students in following up their
education.
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BLESSED
