stead I recognized that Dylan was inside a treasure box, safe and protected.
We all have our own treasure box. If I have a migraine, or don't feel safe, I will retreat into my box.
In another setting where I have prior experience,
know what to expect, trust the people, if it's not
too loud or too crowded, then I come out and "am
my best".
Let's picture this Box of Deafblindness. It was
padlocked shut and the key was inside. Off the
box came 2 arms and 2 legs. There were 2 eyes,
2 ears, a nose, and a mouth as windows into the
box. This treasure box contained the essence of
who Dylan was - his thoughts, his ideas, his personality, his experiences, his potential, and even
his purpose.
If the box was locked and Dylan had the key inside, I had two jobs. First was to find a way to
reach Dylan in the box. The second was to invite
him to use his key to open the lid and to come out
of the box and engage with the world. Educators
have the same jobs with their students who are
deafblind.
Access to information
What windows were open in Dylan's box? How
was I going to get inside?
How was information going to get in?
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I already knew he had no hearing, so the ears
weren't an option. There was no indication
that he smelled, so the nose was out. He was
tube fed since birth and was not talking so he
had reduced input from his mouth. Then he
had his eyes.
Yes, he had colobomas, but there was a little peripheral vision on the right and central vision
on the left. Dylan's vision was complicated fur-
