Expectation and deafblind educational
strategies
The third thing I had was a belief in Dylan's competence and deafblind strategies to help him
get it. Although Dylan may have been in this
box, I believed in his capacity to learn and to
come out. I liked the quote from Barbara
McLetchie, "Deafblind children are not limited
by what they learn, but by what we teach
them." Things like wait time and partial participation gave him time to process the information and generate a response and helped
show him how to do new things that he wasn't
learning from vision. Signing hand under hand
with his hand riding on mine to see helped him
combine visual and tactual information and
gain greater understanding. This touch also
triggered his eyes to look at me. Of course he
had his object and touch cues to anticipate
what was going to happen next.
At School-Home Dylan learns through routines
and concrete learning experiences. We follow
his interests and his pace and he is able to
show us what he knows in new and exciting
ways. Out of the structured routines his independence blossoms. Dylan's health is still
compromised and pain and fatigue can cause
him to close his lid, but at School-Home there
is greater flexibility to adapt the schedule and
activities based on his physical ability at any
given moment in time increasing the time we
have with engaged learning.
With trusting relationships, a safe, predictable,
and responsive environment and deafblind
educational strategies Dylan is able to come
out of his box and engage with the world. He
is growing into the competent, self-determined
young man I've always known he could be.
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