Does anyone have experience with Blind children?

I work with blind adults - it's what I went to school for. The biggest help is advocating for services and tracing them how to do the things everyone else does... Just non visually! What questions do you have?

I suppose i would like some insight on raising a blind child and how much different it is than raising a sighted child. I assume it would be ten times hardee but I dont know? Maybe just because i have never worked with the blind before.

I would first look into the schools in your area to see if any have experience with blind children. I have known some blind students and they tend to do better if the school is knowledgeable and has equipment, like braille typewriters and braille books already. It's even better if there is a blind school near you that would have a whole library of braille books. My friend said the biggest problem was finding books, it would take forever to get them ordered and often be halfway through the school year before the child had a text book and there were not enough childrens books available for reading. There was a steep learning curve for the teachers which sometimes caused the child to suffer.

Yes, that is another concern of mine. I was considrring home schooling because of this. We have deaf children in the school system here, but no blind children as far as i know. So they would be totally unequipped to handle their education. :confused: Of course how would I fair any better?

As much as home schooling can be better for kids with a trauma background, trying to teach a blind child for regular education would be a big challenge. The biggest thing you would have to overcome is that you do not have the skills to teach Braille, orientation & mobility , or any of the assistive technology to make devices like computers accessible. And how would you get the materials in accessible format that the child needs? The school would be required to provide these services. Yes, sometimes books can lag behind, but a lot of that depends on the district and their ordering. Many times the TVI (teacher of visually impaired) goes to great lengths to make sure materials are accessible if they do not have the book. Honestly, I dont think that raising a blind child would be too much different than raising a sighted child, but it would change how they need to do something. And you would need to explain things a lot more. Discuss other environmental factors (ie: smells, sounds, things you can touch, etc) and provide descriptive information. The other thing you need to be concerned about is what caused their blindness. Are they totally blind (no light perception), legally blind (20/200 visual acuity or worse, or less than 20 degree visual field), or just visually impaired? Many kids that are "blind" also have other issues due to prematurity, etc or are multiply disabled. If they really are tugging on your heartstrings, you might inquire about them. Find out more about their condition. Look it up online, what the prognosis is, etc. There are a lot of resources out there (the National Federation of the Blind - NFB - is great. They have an amazing program for parents/kids including summer camp. Be advised they can be a little over the top, but are great advocates and provide a lot of resources too).

I'm sorry I missed this post. I haven't been very active in the last little bit. My BS Snurf is blind (anophthalmic). He has a massive list of other medical problems but the blindness is the one thing that can't be changed and I have found the most challenging. As Icehockey has said, having a school system versed in teaching a blind child is a real plus. I know that there is NO WAY I would have been able to teach Snurf everything he needed. I didn't have any idea WHAT he needed. Braille, Contracted braille, nemith code... Seriously, there is just no way. I am really good at technology and am now struggling with teaching him how to answer his new smart phone. On the bright side. Raising a blind child is much like raising any other child. They just happen to be blind. It takes you longer to teach them how to do some tasks. I still struggle sometimes with letting go and letting him fail. My husband is better at it than I am. I can't tell you if adopting these kids is right for you or not. I would say though, that I would look at them to see if they are a good fit for your family without the blindness first. If they are, then learn to help them with the blindness.