Coping and Rehabilitation

One of my favorite speakers on the Thursday of the conference spoke a little about coping with a visual impairment. He gave the following tips to those of us who are parents of a visually impaired child:

1) Start taking the bus! Your child will likely need to be familiar with the bus system and take the bus in order to get everywhere as an adult. So, might as well start them young and get familiar with the system.

2) Try taking a family vacation without using your car, since that's the way your child will likely travel as an adult. He said he takes all his vacations that way, and it's wonderful. You simply use all public transportation.

3) By the time your child is 8 or 9, they should be doing their own laundry. He said to be careful to make sure they are encouraged to do their own stuff whenever possible - don't do it for them just because it may be harder for them.

4) By the time the child is 12 or 13, they should be waking up to their own alarm clock for school. Again, they need to learn some independent living skills, and the sooner they can start, the better. :-)

5) Take the time to grieve the losses associated with the visual impairment. He said to make a list of the tangible losses (things like driving a car, or reading fine print, etc.) and a list of intangible losses (any hopes or dreams that may have changed).

6) He said that one thing that is hard for a blind/visually impaired person is to simply accept and embrace who you are - it is easy to constantly try not to be blind. Another person told me that when she's comfortable with her vision, then those around her typically are comfortable too, so one of the biggest gifts we can give Elli is to teach her to be comfortable with who she is, vision issues and all.

7) He said you should build your own medical case file. Get a report with all of your info every time you visit the doctor, so you have all of the information you need in your own hands. That makes sense to me!