My impressions with learning sign language

Well it doesn't mean I came from New England. :) Also, I've learned Braille over the Internet and at the Daytona Beach Rehabilitation Center.
 
GraysonPeddie said:
Well it doesn't mean I came from New England. :) Also, I've learned Braille over the Internet and at the Daytona Beach Rehabilitation Center.
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Out of curiousity, what website did you use to learn Braille? Was it BRL (Braille Through Remote Learning) by any chance? If you haven't seen that website, you might want to check it out! Just do a Google search for "Braille Through Remote Learning."
 
deafdyke said:
That is amazing that you went to a blind school, and yet you only have significent loss in one eye. Still.....at least you got to learn Braille and get interventions you might not have, if you'd gone to a regular school! Also amazing that they pushed you with a special diploma ....would have thought you would have automaticly been placed in the academic track!
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deafdyke,

Schools for the blind accept children who have visual acuity from 20/70 (visually impaired) to total blindness.

I know several people who attended a state school for the blind and received special diplomas. Some of the academic curricula of schools for the blind do not follow the "regular" academic standards of public schools. In some cases (not all), academic instruction is several years below grade level. For example, at the school for the blind in my state, a few seniors were learning how to count money. To be fair, I don't know if there were extenuating circumstances that may explain why this skill wasn't learned at an earlier age.
 
Hear Again said:
deafdyke,

Schools for the blind accept children who have visual acuity from 20/70 (visually impaired) to total blindness.

I know several people who attended a state school for the blind and received special diplomas. Some of the academic curricula of schools for the blind do not follow the "regular" academic standards of public schools. In some cases (not all), academic instruction is several years below grade level. For example, at the school for the blind in my state, seniors were learning how to count money. To be fair, I don't know if there were extenuating circumstances that may explain why this skill wasn't learned at an earlier age.
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Oh wow! :eek3: Seniors learning to count money? Yeah, I know they're blind, but I still don't see how that would prevent them from learning how to do this at a much earlier age (with some accomodations).
 
Lucia,

I agree! :) When I heard about this, I was shocked to say the least. LOL!
 
Grade 2 Braille Contractions Booklet sounds like the same book I used when I learned Braille. It was one of the most comprehensive Braille instruction booklets that I've seen. In fact, I like to refer people to it when they express an interest in learning Braille.
 
Hear Again, wow! One of my best friends went to Perkins and he was always ranting about how bad the education was there. But I do know that Florida School for the Deaf and Blind is supposed to be REALLY good for blind kids. Like they have a blind dept. and a deaf department, and then a special needs department, or kids with more complicated issues.It's one of the few schools where more intensive special needs kids aren't automaticly the majority, and so
I gotta say....I am hoping that situiton you're talking about was caused by very poor early intervention. I really think that with proper EI, (including early schooling....like up to early elementary school specificly for kids with a particualr disabilty) that cases like those would become rarer. I mean i know that the education (including sped) in the mainstream tends to be too generic for most kids with classic disabilites.
 
Hear Again said:
deafdyke,

Schools for the blind accept children who have visual acuity from 20/70 (visually impaired) to total blindness.

I know several people who attended a state school for the blind and received special diplomas. Some of the academic curricula of schools for the blind do not follow the "regular" academic standards of public schools. In some cases (not all), academic instruction is several years below grade level. For example, at the school for the blind in my state, a few seniors were learning how to count money. To be fair, I don't know if there were extenuating circumstances that may explain why this skill wasn't learned at an earlier age.
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Whoa! Blind seniors learning to count money and I thought deaf ed was awful! :eek:
 
deafskeptic,

I know! My best friend (who attended our state school for the blind) told me that and I couldn't believe it until another person confirmed it was true! That was back in 1990. Hopefully things have improved since then!
 
deafdyke,

Many students who currently attend our state school for the blind have multiple disabilities (in most cases mental disabilities) in addition to blindness. As a result, attendance numbers have fallen sharply and the school is in danger of closing. The situation I described occurred in 1990, but I'm hoping that things have improved since then.

Yes, I've also heard good things about FSDB. Incidentally, I also know a deafblind student who attended Perkins' deafblind department. He thought the education he received was adequate, but nowhere near the standard of public education. Despite the adequate education (his words) he received at Perkins, he went on to earn his Ph.D.

If I were the parent of a blind, deaf or deafblind child, I would enroll them in a school for the deaf and blind for the first couple of years to allow them to gain the skills needed to cope successfully in a public school environment (i.e. knowledge of Braille, sign language, cane travel, etc.). From the 3rd grade on, I would place them in a mainstreamed program. By doing this, I think children receive the benefits of both environments without being restricted to one or the other. Unfortunately I've heard of cases where blind children who were educated at schools for the blind had poorly developed social skills. Conversely, I've also heard of blind students in the mainstream who struggle to receive the accommodations they need because they are the only blind student in their school district. Sometimes it's a no-win situation, so having "the best of both worlds" seems to be the best option. :)
 
Hear Again said:
Many students who currently attend our state school for the blind have multiple disabilities (in most cases mental disabilities) in addition to blindness. As a result, attendance numbers have fallen sharply and the school is in danger of closing. The situation I described occurred in 1990, but I'm hoping that things have improved since then.
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I remember when I was a junior at the Wisconsin school for the deaf, the attendence rates of both WSD and the school for the blind were falling a lot and there was a lot of talk about possibly merging both schools into one school for both deaf and blind...is it still going to happen?
 
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