The Unique Connection

I have been recently studying up on development in young children with vision impairments. I have been loving it. It reminded me of a video that I had shared on Facebook awhile back. In the video, the children are blindfolded. They are then brought up to a line of women. Their mother is in the line of women. Each child has to identify their mother by touch alone. Watch how tender it is to see these sweet little children identify their mothers without using their sight. 

I wanted to share this video for several reasons. Most importantly, I wanted to share it for every mom who has a child with a significant vision impairment. The sweet moms who don't get to make eye contact to evoke a smile from their babies. These sweet moms (and dads) worry how their new infant will see them, connect with them, identify them. I always share with these sweet families that their child can see them. They just learn to see them differently. It's through their touch that blind babies and infants learn who mom and dad is. Take heart, your children know who you are. 

I also want to point out how important touch is in general. Touch allows babies and infants with vision impairments to know their caregivers. Touch also teaches these kids about the world and we must not overprotect them. No one ever said touch must be with the hands (although that is the first thing we think about). Touch can be accomplished using feet, arms, belly and legs. Random touch doesn't help much but purposeful, consistent, meaningful touch does wonders! Even for our most impaired-body students. It may take several (and I mean like 100) times before those little limbs respond, but keep going! Use soft blankets, interesting textures, etc. to elicit interest.

Parents, siblings, friends, all caregivers, hug those little ones who have sensory impairments! Enjoy them and encourage them to see the world with touch :)

DIY Sensory/Music Wall

Have you seen these musical walls on Pinterest? I loved the idea as soon as I saw it! I searched a few different ideas to find the right combination of items to make our sensory wall. I loved the colorful xylophone made out of PVC. I then added different wind chimes and purchased a glockenspiel to mount to the wall. I took lots of pics of everything. You can add a curtain feature (not on this wall) if you need to reduce visual clutter. I am going to give you the directions on how to make this from the perspective of someone who has no building skills (me). 

We (my handsome husband and best partner/builder, Todd) is the guy in the pictures. We purchased everything at Lowe's. To make the PVC xylophone, we used different PVC from 1/2" to 4". Todd cut everything to make the xylophone arrangement with a hack saw and a PVC cutter. We bought joints for each piece of PVC. You can YouTube how to paint PVC. That's what I did. See below for all my painting pics and tools. 

I bought a variety of mallets for the drums and music instruments. 

Here are all the screws, bolts, anchors, etc. we bought. I had no idea on what we needed but Todd did! Here's what we bought. 

Below: here's how I painted the PVC and the metal cans. I used a ton of this primer. Spray it evenly and do it outside for sure.

We had a ton of ideas when we were formulating this wall. Todd was smart--he taped out sections of each area. This helped with mapping out and spacing items.

I ordered this glockenspiel from Amazon. I liked the case because 1) it was black and 2) I could mount it and have it closed off (since this was going to sit outside)

I also wanted to find something that would be accessible to kids with limited arm motion (that couldn't hold a mallet) or were in a wheel chair (and had their heads positioned so that they were looking up). Hello wind chimes! I found two distinct sounding chimes from Ross for about $7 a piece. They had low ropes hanging down the center that would be accessible to these special kids that I was thinking about.

Todd mount the metal cans (treated with primer and and outdoor spray paint for rust issues) with L brackets. 

As we walked through Lowe's and were gathering ideas for items, we found aluminum flexible tubing--ventilation tubing, no rust or mess).  I thought this was fun because of its length and texture. We mounted it with brackets.

There are several versions of these musical walls on Pinterest. Check them out! I hope this inspires you to get handy and make a wall for outside in the backyard or inside a playroom/classroom. 

White Cane Day 2015

Happy White Cane Day 2015!!!

I have been so excited to see all the fun posts on social media sites about White Cane Day!!

Are you curious to know how I celebrated? We had to do our celebrations a little early due to fall break in Utah. We had a big event last Friday night that was SO much fun!

We were honored to have Blessing Offor (most notably from TV's "The Voice" but is also a very accomplished musician and speaker). Check out his The Voice audition below. 

Blessing was a true blessing as he was motivational, real and energetic about his life and experiences as someone with a vision impairment. Our theme for White Cane Day this year was "Sing Your Song of Independence". I chose that theme because independence isn't the same for everyone. There are truly different levels of it. It's time we have fun and celebrate it! Plus, I totally wanted to empower my students to pick up their white canes and walk with pride. 

I decided to turn White Cane Day into a full on short term program for students. We spent almost two full days with Blessing. We co-wrote a song with him and several talented students shared their musical gifts. I also wanted this to be a big opportunity for community service, education and awareness. Our students got busy by making handout cards with information about White Cane Day and their feelings about the white cane. We made white cane key chains to give away. 

I couldn't have done it without my amazing staff that always steps up and helps with these events! They are a talented group of recreational therapists, OTs, special ed majors and adaptive PE teachers from our surrounding universities. 

The t-shirts were one of my highlights! But if you have been reading my blog for awhile now, you know that I love my t-shirts and designing them is always a fave thing for me to do. 

Did you forget about White Cane Day? It's not too late to celebrate! There are so many ideas that you can do to help promote awareness of White Cane Safety Day. You can have a class presentation (and let your child talk about the white cane), invite mobility instructors to come and demonstrate (and then let you try under blindfold). I have done art contests in the past where students draw white cane safety. There's no "right way" to celebrate as long as you are! 

Can't wait til next year to celebrate one of my favorite holidays again!!

Painting with a Light Box

Doesn't this look fun? This fun idea is shared thanks to our Parent Infant Program at USDB. This painting fun activity uses a simple light box, yellow duct tape, plastic bags and paint. 

This easy peasy activity is so attractive for our little ones and our kiddos with multiple impairments. The yellow tape has a double duty mission responsibilities. First, it holds the plastic bags in place. Second, it has a nice highlight that attracts our kids' attention. You could also use floor tape because it is easier to remove than duct tape. 

The color choices of the dark blue and orange work well because of the way the light  illuminates them. You could also try purple or red and maybe even add some glitter (or something that shines) and see what that does. 

Here is my baby Abigail painting with my older daughter Morgan. Think of all the other ways you can play with this!? 

I met the X Ambassadors!

I had the best experience yesterday because I met the band X Ambassadors! In case you are not up on reading my blog, meeting the X Ambassadors was AWESOME because they are the band that sings "Renegade". The video "Renegade" features some pretty awesome people with vision impairments (see the video at the bottom of the post). 

They were doing a show here in SLC and had a meet and greet opportunity. I immediately thought about how cool it would be to meet Casey Harris from the band (he's the cool blind guy). It was would be fun to bring him a fan letter in Braille. I'm not exactly hip on my knowledge of UEB these days (but isn't that why Duxbury was invented? ha ha). I wrote him my letter and it transcribed and embossed. 

I was the enthusiastic fan that was shrieking with excitement when they entered. I was SO excited when they came in! It was kind of funny because here was the whole band and I basically beelined for Casey. I had to excuse myself to tell the other guys that I was really just there to meet "the cool blind guy". 

The bandmates were great! They were all wonderful to meet. They signed a poster that I can hang in my school. They thought my shirt was cool and we all read it to Casey. My shirt was from White Cane Day 2013 ("I Heart White Canes). 

It was such a rad experience. I invited him (and the band) to my school anytime they had time to make it. I wanted to share the video again. Check it out below!

Keepinig Up With Jimmy...As He Goes Back to School

 My note: I am in complete denial here. Complete. Denial. There is no way Jimmy can be entering 6th grade. It seems like just yesterday I met Jimmy and Kristi for the first time at a library for an activity day for our preschool division. Yes, preschool. Then I would invite them to our holiday skills day and we would make cookies together. I would have to get a chair for Jimmy to stand on so he could reach the counter. Then we started summer camps a couple years later for our kids (in Connecticut). Jimmy was never old enough but I knew that if he came, he would thrive at them. I decided to create a special "junior" camp as a day camp option for our younger students. It was all because of Jimmy. I knew that there was this awesome kid just waiting to be old enough to come to our residential programs. And now, he is in SIXTH GRADE! Kristi hasn't been the only one keeping up with Jimmy. He's had some amazing TVIs that have had the awesome adventure of working with him. I am lucky to count myself as one of those to keep up with Jimmy. Pretty soon he will be working at one of my programs as an intern. Exciting, but scary and crazy that so much time can go by and truly feel like it was "just yesterday...". 

Jimmy on the first day of school

Well Hello there again!!! I cannot believe the smmer is OVER!!! Just to let everyone know Jimmy did NOT have a slow summer, he busted through it like only Jimmy knows how. The short list would include: swimming, waterskiing, a trip to Maryland, going to sleep-away camp in New Hampshire, spending 2 weeks in Wisconsin with family (which also included: tubing, water skiing, jet skiing, shooting guns, driving tractors, 4-wheeling, and one of the best weddings we have attended), and next weekend (Sept 5th) I will be taking Jimmy to his first concert and then we are to get up the next morning and go visit my best friend in Maryland. 

With summer being over it only means one thing our kids are getting ready to go back to school, that is if they haven’t already begun. Where Jimmy and I live they don’t start until Sept 3rd so we have a little less than a week before that dreaded day. Are your kids returning to the same school or are they transitioning to a new school? Jimmy is in his last year in the elementary school (Middle School next year, please say this isn’t true) which helps keep MY anxiety down. But at the beginning of every year there is some anxiety for our kids of who is in my class, am I going to like my teacher, what changes have they made this year and am I going to have the same TVI as last year? For the last question the answer is some years yes and some years no. For us this year the answer is no, and this is ok. I think that Jimmy has to completely learn to deal with change and that it is an inevitable part of life. For our kids it seems like it is a little harder to deal with these changes as they can’t physically see the changes, they have to have complete faith in those around them to help them through it. 

Jimmy had his own requests for hair--punk rocker, bluish/green hair-spiked, nothing but band t-shirts.

Preparing for school each year is easier for me than most parents. They all receive their back to school list and for me there is no list, not gonna lie I LOVE this part of back to school. All we ever really have to get are new backpacks/lunch packs. And maybe a pencil and pen for those once in a while circle questions…you know what I am talking about! All my parent friends are jealous of me for this one aspect, and I will take it. And to modify this for Jimmy we go to a store and he will feel the backpacks and the one that he likes I will describe it to him and then he decides if he wants it or not. Same goes for lunch packs. This year as I said we are lucky because Jimmy is in the same school he has been in for the last 6 years (our elementary school goes K-6) so there is no anxiety for him in that aspect but I can only imagine if your child is starting a “new” school. I honestly don’t even want to think about it until next year because I think I will have more anxiety than Jimmy and worried that the “new” kids entering his school are going to be awful. But that is not this year and we can talk about mommy angst this time next year. For now I am going to just say Yay to kids going back to school (boo cold weather on the way) and I hope everyone’s children have a wonderful School year and kick butt in all their areas of study. Until next time…laters!!!!!!