During my years with the Orientation and Training Center in Seattle, I met many young blind adults whose parents had "protected" them to the point that they had no practical experiences. They were like babes in the woods. Their social skills were at an immature level, which brought them great grief as they began to explore interacting with other adults. These young adults could not pick out a hammer from a assortment of tools on a bench. They did not know an egg beater from a potato masher. They had never made a bed, hung up their own clothes and some of them had never been taught how to take care of their personal hygiene issues.
Now here was the problem. I ran a Rehabilitation Program. That means we brought in people whose major issue was that they had recently lost their sight. They had been Habilitated.
They knew what a hammer looked like, and had probably hammered many a nail. They could use an egg beater and a potato masher.
But how do you rehabilitate a person who has never been habilitated in the first place? The process is totally different.
And is it possible to teach an adult how to be curious when they have been kept "safe" all their growing up years?
No matter what we did for these young adults, they were crippled the rest of their lives. They had been denied the ability to explore, test, fail, succeed and interact with other children.
I think that there are fewer of these children in America today. In our state the Department contacts the family as soon as they become aware of a blind child's birth, or a new family moving into the state. At least the child and family are given better information, and usually they stay in contact with the School for the Blind, which is probably the finest and most progressive in the nation.
Curious Carl
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