Home visit with FSDB

Today we met Patti, the parent advisor who will be working with us from the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind (FSDB). She will be coming every week to our house to give us ideas of things to do with Leah to stimulate her vision and to work with us in other areas as necessary. At the last visit, we met the other parent advisor for our area, Teresa, and she came today as well. Teresa brought different toys to stimulate Leah's vision with. She brought a flashlight that was covered with a red cap to make it a red light. Leah was able to find and track the red light, showing that she can see even dim light. She also brought out a mirror and shined the flashlight into the mirror so that the light would reflect off into Leah's face. She would turn the mirror so that the light would go and come. Leah liked playing with the mirror! She also had this toy that was like a strobe light, but it strobed different colors. Leah tracked the strobe toy as well. Teresa encouraged us to do similar things with Leah and to praise her when she looks at objects. This will encourage her to use her eyes more and more. She said to also let her feel the objects so that she can make the tactile connection with the light source.

She did a basic evaluation of Leah in all areas of development including motor development, language, vision, hearing, life skills, and social skills. Based on both her observations of Leah, as well as our reports of our own observations of Leah, she was able to determine whether Leah was ahead or behind same aged peers. According to the evaluation, Leah seems to be right on pace with expectations for babies her age. She is actually a little advanced in tactile skills. We were told that this is to be expected, as children with visual impairments are usually advanced in tactile skills and hearing to compensate for their lack of vision.

We were very encouraged by both parent advisors. They told us that the things we are doing with Leah are all good things and that we should keep them up. They reminded us to not treat our times of play with her like test situations, to see if she passes or fails, but to enjoy these times of practice and play. They also talked with us about being respectful of Leah's desires to play or be left alone, to pay attention to when she is done with activities and wants to do something different. And, now I have a list of things we need to get at the store! We need to get some little hand held mirrors, books that have noises and textures, and something to change the color of the light from a flashlight.

Sometimes I have to take a step back and remind myself that all of my preconceived notions and plans for Leah's life might need to be changed or eliminated altogether. I need to remind myself that Leah does not have an illness that, with medication, will go away. This is something that could be part of her life. When you have been thinking about being a mother for most of your life, you never think of any possibilities other than having a typically developing child. It takes a lot of trust in God's sufficient grace to set aside my plans and to adjust to my reality. I know that He has a plan for Leah's life that will bring Him glory. I know that He loves her more than even we do. I guess Stephen and I will be adjusting to change and learning new things for the rest of our lives! We love our precious gift and are so thankful that God has given her to us.