Deniz is an interesting child....
Mar. 27th, 2007 10:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
conuly
Last time I saw her, she mentioned a boy in her class who doesn't talk. Or maybe he just doesn't speak English, we never settled that discussion.
But then it occured to her to ask "People who don't talk, how do they communicate?" Well, I was there, so I interrupted her mom's "That's a good question" (well, we started talking at the same time) to give a rundown of the various methods I know of - you can type or write (writing was her suggestion, so she got the idea), you can have a PECS or a... a... the word escapes me now, but that picture board thing? You know what I mean, anyway, or you can sign. And then I explained how there might be other methods, but I don't happen to know them.
So, in the past six or seven months, she's chattered on about how blind people cook, get around, and generally function, how deaf people talk to each other, and now how people who can't speak talk to anybody. And these are ongoing topics, they come up again and again.
It can be overwhelming, because I want to be honest, yeah, and give complete information, but not only do I not know everything about any particular subject (and I'm not with her enough to tell her we can look it up together), but also, y'know, she's still just five. I need to not go over her head or talk so long she gets bored.
But really, what a subject for her to glom onto! Most five year olds, they're interested in, what, princesses (well, she is too, but not the practical aspects of that... I wonder if she knows there are such things, really?) or dinosaurs or the entire transit system of the city, right? I never knew disability and adaptive stuffs was a potential interest, at least to a kid who didn't know any obviously disabled people (that I know of - I'm sure Michele would've said "Well, your Aunt so-and-so" if that applied, right?)
It's a good subject, it's just surprising, is all.
But then it occured to her to ask "People who don't talk, how do they communicate?" Well, I was there, so I interrupted her mom's "That's a good question" (well, we started talking at the same time) to give a rundown of the various methods I know of - you can type or write (writing was her suggestion, so she got the idea), you can have a PECS or a... a... the word escapes me now, but that picture board thing? You know what I mean, anyway, or you can sign. And then I explained how there might be other methods, but I don't happen to know them.
So, in the past six or seven months, she's chattered on about how blind people cook, get around, and generally function, how deaf people talk to each other, and now how people who can't speak talk to anybody. And these are ongoing topics, they come up again and again.
It can be overwhelming, because I want to be honest, yeah, and give complete information, but not only do I not know everything about any particular subject (and I'm not with her enough to tell her we can look it up together), but also, y'know, she's still just five. I need to not go over her head or talk so long she gets bored.
But really, what a subject for her to glom onto! Most five year olds, they're interested in, what, princesses (well, she is too, but not the practical aspects of that... I wonder if she knows there are such things, really?) or dinosaurs or the entire transit system of the city, right? I never knew disability and adaptive stuffs was a potential interest, at least to a kid who didn't know any obviously disabled people (that I know of - I'm sure Michele would've said "Well, your Aunt so-and-so" if that applied, right?)
It's a good subject, it's just surprising, is all.
