Even though Lish's children have grown and gone, she is now taking care of another child. She said that depending on the situation he can act between the ages of 4 and 10. We got on the topic of the shenanigans he's pulled through his life. He was quite the prankster growing up and this has still continued now. Lish has gotten better with controlling him but you can't your eyes off of him. His father was better at controlling him but then he passed and his Mother did whatever he wanted. She was a small woman and he could intimidate her. They ate at McDonald's sometimes 3 times a day. Lish said that this has been hard to break. Every time they get in the car he wanted to go there. When he was younger he took his Mom's silverware and stuck it in the dryer because he liked the clanking sound it made. Another time he took the beaters to her mixer, walked out beside the road and put them in the street. He would wait for cars to run over them so he could hear them clang on the highway. They also had to move the switch on the tv(before remotes) because he would change the channel and then run from the room.
Sammy lived at Royer Greaves School for the Blind for 15 years. It is located in Paoli, Pennsylvania, just outside of Philadelphia. They would drive up there once a month to visit him and he would come home for all major holidays. They tried to teach him Braille and how to live independently but he is labeled Trainable no educable. Here is the link to the school which is still in operation. http://www.royer-greaves.org/index.html
Lish said that she can remember going to King's Island with Sammy back in the 80's. She said that they have lines for handicap people to go ahead of the line but they never used these. They wanted Sammy to feel as normal as possible. They didn't want to give him any special treatment.
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ReplyDeleteAmanda, I wonder if Sammy's putting silver ware in the dryer and beaters in the road have anything to do with the fact that his being blind probably heightened his sense of hearing. Do you know if they tried to buy him anything that made those metallic sounds and/or if this helped him? I have heard of people, especially children, losing one sense and seeking continual stimulation for their other senses. I'm also interested in the label "trainable not educatable". I think that labels, especially ones like this, can be incredibly demeaning and damaging. If his strengths were focused on instead of his shortcomings, I think he would have benefitted much more in his education and independence.
ReplyDeleteI would imagine that his attraction to putting the silverware in the dryer and throwing the beaters does have to do with his loss of sight so he looks towards his other sense. Lish has also told me how much he loves music. The other night she spent hours looking for a certain CD that he HAD to listen to right then. In regards to your comment about "trainable not educable", you have to consider the times. That label was given to him in the 60's and 70's when they used more demeaning terms without considering it. Think about what has happened in the past few years with the term mental retardation. It shocked me a little when I read that too. You would never hear that now, at least I would hope.
ReplyDeleteAmanda,
ReplyDeleteI was thinking that he may like hearing the sound that the silver ware made. I wonder if Lish has something like a windchime or a CD that has sounds similar to the sounds of metal clanging.