HOW DO YOU EXPLAIN WHAT "SEEING" IS?

October 8th, 2013

How do you explain what seeing is to a child who has never seen anything at all?  This has been my challenge and dilemma for the past 9 years and I am still no closer to having the answer.  Josh was born totally blind and wears 2 prosthetic eyes.  We found out at 6 weeks old that his optic nerves never developed so he has literally never seen shadow, light, NOTHING!

Josh has always known that he was blind and that most people can "see".  He didn't understand it but would simply say things like, "I can see!".  How do you argue with that?  So we didn't.  I mean, Josh does see, just not the same way most of us do.  When his sister Hannah would draw a picture, Josh would be the first one to put his face near it and say, "Wow Hannah that is great!"  When Josh was 5, he put his face up to mine one evening at the dinner table.  I said, "Um, Josh what are you doing?" to which he responded, "staring at you!" and he laughed.  I couldn't believe that he had just made a joke like that! Then one day when I said out loud, "I am so tired", Josh responded with, "Mommy, you don't look tired to me." Josh even has a favorite color (silver) and yes, he does dream.  As I have mentioned before there is the most special comment of all when he says, "Mommy you look so beautiful today!"

And so I try to explain the concepts and things that we take for granted.  Try explaining the clouds, the moon, stars, or planets to a child who has never seen the sky.  The other day we were watching TV and Josh asked me if Robin Meade was on (morning newscaster for CNN's sister network HLN)  I told him that she wasn't there today and that someone else was doing it today.  When he asked me who it was I told him her name and he said "How do you know?" to which I responded, "I can see her."  He then said, "No you can't!  The TV is not like a window that you can see through Mom!"

One of my favorites is when he will come into my room and say "Guess what I have in my hand?" and I will answer him, "It's a teddy bear".  He becomes stunned and says, "how do you do that?!"

But the very best is when he will put one of his big playground balls under his shirt or stuff his pockets with his toys on the way out of the door to go to school and I will say, "you can not bring those with you."  His response is always, "how did you know that was there?  I thought I could sneak it by you!"