Friday, December 5, 2014

Experiencing The World - In Two Dimensions

Most frequent readers may know that Violet has a serious vision impairment. Her vision was so bad that her brain shut off one eye to be able to form a picture at all, which left her without 3-D vision.

But how does a little girl experience the world, which for her only has two dimensions? Talking to her occupational therapist a lot, I was able to get an idea, even though I could never ever even imagine it. Since she cannot experience the space around her with her eyes, the other senses, especially feeling, has taken over. For now, both in her sessions with her occupational therapist as well as in her daily routine, her therapy is divided in two blocks: experiencing her surroundings and herself in her environment.

Violet's world has no depth, she cannot perceive speed with her eyes, or distance, or a difference in height. Therefore, creating tangible boundaries for her help her to experience space. Building a pillow fort or a blanket tent for her, or wrapping her in a blanket are ways to create a small, safe world to experience this.

Since she cannot perceive speed as we do, letting her alternate between running, walking, and skipping lets her experience how the wind and the air feel at different speed. Letting her push Calvin's stroller, pull a sled or a little cart, jumping on a trampoline or play tug o' war also helps her to perceive the space around her.

Walking on stilts, balancing, walking on slopes or stairs or playing on uneven ground also supports her grounding and confidence in the world around her.

Experiencing herself in this world, massages and other sensoric stimuli are an essential tool. She touches most things she gets in contact with or even puts them in her mouth to experience 3-dimensional bodies. Playing in the sandbox in summer or in the snow in winter, kneating playdough or actual cookie or pizza dough, or recognizing objects while blindfolded helps her with this.

At the moment, her little world is still so full of dangers. Most of the times she cannot tell how fast a car is driving on the street, so she never crosses the street if she sees any cars that are not parked; she cannot see how high a sidewalk is; she touches hot plates or gets splinters when walking with her hand along wooden fences. But step by step, her confidence grows. We are so thankful that despite her challenges, she is still such a happy, little girl who doesn't let her situation keep her from having fun. Her kindergarten teachers love her; the other day, they told me how they love her being the perfect princess inside but as soon as she puts on her mud pants and rubber boots, she starts rolling in the dirt.

Even though her world is not like yours and mine - and maybe never will - she enjoys her life, and enjoys experience it every day. Her joy spreads to everyone around her, and I consider myself so very lucky to be her mommy and to be able to walk this way beside and with her, even though we're separated by one dimension.
 

8 comments:

  1. Aww, I can't even imagine what Violet has and still experiences from this, but truly sounds like she is a brave and wonderful little girl. God bless her and my hat is off to her from this and more ;)

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    1. Thanks so much, Janine! She truly amazes me every day; and despite the daily challenges and frustration sometimes, I couldn't love her more and be thankful to have her!

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  2. She is an awesome little girl and has a wonderful family to help her. :)

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    1. Thank you, Jen! She really is amazing; her joy about the smallest things are something she teaches me every single day. She enjoys the world and everything in it despite her challenges, and we couldn't love her more for it! Have a wonderful weekend, Jen!

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  3. What a brave little girl you have, Stephanie, and what a lucky one to have a mum like you who puts so much energy into helping her understand and enjoy the world around her. It's so difficult to imagine what it must be like to only see in two dimensions but I'm sure the love that you shower her with makes her feel secure in her world despite that.

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    1. Like you, Lizzy, I'd go to the end of this world and back to help my children. It breaks my heart knowing about Violet's struggles without being able to make her well again. Her brain may learn to see with both eyes again, or not; no-one can tell.. So all I can do for her is support her finding her way around her world. Thank you so much for your kind words!

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  4. I can't quite wrap my brain around all that Violet has to deal with and all that she can't perceive. Your descriptions, though, are vivid and so helpful. Children are amazing. I think they often have strength of heart and character that adults don't because they don't realize there is any other way and so they just forge ahead. You are an amazing Mom and Violet is blessed to be yours!

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    1. Thank you so much, Lisa! I admit, it is very frustrating at times, when she gets so wrapped up into the moment, marvelling at the shape of a Lego brick, that 15 minutes after I told her to get dressed in the morning she's still in her jammies. When she just cannot stop touching all those old wooden fences and we'll have to take a trip to the pediatrician again to have the splinters pulled out of her hands. But every single day we're trying our best to help her find her way around her world, hoping that one day her brain will learn again to see with both eyes. We appreciate your support so much, Lisa. Thank you!

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