Talking the Language of the Hands to the Hands

Encouraging Hand-use in Persons with Deafblindness

Introduction: Stories about blindness, touch, and perception

• The old dress• The doll in the car• The new barrette• The teacher’s feelings

Simulation and discussion:

• What was your experience?

• How did your experience help you to understand the possible experience of a person with deafblindness?

The importance of differentiating the functions of hands for a person with deafblindness

• Hands as tools -- acting on the world

• Hands as eyes -- getting information about the physical world

• Hands as ears -- getting information about sound

• Hands as voice -- expressing feelings and thoughts

• Hands as vehicles for self-regulation -- keeping the nervous system stable

Skillful ways of interacting with the hands of a person with deafblindness

• Practice noticing what function his or her hands are serving at any given moment -- doing this will help you touch and interact appropriately

Skillful ways of interacting, cont’d

• Always leave his or her hands free -- the person with deafblindness needs to know that his or her hands are indeed their own

Skillful ways of interacting, cont’d

• Make your hands available -- be sure they are receptive, pliable, ready to “listen”

Skillful ways of interacting, cont’d

• Spend as much time as you need to in order to develop trust between your hands and the hands of the person with deafblindness, so that he or she is comfortable resting his or her hands on yours and following you as you move, sign, touch things, act in the world

Skillful ways of interacting, cont’d

• Think hands as initiators of topics in conversational interactions

Skillful ways of interacting, cont’d

• Use hand-under-hand touch to invite access to tactile experiences

Skillful ways of interacting, cont’d

• Establish joint attention by touching along with the person who is deafblind, being careful not to interrupt their experience. Use language that describes your joint attention.

Skillful ways of interacting, cont’d

• Make language accessible to the hands of the person with deafblindness in whatever ways are appropriate

Skillful ways of interacting, cont’d

• Imitate hand actions in a way that is accessible to the person

Skillful ways of interacting, cont’d

• Play hand games to encourage expressiveness

Skillful ways of interacting, cont’d

• Use touch to support developing vision

Skillful ways of interacting, cont’d

• Make environmental provisions to encourage exploration and use of hands in a variety of ways

Skillful ways of interacting, cont’d

• Encourage active throwing at appropriate developmental stages, and in safe circumstances

Skillful ways of interacting, cont’d

• Continue to learn from the hands of persons with deafblindness, and continue to develop your own hand skills so that you are a good partner

As a child I spent hours leaning against objects and letting them lean against me. Any blind person can tell you that this gesture, this exchange, gives him a satisfaction too deep for words.

Touching the tomatoes in the garden, and really touching them, touching the walls of the house, the materials of the curtains, or a clod of earth is surely seeing them as fully as eyes can see. But is more than seeing them, it is tuning in on them and allowing the current they hold to connect with one’s own, like electricity.

To put it differently, this means an end to living in front of things and a beginning of living with them. Never mind if the word sounds shocking, for this is love.

You cannot keep your hands from loving what they have truly felt.

-- Jacques Lusseyran

And There Was Light