Stumbling Blocks

Cotton's visual impairment pops up now and then. lol It is hard for me to imagine with all of his other issues where it may or may not come into play. Cotton is a smart boy. He knows so much, and yet this year the gap between him and his peers widens. A lot of this has to do with the introduction of critical thinking, which is something that we are years away from, and another part is the vision. Imagine a typical 1st grade worksheet. On one side of the worksheet is lined with black outlined objects, the other with blank lines for filling in the first letter of the word. Even with the worksheet enlarged it is very difficult for Cotton to identify the objects (even if he can identify the same object in real life, and in a photo picture). Random visual identification has always been difficult for him. Now if you ask him "what does pizza start with?" He has no problem answering, but if I point to the picture of the pizza, and ask him "what is this?" I will get everything from pie to triangle as a response. This is tricky, and we are still coming up with new and exciting ways to help him in this area:P As with everything it is a work in progress. I thought that reading would be our biggest obstacle as far as vision is concerned, and surprisingly our biggest obstacle to reading is speaking:) He is such a remarkable boy, in part because of his obstacles. I learn so much as he teaches us how to teach him.