deaf/blind

[Guest kaaatherine]

i read somewhere about a woman who was deaf and blind and that she communicated to some scientists her dreams.

they involved feeling something very heavy fall to the ground close by and feeling scared.

 

the article didnt explian how communication could be established with a person who is both deaf and blind. obviously it must be to do with touch but no matter how hard i try to figure it out i just cant! could someone enlighten me?

 

also is it possible for a person to be born with no nervous system- that is to say they have no external receptors?

like sometimes when you wake up and you have been lying on your arm and you cant move it and it is completely lifeless?

if so tjen how would a deaf/dumb person who also had that condition be communicated with and would thier brians develop at all with no external input?

 

katherine

[syntax252]

i read somewhere about a woman who was deaf and blind and that she communicated to some scientists her dreams.

they involved feeling something very heavy fall to the ground close by and feeling scared.

 

the article didnt explian how communication could be established with a person who is both deaf and blind. obviously it must be to do with touch but no matter how hard i try to figure it out i just cant! could someone enlighten me?

 

also is it possible for a person to be born with no nervous system- that is to say they have no external receptors?

like sometimes when you wake up and you have been lying on your arm and you cant move it and it is completely lifeless?

if so tjen how would a deaf/dumb person who also had that condition be communicated with and would thier brians develop at all with no external input?

 

katherine

 

 

Have you ever read about Helen Keller? She was in that perdicament.

 

http://www.graceproducts.com/keller/life.html

[Coral Rhedd]

Everyone with a brain at all communicates. You just have to know the language. I work with people with disabilities. A blind woman I work with uses a computer program -- Dragon Speaking or something like that -- to communicate with me via email.

 

I have worked with people with IQs below sixty. I assure you I had little trouble communicating with them. Generally you just avoid abstractions. However, I found I constantly underestimated the senstivity and understanding these people had. I learned a lot from the mentally retarded.

 

I worked briefly with a deaf schizophrenic. Now that one was hard.

 

We make assumptions about others from inside our own paradigm. People that help you step outside that paradigm and eventually expand it are a gift to you.

[Guest kaaatherine]

thanks! what about the second part of the question, can a person with no outside stimuli have a properly developed brain?

[Coral Rhedd]

Kaaatherine,

 

A person with no outside stimuli would probably die. But is this really possible? If you are talking about an "enviroment" with total sensory deprivation, I don't think this exists.

 

If you are talking about people who cannot perceive their environment, how would they eat?

[Guest kaaatherine]

yes i suppose!

[Newtonian]

How humbling a topic,not being touched by this in day to day life ,I never even considered the idea of people being born both deaf/blind.

Katherine i think the Hellen Keller story, show that unless there are serious problems in the fetus's development(severely retarded).The brain can be properly developed and awaiting stimuli.I feel the helpers and people afflicted this way are remarkable people.

Thankyou

[Guest kaaatherine]

yes thanks ive read the keller story, ive heard of her before but that link explained things a bit better. she wasnt blind and deaf from birth so she already had some concept of light and her first word was wah-wah for water!

i understand how she could have attatched words to objects by feel but keller leant how to write full sentences, what i mean is how could she have been taught the meanings of things that were not objects?

like figure of speechs. how do you think she attributed meaning to words like 'sooner' for example.

[Auburngirl05]

i

 

also is it possible for a person to be born with no nervous system- that is to say they have no external receptors?

 

 

katherine

They would have to have something resembling a nose or mouth to breathe, although I guess that doesn't necessarily mean they'd have the corresponding sensory receptors like normal nasal passages/oral cavities. Also, in order to qualify, their skin cells wouldn't be innervated, unless the problem was "deeper" and something prevented stimuli from reaching the brain...

[Coral Rhedd]

i understand how she could have attatched words to objects by feel but keller leant how to write full sentences' date=' what i mean is how could she have been taught the meanings of things that were not objects?

like figure of speechs. how do you think she attributed meaning to words like 'sooner' for example.[/quote']

 

Your question absolutely baffles me. Keller was not mentally retarded. It seems to me that she would have had as easy a time learning abstract concepts as anything else.

 

Here is a full sentence: Touch the water.

 

Here is another full sentence: You touch my heart.

 

Here is another full sentence: You touch me with the love that you give.

 

See how one thing builds upon another.

 

Even my dog understands that "love" means that he can get on the sofa and I will coo to him and rub behind his ears. He has also learned that "I will feed you later" means forget it right now because I am busy posting in the Science Forum. I observe no panic in him that he is going to go without dinner tonight.

 

Keller learned as all of us learn anything. By experience.

[Guest kaaatherine]

ok i see!

i wasnt saying she was retarded.