A Blind Child's Pathway to Learning

About the Book

Our intention in writing this book is to provide three distinct but closely related groups with insight into the factors required to help a blind child attain his/her maximum level of cognitive abilities. The first group consists of parents who face the day to day reality of helping their blind child deal with the challenges imposed by the lack of sight. The second group consists of beginning and future professionals who will find themselves deeply involved with providing social, psychological, and educational support of these parents. The third group includes friends, family, and others who are not and will not be on the front lines of working with blind children, but who are interested in understanding the issues for their own reasons. There are many articles and books available that discuss the various aspects of the development of both sighted and blind children from almost every possible perspective related to the factors that impact the learning and developmental processes of children. Unfortunately, the vast majority of these have been written by professionals to professionals, using the jargon of the author's chosen field of study. As a result, people who are not part of the "in groups" often find these publications hard to understand, boring, or both. In this book, we do not aim to provide any new insights to established professionals or other individuals who are knowledgeable in this area. Rather, our purpose is to translate the knowledge provided by these professionals into ideas and concepts that can be readily understood and applied by parents, teachers, and other caregivers of blind children. Throughout the book, we will be dealing with highly specialized concepts and theories of education, psychology, and human development. We have done our best to translate the professional and academic jargon into what most people would call "simple English. Throughout the text, we have provided our definitions of key terms as we have come to understand and apply those terms. We recognize that others may have different interpretations for the same terms, and we do not dispute that their definitions serve their particular purposes.

About the Author

William F. Cavitt Biographical Data William F. Cavitt was born July 13, 1940, in Corning, Arkansas, a small town in the northeastern part of the state. His family was tenant farmers who worked very hard. Bill did not like farm work so at the age of 15 he ran off and joined the U.S. Navy. In the navy he progressed through the enlisted ranks very rapidly to Master Chief Petty Officer (E-9), working primarily on top secret projects. While serving on a small patrol boat in Vietnam, he became interested in education. Having dropped out of school in the 10th grade he was required to complete his high school through the General Education and Development (GED) program. Bill received his high school diploma from Bremington College Adult High School, Bremington, Washington, even though he has never been there. While serving in Hawaii he entered Chaminade College of Honolulu where he received a Bachelors of General Studies in Sociology and Psychology. Upon being transferred to Pensacola, Florida he entered the University of West Florida where he received his Masters Degree in Psychology. Bill retired from the navy at the age of 35 and shortly thereafter he started his doctoral program. He was awarded his doctors degree in Education, concentrating on Educational Psychology (primarily in Instructional Systems Design and Development using computer technology). As an Education Specialist and Education Psychologist with the Federal Government, Bill was responsible for the design and development of various highly technological instructional programs. He served as the Deputy Director of Navy Technical Training at the Chief of Naval Education and Training, Pensacola, Florida where he was in charge of about 70 program managers of instructional systems. After retiring from the Department of Defense, Bill taught Psychology at Darton College, a small two year college in Albany, Ga. He truly loved his teaching experience at Darton, but the illness and eventual death of his oldest son required him to resign and move back to Pensacola, Florida. After leaving Darton, Bill went into private practice as a psychotherapist at the Center for Holistic Rational Living and became the director. In 2002 he gave up his practice to help care for his new grandson (Cavitt Izon Breeze) who was born blind. Bill was a Clinical Counselor at The Naval Support Activity where he treated active duty personnel and their family members until he went full time as an Assistant Professor for Troy University. Bill is now semi-retired performing minimal amounts of individual and marriage counseling and serving on the Florida State Board for Clinical Counselors and Social Workers. He has been married forty-five years to Patricia Anne (Izon) Cavitt and they have three children: Jennifer, Kimberly, Ernest, and seven grandchildren: Rachel, Jacob, Hannah, Olivia, Cavitt, Hannah, and Lauren. Thomas E. Gwise Biographical Data Thomas E. (Tom) Gwise was born in Utica, New York on 5 June 1939. In 1957, he entered the U.S. Navy and served on active duty in the fields of electronic maintenance and human resource development until his retirement as a Chief Warrant Officer-3 in 1978. During his naval career, he served aboard four ships and spent overseas tours in Morocco and Vietnam. After leaving the Navy, in 1979, Tom was employed by the Federal Government with the Naval Training Systems Center in Orlando, Florida in the field of training system acquisition. Initially employed as an Education Specialist, he was first advanced to Sr. Integrated Logistics Specialist and then to Assistant Project Director. After a tour with a Department of Defense agency in Washington DC, he returned to Florida as the Head of the Training and Publications Division. He retired from this position in 1989 to pursue opportunities in the private sector. Since leaving the Federal Government, Tom has worked with several defense contractors as technical writer and instructional developer. As the owner of his own consulting firm, he has developed and presented seminars for private and governmental organizations. He has also been active in the academic environment as both a full time faculty member with Barry University (Associate Professor of Education) and an adjunct faculty member teaching leadership, management, technical writing, and education for several colleges, including National Louis University, Nova University, Florida Southern College, and Southern Illinois University He is currently employed by a defense contractor as a Sr. Instructional Developer and he also serves as an Assistant Visiting Professor with Southern Illinois University. Tom holds a Bachelor of Arts in History (University of Hawaii), a Bachelor of General Studies in History/Political Science (Chaminade College), a Master of Arts in American Studies (University of Hawaii), a Master of Education in Educational Foundations (Pepperdine University-Hawaii Program), and Doctorate in Education in Administration and Supervision (Florida Atlantic University). He resides in Merritt Island, Florida with his wife, Patricia. They have four children, nine grandchildren, and three great grandchildren.