Kimi Arevalo
Perkins Deafblind Program
Despite being almost totally blind, nine-year-old Kimi Arevalo navigates the classrooms in Perkins Deafblind Program with confidence and enthusiasm.Using sign language gestures and pointing to picture symbols, she communicates with her teachers and lets them know what activity she wants to do next.
“She’s so highly social, which helps in learning communication because she’s motivated,” explains Assistant Education Director Martha Majors. “Kimi is unique because she's shown us that she can communicate in so many ways.”
Continued from Perkins Insight eNews...
Kimi Arevalo was born with a rare genetic disorder that resulted in hearing impairment, severe vision loss, and motor and cognitive delays.
When she arrived at the Deafblind Program preschool at age 3, her family and teachers thought Kimi was totally blind. The educational team soon realized, however, that Kimi was accessing information and taking in her environment using the very small field of vision she had left in one eye.
Members of the Perkins Deafblind Program staff who have worked with Kimi the past few years marvel at her progress and her insatiable appetite for learning new ways to interact with the people in her world.
Kimi’s family speaks mostly Spanish at home, but she learned in English at Perkins. Taking the programs’ total communication approach, teachers presented Kimi with information and encouraged communication in multiple forms including spoken language, object symbols, pictures, tactile sign language, gestures, and written words.
Today Kimi has a clear understanding of Spanish, English, and basic sign language. She gets her point across either by signing; making a verbal approximation of the word (i.e. “ba” for “ball”); pointing to a picture symbol; or if all else fails taking the person’s hand and leading them to what she wants.
“It’s really rare that a child Kimi’s age would be fluent in all those modes,” says Martha Majors, assistant education director for the Deafblind Program. Majors gives a lot of credit to Kimi’s supportive family for being fully engaged in Kimi’s educational program and continuing the work at home.
Lauren Passier has been Kimi’s speech pathologist for three years.
“I let her choose what she wants to do,” Passier says during a recent session before using tactile sign language to ask whether Kimi wants to work with her picture cards or categories.
Kimi chooses picture cards and Passier places a photograph of a man pouring orange juice on the desk. Kimi’s job is to select the appropriate Mayer-Johnson symbols – or cards with pictures beside text – to form the sentence, “The man pours orange juice.” As Kimi reaches for each card, Passier signs the word and encourages vocalizations by holding Kimi’s hand to her lips as she makes the sound “ma” for “man.”
“She’s really transformed into a student. She’s always interested in new activities,” Passier observes.
“She surprises you every day in what she’s able to do with her limited vision,” says Amanda Curley, Kimi’s classroom teacher.
When she comes into class, Curley uses tactile sign language to ask what Kimi would like to do first – read a book using the CCTV or make an activity book at her desk. Kimi waits excitedly by the CCTV and holds up her hand to sign the letters, “C, C,” an abbreviation Curley knows well.
Curley slides the book, “A Snowy Winter Day,” under the CCTV magnifier. Kimi smiles and points as a blown up image of children throwing snowballs beside magnified text appears on the screen. As she reads the story aloud, Curley uses tactile sign language and encourages participation. She asks Kimi to identify objects in the photos like the snowman’s carrot nose or to guess how the smiling boy playing in the snow is feeling: “Is he happy?,” Curley offers.
After reading her story, it’s time for Kimi to make her own book. Making activity books using words along with pictures and tactile symbols is a common way for students in the Deafblind Program to practice conversation. In keeping with the day’s theme, Kimi’s book is titled “What You Can Do in the Snow.” Kimi uses a glue-stick to paste Mayer-Johnson symbols to form short sentences on each page, like “You can ski in the snow.”
“Kimi loves making books about anything that you’re talking about,” Curley beams.
To carry over her communication skills from school to home, Kimi makes a book about all her activities at the end of each school day. On a snowy Friday, Kimi chooses pictures symbols to represent what she did that day. To represent a discussion in the morning about what to wear in the winter, Kimi chooses Mayer-Johnson symbols of mittens and scarves; for cooking class she opts for a measuring cup and oven symbols. These cards have Velcro to stick in the felt pages of the booklet.
At home Kimi will share the book with her family at night. The next day she will come to school and create another chapter filled with new conversations, activities, and experiences.
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