How to Talk to Aurel

I held a little one and a half year old for the first ten minutes. Her feet are deformed and she doesn't speak. Her name is Luminita. It means "Little light" in Romanian. Today I saw Luminita's standing in her crib and reaching toward the girl in the crib next to her. The girl in the crib next to her is named Maria and she has Cerebral Palsy. Maria arched her back as much as she could look back at Luminita. It was not easy to place Luminita back in her crib after just 10 minutes of her in my arms.

Next I walked with Aurel. He is blind and deaf. Both of his eyes do not have the colored part, so when you look at him all you see in white. When you touch him in his crib, this eight year old starts to grab for you. As soon as he can get ahold of someone he uses all his strenght to try and climb from his crib. When I first tried to walk with him, it was difficult. He keeps going in circles and he seemed to have a mind of his own. Does he do this because he has no sense of space? After having experienced walking with him I feel more comfortable with the task. I took him to the enclosed balcony so that he could feel the breeze on his light skin. I wonder how Aurel understands the world? His world is a crib and he loves to rub bits of string with his long fingers. Sometimes he hits his chin, and seems to derive some pleause out of this. Ingay (another volunteer at the center) told me that we feel a lot of vibration with our jaw, and this is why Aurel hits himself so peculiarly there. In Aurel's world pleasure doesn't come from what he sees or hears. It comes from vibration, touch, smell, and taste (I'm guessing here, I'm no expert). I've observed that when I hold Aurel close to me, this is when he is most likely to tap himself on his chin. Why is this?

He smiles big when I talk him out of his crib. When he walks with the support of my hand, he smiles. When I press on his soft nose with my forefinger, he giggles. When I pat him on the chest he laughs. I can't think of a way to reach Aurel except to allow him to experience the pleasures of walking, being outside of his crib, and, most importantly, being with someone. I am trying to indulge him in these pleasures. Experiencing pleasure is an important part of being human.

A little earlier in this post I wondered what Aurel's world is like. I wonder if the world is made of different sized cribs for him. The bathtub is one kind of crib. The enclosed balcony is another, bigger crib. I want him to know where he's at, and so I try to walk the same path with him when we walk in the hallway. He doesn't seem to understand the idea of sitting in a chair. I try to sit with him in my lap, but the sitting position seems foreign to him. Standing or sitting on a flat surface are the only positions he seems comfortable with.

I have a lot to think about when I walk with Aurel. How can I speak to him? Would he ever be able to understand there is such a thing as communication? If you happen to know the answers to any of these questions - I am listening.