Something that I never really knew about before reading this book was echolocation. There has been so many times that I have tried to navigate my way through my own house in the dark, and still would bump into things, even though I have lived here for 21 years. I watched this short clip on YouTube about a boy named Sam. He has been practicing echolocation for five months and it was incredible to watch. I enjoyed reading the book, but seeing Sam use echolocation definitely made me more interested. I started thinking more about all the individuals that use sounds to play baseball, and even how swimmers that are visually impaired are able to swim with blacked out goggles on. Sam said that because his vision is impaired, his other senses are a lot stronger. Another video I watched focused on blind swimming. The swimmer talked about brushing his arm against the rope to feel if he was going straight. He had to use touch in order to guide himself. Using other senses to make up for the impairment of another is truly an amazing thing that we are able to do and it is amazing to learn about. I have learned that our brains use reflected sounds to perceive properties of silent objects.
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Gabriella, this post is great ! The posted video was awesome and impressive. I also am unable to guide my way through my house at night, I hit everything in my path. I feel like if we were to train ourselves and really focus on the sounds around us we would be able to accomplish this task with greater frequency! It is amazing the things that humans can do and how our bodies compensate for a lost sense through the enhancement of others. So adaptive, and so intriguing.
ReplyDeleteI think the whole echolocation thing in humans is so cool. Obviously I knew about certain animals doing it but I had never heard of blind or visually impaired individuals doing it until this course. I found the Ted Talk from the first chapter so interesting and I find it even more amazing that a boy that is just 8 years old is learning to also navigate the world through echolocation.
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