Writen by Ivana Jarnikova, redaction by Terezie Hradilkova

Published by Association for Early Intervention, September 2005 with the support of Hilton / Perkins Program of Perkins School for the Blind, Watertown, MA, USA through a grant from Conrada N. Hilton Foundation, Reno, Nevada

At the end of 2005 Association for Early Intervention published the book Eliska - story of deafblind girl. The author of the book is Ivana Jarnikova, mother of Eliska. In the book she describes the story of her daugter and her family from Eliska´s birth until present time, when Eliska is six years old.

The story told by the mother is illustrated by quotations from her diary, where she wrote about her feelings during first months and years of Eliska´s life. The family was a client of Early Intervention centre in Prague and the book contains also short notes from the reports of the home visiting early intervention adviser. Mother also recorded her work with Eliska ower the years on video - the recordings are presently edited into a series of short films.

In the first part of the book the mother writes about the birth of Eliska and the first few months she spent in hospital. Eliska was born as a fourth child in a family severly premature in 24 th week of pregnancy. She weighted 630 gramms and mesured 20 cm . Mother writes about her fear for Eliska´s life, the anxiety she experienced, her helplessens she felt when she saw Eliska connected to all the medical technologie that kept her alife. But at the same time they experienced some important successes - for example mother succeeded to provide her milk to the baby.

In her diary she describes the feelings all the family experienced at that time:

"Today we decided to show Eliska to Lenka, her 9 years old sister. We hope we will not make a mistake. Seeing such a miniature baby might be a shock for her, but she shoul feel the she is taking part in everything with us and tha we laso need her to help us to cope with the situation. And she should have an idea what we are talking about when we talk about Eliska at home.

The visit with Lenka went fine, I think. At least at the surface she seemed to také it all right, but I´m not sure, what she really feels. I can see she is not altoghether herself lately, she is very sensitive and is often close to crying. . But hopefully time will heal all this.."

Lately it became clear that Eliska will survive, but her family had to deal with new information about her impairment. First they learnt that Eliska will be blind. She had surgery of her retinas, but in spite of this she developed retinopathy of 5th. level. It was a very difficult time for the family, they could not imagine how Eliska will learn about the world around her, mother also admitted she was worried if the impairment will be too visible and Eliska will be handicapped in social contacts.

At the age of 4 months Eliska went home from the hospital - mother describes their daily life with the new baby. At that time also family started to collaborate with Early Intervention Centre.

Before Eliska was 1 year old she was also diagnosed as deaf. She used hearing aids for over one year and then recieved a cochlear implant.

In the second half of the book the mother starts to focus more on Eliska´s development than on her feelings. The family has accepted the fact that Eliska will be deafblind and started to focus on the possibilities of supporting her development. Mother describes in detail how they tought to Eliska various daily living skills and communication techniques - using at some period objects of refference, signes and gestures, imitation, and finaly oral speech.

The book has an open ending - Eliska´s life story is only at its beginning, mother ends with her description of Eliska at present and tries to picture her possible development in the future.

This book will be a big help and support not only for parents and all who deal with deafblind children, but also for other parents of children with various impairments - the feelings of mother and all the family and many suggestions for supporting the development of the child

are transferable to parents in different situations.