Seeing-Eye Dog Gives Kids New View of Life

Beamer, a 7-year-old black Labrador, tried hard to remember that she was a working dog when she and her owner, Ruth Ann Acosta, visited kids at the Child’s World School in Woodland Hills this week.

So many faces to lick, so little time, she must have been thinking.

But as Acosta’s seeing-eye dog, Beamer had to contain herself until given the green light to accept the preschoolers’ petting and reciprocate with kisses.

“Whenever you see a dog with a harness like this, that means the dog is working,” Acosta told the children. “Her job is to look after me. She takes me around because my eyes don’t work that well.”

Acosta and Beamer were visiting the preschool, until recently known as the Woodland Hills Child Development Center, to show the children how a blind person copes in the world.

Blind since birth, the fortysomething Acosta said she normally talks to children a little older than the 2- through 5-year-old preschoolers.

During two sessions, Acosta showed the children how she uses Braille to read and how she tells time--with a watch equipped with Braille numbers and a talking watch that crows like a rooster.

The children seemed delighted to hear their names spoken through a small Braille computer as Acosta demonstrated how she is able to write letters.

The older children also had a surprise for Acosta. They’d been practicing for the visit by play-acting the roles of Beamer and Acosta, with one student leading another through the room.

The children also have been learning to recognize their names in Braille--or “flail” as one young boy called it.

Center officials said Acosta’s visit enhances their lesson on the five senses. The children were also going to meet a deaf person who would teach them how to use American Sign Language.

“We want to teach them that not everybody is as fortunate as we are, and that people who are not sighted don’t feel they’re unfortunate,” said Melinda Pascal, school supervisor. “They do just as well as we do.”