I have always heard that human beings are an extremely adaptable species, which would explain our immense success on this planet. However, until recently I failed to research just how our brains are able to adapt to various environments and changing situations. According to medicinenet.com, if a part of the brain is injured, the neurons in the brain can compensate for this problem by reorganizing and forming new connections. The brain’s ability to reorganize itself by creating new neural pathways is called neuroplacticity (2004). This explains why a stoke victim can recover their speech after their brain is injured.
After reading and watching videos related to the newest advances in understanding neuroplacticity, I wasn’t real surprised, because I already felt I knew most of the information. It was just a matter of putting it into scientific terms. What did surprise me, occurred the day after I researched the topic when I met a woman who would be training be for my new internship. At first glance this woman appeared to be completely “normal.” However after a few minutes of speaking, she disclosed that she was blind with some peripheral vision. I found this information to be astonishing because she was able to work in a highly-demanding work environment for almost 20 years with great skill, despite her lack of sight.
During a break, I shared with the woman that my grandmother and great-grandmother both have macular degeneration, an eye disease that affects the center of one’s vision. The trainer explained that her situation differed from macular degeneration, for the reason that macular degeneration typically occurs in older individuals, whereas her situation began when she was a young girl. Therefore, she had many years to practice the utilization of her other senses. After discussing the remarkable ability people have to adjust to their environment, she shared with me that she recently watched a special about the brain’s ability to create new pathways if stimulated properly. She informed me that the special also showed a blind person’s brain who was learning brail, and the scan revealed that the visual part of the brain was stimulated, thereby creating new pathways.
Examples such as these enforce the fact that just because an individual is lacking in one area, doesn’t mean they aren’t proficient in another. For this reason, I believe rather than saying someone has a “disability” we might want to start saying a “differentability,” because we all have our areas of expertise. It is part of our resilient nature as human beings. In the social work field I will be going into it will be important to recognize that individuals are adaptable and are capable of learning new things no matter what age they are. After all, the brain is an amazing part of the body and in the following poem Emily Dickinson describes just how amazing she feels the brain really is.
The Brain–is wider than the Sky–by Emily Dickinson
The Brain–is wider than the Sky–For–put them side by side–The one the other will containWith ease–and You–beside–
The Brain is deeper than the sea–For–hold them–Blue to Blue–The one the other will absorb–As Sponges–Buckets–do–
The Brain is just the weight of God–For–Heft them–Pound for Pound–And they will differ–if they do–As Syllable from Sound–l
