Thanks for sharing that. Yes, Matthew’s “pretend normal” is referring to the same thing as “assumed normal”

I like where you have gone with your comment – thinking about your little baby and the questions you posed, here’s another one for you… to what extent does our own perception of normal shape abilities that would otherwise lie dormant?

“Pretend normal” got me thinking about “assumed normal” instead, which, inn my definition is perhaps the same thing as Matthew was referring to. “Assumed normal” is a non-conscious pretend – i.e. we really don’t know any better.

An example in my mind at the moment is vision. I’m pretty short-sighted, and I was part way through primary school when I came downstairs one morning to find that my parents had rigged up a simple eye chart on the kitchen wall. When asked which letters I could read on the chart from the doorway, my answer was close to “what chart?”. I’d probably assumed that the blurry vision I had was normal, simply because I knew no different.

I’m thinking about this at the moment whilst watching my 13-week old develop. How will he know that his sight is “normal”? At what point, and in what circumstances do we challenge what has been the norm for us and ask whether it really is “normal”.

Lots to think about – thanks for being thought-provoking yet again…

Simon.