Blind child in Scotland, who writes through eye blinks, wins Brit Writers Award for poetry

From The Herald in Scotland:

A blind boy who suffers from major health problems has won an award for his poetry, which he writes by a process of blinking to choose words and syllables.

Judges, however, were unaware of the incredible feat by Adam Bojelian (pictured), aged 10, until he reached the semi-finals of the competition.

He is given options of up to 100 words at a time by a helper to allow him to choose which word he wants to use, and has developed a love for creating imaginative verse.

Adam, who has severe cerebral palsy and is a pupil at the Royal Blind School in Edinburgh, was given one of the first Brit Writers’ Awards at a ceremony in London.

His mother Zoe Picton, 50 – a lawyer who, when not looking after Adam, is studying for a PhD – said he was overwhelmed by the visit to the O2 Arena.

She explained how she first confirmed he was ­communicating by blinking when he was about a year old.

She said: “At playgroup we noticed he was blinking at the right moment when everyone else was singing, ‘If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands,’ then he was doing it with other songs at specific moments. Eventually he helped us develop the system.”

Adam’s poems had reached the semi-finals of the Brit Writers’ Awards before the incredible effort that he has to make in order to create them became known. It can take him a day to write just one line of a poem, and a month or more to finish a complete verse. But he can be quicker when “talking”.

“He has developed it so that sometimes he can be blinking whole sentences and you have to tell him to slow down so you can understand,” his mother explained.

Adam, who has spent a total of six years in various hospitals, was given the award in recognition of his outstanding achievement in poetry, despite his cerebral palsy and other life-threatening health problems.

The Brit Writers’ Awards took place on Thursday. They attracted more than 21,000 entries, and fellow winners included the author Sir Terry Pratchett.

Adam told the audience: “It is really hard telling people what you are thinking by blinking, but I love writing poems”.

He delighted the audience by reciting – using his computer-generated voice – one of his three entries, entitled a A Silly Poem.

Adam uses a wheelchair and has extremely limited use of his hands. He has a tracheotomy, is oxygen-dependent and also has a seizure disorder.

As well as regularly attending the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburgh and Yorkhill Hospital in Glasgow, he also attends Great Ormond Street Hospital in London and the Rachel House Children’s Hospice in Kinross.

He requires care by a nurse overnight and during school hours, though his health problems often prevent him from attending school. His nurse helps him with homework and with his poetry.

“When a new teacher comes to the school he likes to teach them his language,” his mother said. “He’s like a Brit abroad. If they don’t understand him at first he will emphasise his blink as if he is saying it louder.”

Although Adam instigated his highly personalised means of expression from a very early age, the story of how he taught himself the technique is reminiscent of The Diving Bell And The Butterfly, a memoir by French journalist Jean-Dominique Bauby, which he wrote by blinking his left eye after a stroke.


A Silly Poem, Adam Bojelian 2010


At my school the green fish digs a hole and chases the dog down the road.

In the yard the big dinosaur laughs out loud and tells me a joke.

I laugh.

Later that day I saw a bug eat my teacher for lunch.

The lion reads a book in a tree and then, a scientist with a monkey drives a car too fast through the air.

In my dream, I catch a spaceship to the moon.

I go off looking for hot dogs.