[blindkid] Cane Travel for 4 year Old

Richard Holloway rholloway at gopbc.org
Fri Dec 18 04:03:32 UTC 2009


I would differ with the suggestions of taking away a blind child's  
cane ever unless you are stopping outrageous flailing and smashing and  
even in that case I would try not to put it in the context of "I'm  
taking away your cane for bad behavior" and I'd return it as quickly  
as reasonably possible. Having a cane is not a "reward" for good  
behavior anymore than "allowing" a non-walking child to have  
wheelchair in which to sit and travel. I don't think anyone who  
suggested taking away a cane intends it to come across to a child that  
way to a child, but having a cane is, IMHO, a right and our kids need  
to understand that from very early on. I have heard too many tales of  
schools taking kids canes away for misbehaving and I find that notion  
entirely unacceptable.

I don't mean to step on other's toes but I feel quite strongly about  
this-- I would pity the school employee who first tries such a thing  
with my child for example. My reaction would be rather pronounced and  
unpleasant. I would much prefer rewarding proper cane use with  
something my child likes or taking away something for misuse other  
than the cane itself.

NFB style canes have much less mass at the tip of the cane than many  
other styles so one nice thing is that there is less damage to be done  
from at least fairly moderate cane misuse-- possibly another reason to  
look at the NFB canes. I also agree that the greatly increased vibro- 
tactile feedback from an NFB cane may automatically reduce some of the  
banging about to begin with.

We have been through cane battles with several O&M people and simply  
told them that we want Kendra to use this stye of cane. If they want  
to discuss alternatives, that's fine-- we'll listen but WE decide.  
This is ultimately a parental decision for children and a personal one  
for adult cane travelers. We did even use a different cane for a short  
time because Kendra wanted to use it, but the reason was most likely  
that it was more like her O&M teacher's teaching cane. We let her try  
it because she refused to use the cane we wanted and we figured it  
better to use SOME cane than to refuse at all,  then we shifted away  
from it as soon as we could get her using her NFB cane again with  
minimal resistance. (We later got the instructor to change to an NFB  
cane herself, BTW...)

We started our cane use around 18 months and insisted on it being used  
as opposed to the recommended "pre-cane devices" (big clunky things  
made of PVC). When Kendra was quite small she would drag her cane  
behind her but we figured that was better than nothing-- she was  
learning that her cane went with her when she was traveling, always.  
After a while we got it in front of her most of the time but it tended  
to "float". Sometimes we'd say "tap-tap" to her and she'd start to tap  
it in front of her. Sometimes we'd ask her what her cane was telling  
her and remind her that it would not tell her anything if it wasn't  
touching or tapping the ground.

One thing that I think was pretty effective though she may have been  
slightly older than 4 (but not a lot older) was to intentionally walk  
her into things, but carefully. I was not being mean, I promise you--  
if we were heading for our front steps for example, I'd make certain  
not to break my pace as I headed towards the stairs (that would let  
her know we were close to the stairs) and if her cane was in the air,  
she'd trip and go forward. Here's the safety precaution-- I'd be ready  
to catch her before she would do a face-plant. She quickly improved  
her cane position! I'll still do the same thing now and then with a  
curb or similar low item that would be easy to find with a cane so  
long as it is not "floating". She makes that mistake a lot less now  
and so far she has never actually fallen. Also, I did not always do  
this-- just now and then, to keep her on her toes... I think it was  
helpful.

Now if there were cars nearby or friends watching her, I would not do  
this intentionally-- this is intended to teach her what can happen  
with minimal danger, not to embarrass her and certainly not to harm  
her. The fact of the matter is that if we don't let our kids  
experience little trips and bumps, when it is time for them to be  
walking alone with nobody there to catch them, then they really will  
get hurt.

In a similar way, we used to guard things that she might walk into  
with a really sharp corner but let her bump into things less hazardous  
as she'd learn her way around places. Now we generally don't need to  
worry about that because she knows how to move about and explore with  
reasonable safety.

Most recently (but only starting around age 6) Kendra became more  
aware of an adult friend and fellow cane traveler's cane sounds. She  
basically tuned into this on her own and started asking about it, so  
she learned and really began to understand that other blind people  
including blind adults use canes and they tap them when they walk. Now  
we can ask her if she's using her cane like our friend and she  
immediately begins to tap and use her cane in step if she has stopped  
doing so...

I know I have digressed from the original question a bit, but I wanted  
to underscore there is progression and in our case it seemed to follow  
from reward (often just praise) for first using the cane at all and  
then only for proper use, then progressed to having consequences  
tripping and crashing into things when she didn't use it properly, and  
then to feeling like she was acting like a respected role model by  
using a cane like he does. That's really not so different from the way  
kids learn about a lot of things I suppose...

Richard




On Dec 17, 2009, at 2:58 PM, Meng, Debi wrote:

>
> Hi all,   I am frequent follower of the list.    I need advice.
>
> We are having a difficult time getting Jonathan to keep his cane on  
> the
> ground.   He constantly wants to pound it like a sledgehammer.   He
> currently has a ball tip to encourage rolling the cane and that worked
> for a while, but now we are back to pounding it again.     We have  
> tried
> praise, time outs, etc, all the normal consequences.   Nothing works.
>
> Has anyone had a similar issue and how did you resolve it?
>
> Debi, Grandmother of Jonathan, Age 4, ROP
>
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