[blindkid] Cane Travel for 4 year Old

Fri Dec 18 10:11:18 UTC 2009

Richard,

Thanks - you said everything I was going to say!  Never, never, never take the cane away unless the user is going to harm themselves or others.  Even then, return it as soon as possible.  It's like washing dishes - "If I don't do a good job, I won't have to do it any more."  Now, did that stop us from teaching our children how to wash dishes?  Nope.  One had to do it again and again and with practice the dishes got clean.  Same goes with using the cane.  Please don't reward bad behavior by removing the cane and letting them 'off the hook'.

Merry-Noel Chamberlain, NOMCT (and parent of a blind 10-year-old.)

--- On Fri, 12/18/09, Richard Holloway <rholloway at gopbc.org> wrote:

From: Richard Holloway <rholloway at gopbc.org>
Subject: Re: [blindkid] Cane Travel for 4 year Old
To: "NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List, (for parents of blind children)" <blindkid at nfbnet.org>
Date: Friday, December 18, 2009, 4:03 AM

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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