[blindkid] School cane O/M issues

[Jess]

Lauren,
I would just keep the sighted guide in there. If her vision does improve as 
she gets older and she meets any other blind people it would help her out to 
know the techque of sighted guide. I myself know it and use it every once in 
a while with my fiancée and any other blind people that I come in contact 
with. Although, keep in mind my vision is a bit better then Joili's is. The 
most people I've never done sighted guide with is  at least two or three 
people at once. I've even done it with a couple of my blind friends who are 
guide dog users.
Jessica
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "L W" <mama2sally at yahoo.com>
To: <blindkid at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Saturday, October 17, 2009 1:22 AM
Subject: [blindkid] School cane O/M issues


> Hi all. We got our daughter Joli's IEP finalized last week. Monday I went 
> to her school to visit her vision teacher and discovered that Joli hasn't 
> been using her cane. She has been storing it in her locker. So I wrote a 
> note in her communication book saying that I wanted Joli to take her cane 
> with her everywhere. Joli came home Tuesday saying that her O/M teacher 
> told her that her classes are so close together she could just leave the 
> cane in her homeroom. She also told Joli to stick her hand through the 
> strap and wear it like a bracelet so she wouldn't drop it in dog poop. The 
> O/M teacher's concern seems to be that Joli isn't properly using the cane 
> at school. Is this normal / common? Am I missing something? I want Joli to 
> use the cane at school even though it is a familiar environment because I 
> want Joli to get into the habit of always taking her cane with her. Joli 
> has had her cane for almost 1 month.
> Also I just noticed on her IEP it says she will learn sighted guide 
> technique. I am not sure I see the point of that. Joli is 8 and her vision 
> is 20/400. Maybe I am not understanding what sighted guide technique is, 
> but as I understand it, it's taking somebody's arm and letting them lead 
> you? If she were younger or her vision were worse maybe I would see more 
> of a point to this, but now I would rather place more emphasis on cane 
> travel and on things like safely crossing the road. Must admit during the 
> IEP process (it's our 1st time doing the IEP) I was so focused on getting 
> the technology she needs and the enlargements and getting extra reading 
> help as Joli also has dyslexia, that I sort of didn't pay attention to the 
> O/M side of things as much as I guess I should have. I am wondering if 
> this sighted guide technique is something I should fight to have changed, 
> which I guess would mean calling another IEP meeting, or if it's something
> Joli could benefit from.
> Thanks for any advice,
> Lauren
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> blindkid mailing list
> blindkid at nfbnet.org
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindkid_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for 
> blindkid:
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindkid_nfbnet.org/jessica.trask.reagan%40gmail.com
>