[blindkid] [Bulk] Re: School cane O/M issues

Brandy W branlw at sbcglobal.net
Sat Oct 17 13:28:16 UTC 2009


Hi, When one is taught sighted guide they should not just be taught how to 
follow the adult, but to quickly explain to the guide how to lead. For 
example I am very independant in an airport, but on a few situations I've 
almost missed a flight and decided to go sighted guide. In about 30 seconds 
I'm on my way with someone who knows how to safly guide me. It has also 
happened in my large city hospital when I was sick, and honestly didn't care 
if I had help. It is a tool, not a primiary way to get around. Of course the 
cane should be used 90% of the time. Bran
Brandy Wojcik
Discovery Toys Educational Leader
www.playtoachieve.com
(512) 231-8697
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Richard Holloway" <rholloway at gopbc.org>
To: "NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List,(for parents of blind children)" 
<blindkid at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Saturday, October 17, 2009 3:52 AM
Subject: [Bulk] Re: [blindkid] School cane O/M issues


Lauren,

I have been told (and it makes total sense to me) that having an arm
in the strap is an inappropriate and dangerous thing to do. The loop
is to hold the cane on a hook or the like when it is not in use. (Some
also hang something small on the loop to personalize it.) If something
gets ahold of your cane, the last thing you want it to do is also get
ahold of your arm (by way of that strap) and pull you into something,
onto the ground, down a stairway, or worse.

What if a another kid grabbed the cane and pulled it? What if you're
moving and the cane gets snagged and stops but people behind you DON'T
stop, so you get pushed forward and the cane is pulling back? What if
it went through the spokes of a wheelchair or a bike? What if the cane
tip were closed into the door of a bus as it drove off while you were
at a curb or the doors on a subway should grab it? What if a passing
truck should hook it at curbside? I don't mean to be an alarmist, but
if it were my child I'd have an immediate talk about that with the O&M
Instructor. I've seen Kendra's cane fly across the room a number of
times, generally when it gets kicked or caught by someone else's feet
by accident. Each time I was glad it was just her cane-- As disgusting
as it may sound, poop wipes off...

The cane in the locker sounds like a poor plan. Canes are not to be
stored away. What message is this sending not only to your child but
to all who are aware of this in her school? What if a child who uses a
walker could actually make it to the next room without the walker
because it was close by? Should they keep their walker in a locker and
be at risk? The cane is a tool to facilitate travel. There's no need
to hide it in a locker.

Why can't her cane be parked in the classroom, next to the door by the
hallway? It can go classroom to classroom and be parked in each class.
Even if the walk is short, it helps your child learn that practice.
Our daughter is 7 and for years now has known to get her cane from
next to the front door of our house as she leaves and to put it there
when she comes in-- every time. She does the same at school with each
class.

As to "properly using her cane"-- well, a month is not much time at
all to have mastered that skill, especially with the amount of O&M
time that most kids get in a month-- what does she get, surely no more
than an hour or so each week? These things take time. My daughter has
been getting some level of O&M with cane instruction for over five
years and still has much to learn. It takes time and practice, but it
is hard to practice when the cane is stored in a locker. It sounds to
me like they are telling your daughter that "most of the time, it is
fine to do your best to get around without your cane and to rely on
others to help you find your way", however once in while we will give
you a cane and you should immediately learn how to use it properly.
Even a very young child who is dragging a cane behind himself
(literally behind himself) is learning that the cane goes with him
when he goes out, and as you keep getting it back in front of him,
things begin to progress...

Sighted guide. Ugh... I guess there are times for that. First of all,
I really liked Joe Cutter's thoughts on "paired walking" as a concept.
The entire notion of "sighted guide" seems to be that the sight is the
important thing which is guiding the blind person. I don't want my
daughter growing up to rely on anyone else with vision (or without) to
help her find her way, and I can tell you with absolute certainty
that, as a typically sighted adult, I have been guided many places by
blind people (including my own daughter as well as many blind adults).

I remember an NFB convention in Dallas a few years ago when one cane-
traveling young lady had me completely out of breath trying to keep up
with her as she whizzed across the hotel to help me find a particular
room. It would never have occurred to me to think of any of these cane
(or guide-dog) traveling people as "blind guides". They were simply my
guides. I'm not trying to argue over terms, but mindset can be really
important. I know this is a standard term, but the phrase is almost
like a little IEP goal on it's own-- "learn to rely on a sighted
person to find your way"-- is that a goal you want on your child's
IEP? And if it belongs there, how should it be positioned? Primary
skill? Backup skill?

Paired Walking (I like that term so much better) for us, is useful
when exploring a new place when there is not a good way to let Kendra
explore it on her own (usually because of time constraints) and we try
to keep that to a minimum unless she just wants (for example) to walk
and hold my hand. If a sighted seven year old wanted to walk with her
dad and hold his hand, would that be okay? I would say certainly it
would, so then there needs to be some other reason to say not to do it
for a blind child. So then, maybe we need to ask if this is because
she TRULY wants to hold hands or she wants to have help finding her
way? So you see it can be complicated, but as a primary solution? I
wold try and avoid that.

A better example that comes to mind is a class field trip with a lot
of walking where there is no practical way to keep up with the other
kids in the unfamiliar environment. (For a young or new cane traveler.
Ultimately, expect cane travelers to stay with the group on their
own!) Or say you need to help your child find the restroom in a time
of urgency-- the benefit of her finding the restroom on her own may be
offset by possibly having an accident due to extra time spent. I look
at it like this-- if this is not the time to travel alone (as in with
just a cane in hand), when is that time? What is going to change, and
when, to make "sighted guide" less necessary later? Is the goal for
your child as an adult to travel by sighted guide or alone with a cane?

Of corse, paired walking should ideally be a situation where EITHER
person can take the lead. When time permits, I enjoy "paired walking"
as I hold hands with my wife and we're both typically sighted. I guess
what I am getting at is this-- "sighted guide" should be one option
that a blind person can choose, not a practice that we teach kids to
rely on as a first line solution. I did see where someone pointed out
that canes can break and then someone may have to rely on a sighted
guide. That may be true but that can be kept to a minimum if you keep
a spare cane available all the time. Many blind people who travel
often make a point to always pack a spare cane. I know we make every
effort to have a spare available for Kendra at home or on the road,
even though we've only broken one cane so far in over 5 years of cane
use.

Here is another thing to remember about sighted guide-- With that
technique, who is the guide generally going to be after the O&M lesson
is over? Often, it ends up being a relatively untrained adult or
classmate. Time and again, these well-meaning people (especially the
young kids) loose track of what they are doing and guide blind people
into poles. I have done it myself to my own child. (What a terrible
feeling!) It is not intuitive to walk with a clear path for yourself
and the person next to you all the time. And when your cane DOES
break, what do you think the chance is that there will be a trained
person nearby to assist you to your destination offering proper sited
guide technique? Probably just about as good as this happening in
front of a traveling white cane salesperson to sell you a replacement
on the spot, right? Better off to pack a spare cane and be done with it.

Generally, I don't walk into things because I can see them-- that is
my technique to avoid them; I use my vision to protect myself. A
skilled cane traveler doesn't walk into poles because proper cane
technique lets her find the pole just as effectively as my vision
keeps me clear. Once in a while, the power fails. It gets dark
suddenly and we all can walk into poles, except for those among us
traveling with canes.

Back to the reading issues, one other thing to keep in mind-- is large
print the best option for your child? Is she going to learn to read
braille as well? There are many factors involved but often too much
attention is paid to a person's limited vision. Is her condition
progressive for example? As she gets older she'll need to read more
and faster and generally vision issues do not improve over time.
Reading large print can be exhausting for some people as compared to
using braille. Learning braille early is often the difference in being
a speedy braille reader or one who is frustrated in trying to keep up
and reading large print is invariably a slow process. Determine what
would be the down side about learning braille for her-- is there one?
Does she qualify for braille services in your school system? These are
good things to know in any case. That's a bit outside of my direct
experience as my daughter has no light perception, but her having no
vision also leads me to another point--

Having some vision can actually make it HARDER to do some things
because people with low vision may rely on too little information to
make decisions-- deciding to use a bit of vision instead of accurate
information from a cane-- things like that. One very common training
technique in O&M for people with anything from typical vision all the
way to very low vision is to wear sleep shades to learn not to rely on
cues from limited vision when traveling with a cane.

One final thought-- (sorry for the long post, BTW!) for having a young
blind child (age 7) my wife and I have been at this for a while as far
as IEP's. This is Kendra's 5th year in school and we seem to generally
have a couple of IEP's each year (plus additional informal meetings as
needed). Even with all those meetings we've had, there are always
things overlooked and adjustments that need to be made to goals and
strategies so don't beat yourself up for not getting everything
perfect in your first IEP. This is a process and I have yet to hear of
a perfect IEP. It sounds to me like you're actually off to a great
start, addressing a host of concerns and trying to head immediately in
the best possible direction for your child.

Now the disclaimer-- many people around this listserv have 10 or 20
years more experience with this than I-- maybe even more than that,
but those are my suggestions for what they may be worth.

Good luck,

Richard




On Oct 17, 2009, at 1:22 AM, L W wrote:

> 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
>
>
>
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