[nabs-l] Training: As needed, or all at once?

[Linda Stover]

Jim,

The main benifit for going to a training center, as I see it, is
complete immersion.  Yes, you can begin working with an O and M
specialist.  However, your training will be in short sessions two or
three times a week.  At the training center, you not only receive
mobility every day, but are forced to put the skills you learn to use
traveling constantly around a strange city.

The other thing to consider about a training center is this.  Right
now, you do not see many of the skills the training centers impart as
essential.  However, at some time during the future, they very well
might be.  Would it not, therefore, be to your advantage to learn
these skills before they become essential.  Let me attempt to clarify
what my point is here.

I recently came in to contact with a person, who I'll call, for future
references of this post M.  M. had recently begun losing vision, and
was being taught an intensive immersion course in Braille by the
vision specialist at there school.  They were learning the skills they
would need to survive.  However, it was incredibly grueling because
there was no break.  In order to firmly imprint the skills firmly on
this person's brain at their current age, they could use print for
none of their assignments/other activities while they were on the
premisis where they were being taught.

If, on the other hand, this person had begun to be taught Braille
while they still maintained partial vision, it might have been
possible to jugstapose their Braille lessons with print reading in
other activities.  They would have been taking prevenative steps by
learning Braille which would have significantly aided them later.  To
me, someone with partial vision is doing the same and making proper
percautions about their future by attending a training center.  This
is all, naturally, merely my oppinion, but I hope it can lend you some
insight in to what you're grappling with.
Courtney

On 5/11/09, Jim Reed <jim275_2 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Hello all,
> I am just thinking about blind training, and I am just not sure to what
> extent it is practical for me right now. A friend has told me that blind
> training has made her function better as a visually impaired person, but I
> am just not sure to what extent it is justifiable to ask VR to send me to a
> training center (to learn braile for example), when I currently don't need
> braile, and there is no guarantee that I ever will need braile. Also, it
> seems like a lot of time and effort on my part to learn what are currently
> non-essential skills. On the other hand, I am going to begin working with my
> VR offices OM specialist because I realize that the cane is essential for me
> to travel at night.
>
> Thoughts?
> Jim
>
> Homer Simpson's brain: "Use reverse psychology."
>  Homer: "Oh, that sounds too complicated."
>  Homer's brain: "Okay, don't use reverse psychology."
>  Homer: "Okay, I will!"
>
>
>
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