[blindkid] School cane O/M issues

Tue Oct 20 02:36:15 UTC 2009

Doreen:

Bravo! Stick to your guns! We're all with you!

I'm going to propose what your O&M instructor will consider heresy: why not teach your daughter to use a cane yourselves? Get Tom Bickford's "The Care and Feeding of the Long White Cane" and Carol Castellano's "Making It Work" which has chapters on cane use. Both are available from NFB's Independence Market.

To the wall, comrade!

Mike Freeman, President
NFB of Washington

----- Original Message -----
From: Doreen Franklin <theconelady at yahoo.com>
To: was \(for parents of blind chn\(NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List" <blindkid at nfbnet.org>
Date: Monday, Oct 19, 2009 16:54:50
Subject: Re: [blkid] School cane O/More issues

>
>
> Heather -- THANK YOU!!!!
> We are parents of a 5 yr old partially sighted child who has a loss of peripheral, esp lower peripheral vision, among other eye conditions. She has to be constantly monitored for glaucoma and retinal detachment with the congenital cataracts she had. 
>  
> Our district continues to DENY services. WE have put a cane in her hand as of March 09 BUT the district will not provide O&M services, including expanded core curriculum (protective techniques, mapping, spatial awareness, etc). They are "claiming" that the O&M evals done in Sept-Oct 2008 do not indicate the "need" for a cane. We have done a log of our daughter banging into furniture, walls, missing steps, mis-stepping, etc since Aug 2008 but no one has bothered to listen to us. We also had an independent O&M assessment done at a convention for the blind and it indicates she needs to have cane techniques taught to her. This Assessment clearly pegged her!!!!
>  
> Our O&M is also legally blind and he is imposing his personal views of his vision onto our kids! And unfortunately our daughter is one of the kids suffering because of it. But the district RELIES on him as the primary O&M instructor. He can say no wrong!!! Our daughter is in a pre-K class and she had 22 boo-boos in 28 days of school (as of Oct 8). Is this normal? She has gotten 2 "more serious" boo-boos but no one wants to look at that -- district says she is "running" and that is why she is getting hurt -- and her running is a BEHAVIORAL problem according to the O&M.
>  
> I am glad that I read this email as this is exactly how we feel!!!! I am printing it to take with us -- as we have been told by our O&M that only an O&M can "prescribe" a cane! Oh yeah! THis is what we have to deal with. 
>  
> Braille hasn't really even been approached but to mention it .... and we get the excuses "she has too much vision, she won't like it and it will be too slow for her." Needless to say, I havent even brought up the LAW yet! This has taken a "back seat" to the cane as she is not safe without it. And we do agree, she needs more instruction to be safer. But we can't get it. 
>  
> Thank you for this thread ... I am glad that we are not the "only" ones feeling our daughter needs a cane and that we, as parents, have the right to put it in her hands.! 
>  
> Doreen
> 
> 
> 
> --- On Mon, 10/19/09, H. Field <missheather at comcast.net> wrote:
> 
> 
> From: H. Field <missheather at comcast.net>
> Subject: Re: [blkid] School cane O/More issues
> To: "NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List, (for parents of blind children)" <blindkid at nfbnet.org>
> Date: Monday, October 19, 2009, 6:44 PM
> 
> 
> Dear Lauren,
> I would avoid a long, drawn out, back and forth between you and the 
> classroom teacher. I wouldn't speak on the phone. This is a boundaries 
> issue and it needs you to visit the teacher in person and discuss it 
> with her.  Most classroom teachers are used to trusting the "blindness 
> professionals0.  Neither classroom teachers, and to a greater extent, 
> "blindness professionals" are used to parents being the experts on 
> their own blind children. In my extensive experience, as a blind child 
> and now a blind teacher, most blindness professionals are used to 
> telling parents what they think should be done, and having parents 
> trust them and do whatever they say.
> 
> I would go to the school before class one morning [or in the 
> afternoon if more convenient], as soon as possible, and have a quiet 
> word with the teacher. I would simply say that, as your child's 
> parent, you decide what is best for your child, even though there are 
> professionals who assist you to bring about the choices you have made. 
> You enrolled your child in this school to learn what they teach. 
> However, you supervise the homework and if there is some content or 
> activity with which you disagree, you will make the choice to opt your 
> child out of it.
> 
> The school has a nurse who knows about health and nutrition, but it is 
> you who decides what your child wears to keep warm, what she eats and 
> what medication she will, or will not take. Even though the nurse may 
> disagree, it is not her place to make decisions about Joli's health. 
> Similarly, you will decide what is best for your blind child in terms 
> of her safety, and how much you want her relying solely on her vision 
> and how much you want her to use a cane as well as her vision. The 
> mobility teacher may have her opinions, and you expect her to teach 
> your child techniques, methods etc. but you, as Joli's parent, will 
> decide which of those techniques, methods and tools your child will or 
> will not use and when she will or will not use them. You, not the 
> mobility teacher, are responsible for Joli's safety, development of 
> confidence and competence and you, not the mobility teacher, will make 
> those decisions. Therefore, you say politely to the classroom teacher, 
> this is not an orientation and mobility question, it's a parenting 
> question. You and Joli's father, as the parents, have decided that 
> Joli needs to take her cane with her everywhere she goes and use it. 
> So, we needn't worry about what the mobility teacher has to say.
> 
> If there is any argument, you call for an IEP meeting and get it 
> written in as part of the IEP. The professionals' behaviour is 
> outrageous, though not uncommon, and I wouldn't stand for it for one 
> second. Joli needs to be allowed to learn that she doesn't have to 
> sacrifice her safety, confidence and security so she can pretend that 
> her vision is reliable enough to be her only orientation and mobility 
> tool. Much of this behaviour on the part of the part of blindness 
> professionals is an unconscious desire on their part to have children 
> be as sighted as possible for as much time as possible and to use 
> vision rather than to look "blind" and use a cane. It is, however, the 
> worst message possible to be sending Joli.
> 
> I encourage you not to allow anyone to make any decisions for your 
> child. You, as her parent — educated in what's best for your child 
> with limited vision — are the only one who will be living with the 
> consequences of these decisions in ten or twenty years. Not her 
> teachers and instructors. Don't back down Lauren.
> 
> Best regards,
> 
> Heather Field
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "L W" <mama2sally at yahoo.com>
> To: <blindkid at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Monday, October 19, 2009 4:38 PM
> Subject: [blkid] School cane O/More issues
> 
> 
> Hi all. Thanks for the advice.À
> I wrote another note in Jolithx^^;":é™ness agenda book saying that Joli must 
> take her cane with her to all of her classes and that all of her 
> teachers need to be aware of th.À Her main classroom teacher sent a 
> note back saying that she would discuss it with her O/More teacher.À This 
> makes me mad because I donthx^^;":é™ment care if the O/More teacher thinks she 
> should have it or not. I think she should have x.À I donthx^^;":é™ment want the 
> classroom teacher to defer to the O/More teacher on whether or not my 
> child should have her cane with her.À Am I overstepping my bounds to 
> say thx^^;":éowI am her mother, and if I say I say she must take her cane with 
> her everywhere she goes, then she must take it regardless of how the 
> O/More teacher feels about x.thx^^;":é??
> Thanks,
> Lauren Wibbe
> 
> 
> 
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