[blindkid] O/M School Cane issues

H. Field missheather at comcast.net
Sun Oct 25 03:07:25 UTC 2009


Hello Lauren,

Unfortunately, this approach of very gradual acquisition of safe, 
independent cane travel does not work for blind children, and is even 
less useful for teenagers. Blind children and youth need safe, 
independent travel techniques which allow them to do age-appropriate 
activities with their peers. They need to be equipped with techniques 
that allow them to function independently, without being dragged and 
led about by peers or, worse, an attending adult. Age-appropriate 
behaviour is what parents want for their blind sons and daughters. 
This is what competent, blind adults want for your children. However, 
it is not so easy to achieve in the current educational environment: 
low expectations, the push for children to use vision at any cost, 
many more children with multiple disabilities of which blindness is 
only one, and the opposition to the blind being the experts on 
blindness by so much of the sighted educational establishment - to 
name just a few of the issues. There is so much working against blind 
children reaching their potential.

As competent blind adults who have these techniques we know two 
things, We know that most of these travel techniques are not that 
complicated to learn and we know that they are essential if blind 
children and youth are to grow up truly believing in their ability to 
function as competent, fulfilled and contributing members of society. 
This is why people like me sit around on a Saturday night and write 
e-mails to people like you. I believe that I am fighting for your 
child's right to be allowed to get what she needs, as a blind child, 
to get to where she can go in life if only she is allowed and 
empowered to go there. I do not get paid to uphold my position and I 
do not risk working myself out of a job or discrediting my career 
choice by telling you that the tap technique is just fine for your 
daughter to use if it works for her and gives her confidence to travel 
safely independently.

However, this is not so for your daughter's orientation and mobility 
instructor. Unfortunately, she has a vested interest in pushing her 
agenda. If she gives in and lets your child use your cane technique of 
choice, what need is there for a teacher to guide your child from one 
intermediate step to the next, and the next etc. throughout all the 
years of schooling your daughter receives? These folks want to be the 
experts and, as such, in control of what is happening.
She has been trained in a certain "method" and her voracity as an 
expert is based on insisting that all those years she put in studying 
to teach o&m to children makes her the expert and way more qualified 
in this area than you, a mere parent, and your daughter, a mere 
ignorant blind child. If just anyone can come along and say "moving my 
cane this way works best for me and other blind people agree with me 
so I'm going to do it my way and ignore what you say," then what need 
is there for an expert to come and teach her gradual development of 
cane technique? None...and that is the problem.

But there is afurther problem. Most O&M instructors are still trained 
from an adult centered perspective using concepts and approaches and 
models of training which were developed to teach blinded war veterans. 
As the NFB has fought for years and years about the need for blind 
children to be given canes and allowed to develop from babyhood as 
cane users, evidence has mounted that early orientation and mobility 
training is valuable to blind children. So, instructors have been 
hired to teach them. However, few of these instructors have been 
trained in a "bottom up" child-centered approach to Orientation and 
mobility education. Most o&m instructors do not  understand the real 
life mobility needs of children and youth of various ages, or the 
incredible competence that blind children can develop if allowed to 
acquire travel techniques in a developmental, needs-based discovery 
model. So, lacking both an understanding of what children need and the 
knowledge to give it to them in an appropriate delivery model, most 
o&m instructors can only fall back on what they learned at college. 
And so they argue with you. To put it simply, they don't know what 
your child needs, or how best to give that to her, or what she can 
achieve as a blind person if she is given what she needs. So, your 
daughter is given what the o&m instructor has got which is mostly 
inappropriate or inadequate, or is restricted by bias and 
defensiveness.

Now. If you look at the various questions you've been asking in the 
light of the above explanation as to why your daughter's o&m 
instructor is fighting you, it is very easy for you to come up with 
answers.

Question: is the tap technique that successful blind adults taught my 
daughter appropriate for her to use?
Answer: if it works for your daughter and is making her feel more 
confident and travel more competently and age-appropriately ... yes.

Question: if competent blind travellers say that in their experience 
my child needs to use her cane at all times in all places, using the 
technique which will keep her safest, and the o&m instructor 
disagrees; who should I believe? The blind people who work with blind 
children and who have lived the experience themselves, as well as 
continuing to live it personally? Or, a sighted person who went to 
college and learned other sighted peoples' ideas about what should 
work for children.
Answer: The blind people who have successfully taught cane travel to 
blind and low vision children and who travel as blind people 
themselves day in and day out.

Question: am I in for an ongoing disagreement with my child's o&m 
instructor.
Answer: if national trends are anything to go by, yes.
Question: what should I do.
Answer: do your research and make an informed choice about what is 
best for your daughter. Then, fight till you get it for her. Never 
give up and get as much help, by way of advocates at meetings, 
mentoring for your daughter, encouragement from other parents from 
competent blind people, until your daughter is successful despite any 
and all opposition.

I'm sorry to say Lauren that there is no easy way out of this delemma. 
Other people, many of whom don't know what's best for your child, will 
continue to try and make you doubt yourself, Or try to bully you or to 
ignore you and hope you'll give up and leave your child's education to 
them. If you truly want what's best for your daughter, then you must 
decide what that "best" is and fight to get it for her. You must 
become the expert you trust. As I try so hard to point out to parents 
who are being intimidated by blindness professionals, this is just a 
job to them. Any teacher could be transfered anytime and then the 
damage they may have done to your child is just a vague memory to 
them. But you, you must live with the very real outcomes of what those 
teachers did - or didn't - give your child. One day, your child may 
turn to you and say "why did you let them do that? Why didn't you 
fight for me to be taught...?" Perhaps the issue is cane technique, 
perhaps it is braille for a child with limited vision. Perhaps it is 
being allowed to take part in phys. ed. or marching band. Whatever the 
issue, only parents are in it with their kids for life. I encourage 
you to fight for the kind of life you want for your child who will all 
too soon be an adult. Whether that young adult believes that she can 
accomplish her life goals and has the skills to do it will largely be 
a result of the decisions you are making now, and the way you are 
teaching her to stand up for her rights or to just give in to the 
self-proclaimed experts.
I speak from experience, in my own life as a blind person and as 
someone who is working with parents all over the country to get the 
education their blind child needs. If I have learned anything it is 
that you will have to say "no!" to many educators along the road to 
your daughter's adulthood. How you choose to do it is up to you. 
Whether you're polite or rude, confrontational or low key, in the end 
you will still have to simply say "no!"
We are here to help you educate yourself and to fight if you have to. 
We will even fight along side you if that's what you need. Just let us 
know.

Best regards,

Heather Field


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "L W" <mama2sally at yahoo.com>
To: <blindkid at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Friday, October 23, 2009 8:16 PM
Subject: [blindkid] O/M School Cane issues


Hi all
Thank you for your continued advice. The latest is that Joli’s 
mobility teacher has just started teaching her the diagonal 
technique. I asked Joli to show me how the O/M has her using the 
cane. It looks like she holds the cane in her right hand. It is 
crossed in front of her left hip with the tip maintaining constant 
contact with the ground. I asked her what happens if there was an 
obstacle on her other side, and she said she can switch hands. This 
technique seems really awkward to me as it looks like she can’t 
completely clear the space ahead of her without switching hands, which 
is tricky if she carrying anything. Of course it would be rare for her 
to moving around her school with both of her hands free. I was 
wondering if the NFB has any thoughts on this diagonal technique. 
Joli got her cane from the NFB and has been using the touch tap, step, 
tap, step technique they showed us at the NFB. Her O/M teacher says 
that the NFB touch
 tap technique is only for outdoor use. She didn’t even want Joli 
using her cane indoors until she had learned the diagonal technique. 
 So far we have an understanding that Joli can use the touch tap 
technique until she learns the diagonal technique. I am not sure I 
want Joli using the diagonal technique and am wondering how the NFB 
feels about this technique.Â
I can anticipate that if I want this instructor to stop the diagonal 
technique and to instead teach & encourage the touch technique Joli 
has been learning, I going to have a fight on my hands. That is 
another reason why I am wondering if the NFB supports use of this 
diagonal technique.
Thanks for any advice,
Lauren Wibbe



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