1. Strategies for teaching the “invisible requirements” of effective traveling MORE TO MOBILITY WITH CHILDREN THAN CANE TRAVEL

2. Play provides the medium through which young people can explore and, through trial and error, learn the necessary skills that will aid them throughout their childhood and adult lives. Children develop confidence and competence when interacting with their environment (Glover, 2001).

3. WHAT ARE THESE INVISIBLE REQUIREMENTS?

4. 1. A CURIOUS NATURE

5. WHY IS CURIOSITY SO CRITICAL? Curiosityresults inExploration results inDiscovery results inPleasure results inRepetition results inMastery results inNew Skills results inConfidence results inSelf esteem results inSense of Security Securityresults inMore Exploration

6. WHAT DESTROYS CURIOSITY? Fear- When a child is fearful, he will not like novelty, his brain and body crave routine. He won’t want to leave his comfort zone. Our children are often taught to be fearful of everything. Disapproval - “Don’t touch! Don’t do that, that’s disgusting! When you leave mommy you can be run over by a car, or hurt, or maimed, or disfigured permanently, abducted by aliens, etc.” Our children are told no blatantly, and in other nasty invisible methods in all the tiny ways well meaning adults and peers communicate to them they are not capable because they are blind. Absence of an Invested Adult- A child needs an invested adult in her curiosity. She needs someone to provide the encouragement that she is making a good decision, and someone to share the joy of her discovery with. Our children have very few of these types of adults in their lives Much of this material and the previous slide courtesy of Dr. Bruce D. Perry, M.D., Ph.D., an internationally recognized authority on brain development and children in crisis http://teacher.scholastic.com/professional/bruceperry/curiosity.htm http://teacher.scholastic.com/professional/bruceperry/curiosity.htm

7. 2. A CIRCLE OF SUPPORT THAT ENCOURAGES AND FACILITATES REAL INDEPENDENCE

8. BLIND PEOPLE ARE INCAPABLE SO THINK ALL THE MUGGLES This has been drilled into the minds of our peers their entire lives. The O&M Specialist and other vision professionals have to first lead by example, and sadly, often do not. Recognize the emotional barriers that may be preventing caregivers, especially parents, from moving forward toward goals of real independence Empower the “Circle of Support” to treat your student like any of the other students. Remind everyone what we’re here to do, and that’s to create a fully functioning, entirely participatory, and completely integrated member of our culture and society. This creates a goal and a metric by which to measure the current action by.

9. 3. ABILITY TO ASSESS AND TAKE RISKS

10. Through exposure to carefully managed risks, children learn sound judgment in assessing risks themselves, hence building confidence, resilience and self-belief; qualities that are important for their eventual independence (Children's Play Council, 2004).

11. If adults deny children opportunities for worthwhile, positive risks, they also prevent children from developing the decision-making skills necessary to make accurate risk judgments. Children need to learn to take calculated risks. (Stephenson, 1998)

12. SHOULD WE TAKE RISKS? SHOULD WE ENCOURAGE OUR STUDENTS TO? risk [r ɪ sk] 1. the possibility of incurring misfortune or loss; hazard What do we feel when we take risks? I feel a yummy, butterfly feeling in my tummy that says, “anything is possible.” What happens when we come out on the other side with a gain? Reinforced to take more risk! What happens when we come out on the other side with a loss? We encourage ourselves to better assess risk in the future! What happens when we don’t take any risks ever? We move exactly NOWHERE.

13. HOW DO I SUPPORT RISK? First, a dialogue with the “Circle of Support” that includes me telling them a story of taking risks as a child and how it was valuable to my development. Always watch how typically developing kids are using a space; the adult in me has kid play glaucoma, I need to always be mindful of this. Encourage my student to explore the environmental piece like a child would, scaffolding the requisite skills to access the object in a not typical way.

14. FOR EXAMPLE

15. 4. AN ENVIRONMENT THAT SUPPORTS TRAVEL

16. ENVIRONMENT DEFINED environment [ ɪ n ˈ va ɪ r ə nm ə nt] n 1. external conditions or surroundings, esp those in which people (blind kids) live or work 2. the external surroundings in which a plant or animal lives,(blind kid) which tend to influence its development and behavior 3. the state of being environed; encirclement http://www.thefreedictionary.com/environment

17. NOT JUST THE SIDEWALK SO OFTEN O&MS… Over focus on the physical environment, landmarks, cues, and clues Don’t focus enough on the people in the environment Don’t pay enough attention on the opportunities the environment provides for enrichment of Expanded Core Curriculum areas Don’t pay attention to where play opportunities and positive risk possibilities exist Force the child to encounter the physical environment in the way that an adult would, and only in that way Lack of Incidental Learning allows the child with a visual impairment to be ok with this, where a sighted child would never tolerate this kind of suppression of his nature

18. HERE’S WHAT I MEAN http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URA5wYevPgM

19. YOUR THOUGHTS??