January's Tip For Parents --
From ISVI's Orientation & Mobility (O&M) Department

"Think Beyond Your Cane Tip!"

These are among the first words students new to ISVI hear from their Orientation and Mobility (O&M) Specialists during their evaluation period. They continue to hear it until they prove mastery of the concept on ‘drop-off’ lessons where they must not only reach a given objective, but must first identify where they have been dropped off, a task accomplished only by taking in all cues they hear and feel; not just the most dominant or immediate cue, but pairing all information - much like a pilot uses multiple vectors to hone in on a location. This is ‘thinking beyond the cane tip’.

Orientation is, for most with little or no functional vision, the toughest aspect of travel requiring both sensory awareness and spatial concepts, as well as the cognitive ability to process both. Much information must be processed simultaneously - often under pressure. Identifying and using distant sounds ranging from exhaust fans and traffic patterns to echo differences between building designs and shapes is the difference between the proactive traveler that anticipates landmarks and clues along a travel route and the reactive traveler who tries to memorize only the sequence of turns.

If the student is listening to distant cues and associating sounds and textures with critical locations, he/she is much less vulnerable to errors. In addition, when an error is made - the student thinking beyond the tip will apply the concept exactly as he/she does on their ‘drop-offs’ - taking-in what is heard close and at a distance, and making the recovery effort based on logic rather than random hunches.

Next time you are out in a familiar, or even unfamiliar location, look and listen - try to anticipate what sensory information your child might be able to use if he/she were to routinely use that location. You will be surprised at what you notice. Our vision prevents us from really noticing even fairly dominant tactile and auditory sensory information present all around us.

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