September's - Tip For Parents
From ISVI's Orientation & Mobility Department

Safe Travel

Greetings from the Orientation and Mobility Staff at the ISVI! We hope your Summer has been relaxing but now, as all our children prepare for school, we wanted to share a few thoughts.

Here, we stress ‘think beyond your cane tip!’ Meaning, don’t wait to bump into something to start thinking; prepare your senses and mind to anticipate. Pool all sensory information as either verification of accuracy or proof of error. A student who combines sensory and cognitive (mental processing and judgment) ability on campus may then progress off campus.

Here are a couple facts to consider as you prepare your children back home for school:
1. National Highway Safety Administration notes 815 fatalities and 152,250 injuries related to school travel in 2006-2007 (www.fars.nhsta.dot.gov). Twenty-two percent of these were pedestrians/cyclists.

2. The American Academy of Pediatrics notes “no evidence that any one generic safety program exists that is effective in reducing pedestrian injury” http://appolicy.aappublications.org). As we do here, evaluate each child’s cognitive, motor, and behavioral strengths and weaknesses.

Here are some approaches we use that may help you at home with children returning to school:

• Walk with your child and evaluate the best route, explaining why some routes are not acceptable. Look for routes that are direct, minimize street crossings, and have crossing guards.
   
• Explain intersections, signs, and street markings along the chosen route (The Secretary of State office has publications on pedestrian/bicycle safety that combine pictures and explanations).
   
• Walk the route with the child during the time of day he/she will be walking it to school. Explain that in the Fall the sun will be lower in the morning. Glare will be in the drivers eyes from above, and possibly, reflecting off the street as well. Seeing the car does not mean the driver sees the pedestrian/cyclist.
   
• Explain your child’s vulnerability to cars backing out of driveways. The child’s size and the awkward head position of the driver backing up leave the child vulnerable.
   
• If your child is under 10, walk with him/her or work out a trusted buddy system. Children this age do not have the necessary attention span or judgment skills to judge speed or distance of incoming traffic. National Safety Council notes children this age have 1/3 the peripheral vision of adults (NSC, newsletter from South Dakota chapter, www.southdakotasafetycouncil.org .
   
• Work on a slow and deliberate visual traffic scan–looking left, right, and left again. Children’s underdeveloped peripheral vision and natural blind spot (outer periphery, where the optic nerve leaves the eye), their attention span limitations, combined with the environmental factors of glare and the growing number of quiet hybrid cars, leave them vulnerable if the scan is sloppy.
   
• Never enter a street from between cars or other objects blocking a driver’s seeing them at a distance. NSC notes this accounts for 50% to 70% of pedestrian injuries to children under
  age 9.
   
• Remind children to be extra careful in bad weather or when they are running late.
   
• Explain to children that even when they do everything right, the driver may not. Be defensive and do not take for granted that the driver is focused and will do what they are supposed to. Model responsibility yourself by minimizing cell phone use or other multi-tasking when driving.
   
• Walk the route together however many times it takes you to determine if your child can safely perform these tasks. Walk the route periodically during the year to review the skills.
   
• There is an excellent back to school checklist at www.loveourchildrenusa.org .
  
  By planning ahead, practicing travel routes, and observing your child apply safety skills you can maximize your child’s safety. Have a great school year!
  
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