Canes and Bind Pre-Schoolers

Canes and Bind Pre-Schoolers

Future Reflections March/April/May 1984, Vol. 3 No. 2
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CANES AND
BLIND PRESCHOOLERS
Our national office received this past year a
brief letter from some parents in Kansas. The
complete text of the letter was this:
Dear Sir:
You are offering canes for blind children.
Our child is 2 1/2. Can she benefit from
having a cane? If so, how do you determine
the proper length? We will appreciate your
response!
Sincerely,
William Osborne
It is significant that the blind child in question
was only 21/2 years old. Today, many parents
of very young blind children are thinking
ahead about their child's future. They are
asking, "What skills will they need to know?"
"How will they get a good education?" What
job opportunities will be available to them?"
"What can I do now to assure a better future for
my child?"
The National Federation of the Blind is
pleased that more and more parents are coming
to the NFB for answers, for their questions
are the very problems the organized blind have
been addressing successfully since 1940. The
blind know that solutions come from organized
efforts, and are pleased to help, and welcome as
partners, parents of blind children in our
mutual cause.
But, back to the letter. Mr. Osborne's letter
was passed on to me for reply. I gave it some
thought, then replyed as follows:
November 10,1983
Dear Mr. Osborne,
Here is, finally, the in-depth letter I promised
you. I hope it helps.
First of all, let me tell you about our experiences
with our son. My husband and I have a fiveyearold
who is blind. We adopted him when he
was two years old. He (our son) has some usable
vision for travel purposes. However, he does
have a cane, (and has had one since he was
two) which he uses occasionally and will use
more often as he gets older and more independent
travel is expected of him. My husband
was a cane travel instructor for the blind
for about two years, and because of his experience,
he was determined to get a cane in our
son's hand as soon as possible. At that time it
meant cutting down a regular sized NFB fiberglass
cane and refitting it with a smaller
handle. As you know, child sized canes are now
available from the NFB National Office. (They
come in these lengths: 24", 26", 28", 30", 32",
34", 36". They are $10.00 each and can be
ordered from: National Federation of the Blind,
1800 Johnson Street, Baltimore, MD 21230. I
understand that the payment must accompany
the order.)
As I mentioned earlier, our son has some usable
vision but he has little or no depth perception.
He could never be sure if a change in shape,
texture or composition of the surface he was on
also meant a step-up, or a drop-down. He was
also finding out that what appeared to be a
smooth, flat surface -- all of one color and composition -- could mask unexpected drop-offs. He
fell flat on his face once because he did not have
his cane and he assumed that the concrete walk
in front of him was flat. It was a walk-way into
a church building and had several of those long steps of varying widths. Since that time, he has
learned that the concrete walk along a street is
usually flat and that walkways into buildings,
such as churches, post offices, etc., very often have "hidden" steps.
But back to my story. We gave Chaz the cane
and took him on some walks. He quickly
learned how to use the cane to probe the area in
front of him. With it he learned some general
spatial concepts and such practical things as
how deep curbs are and where you can expect
them. We showed him how to use the cane and
what it could do for him. However, he did not
fully understand (as much as a two-year-old
can understand, anyway) until he had some
exposure to blind adults who use canes. What
really made it click for him was spending a day
with a blind couple. My husband and I had a
day-long meeting to attend, so some friends of
ours (the blind couple) offered to babysit our
two sons. They played outside, took them for a
ride in a wagon, and walked to an ice cream
shop about five blocks away from their home.
All the while, they used their long white canes.
They did not give our son any formal instructions
in its use (though I believe they
answered some questions he had). The results
however were dramatic. He obviously had a
much better grasp of the cane's function and
usefullness to him after that experience.
In your letter, you asked, "Can a two-and-ahalf-year-old
blind child benefit from a cane?"
From our experience, I would say, "Yes!" Can
ALL blind children at age two-and-a-half benefit
from a cane? Maybe, maybe not. Can YOUR
child benefit? I don't know. You are the best
people to decide that. However, there is information
and guide-lines you can use to help you make that decision. I suggest you buy and
read Doris Willoughby's book, A RESOURCE
GUIDE FOR PARENTS AND EDUCATORS
OF BLIND CHILDREN, and YOUR SCHOOL
INCLUDES A BLIND CHILD. They have
much helpful information, not only about independent
travel, but about all areas you may
have concerns in. I am also enclosing a general
article about cane travel which is published
and distributed by the National Federation of
the Blind.
Here, too, are some of my thoughts. I feel that
learning to use a cane is no more difficult or
unusual than a wide variety of skills we expect
young children to learn. We expect children to
learn how to properly use a spoon, drink out of a
cup, control their bowels, dressing themselves,
etc. We know that it takes time for a child to
learn these skills and we know that not all
children will learn them at the same rate. I
recently met a mother whose one-year-old daughter
was totally weaned from a bottle and drank
beautifully from a cup. My daughter, at the rate
she is going, will probably be over two-years
old before she drinks skillfully and exclusively
from a cup. I have a friend whose fouryearold
daughter (a very bright young girl)
still needed to wear diapers at night. Another
friend had a child completely potty-trained at
age two.
Children not only learn skills gradually and
at different rates, but it also takes time for them
to see a particular tool as a functional object,
not a "fun" plaything. My five-year-old still
thinks his fork makes a fine airplane, and my
six-year-old recently decided to try his penmanship
on my good sheets. Again, the use of
the cane is a skill which a child can acquire
early, but takes time and patience to perfect,
just like any other skill.
One reason we wanted to introduce the cane
early to our son was to foster a positive attitude
in our son about using a cane. Young children
are open-minded and eager to accept and
learn anything new. Teen-agers are likely to
resent and resist the cane as something they
fear will make them "different" and set them
apart from others. Our son may very well go
through such a stage, but because of his earlier
experiences, he is more likely to accept the cane
as he gains maturity and confidence.
I have told you some about our son's use of the
cane, now let me tell you about another fiveyearold
and her experience with the cane. This
girl and her parents attended the National
Federation of the Blind Parent's Seminar in
Kansas City, Missouri this past July. Their
daughter was with them throughout the seminar.
After the seminar, these parents purchased
an NFB child's size cane for her.
Though I did not see her, many of my friends
asked me if I had seen her (the little girl)
"zipping" around the hotel. Apparently her
parents were amazed at the difference in her. I
was told that before she got the cane she
walked slowly and with great caution. Even
when walking hand-in-hand with someone,
she would hang back and would not walk at a
normal rate. After she got the cane, she struck
out on her own and was exploring rooms and
hallways with confidence and enthusiasm
Remember, her parents purchased it at the
seminar and to my knowledge she and her
parents only received some pointers on techniques
from the film that was shown -- "Kids with Canes" -- and maybe some pointers from
blind f eder ationists also attending
the seminar.
But these parents' experience has this significance:
when a child reaches a point where
they are NOT significantly as independent,
mobility-wise, as their peers, then it is definitely
time to get a long white cane. Again, that does
not mean that they should not be exposed to it
earlier. Early, positive exposure can play a
significant role in your child's attitude toward
using the cane.
This brings us now to your question of proper
length. I think Chaz's cane was somewhat
between shoulder and armpit height. Although
0 & M specialists will often say that the cane
should be no higher than sternum level, we
believe that is far too short. That belief is based
upon observations of various travel-training
programs and the experiences of competent
blind travelers.
Actually, there is no good "formula" for
determining length. It's like my English
teacher used to say when we asked her how
long our assigned essay should be -- "Long
enough to cover the subject, but short enough to
be interesting." A cane should be long enough
to allow the individual to walk at a normal pace
and still allow them enough time to stop or
react to any obstacle or drop-off that may be
encountered. A person's length of stride, confidence,
skill, health, age, etc. will affect the
proper cane length much more than their
physical height. It is not unusual for a person
to use a shorter cane when they first begin
learning its use, and in a matter of months
start using a much longer one as they gain confidence and skill. If that same person has a
health problem which makes them weaker and
slower, they may go back to a shorter cane for a
while.
This has been a lengthy response to your brief
questions, but for many reasons I thought it
best to go into some depth. One of those rasons
is that the very early introduction of the cane is
not yet commonly accepted practice among
the Orientation and Mobility/profession, or
other educators of blind children. Educators
who are teaching cane travel to very young
children are truly "pioneers". They are
breaking new ground, challenging tradition
and flouting the "accepted practice". It is no
coincidence that these pioneers are, almost
without exception, active members of the
National Federation of the Blind.
You notice I said that teaching young children
the use of the white cane was not yet common
practice. The implication is that someday it
will be, and I believe that is so. Despite the
resistance among some of the professionals,
there is already evidence of increased openness
and interest in this new approach. The
results, of course, speak for themselves.
I cannot close without also making some comments
about why this resistance in the first
place. In part, it can be seen as coming from the
old "protect your turf, and "we've always done
it this way" syndrome. Nothing new in that.
However, the roots of resistance go deeper than
that. If you are going to be in a position to
advocate and defend your child's early use of
the cane, you must understand where the real
source of resistance comes. It is, quite simply,
an attitudinal problem.
It isn't too difficult to understand that what
you believe about blindness will determine
what your expections will be of a blind child, or
any blind person. Is blindness a tragedy and
disaster? Is it so much more terrible than any
other limitation that you simply cannot expect
a blind person to ever be as "good" or as
"competent" as any sighted person? If you
believe that, then you likely also believe that all
the alternative techniques used by the blind are
not only inferior, but extremely difficult to
learn. If you believe, however, that blindness is
only another characteristic and that its' limitations
can be reduced to the level of a mere
nuisance -- then your expectations will be
different. Furthermore, you will not view alternative
techniques as mysterious and complex,
but merely common sense adaptations to that
characteristic. I believe that many professionals
resist the concept and the practice of
teaching young children cane travel because
they have the first attitude I mentioned. After
all, if blindness is that terrible and the alternative
techniques are so complex to learn, you
certainly couldn't expect a very young child to
learn them. On the other hand, if blindness is
reducible to the level of a nuisance then there
certainly is no reason a child cannot begin
learning the necessary techniques at an early
age.
Again, I am glad you wrote and I hope my
comments have been helpful. I truly applaud
the interest and concern your questions obviously
indicate you hold for your child's
present and future well-being and independence.
Sincerely,
Barbara Cheadle
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