Virtual Curriculum Portal
This is a virtual curriculum addressing the needs of children with navigational disabilities, primarily blind children and visually impaired children. It is an ongoing work that welcomes all interested individuals as partners in the development of the curriculum. The Institute for Innovative Blind Navigation will serve as the project host and editor. We welcome partner organizations in the project as well as individual support.
This is a grassroots project that strives to focus the power of cyberspace. The plan is to let the curriculum develop slowly by word of mouth- through the grapevine. There will be no copy rite protection, nor will individuals or groups seek to profit from this project created for the common good. Anyone may download the content of this site so long as the intent is to help children develop to their highest potential.
Mobility Specialists who work with children have challenges substantially different from traditionally trained mobility instructors; i.e. mobility specialists working with adventitiously blinded adults. This curriculum is an ongoing articulation of pediatric O&M.
Mobility specialists working with children have to adjust for developmental changes in children. They also must address a complex collection of secondary physical, cognitive and sensory impairments. Within the framework of rapid developmental changes, the pediatric mobility specialist must help children with the following challenges:
1. Understanding what "space" is; i.e. how to study space and how to move through space with efficiency and grace.
2. Understanding how to stay oriented in space(s)- orientation; what to do when disoriented. Understanding how to use maps.
3. Understanding how to move safely through space(s) (mobility)
4. Understanding how to develop a "normal" gait, one that is efficient and provides for "good" posture, and with no unusual mannerisms.
5. Understanding and accepting (taking pride) in yourself as a blind individual; moving with grace and confidence through space.
6. Understanding how to use the sense of hearing for accurate navigation; learning echolocation, facial vision, sound discrimination, and sound localization, etc.
7. Understanding how to use the sense of touch for accurate navigation: the cane as an extension of touch
8. Understanding the technologies (tools) that assist the natural senses to probe, analyze, and use environmental information (environmental literacy). This includes location based technologies like GPS, smart wheelchairs (smart vehicles of any kind), and alternative perception tools like the Sound Flash, the Miniguide, the VoicE, and smart (sonic) canes
9. Understanding the 20 plus uses of the long cane, and learning cane technique as it fits with developmental readiness.
10. Understanding concepts on three levels, and as they become developmental appropriate: A. body (sides, front, back, top, bottom), B. positional (the body relative to objects/sensory input; and the relationships of objects to objects), C. environmental (what the particulars are of the objects in space; for example "the study of things you sit on", chairs.)
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