Playful O&M

1. Playful O&M Maya Delgado Greenberg, M.A., C.O.M.S., O&M Specialist

2. How to incorporate: • Thematic Units • Music • Storytelling • Journaling • Photo/tactile essays • Movement • And Dramatic play Into your O&M lessons

3. Why use a playful approach to teach O&M? Incorporates elements of “best practice” in education: • Uses anticipatory sets • Builds in repetition & reinforcement • Connects what is learned to previously mastered content • Relates learning to students interests • Uses multi-sensory learning strategies

4. Why use the playful approach? Builds self esteem and the teacher/student relationship • Plays to the child’s strengths • Encourages bonding • Builds a positive attitude about O&M • Can involve the child’s family and peers

5. Thematic units • Simple way to build in repetition • Fun for the students • Easily tied into classroom themes • SampleTheme: Farms and parks • O&M skill=Rural travel • Classroom topic=learning about plants and food groups • SampleTheme: Safety skills • O&M skill=stranger safety • Classroom topic=learning about jobs of “helping people” (i.e. police, firefighter, etc.)

8. Music • Can be used to teach • Body parts • Laterality • Directionality • Upper protective technique • And much more

9. A student sings along with the upper protective technique song “Are we starting with the left or right foot?”

10. Music • Songs about the white cane • Reinforces the rules of the cane • Builds pride in O&M • Movement to the rhythm of the song builds muscle memory of cane sweeping • Can be used during travel to reinforce proper cane use

11. Students sweeping their canes to the tune of a white cane song

12. Marching songs are fun!

13. Music is a great teaching tool • Preview or review skills • Repetition and reinforcement • Fun! • NOTE: you do not have to have strong music skills to incorporate music into your lessons

14. Books Reading short fiction books together whose main characters are visually impaired: • Inspires pride • Illustrates O&M concepts and techniques • Can be used to demonstrate problem solving • Can be used a cautionary tale • Can be used to educate peers, family, and staff • Is fun to do together!

15. Books Books featuring children with visual impairments http://www.iowa-braille.k12.ia.us/bibliography_of_blind.html • The Sound of Colors: A Journey of the Imagination by Jimmy Liao. In this breathtaking, evocative book, a young blind girl travels from one subway station to another while her imagination takes her to impossibly wonderful places. She swims with the dolphins and sunbathes on a whales back; flies through the air with the birds and travels to the station at the end of the world. • Night Search Chamberlain, Kate. Hollidaysburg, PA: Jason and Nordic, 1997. 32 p. Heather, who is blind, resists using her white cane until one night while camping her puppy wanders off. Heather tries to find the puppy. She finds a stick which helps, but she realizes that her white cane is a very valuable helper. • Mandy Sue Day Karim, Roberta. New York: Clarion, 1994. Unpaged. Using her senses of taste, hearing, touch, and smell, a blind girl enjoys a special day on the farm. Using rhythmic language, the author conveys the exuberance and excitement of Mandy’s day with her horse, Ben. • Listen for the Bus: David’s Story McMahon, Patricia. Honesdale, PA: Caroline House, 1995. Unpaged. A real life look at David, who is blind and hearing impaired, as he begins kindergarten. Photos show all parts of his day and also explain the signs he uses because of his deafness. • Sarah's Sleepover. Rodriguez, Bobbie. New York: Viking, 2000. Unpaged. When the lights go out while her cousins are spending the night, a young blind girl shows them what to do in the dark. Out-of-Print, but you still might be able to find them…. Family of Owen M.: Off We Go to Learn Everyday Things About Orientation and Mobility Flaherty, Erin. Philadelphia, PA: Hill, 1997. Unpaged. "Learn everyday things about orientation and mobility" is the theme of this lighthearted, illustrated book about a blind boy named Owen M. and his family. A perfect tool to teach classmates, parents, and friends of blind children how O&M helps Owen travel around his house, in stores, and outside. Travel Tales: A Mobility Storybook by Julia Halpern-Gold, Robin W. Adler, and Shelly Faust-Jones (Paperback - Nov 1988) This large print, paperback book, is geared for pre-school and early elementary students with visual impairments. Designed to reinforce different environmental concepts in which a child would travel, it features a boy named Elliot, who is blind. Elliot provides a positive role model for blind children as he travels through the supermarket, in the subway, around the block, all around the town.

16. Storytelling • Can create stories • As an anticipatory set • To introduce vocabulary • To foster interest • As a cautionary tale • As a review of previous lesson content

17. Strategies for storytelling • Include your student as a character in the story • The protagonist • A teacher to another character • Use common literary elements (i.e. “Once upon a time there was a young girl named Carla…One day she...The end!”) • Keep a clear theme • Use props • Bus tickets, canes, clothing, etc. • Use sound effects- • have the student help make sound of door slamming, cane tapping, feet stepping • use single switch devices or a tape of environmental sounds • Drama and conflict can make the story interesting, but is not required • Keep it short and simple! • If you are up to it, use repetition and rhyming

18. Dramatic play • Can be a fun way to end a lesson • Allows child to apply concepts from stories/songs • Helps child to anticipate what to do on trips, or to practice a new skill • Allows for fun roleplaying—O&M instructor can be the child who isn’t using the cane right, student is the O&M instructor

19. Dramatic Play Tips for doing dramatic play with a student • Use props—bus ticket, canes, uniforms, shopping bags, etc • Set a clear time limit at the beginning! • Clearly define • Roles • Setting • What you are pretending to do Then have fun!

20. The Story of Henry: A cautionary tale of rebellion, bananas, and street crossings

21. Journaling • Before trying something new with your student (i.e. a new travel environment), consider using storytelling to preview the new skill. • After the story, create with the child a list of questions and vocabulary words • The lists can be used to help the child to write a short story about the trip incorporating the new vocabulary • Alternatively, teacher can write a few paragraphs about the experience and have the child read and then answer comprehension questions

22. Journaling for nonverbal students and emerging readers • For nonverbal students, can use sound recordings, tactile objects, and photos to create a storybook • For emerging readers/writers, have them dictate a story on tape • Can dictate a story to the teacher to write in print or braille • Use simple recording devices to record “Home/School News”

23. Sample story collaboratively written by elementary class.

24. Journaling • Can be used to help involve parents/family • Helps students to apply concepts and vocabulary • Fosters pride as an author

25. Movement and Routes • It isn’t route travel, it is an exploration game! • Scavenger hunt for landmarks or locations • Contest or “spy assignment” to find landmarks • Surprise awards for using O&M techniques on a route • “Busted using the cane” cards—get 5 and get a treat

26. Ideas from the audience • What are your favorite playful O&M ideas? Resources?

27. THE END Thank you for coming…