Let’s face the truth- practicing cane skills are boring.

“Move your cane. Left and right. Are you moving your cane? Well done. Ok. Now you stopped. Move your cane. Left and right. Move your cane. Left and right. Move your cane..”

Sometimes I feel like a broken record.

Why aren’t my Orientation and Mobility students moving their canes without prompting? What am I doing wrong?

Well, friend, we are here to tell you a little secret. YOU probably aren’t doing anything wrong in your teaching.

What happens is that we are so focused on the top level skills- the cane skills, the street crossing skills, the comprehension skills, that we lose focus of the skills that are ACTUALLY at play- the foundational skills.

If we look at the Pyramid of Learning, we can see that the skills we are looking at on the top of the pyramid are like skills we can SEE. These are the skills we can measure. And oh boy do our bosses like measurable skills.

What we can’t see, the skills below the surface, are the foundational skills that support the cane skills you are trying to get to.

Where we, as Orientation and Mobility Specialists go wrong when teaching cane skills.

We expect to be able to teach to the skill itself. That would be like building a balcony on a house on a cliff, without building the foundation for the house first. Or like expecting to see the fruit on a tree, but not watering the plant as it grows roots.

Can we really expect to see measurable progress in orientation and mobility skills when we ignore the breakdown in the foundational skills? Yes. That’s why we are just now having this conversation and our profession has been around for almost 100 years. We can expect to see measurable progress of the IEP skills, decreased prompting from the O&M Specialist in the area of cane skills happens all the time.

But do we really see generalized mastery of that skill across all environments? Do your students routinely use their cane when they are with their family and friends (ie. when you aren’t around)? Probably not.

Why our Orientation and Mobility Students are not generalizing their cane skills

There are plenty of reasons why your students aren’t generalizing their cane skills. Or, why their cane skills are lacking all together.

1. Perhaps, the team could become more transdisciplinary. Role-releasing expectations and scheduling regular communication with all team members can help. If you are having trouble getting the parents on board, check out Jenn Freeman’s post, (NAME), to see how she uses Google Docs to role-release skills to parents. She uses it for Independent Living Skills, but you could easily adapt these ideas for O&M skills.

2. They don’t see the need for them. For this, go back to “Finding their why” section of blog post, “How to Help Your Students Feel Confident Before Crossing a Street”. Remind them of the reasons that they are spending their time with you. WHY they need these skills.

3. They are lacking the foundational skills necessary to perform the skills. When a student lacks the sensory integration needed to take in the correct input, they may struggle with performing skills in other environments than where they learned them. When they don’t have the proprioceptive or body awareness to sub-consciously identify when their arm is in front of their body vs when it is on the side, you will have a hard time seeing their cane skills emerge.

Three ways to help your students increase their cane skills that aren’t what you think.

1. You could continue to badger your students. Truthfully, it works. For the IEP anyway. If you can prove that Sharon was able to move her cane for 50 feet with only 4 prompts from you, vs. the 8 you gave her last year, then that technically counts.

2. Pair Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation (PNF) techniques, as taught by Dr. Sandra Rosen with a fun game for about 10 minutes at a time. The PNF techniques that she teaches are incredibly helpful to help students integrate their proprioceptive awareness and help increase their cane skills. I have found that doing the PNF techniques on younger students is pretty boring though, so pair it with a game to increase their motivation.

3. Incorporate fun, motivating movement activities in to your student’s routine. Whether this happens with you directly facilitating the movement activities, or you teach another teacher or loved one to facilitate the activity, incorporating fun, motivating movements in to your student’s schedule will help target the foundational skills that you need in order to see the cane skills emerge. I like to have my students practice yoga because it isn’t something you need vision to do, can be done anywhere, and there is a safe, tactile boundary with the yoga mat.

How to help your students increase their cane skills with yoga

Movement activities are actually really easy to include in your O&M Class. Start by scheduling 5 minutes at the beginning of your O&M class for movement. Once you schedule the time, finding the movements to do is easy.

Then, just decide on the movements you want to have your student do. If you aren’t sure where to start, You can practice “(MY YOUTUBE VIDEO) with them for a fun and easy way to incorporate a lot of movements in their schedule.

My last tip is to make it fun and exciting! Your students will determine if they like something from the energy that you give it. Movement activities such as yoga are meant to be exciting and fun!

If you’d like more tips on increasing your students’ cane skills with yoga, come join our mini-course, “How to include yoga in your O&M class”. The course is approved for 1.5 ACVREP accredited hours and absolutely free. You don’t have to be an O&M Specialist to get a lot out of the course.

Check out these posts that will also help you increase your students’ skills with yoga