[nfb-talk] FW: [nfb-indiana] Early start to cane use

Thu Aug 9 16:53:43 CDT 2007

For my own son, learning to use this vital tool was hugely important.
He got his first cane and started with it before his second birthday.
It was the smallest one anyone had ever seen.  If I remember correctly,
a mobility instructor he later worked with in grade school actually had
to cut up a larger cane, restring the thing back together for him, and
test to see if it'd work a few times before we got it right.  My kid has
wings now because he knows how to use that cane.  I remember being
unable to do so many things when I was his age because I didn't have one
until I was older than he is now.

 Harmeet Sekhon

-----Original Message-----
From: nfb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nfb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org]
On Behalf Of Wm. Ritchhart
Sent: Thursday, August 09, 2007 2:18 PM
To: nfb-talk at nfbnet.org
Subject: [nfb-talk] FW: [nfb-indiana] Early start to cane use

William

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From: nfb-indiana at yahoogroups.com [mailto:nfb-indiana at yahoogroups.com]
On Behalf Of bigdaddylou63 at sbcglobal.net
Sent: Thursday, August 09, 2007 1:13 PM
To: nfb-indiana at yahoogroups.com
Subject: [nfb-indiana] Early start to cane use

> Orlando Sentinel, Florida
> Saturday, May 27, 2006
>
> Early start to cane use
>
> By April Hunt, Staff Writer
>
> The younger that blind children adapt to the tool, the easier they can
orient themselves.
>
> Austin Hicks is walking proof that putting canes into hands of blind
children as early as possible helps their development.
>
> Now 14, he was just 2 when he learned how to use what some
grade-school
kids called his "blind stick." The cane has been a functional tool ever
since, an appendage to guide him through school, camp and life.
>
> "It just opens up doors. Without it, you can't really go anywhere,"
said
Austin, who will enter high school in West Palm Beach this fall. "With
it,
you can go just about anywhere."
>
> That sense of independence has captured the attention of many
advocates
for and parents of the blind. Families attending the National Federation
of
the Blind of Florida's annual convention in Orlando had planned to make
their point with a "cane walk" down International Drive on Friday
evening,
but rain intervened.
>
> "It's essential to give kids independence," said Laurel Henry, a
25-year-old social worker from Ormond Beach who has been blind since
birth.
"A cane can help you to weave through obstacles and get things done."
>
> Yet the idea remains somewhat under debate. Under a conventional model
of
mobility for the blind and vision-impaired, people with sight are often
the
first guides, said Joe Cutter, who spent three decades working at the
New
Jersey Commission for the Blind.
>
> That means parents or others often take the hand of a younger child or
make the child grasp them as they move them along. Canes often are
introduced much later in that model, said Cutter, who has trained a baby
as
young as 10 months on how to begin using a cane.
>
> "The issue is, that's very vision-centered, so you rely on vision from
someone else," Cutter said. "What matters isn't the vision you have.
What
matters is the skill you have. You have to observe your own movement, do
it
solo, to get those skills."
>
> April Hunt can be reached at 407-420-6269or ahunt at orlandosentin
<mailto:ahunt%40orlandosentinel.com> el.com.
>
>
>
http://www.orlandos
<http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/education/orl-blind2706may27,0,6869
876.story?coll=orl-news-education-headlines>
entinel.com/news/education/orl-blind2706may27,0,6869876.story?coll=orl-n
ews-education-headlines

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