Walking and Clocking

Watching Billy and Amber on Thursday was interesting.  In effect, they were being drilled in their perspective areas (walking straight and clocking the intersection).  Though I think it was really important to practice those important skills, I can see why you would only do that sort of teaching sparingly.  Both Amber and Billy were noticeably anxious at times when they were working so hard.  I’m not sure if they were really frustrated or simply trying really hard to focus, but they were both really wanting to improve their techniques.  I think, though, it’s important to drill skills from time to time because, well, they both learned something, and they showed better skills by the end of their lessons.

I’m still not a big fan of going downhill, and I think I’ve really figured out why.  First, I’m still a little gun shy about falling from my stair adventures.  When I walk downhill, I’m getting the proprioceptive information that approximates danger signals, and I’m overreacting to that information.  My wrist is tilted down as the cane drops, I feel my calves tighten when the slope changes, and I generally feel off balance.  I think it just takes practice to help work out the “danger” signals from the “you’re just walking downhill” signals.  Ah!  There’s so much to practice and learn to make someone a really comfortable traveler.

Amber's Adventure

It was pretty interesting teaching a new student.  I’d gotten so used to Lauren’s way of traveling that it was really a challenge reading Amber’s cues.  Since I’m not so great at reading body language anyway, she really threw me a few times, and I had no clue why she was doing what she was doing.  I was really relieved when Mickey took over because I really felt like I wasn’t doing a good job of teaching her by the end. 

Amber really did a great job, especially at the beginning of her route.  It was interesting to see how something as simple as veering while crossing can really throw off the whole route and lesson.  Seeing how much trouble crossing got her into, it really makes sense to take the time to practice the fundamentals, like Mickey suggested.  After she feels better about crossing, she’ll cross more confidently, and likely, more accurately. 

After watching Amber get bogged down in the details when she got lost made me think of how important it can be to make purposeful movements.  I know from when I’ve been lost that you can stay in one spot too long, and if you do, you get overwhelmed with the information and the fact that you’re lost.  You get that self-doubt going, and you don’t have any new information to help you get reoriented.  Of course, when you move, that new movement has to be deliberate, or you just end up in more trouble than when you started.  But still, when you’re super lost, you don’t have much to lose by moving a bit and seeing what new information you can gather.

New Territory

Teaching still doesn’t feel very natural, but I think it’s coming along.  I still worry about keeping Lauren safe without interfering with her learning.  I’m obviously still working on striking a balance.  It makes sense to me to let her keep walking in the road until she’s not safe, and the longer she’s in the road, the longer she has to learn, but I have a hard time letting it happen.  I get SOOO nervous when Lauren’s in the road, especially the last few times when she was in Duval.  I feel like she’s playing chicken with the cars and doesn’t even know it, and it’s up to me to tell her when she’s unsafe.  It makes me really uncomfortable because I want her to learn, but I get a little too paranoid.

Traveling under blindfold was really interesting because I’d never seen most of the route I took.  Lauren did a good job helping me figure out the few things that threw me, and I think she gave me a good amount of time to figure out everything else myself. 

I never did understand the area around the post office.  I’d like to go over the area again next time because I didn’t understand where the traffic was and how I used it to get everything straight.  I think I just got lucky.  I was suddenly very overwhelmed with the traffic noise and the sounds from the truck, so even though Lauren was asking the right questions, I didn’t really understood the conclusions she was leading me to.

I have concluded, though, that I really don’t like to walk down hill in a new area.  It makes me feel really uneasy.  I think it’s partly because I’m getting all the signals that I’m about to fall.  That’s one of those things that I would never have thought about making a student uncertain until I did it and felt it myself.  So, there’s definitely something to our being a little uncomfortable to better understand what it’s like to travel without vision.

Lauren's Big Adventure

I thought Lauren did a really amazing job as the student yesterday.  That was quite a route she took, and she had never seen most of it before.  She seemed to do a great job recovering from her mistakes and she moved very well, even when she found something crazy.  Walking faster did improve other aspects of Lauren’s travel.  She walked straighter, she was lined up correctly at most intersections, and she looked waaaaaay more confident. 

I’m still not sure what causes her to ping pong along a sidewalk, like she was along the first block of College.  She’d hit an edge, overcompensate, hit the other edge, and overcompensate again.  I don’t know how to fix it, other than with practice and confidence building.  Lauren was aware of the ping-ponging because she would stop and try to line up on edge.  But, since she was a bit flustered, she wasn’t lining up correctly.  She stopped once she walked faster, though.

Saying less while teaching worked okay, I guess.  I felt much more uncomfortable, but it did give Lauren a chance to show me what she knew.  Ideally, she can figure out her own problems until she reaches the frustration point, where I step in and help her think through what she already knows.  I think maybe I always jump in too early because I really don’t want her to get to the frustration point, because I know how much it stinks to be there.  Plus, when students get too frustrated, there’s not much teaching that can happen.  Lauren’s really got some great skills, so I should probably let her show more of them.  She gets to build confidence that way.  I feel really awkward not talking more often during a lesson, but that might just be my weirdness.

So, I've been thinking...

I’ve spent some time thinking about what we discussed in class, about how much to push a student and how much information to give.  I guess in the special ed world, we really have to take each individual child into account, so maybe it’s not productive to try to draw conclusions since each child will be so different and have to be considered individually.

I still wonder about how to appeal to adults who’ve really become set in their ways.  We do all the programs at camp with all the age groups.  So, our little, excited-to-experience-the-world dudes do the same things that our old, out of shape, limited experience adults do.  The adults are especially resistant to change and doing anything outside their comfort zones, despite many, many attempts to address it.  And, they really demand respect for their autonomy and their choices to not participate.  It’s a really hard line to walk, because, yes, they are adults, but they also often have additional disabilities and have had lives of low expectations.  It’s like teachers and family in their lives have spent years telling them that they’re adults and they should get respect as such, but no one’s prepared them to really act like adults and make the hard decisions that come along with that title.

So, how in the world do you motivate adults to make those positive changes in their lives?  With a kid, you can kind of just push them into new experiences.  You seem really excited, and they will be too.  Once they’ve tried it, they’re hooked, but with those adults, you can’t even get them to try new things.  They’re so resistant.  We had the most spectacular mud pit obstacle course (and tons of other AMAZING experiences) at camp this summer.  Things ANY adult would love!  And I would say that about 10 of our 40 adult (26 years+) campers just sat on the side and flat out refused to participate, even after we appealed to them in every way we knew how.  It’s frustrating to watch that happen when you know if they’d participate, they’d gain something, even if it is just a good time.

I imagine this reticence comes to light when it comes to adults seeking out O&M services.  As a kid in school, the services are sort of thrust upon you, but as an adult, you have to decide if you need/want them and seek them yourself.  These adults I’ve encountered are so okay with the way things are that they can’t imagine life being better.  They’re so resigned to their crappy quality of life and can’t imagine something like better O&M skills could improve their quality of life.  And even if they do seek services, I imagine that some adults will want to be taught the most dependent techniques rather than the (scarier?) methods that make more independent travelers.

But, keeping the student uncomfortable keeps them learning, so I imagine that’s the key.  Still, how do you put them in a situation to be uncomfortable (and learn!) if they’re adults and have the right to say no, they don’t want the experience?  Rapport?  Sweet talk?  What?  As much as I would hate to do more stairs, I’m feeling pretty comfortable in O&M right not, so it probably is time to do something that makes me uncomfortable.  It’s not that I feel like I’ve mastered everything, but I think I have some pretty good basic skills that could get me out of lots of problems.  But, I’m making that choice because I know that with better skills and more experience, I’ll be a better teacher.  Do you give them the long range plan?  You know, a future of independence?  What about with multiple disabilities where long range planning is not a strength?  I just can’t imagine teaching my adult campers O&M the way we’ve been teaching each other.  I don’t know how to apply this learning to that possible situation.

Teaching and Learning

I felt pretty good teaching on Thursday.  I’m still not sure exactly what to say or how much to say when I’m teaching, but I think it’s starting to become more natural.  Looking back, I think I should have done more explanation of the weirder parts of the route, instead of letting Lauren go at it by herself so much.  It’s hard to strike a balance.  Because, yes, I want her to have experiences and build an understanding of traveling via tactual and auditory cues, but at the same time, I want her to learn how to travel efficiently without needing to know about everything she encounters.  But, still, I think the lesson went really well.  I’m still struggling to read what Lauren is thinking, but I think I’m better than I was before.  I think it was a good decision to let Lauren try this route again.  She really showed her proficiency and she seemed so much more comfortable.

After teaching Lauren, I went under blindfold, but walking down the hill along College felt really odd. It was like I’d gone all the way back to the first day of the stairs.  I didn’t trust that my feet would fall in a safe place.  I think my balance was a bit off, and that made me loose confidence in my stride.  Something just didn’t feel right.  I hate to step off the curb when I’m walking, and once I’d done that, I was trying to avoid doing it again.  There’s something really jarring about stepping down off the curb when you think that you’re going to land on higher ground.  Still, I tried to push through the odd feelings and keep moving, and I think that went okay.  Still, it was definitely not my best, most confident walking.  Being a little off reminded me how simple things can really change the confidence level and ability of a student to do a simple thing like walk in a straight line. 

reading blogs

I was interested to read Lauren’s blog this time.  She pointed out things that helped her while traveling, and it was odd to see that those things that helped her were things I thought about telling her but didn’t.  I wanted to tell her about these clues early on, but I wasn’t sure if I should tell her.  So, how long do I let her explore and try to find salient features on her own, and when do I stop and tell her interesting things about the intersection that I think might help her navigate more safely?   Like the dip in the sidewalk and shorelining on the curb. 

I also noticed when reading her blog that I need to give Lauren the chance to build some confidence in her next lesson, since she’s expressed being anxious.  I wonder if she needs to try that route again, being successful this time?