Families, Babies, and O&M: Early Conversations

Tanni L. Anthony, Ph.D., COMS

Supervisor/Coordinator on Visual Impairment

Project Director of the CO Services for Children with Combined Vision and Hearing Loss, West Central Regional Liaison

Colorado Department of Education

Whether or not an orientation and mobility specialist works with infants and toddlers who are blind/visually impaired will depend on a variety of factors such as personal philosophy, training, and even opportunity.   My personal belief is that O&M specialists have a vital role with our youngest children who are blind/visually impaired based on an attitude of willingness, early childhood training, and the understanding of families and other team members about their importance on the early intervention team.  If the O&M Specialist does work with this population of children, working with the family will be inherently linked to these services.

At no other age of development do professionals work so intimately with families (and perhaps have such a wonderful opportunity of true impact on a young child’s development).  Family-centered early intervention is based on understanding and respecting family choices, values, privacy, and priorities (Anthony, 2002; Hatton, McWilliam, & Winton, 2002).  Finding out what the parents want for their child, their family, and what works within the routine of family and child will provide important considerations and opportunities for the O&M Specialist (Anthony, Lowry, Brown, & Hatton, 2004).   

A good beginning conversation with the family is to learn more about the environments that the child is frequently in, both in and outside of the home.  This information will provide insights on:

• How to build play/exploration environments that fit into the environments where the child spends time each day.  For one family, their very young child spent most of each day at the babysitter’s home.  The O&M Specialist worked with the parents and the babysitter to build a daily play environment that did not require a lot of space or specialized equipment.   It included a quilted blanket for the floor surrounded by defined boundaries such as a couch on one side, a wall on the other, and rolled blankets and pillows on the other sides.  Consistent play items, such as an object/toy-board with safely attached items and easily to manipulate toys, were placed at all four sides of the blanket – all directions of the blanket beckoned the movement of the child to explore each “play mini-center.”   This was a child who initially was content to stay in one place on her back and play with whatever was handed to her.  As she was exposed to a consistent play space, she began to show preferences for certain play items and would move to these items.  As more was learned about her play preferences, these items became motivators for movement.  Eventually she grew out of this play space and the O&M Specialist worked on new concepts and skills.

• How to highlight early “landmarks” for spatial reference.  One family put a brightly contrasted adhesive sticker on the inside of the bath tub.  The sticker served as a spatial cue for the child within the confines of the tub.   As soon as he was placed in the tub, he learned to visually search for the sticker and would reach out, touch it, and smile.  For this child, who had cortical visual impairment and cerebral palsy, the sticker became part of a bath time routine that invited his visual search and tactile reach.  

• What types of mini-travel routes might be built into the child’s day. Toileting, bathing, and eating routines make up a consistent portion of each child’s day.  Building movement expectations into these routines can be accomplished by having parents simply encourage the child to crawl from the hallway to the bathtub during bath time or later bring a book from the bedroom bookshelf to the living room couch for an afternoon story time.  A diapering routine may be reviewed to add movement goals of lifting legs, reaching out to hold the new diaper after a touch cue to the hand, and/or rotate the trunk muscles to move off of the diaper mat.

The early years are a time to confirm the developmental possibilities of a growing child with his or her parents and to reinforce O&M concepts and skill development within daily care and play routines.  An O&M Specialist on an early intervention team can truly make an important difference in these early precious years that will set the stage to last a lifetime.

References

Anthony, T. L., Bleier, H., Fazzi, D. L., Kish , D. & Pogrund, R. L. (2002). Developing early skills for orientation and mobility.  In R. L. Pogrund & D. L. Fazzi (Eds.), Early Focus: Working with Young Children Who are Blind or Visually Impaired and Their Families (2^nd ed., pp. 326-355). New York : AFB Press.

Anthony, T. L., Lowry, S. S., Brown, C. J., & Hatton, D. D. (2004). Foundations of developmentally appropriate mobility. In T. L. Anthony, S. S. Lowry, C. J. Brown, & D. D. Hatton (Eds.) Developmentally Appropriate Orientation and Mobility, (pp. 3-121). FPG Child Development Institute, University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill .

Hatton, D. D. , McWilliam, R. A., & Winton, P. J. (2002). Family-Centered Practices for Infants and Toddlers with Visual Impairments. Chapel Hill, NC FRG Child Development Institute, University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill .

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