Orientation and mobility training

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The Orientation and mobility training (O & M) is a training program that people who are blind or visually impaired are, allows or helps secure, independent and effective mobile and oriented to be; it is usually done with a long stick . Since the right to mobility is one of the basic rights, this training program must not be withheld from people with a visual impairment.

history

The term is derived from the English "Orientation and Mobility". The tendency to make visually impaired people (again) mobile, or to systematize lessons with a long stick, began during the Second World War in the USA by Richard Edwin Hoover . Worked while having Russ Williams and Warren Bledsoe .

However, there are indications that as early as the 19th century in individual schools for the blind, pupils were instructed in the use of a wooden stick or stick, but were only partially confident in handling the stick; especially not as safe as has been required since road traffic was motorized . Guilly d'Herbemont therefore had the idea of using the (police) color white as a signal color to draw the attention of chauffeurs to blind pedestrians. On February 7, 1931 , she presented such a prototype to the public in Paris in the presence of several French ministers.

During the Second World War, numerous soldiers were injured in the eyes in the course of fighting, many of them blind. These were first treated medically in the United States at Valley Forge General Hospital and Dibble General Hospital, then they were transferred to Avon (Connecticut) for rehabilitation . In Avon there had been orientation lessons for some time in which the course participants were taught to react appropriately to the environment: to recognize obstacles with the help of echo location, to observe the surface quality of the floor covering and to internalize the room layout and landmark points. The use of a stick was forbidden. Hoover and Bledsoe had already carried out preliminary studies on the echolocation of obstacles, but found that echolocation was not enough. Above all, echolocation and the corresponding current technical aids do not provide any information about dangerous holes in the floor or about stairs. A stick was somehow necessary. Then Hoover worked with blind but physically robust soldiers to develop the most effective and safe stick technique possible. After failures, he found that a light stick that reached to the sternum and swung back and forth in front of the legs would be the most effective technique. This Hoover long stick technique was then called the tip stick technique and revolutionized the safe, independent and independent freedom of movement of people who are blind or visually impaired.

definition

Orientation and Mobility (O&M) involves teaching a visually impaired person to move safely and effectively from one point in the environment to another as desired. One definition of orientation is: "Orientation is the cognitive process in the use of the senses with which one can determine one's own position and relate it to other objects in the environment", and mobility is: "the ability to be safe from one's position to reach a goal in a different environment ”. Put more simply, to find out: where you are and where the goal is (= orientation), and mobility as the process of safely and effectively achieving goals.

O&M lessons

Since orientation and mobility are among the cultural techniques , these are taught both in schools for children who are visually impaired or blind , as well as in so-called inclusion . For later blind people there are different individual concepts. Around 80% of the teaching time is invested in orientation training. In order to develop adequate orientation skills, four areas in particular must be or be developed: 1. a body concept, 2. an environment concept, 3. an idea of ​​the relationship between the body and the environment, and 4. an idea of ​​a relationship between two environments. In short: the student must have a sense of the proportions in the near and distant surroundings. In the case of people who become blind later, these concepts are usually available; in the case of a person who was born blind or who went blind very early, these concepts must be specifically promoted and acquired within the framework of the formation of the term . Specifically, the (playful) touching of objects is important. Large objects can, if at all, only be detected and scrambled through a series of tactile processes. In orientation and mobility education, concepts from architecture and spatial planning or urban planning play a central role later .

For the successful development of a child, it is of crucial importance to 'go through' all of these areas in an age-appropriate manner. In the case of children who are visually impaired or blind, they should be specifically encouraged during the sensitive phases , as otherwise 'normal' development may be threatened. A major researcher in the advancement of children who are visually impaired or blind was Lilli Nielsen , who also developed related learning materials.

In the classic O&M lessons, which especially late blind people can complete as part of a rehabilitation measure, on the one hand the walking techniques with the long stick are learned, on the other hand the other senses are trained: while walking, the tip of the stick must be constantly and in the rhythm of the steps in front of the legs - be swung back and forth and briefly tapped on the floor on both sides, while hearing, smell, temperature, tactile and kinesthetic senses serve as orientation. Learning to move the stick meets all the criteria of an intensive instruction , since learning the movements must be automated through frequent repetition. When sharpening the senses must, similar to the efference copy , between signals caused by its own movement, and the signals can be distinguished from the environment originate (Exafferenzen).

The training also includes psychological support, in particular it is necessary to cope with the fear of rolling traffic and to build trust in the skills you have acquired. On the other hand, every long-pole walker has to recognize his limits and learn to pay attention to his safety and must never start risky actions. With this in mind, an individually tailored training program is developed for each trainee, depending on talent, needs and physical condition.

The mobility teacher

A “ rehabilitation teacher for orientation and mobility for people who are visually impaired or blind ” is commonly referred to as a “mobility trainer”. B. Mobi teachers or O&M trainers . A prospective mobility teacher has to spend 1 to 2 hours under a blindfold practically every day during his training and complete a complete training course in orientation & mobility within several months. This is the only way for him or her to use the O&M techniques themselves before they are passed on. This method largely prevents a mobility teacher from under- or overtaxing his future clients or students.
In addition to these very practical units, which are taught over many months, special theoretical and didactic teaching units must be attended. After a successful final exam, a mobility teacher can work. The work is usually carried out as part of a job at a school for the blind or a rehabilitation facility; freelance mobility teachers also work in Germany.

In principle, a mobility teacher must be able to see well for the training of the blind because on the one hand he specifically prompts the trainee to walk alone, on the other hand he protects him by monitoring and warning the (traffic) events. In particular, he intervenes in threatening situations, corrects stick postures and techniques, and controls learning progress.

particularities

Since 2011, blind mobility trainers from the USA have been in demand in Germany, Switzerland and especially Austria, because they have modified human echolocation with Klicksonar, the use of a long stick and strategies for orientation and mobility, all from the perspective and with the experience of a blind person Convey to the user. In Austria z. For example, by a ministerial decision of 2012, blind US American O&M trainers are regularly used for the training and further education of blind people and their O&M trainers.

photos

(From the O&M lessons at the Zeune School Berlin )

  • Brisk walking with the typing technique .

  • Different pendulum techniques on different floor coverings.

  • Cross on a zebra crossing next to a sleeping police officer .

  • Use of the seat reserved for the visually impaired on the BVG bus .

literature

  • H. Ginsburg, S. Opper: Piaget's theory of intellectual development . An introduction, Prentice-Hall, New-Jersey 1969. German translation: Piaget's theory of intellectual development , Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-608-93042-6 .
  • Wolfram Lutterer: The process of learning: a synthesis of the learning theories of Jean Piaget and Gregory Bateson , Weilerswist 2011 (1st edition), ISBN 978-3-938808-86-3 .
  • Lilli Nielsen: The I and the space . Active learning in the "small room", Würzburg 1993, ISBN 3-925265-44-9 .

Web links

Notes and individual references

  1. ↑ In the Austrian education system , one hour per week (1 WS) of blind-specific exercises are provided in elementary schools from the 1st grade onwards, including orientation and mobility, from the 4th grade two hours onwards (2 WSs), in the 5th – 8th grade. Grade 2–6 WS. Orientation & Mobility 2–8 WS can be taken as an optional subject. The lessons (in orientation & mobility etc.) can also take place in blocks. In: Curriculum of the special school for blind children (BGBL II, No. 137), ed. from the Federal Ministry for Education, Art and Culture , Vienna 2008, pp. 23–27. See: [1] , accessed on February 2, 2015.
  2. ↑ Examples: wall, pillar, column, ceiling , vault, cellar, roof structure, staircase , ground floor, hallway, wing, wing, auditorium, tower, etc.
  3. ↑ Sidewalk , lane , square , intersection , pedestrian crossing , traffic light, etc. Ä.
  4. ↑ [2] The development stage model according to Piaget
  5. ↑ z. B. the "small room"; See: Lilli Nielsen: The I and the Space . Active learning in the "small room", Würzburg 1993.
  6. ↑ IRIS e. V. - Further training to become a rehabilitation teacher
  7. ↑ BLISTA - Deutsche Blindenstudienanstalt e. V.
  8. ↑ [3] Recognition of extended orientation techniques
  9. ↑ Archived copy ( memento from October 19, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Austrian events with blind O&M trainers.