FamilyConnect

Listen to Jill Brown’s advice on what professionals should do to help support orientation and mobility skills.

Transcript

Hi, my name is Jill Brown. I am a certified teacher of visual impairments and an orientation and mobility instructor for Crowley ISD (Independent School District), which is in Texas.

What do you believe professionals should do to help teach and reinforce good O&M skills in the home, school, and community?

One of the biggest things I think professionals should do is to, one, find out what does the family want for their child? What is the family’s goals for their child? What do they envision (for) their child now? And also we need to be able to educate our families on the ability of their child. I know a lot of families are so hesitant for their kids to move out in space. It’s very scary. And as a parent of regular children, it’s still scary also to let your child grow up but that your child with the skills that they’re going to learn are going to be successful.

The other thing is to stand back as a professional, to teach the parent those skills and then stand back and let the parent do it. And the more that the parent’s involved with their child, the more competent the parent’s gonna feel working with their baby. Instead of us always getting in there and working with the child and talking to the parent, we need to stand back and let the parent do it.

Getting the families involved in our planning and implementation of our lessons. Having the families really understand and question why are we doing the skills that we’re doing. The more the parent’s involved, the more they’re gonna follow through and be encouraged and excited as their baby grows and learns new skills.

And the other thing is we need to be able to connect families with other families or other adults to have those babies have those role models for families to see successes for when their child grows up.