Orientation & Mobility for Infants and Toddlers

Orientation

Orientation means knowing where you are in space, in relation to the things around you. It means you can answer the following questions:

  • Where am I now?
  • Where am I going?
  • How am I going to get there?

Mobility

Mobility refers to how a person is moving through their environment. This can involve the use of a mobility aid such as a long cane, learning strategies to use functional vision safely and effectively, or a combination of the two.

An Orientation & Mobility Specialist is a professional trained to teach people who are blind or have low vision how to move through the environment safely, efficiently and as independently as possible. This is done through the development of both orientation and mobility skills, and should begin as early as possible.

Within the education sector, orientation and mobility is a component of the “expanded core curriculum” – those concepts, skills and learning areas that sighted children learn incidentally and through vision. Children who are blind or have low vision need to be specifically taught some or all of these skills.

Principles of Early O&M

The foundations for O&M skills are built during infancy and early childhood. O&M concepts and skills are developed in the child’s home environment andcommunity. As parents you are your child’s first and most important teacher, and it is the role of the O&M Specialist to support you to support your child in the development of independent O&M techniques.

O&M intervention for infants and toddlers should include:

  • Motor development, including the development of purposeful and self-initiated movement.
  • Sensory skill development.
  • Concept development.
  • Mobility aid use.

O&M intervention must occur within the context of:

  • Family-centred practice.
  • Natural learning opportunities.
  • Transdisciplinary teams.

All O&M skills need to be viewed holistically – they all influence each other and there is no “order” in which they need to be taught.

O&M With Infants & Toddlers

O&M experiences occur daily and throughout the day, and must be built into everyday routines. The O&M Specialist will support parents and/or caregivers in identifying appropriate goals that take into account their family situation and needs. We then develop a program together so parents, family members or caregivers, educators and others can reinforce O&M skills and techniques across the course of a person’s daily routines.

What O&M interventions can be introduced with infants?

Infants need to be exposed to sensory experiences and body awareness that will facilitate the development of discrimination skills and position in space.

Hands-on experiences that facilitate concept development including:

  • Object concepts.
  • Play and exploration skills.
  • Early environmental experiences.
  • Environmental awareness and exploration.
  • Establishment of social relationships that foster confidence to move and explore.
  • Facilitation of optimal independence in daily routines, including movement to and from storage and activity areas.
  • Use of routines to provide repetition, generalization, and functionality.
  • Environmental modifications: Adapting children’s first learning environments such as the cot or first floor play space so as to promote their understanding of spatial relations and purposeful movement exploration.

Developing Purposeful and Self-Initiated Movement

  • Hands-on involvement with all materials.
  • Allowing children to help.
  • Encouraging reaching for nearby objects.
  • Orienting children to small areas of the room.
  • Setting up play spaces with objects in predictable locations.
  • Arranging furniture, equipment, and toys in stable and predictable locations.
  • Providing adult-mediated play with opportunities for self-initiation and choice making.
  • Using short mini-routes to move into and out of motivating daily routines.
  • For the development of concepts and cognitive skills, it is important children are allowed to move and explore freely.
  • Provide appropriate supervision while respecting the child’s independence.
  • Keep furniture, equipment, and other landmarks in predictable locations.
  • Keep travel paths clear.
  • Use simple cues to alert the child to the presence of an upcoming obstacle.
  • Reposition or remove low-lying and head-high obstacles.
  • Add foam padding temporarily to sharp edges.

O&M Techniques

In infancy and early childhood, there are critical developmental skills that provide the foundation for the later development of independent orientation and mobility techniques.

Developmental Skills:

  • Early reaching for toys encourages reaching for obstacles later.
  • Pursuit of a dropped toy progresses to two-handed search for object on a table.
  • Two-handed cruising along furniture and walls is the foundation for one-handed trailing.

Developing Hand Search Skills:

  • Provide infants with encouragement and opportunities to reach for toys from all postures.
  • Helps prepare for more extensive searching later.
  • Need to be aware of postural readiness, which will dictate how the infant is able to reach.
  • Children unable to sit independently and stably may be able to efficiently reach in prone (on stomach) or in side-lying position (consult with child’s OT or physiotherapist regarding positioning).

Strategies:

  • Use a defined play space.
  • Provide verbal encouragement to search for a dropped toy.
  • Use toys that make noise to encourage a child to search.
  • Use hand-under-hand modeling to show a child how you search for an object using your hand.
  • Use hand-under-hand modeling to demonstrate circular and grid patterns of searching.

Cruising (holding onto a surface for support whilst side-stepping):

  • Should be encouraged with children who are blind or have low vision.
  • Once child begins to cruise furniture with one hand, hold one of your child’s hands while the child continues cruising with the other hand.
  • Transition to one-handed cruising without adult support a few steps at a time.

Cruising Along Walls:

  • Child may revert to two-handed cruising as they begin to explore along walls.
  • Incorporate mini-routes to make this meaningful – e.g. cruise from bathroom door to bath at bath time.
  • Position furniture so child can cruise from furniture directly to a wall.
  • Reaching, hand search, exploration, and manipulation of objects and surfaces should be encouraged as early as possible.

As your child grows, we move onto O&M techniques that foster independent travel and movement in your child at a developmentally appropriate age. This lays the foundation for a child who is confident and excited about moving independently and exploring their world.

Bronwen Scott, Ed.D.

Certified Orientation & Mobility Specialist (COMS)

Independent Options for Mobility

Dean Johnson 0426 215 547 DrBronwen Scott 0405 411 263

FAX 9885 3667 ABN 69 891 817 193