Playful O

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Playful OM

• Maya Delgado Greenberg, M.A., C.O.M.S., OM
  Specialist

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How to incorporate

• Thematic Units
• Music
• Storytelling
• Journaling
• Photo/tactile essays
• Movement
• And Dramatic play
• Into your OM lessons

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Why use a playful approach to teach OM?

• Incorporates elements of best practice in
  education
• Uses anticipatory sets
• Builds in repetition reinforcement
• Connects what is learned to previously mastered
  content
• Relates learning to students interests
• Uses multi-sensory learning strategies

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Why use the playful approach?

• Builds self esteem and the teacher/student
  relationship
• Plays to the childs strengths
• Encourages bonding
• Builds a positive attitude about OM
• Can involve the childs family and peers

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Thematic units

• Simple way to build in repetition
• Fun for the students
• Easily tied into classroom themes
• SampleTheme Farms and parks
• OM skillRural travel
• Classroom topiclearning about plants and food
  groups
• SampleTheme Safety skills
• OM skillstranger safety
• Classroom topiclearning about jobs of helping
  people (i.e. police, firefighter, etc.)

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Music

• Can be used to teach
• Body parts
• Laterality
• Directionality
• Upper protective technique
• And much more

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A student sings along with the upper protective
technique song
Are we starting with the left or right foot?
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Music

• Songs about the white cane
• Reinforces the rules of the cane
• Builds pride in OM
• Movement to the rhythm of the song builds muscle
  memory of cane sweeping
• Can be used during travel to reinforce proper
  cane use

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Students sweeping their canes to the tune of a
white cane song
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Marching songs are fun!
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Music is a great teaching tool

• Preview or review skills
• Repetition and reinforcement
• Fun!
• NOTE you do not have to have strong music skills
  to incorporate music into your lessons

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Books

• Reading short fiction books together whose main
  characters are visually impaired
• Inspires pride
• Illustrates OM concepts and techniques
• Can be used to demonstrate problem solving
• Can be used a cautionary tale
• Can be used to educate peers,
• family, and staff
• Is fun to do together!

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Books

• Books featuring children with visual impairments
• http//www.iowa-braille.k12.ia.us/bibliography_of_
  blind.html
• The Sound of Colors A Journey of the Imagination
  by Jimmy Liao. In this breathtaking, evocative
  book, a young blind girl travels from one subway
  station to another while her imagination takes
  her to impossibly wonderful places. She swims
  with the dolphins and sunbathes on a whales back
  flies through the air with the birds and travels
  to the station at the end of the world.
• Night Search Chamberlain, Kate. Hollidaysburg,
  PA Jason and Nordic, 1997. 32 p. Heather, who is
  blind, resists using her white cane until one
  night while camping her puppy wanders off.
  Heather tries to find the puppy. She finds a
  stick which helps, but she realizes that her
  white cane is a very valuable helper.
• Mandy Sue Day Karim, Roberta. New York Clarion,
  1994. Unpaged. Using her senses of taste,
  hearing, touch, and smell, a blind girl enjoys a
  special day on the farm. Using rhythmic language,
  the author conveys the exuberance and excitement
  of Mandys day with her horse, Ben.
• Listen for the Bus Davids Story McMahon,
  Patricia. Honesdale, PA Caroline House, 1995.
  Unpaged. A real life look at David, who is blind
  and hearing impaired, as he begins kindergarten.
  Photos show all parts of his day and also explain
  the signs he uses because of his deafness.
• Sarah's Sleepover. Rodriguez, Bobbie. New York
  Viking, 2000. Unpaged. When the lights go out
  while her cousins are spending the night, a young
  blind girl shows them what to do in the dark.
• Out-of-Print, but you still might be able to find
  them.
• Family of Owen M. Off We Go to Learn Everyday
  Things About Orientation and Mobility Flaherty,
  Erin. Philadelphia, PA Hill, 1997. Unpaged.
  "Learn everyday things about orientation and
  mobility" is the theme of this lighthearted,
  illustrated book about a blind boy named Owen M.
  and his family. A perfect tool to teach
  classmates, parents, and friends of blind
  children how OM helps Owen travel around his
  house, in stores, and outside.
• Travel Tales A Mobility Storybook by Julia
  Halpern-Gold, Robin W. Adler, and Shelly
  Faust-Jones (Paperback - Nov 1988) This large
  print, paperback book, is geared for pre-school
  and early elementary students with visual
  impairments. Designed to reinforce different
  environmental concepts in which a child would
  travel, it features a boy named Elliot, who is
  blind. Elliot provides a positive role model for
  blind children as he travels through the
  supermarket, in the subway, around the block, all
  around the town.

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Storytelling

• Can create stories
• As an anticipatory set
• To introduce vocabulary
• To foster interest
• As a cautionary tale
• As a review of previous lesson content

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Strategies for storytelling

• Include your student as a character in the story
• The protagonist
• A teacher to another character
• Use common literary elements (i.e. Once
• upon a time there was a young girl named
• CarlaOne day she...The end!)
• Keep a clear theme
• Use props
• Bus tickets, canes, clothing, etc.
• Use sound effects-
• have the student help make sound of door
  slamming, cane tapping, feet stepping
• use single switch devices or a tape of
  environmental sounds
• Drama and conflict can make the story
  interesting, but is not required
• Keep it short and simple!
• If you are up to it, use repetition and rhyming

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Dramatic play

• Can be a fun way to end a lesson
• Allows child to apply concepts from stories/songs
• Helps child to anticipate what to do on trips, or
  to practice a new skill
• Allows for fun roleplayingOM instructor can be
  the child who isnt using the cane right, student
  is the OM instructor

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Dramatic Play

• Tips for doing dramatic play with a student
• Use propsbus ticket, canes, uniforms, shopping
  bags, etc
• Set a clear time limit at the beginning!
• Clearly define
• Roles
• Setting
• What you are pretending to do
• Then have fun!

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The Story of Henry A cautionary tale of
rebellion, bananas, and street crossings
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Journaling

• Before trying something new with your student
  (i.e. a new travel environment), consider using
  storytelling to preview the new skill.
• After the story, create with the child a list of
  questions and vocabulary words
• The lists can be used to help the child to write
  a short story about the trip incorporating the
  new vocabulary
• Alternatively, teacher can write a few paragraphs
  about the experience and have the child read and
  then answer comprehension questions

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Journaling for nonverbal students and emerging
readers

• For nonverbal students, can use sound recordings,
  tactile objects, and photos to create a storybook
• For emerging readers/writers, have them dictate a
  story on tape
• Can dictate a story to the teacher to write in
  print or braille
• Use simple recording devices to record
  Home/School News

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Sample story collaboratively written by
elementary class.
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Journaling

• Can be used to help involve parents/family
• Helps students to apply concepts and vocabulary
• Fosters pride as an author

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Movement and Routes

• It isnt route travel, it is an exploration game!
• Scavenger hunt for landmarks or locations
• Contest or spy assignment to find landmarks
• Surprise awards for using OM techniques on a
  route
• Busted using the cane cardsget 5 and get a
  treat

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Ideas from the audience

• What are your favorite playful OM ideas?
  Resources?

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THE END

• Thank you for coming