• helping students move to the next stage of learning to use their cane,
• assess their progress,
• understand what you can expect of them at that stage, and
• enhance their motivation for learning to use the cane?

Workshop highlights

Most highlight items have a link that takes you directly to that part of the workshop recording.

Participants Thank you for your insights and ideas! Michexa Belizaire Gene Bourquin Michael Byington Jeannie Camacho Danielle Cuénoud Amy Downard Meghan Fink Kailee Goodrich Katherine Healey Jack Mitchell Leah Neumann (she, her, hers) Chris Tabb Elisa Townsend Thank you for demonstrating cane skills! Ali Goldberg (he/his/him/they/them)

Introductions and agenda

Motivation

• Meet strong emotional need for which they are seeking solution
• Intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation

  Factors:

  • Goal Clarity
  • Guarantee of a Chance
  • Learner has agency
  • Limitation of Action
  • Obstacles – challenging but surmountable and enjoyable
  • Tangible Determination of Progress ("progress bar“)
  • Sense of Mastery
  • Sense of Accomplishment

Stages of Learning to Use a Cane

Stage 1 - Beginner

• Assessment and expectations
• How to help them advance to the next stage
• Need for providing for safety
• Principles of Teaching:
  • Appropriate feedback
  • Sessions separated by time and sleep
  • "Interference" of skills and how to handle it
• Motivation Considerations:
  • Giving learner agency
  • Obstacles challenging but surmountable and enjoyable
  • Tangible Determination of Progress ("progress bar")

Stage 2 - Concentration

• Assessment and Expectations
• What does the student need in order to advance to next stage?

Stage 3 - Consolidation

• Assessment and Expectations
• What does the student need in order to advance to next stage?
  • occlusion / partial occlusion
  • Develop proprioception / kinesthetic sense

Should students be blindfolded when learning the cane in Stages 1 or 2?

Stage 4 - Proficiency

Can maintain good cane technique without having to concentrate, and can detect and respond to unexpected hazards.

Processing what we learned

• Question: students who have developed ineffective / unreliable cane techniques?
  • Introduction to video of student who had ineffective cane skills and is now in Stage 3 of learning the cane
    Video of student in stage 3 of learning the cane

Brainstorm teaching strategies

• Centering the hand
  • Reason for centering hand
  • Holding the hand to avoid being jabbed ("kick test")
  • Bracelets to help draw attention to position of hand
• Walking in step and in rhythm
• Going up and down stairs

Mahalo and goodbye!

Links and resources

• Stages of learning the cane:
  Sauerburger, D. & Bourquin, E. (2010). "Teaching the Use of the Cane Step by Step: Suggestions for Progressive, Methodical Instruction" Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness, 104(4), 203-214.
• Partial occlusion and intermittent occlusion
  Strategies for Teaching Use and Integration of Non-Visual Information
• Extrinsic motivation
  Deci, E. L., Koestner, R., Ryan, R. M. (1999). "A meta-analytic review of experiments examining the effects of extrinsic rewards on intrinsic motivation," Psychological Bulletin, 125(6), 627-668.

Stages of Learning the Cane: Implications for Instruction (excerpts from workshop)

• Stage 1 - assessment, expectations, and progressing to the next stage
  • Principles of teaching in Stage 1
• Stage 2 - assessment, expectations, and progressing to the next stage
• Stage 3 - assessment and expectations
• progressing to Stage 4
• Blindfolding in Stages 1 and 2
• Processing what we discussed
• Teaching students who have developed bad habits
• Student in Stage 3 of learning the cane
  

You can earn free ACVREP credit!

• "Step by Step: Systematic Cane Instruction" is the full workshop and includes 15 minutes about motivation; 50 minutes about stages of learning the cane and the implications for instruction; 10 minutes to process what was learned, and 50 minutes of brainstorming strategies for teaching cane skills. It offers 3 hours of ACVREP credit.
• "Stages of Learning the Cane: Implications for Instruction" is the 50 minutes from the workshop that is focused on stages of learning the cane and the implications for instruction, and does not include the segments on motivation or brainstorming. It offers 90 minutes of ACVREP credit.
  
  

• Contact Dona Sauerburger to request a free code for the quiz for the video you've chosen -- once you have the code, you can take the quiz whenever you're ready (even if it's years from now!) so there's no need to wait before requesting it.
• Download a copy of the worksheet for either:
  • the full workshop "Step by Step"
  • the excerpted version "Stages of learning the cane"
• While you watch the recording of the workshop, write notes in your worksheet to submit to Dona Sauerburger and to help you take the quiz.
• Use your code to take the quiz. If you answer all but 2 of the questions correctly, you're done! If you don't, you'll get a list of what to review and you can try it again (although if you take the quiz without going to the suggested segments of the workshop recording to review it again, you may be disqualified from getting any credit for it).