Children and Canes
In many countries, including the UK, a cane is not generally introduced to a child until they are between 7 and 10 years old. However, more recently canes have been started to be introduced as soon as a child learns to walk to aid development with great success.
Joseph Cutter and Dr. Lili Nielsen, pioneers in research on the development of blind and multiple-handicapped children, have begun to introduce new research on mobility in blind infants in children. Cutter's book, Independent Movement and Travel in Blind Children, recommends a cane to be introduced as early as possible, so that the blind child learns to use it and move around naturally and organically, the same way a sighted child learns to walk. A longer cane, between nose and chin height, is recommended to compensate for a child's more immature grasp and tendency to hold the handle of the cane by the side instead of out in front. Mature cane technique should not be expected from a child, and style and technique can be refined as the child gets older.
Read more about this topic: White Cane
Famous quotes containing the word children:
“In time of war you know much more what children feel than in time of peace, not that children feel more but you have to know more about what they feel. In time of peace what children feel concerns the lives of children as children but in time of war there is a mingling there is not children’s lives and grown up lives there is just lives and so quite naturally you have to know what children feel.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)