Another week at Gentry

I forgot to mention in my last post about another student I am working with so that will this posts focus. I will call her "B",  she is a lovely lady who lost her vision around the age of 5 years old to Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis of the Optic Nerve. She has one prosthetic eye and only limited vision in the other. She is very independent and willing to explore the small town of Talladega. She has two homes- one in Alabama about an hour from Gentry and another in Atlanta. She has two homes, with a car and driver at each home as well as two small businesses. Because of the economy these businesses have slowed tremendously. This is why she is at Gentry. She is currently enrolled in the Gentry BEP program where they will teach her the vending machine business. Being a woman in her early fifties, she has developed some mobility habits that we have been working on. Indoors she uses the diagonal cane technique and has grown accustom to using it outdoors as well. This is not always the safest choice so we are working on her remembering to use the touch technique outdoors. She is getting better and found it helpful several times on our lessons. She has learned the Gentry campus and the classes she attends on the campus. We have also learned to use the catwalk in front of the campus in order to cross the street safely. She had little problems with it and only some trouble when in the shaded areas under the tree lined part of the route. We have worked on a residential route and we continue to work on cardinal directions when on the route. She feels most comfortable walking at a slower pace which sometimes can be difficult with the time frame allotted for her mobility class. We will begin to work on a business district route next week.

I really love being outdoors and moving with the students. I have gotten to know my students better and have a better idea of what kinds of things the students need in their daily lives now and for future use.