Playful O&M

Books featuring children with visual impairments

• 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 Mandy’s day with her horse, Ben.

• Listen for the Bus: David’s 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 O&M 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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White Cane Song Book
Created by Lori Cassels and David Renslow

Wheels on the Bus

The wheels on the bus go round and round – round and round – round and round
The wheels on the bus go round and round all through the town

The cane on the bus goes tap, tap, tap - tap, tap, tap - tap, tap, tap
The cane on the bus goes tap, tap, tap all through the town

The driver on the bus says here’s your stop - here’s your stop - here’s your stop
The driver on the bus says here’s your stop all through the town

The cane on the bus goes tap, tap, tap - tap, tap, tap - tap, tap, tap
The cane on the bus goes tap, tap, tap all through the town

This Is the Way

This is the way we tap our canes, tap our canes, tap our canes
This is the way we tap our canes all around our school

We always keep our cane in front, cane in front, cane in front
We always keep our cane in front, all around our school

We always keep our cane tip down, cane tip down, cane tip down
We always keep our cane tip down, all around our school

This is the way we tap our canes, tap our canes, tap our canes
This is the way we tap our canes all around our school

I’ve Been Working With My White Cane

(tune I’ve Been Working on the Railroad)

I’ve been working with my white cane, all the live long day
I’ve been working with my white cane just to help me find my way

Can’t you hear my cane go tapping. Keeping my cane tip down!
I love to hear my cane go tapping. It helps me get around.

My cane helps me go – My cane helps me go –
My cane helps me go all over

My cane helps me go – My cane helps me go
My cane helps me get around.

(solo)

I left my cane in the dining hall. I left it there yesterday.
I left my cane in the dining hall, now I can’t find my way.

Walking Down the Streets with our Canes

(Tune of Coming around the Mountain)

We’ll be walking down the streets with our canes (tap – tap) 2X
We’ll be walking down the streets 2X
We’ll be walking down the streets with our canes (tap – tap)

We’ll be keeping our cane tips down as we walk (tap – tap) 2X
We’ll be keeping our cane tips down 2X
We’ll be keeping our cane tips down as we walk (tap – tap)

We’ll be keeping our canes in front as we walk (tap – tap) 2X
We’ll be keeping our cane tips down 2X
We’ll be keeping our cane tips down as we walk (tap – tap)

Upper Protective Technique

to the tune of Oh My Darling Clementine)—adapted from Travel Tales, a Mobility Storybook

Put your arm up, bend your elbow
Keep your fingers nice and straight.

Your hand will protect you,
So you won’t bump your face (ouch!)

Left or right hand
Doesn’t matter
Use your hands, not your feet (pretend to try to put foot in front of face)
Use it in your classroom
In your house, and on the street.