TRANSCRIPT Step by Step - Orientation to New Environments for Students with Visual Impairment 8/11/2025 >>Scott: Today we're going to talk about some basic step by steps for orienting our students to new environments. And I just wanted to kind of share a couple of things with you guys that Emily and I want to make sure that we're having a really informal conversation. We understand that there's not always just one way of doing things and most of you guys have already experienced that in your careers. But we wanted to share some of our experiences that we've encountered over the years and what we've done to support our students and make it easier for them to transition to their everyday life. So that's kind of where we're coming from today. So feel free -- like I said, it's going to be very informal. If there's a question or something you don't understand, stop us, put it in the chat. Belinda will notify us that it's there. We want to make sure that you guys are leaving with at least a clear understanding of what we're talking about and you can take some of these skills and strategies and put them into practice as you move forward. So, what our topics are going to be, our areas are going to be, we're going to talk about some prerequisites, and that's just a general term. We're going to talk about some of our basic mobility skills. We're going to kind of cover some things -- kind of that difference between the orientation to an environment and that instructional portion of that and how we can kind of work as professionals to make it an easier transition for our students. And then as we get closer to the end, we're going to go through some of those tips and strategies, some of those specific things that we've done over the years to kind of make it a little bit easier for our students as well. Okay. So as we kind of get started, the first thing we wanted to kind of just have this discussion about is the first thing you want to do is start to assess your environment that you're wanting to introduce to your students or that your students are currently already in. And so those steps of doing that are walking those routes. Take the time to kind of go through yourself and identify what kinds of landmarks that you have available. What are the clues that you're going to be able to use and share with your students. Identify those barriers. And I'm not talking about something that physically is going to keep our students from being able to do something. We're speaking more on those barriers like stairs or there's going to be a lot of curbing. There's low contrast in the environment. It's not safe. There's a lot of traffic. There's a lot of pedestrians that are kind of crowding the area that makes it a difficult situation for our students to be able to navigate and travel. So taking that opportunity to identify those types of things. And one thing too that I would add for me, personally -- and Emily you may want to add something here. For me, it's just slowing down. I know when I first started out into this field, it's a lot of information to share with our students. It's a lot of things to get them prepared for in a short period of time, right? And so some of the things that were important to me was just to step back and to slow down and to not put my students on my schedule. So take an opportunity to see everything that may be of need, of interest, you know, a problem that we may encounter to be able to work through that. And then when you're planning your routes, you're looking at the complexity of it. So if there's an easier way to kind of start out with our students to get them comfortable in their space, that's a good way to start and then build off of that as they begin to build up their comfort levels. Always giving them that opportunity to be successful. What can we do to help them be successful. And one of those things is if we're starting out with orienting them to a particular portion of that environment, what's the complexity of that route? You know, keeping it simple. >>Emily: And I'd like to add the part about walking the route yourself. I'm a TVI but also a former COMS and to me -- so I have made this mistake before. That at the end of the previous school year I knew a student was going to a new campus and I went to that campus and walked routes and kind of did my best to get myself familiar to it. So I felt like I was fully prepared. And then the new school year starts. I'm meeting the student to start working on routes and orienting to routes. [Lapse in Audio] so it was kind of shocking when I got there that all of the plans I had for that lesson but barriers -- and is fairly consistent with that but not keeping the cane in a safe position while trailing a wall. So because of that you do need to know a little bit about the student and I think we're talking about that next, you know, how to handle that so you know what your student is capable and is that route appropriate for them. And thinking about complexity of the route, some of those situations are very challenging for certain students, while for others it's not, even if the route is pretty complex. But thinking about what are the alternates and what are the pieces of that route travel can the student do on their own as their skills are developing. And to think about a plan for that. So being familiar with that environment is -- you know, it's really important to also think about the lighting in a situation. What if it's a really sunny day or what if it's overcast or rainy? How is that going to impact your student's ability to travel and successfully complete that route if they have issues with dim lighting or with glare. Those types of things you will know after you have spent some time walking over those routes. I would also add making notes to yourself about the routes and about particular students, especially when you have more than one on the same campus, which is possible that you have three students on one campus all at different skill levels but all maybe needing to travel similar routes. So I used to be able to remember that no problem, but that would not be the case now. I have to write everything down. >>Scott: I'm with you on that one. I do that quite often. Just kind of to add a couple of things too, Emily, that you kind of piqued my interest in, I wanted to comment. The other thing too is we're not responsible for doing everything ourselves, guys. There's other stakeholders there too. And so when we're thinking about our environments that we're putting the students in and the expectations for traveling routes -- because that's kind of what we focused on so far. How can we simplify that information that we can share with the teacher's assistant, that we can share with a hallway monitor, that we can share with the bus driver. Those kinds of things, since they don't have a background in this particular field, that's information that we can share with them to make it easier for them. And then that's additional support that the student can get when we're not around. The other thing that I wanted to kind of mention too is that, yes, we're talking a lot about how independent our students are traveling a route. When we're talking about orienting to an area, a lot of times it's that focus on that student is going to be a traveler. They're going to be oriented to an environment that we're anticipating they're going to be able to travel independently. Those advanced skills, but orientation is also just knowing what's around you. Because some of our students don't have that skill set. They're not at that skill level. But knowing what's in their space is also important to them too. Those students who are independent travelers, those students who are able to move around their environment freely, our students vary, as we know. And so having that understanding of what's in our environment, what's around us is also important when we're thinking about the orientation to a new environment. And we'll talk a little bit more on that in a few minutes. But I just kind of want you guys to be thinking about that now as we move forward, just in case you have some questions about specific students that may be on your caseloads at the moment. Okay. Our next point that we want to make about getting started is knowing the student. And we just spent quite a bit of time just talking about environment and what's around us and those barriers and things like that. But before we can get into those expectations of our students being that independent traveler, we've got to know them, right? We need -- it can be informal. It can be just a sit-down conversation, getting that student's buy-in about what the plan of action is going to be, what your expectation is going to be. How we're going to go about our task that's ahead of us. And having that student share with you what they feel comfortable about, what they feel like their level -- what their skill set level is. And being able to share that with you so that when we do get into that request to do that particular task, they're not caught off guard at that point. They're able to share with you, hey, I think I can do this portion, for example, but I think I'm a little bit fearful when it gets to this part. >>Emily: And sorry, Scott. Some of your information can come from other information who know the student. Especially when the student is brand-new to you. So the parents, classroom teachers who've been with that student. Other people in that student's team may have information. For example, the PT, physical therapist, may know information about physical limitations, stamina, and travel speed because maybe they've been working with that student for a couple of years and that student is new to you. There can be a lot of resources. Also, even beyond direct conversation with some of these people. If you look at a student's record or a student's FIE, you might be able to learn some of this information also so that you're better prepared. Because, again, like Scott was saying, knowing what's an appropriate expectation for that student. Because sometimes we might come into a situation and think the student's definitely going to be able to get from the bus to the classroom. That's my goal for the student. And that might not be a priority based on the student's skill level, but also for the others who work with that student, such as the paras or the classroom teacher. >>Scott: Good point. And on that FIE part, going back and looking at those PLAAFP statements, going back and looking at those previous evaluations, especially those students who are new to you, what skills have they worked on in the past with their previous O&M specialist. What level of functioning they have on those particular skills. Just getting all of that information could be very important and useful. The other thing I wanted to add too is when we're having those conversations, that collaboration with the student, it's one thing to say I have buy-in or get the student to have buy-in. It's another thing to say that the student actually helped drive that support. Helped drive your sessions. And one way of doing that is learning from the student about how they learn best. Is it more important for you to, for example, walk through a particular route first with your O&M specialist? Is it better for you to just try it first and, you know, contact things and get feedback from the environment directly to you? Is it better for you to learn using a tactual map? Or a visual diagram? Or something like that for that student to be able to gather all of that information. Because a lot of times you will have students -- although they're at different levels of functioning, some students are able to comprehend and internalize a lot of the information through different formats. So they may be more -- have more progress if they're doing it tactually or getting verbal directions from the O&M specialist as they go. So taking that time to just kind of step back and learn from that student, one, it makes things easier for us as COMS and O&M specialists. Two, it makes the student feel comfortable that you're taking the time to ask me. You're not just directing me to do something that I may not feel comfortable doing from the start or I don't want to do in general. But because you're a COMS that's asking me and taking my input and including that into our sessions, it makes me feel a lot more comfortable and I'm more willing to try to do some things and learn from our experiences at that point. Okay. We're going to talk a little bit about those mobility skills. And before we can get our students to that point where we're requesting them to travel a route independently or before we're getting to that point that we're just in general giving our students information regarding their surroundings, they need to have some basic skills to start with. So one, you know, things you want to consider like the motor skills. Their development. What does it look like. You know, if they're walking. An example would be if they're walking -- you know, they have some physical limitations that kind of impacts their motor skills. Then that's something that we want to maybe work on that portion first before we're asking them to do the task that we want them to do. The first thing that kind of pops into my mind. If you have students who have some physical limitations with weight shifting and things like that, then having them step off of curbs or having them transition up and down the stairs may not be the portion of the route that we really want to focus on or it may not be a route that we want to do all together. As we were talking about earlier about understanding our environment and putting those students in a space that makes them successful. If those motor skills are not there yet, can we focus on something else to introduce this, to start building your confidence? Or -- >>Emily: Sorry, Scott. >>Scott: Just real quick. Or do we just focus on that motor skill within the route or with the student before we start to work on them traveling independently. Go ahead, Emily. >>Emily: Oh, I was just going to add in early childhood, from the orientation piece in particular, encouraging that exploration of the environment is really valid as a goal. Because for a 3-year-old we hold children's hands at that age because we want to keep them safe, whether they have a visual impairment or not. But being independent and finding the different centers and the areas that interest the child, allowing them to have that opportunity to explore with supervision from the COMS, I think is very important. Because in some situations, like Scott had mentioned before, if the other staff, the paras in the room, the classroom teacher don't have an expectation that that student is going to move around the room on their own, no matter what their ability level is when they arrive in that classroom, that can hinter the child's understanding of that environment that they are in every day. So thinking about what interests the child and using that as the motivator to move from, say, the carpet time to the block area center is a valid instructional piece or orientation piece. And that can take a long time for the child to get there. But you can model it to the para or to the classroom teacher as well to provide that -- help them understand that expectation that this is a doable, achievable thing for that child. It may just take them more time than other students in that classroom. Want to move on? >>Scott: Well, I had a couple of things. One was I think you touched on that time-frame, that scheduling, giving that student an opportunity. When we were talking earlier about the orientation and instruction piece, especially with our early childhood friends, right? Play is learning. And I've heard many times over the years from COMS, from TVIs, from other folks in our field and around our field that, oh, it's just like you're playing. Or folks are looking at my sessions and they think we're just playing. We are there for the student. Right? And if they learn through play, which most kids do because it's fun and we're giving them something that's in their wheelhouse, something that's interesting to them, then they're learning. So don't exclude that piece of our instruction. Utilize that to benefit you to benefit that student. And if we're talking about -- when we're talking about early childhood, whether we're in the home, we're in an ECSC classroom, giving them that opportunity to explore on their own can be very valuable to you later on as that student starts to age and develop. And giving them an opportunity to -- or starting them out with something that's interesting to them first and combining that with that time to explore this and you're not talking as much. You may guide them non-verbally. You may do, you know, a comment here and there within that time that that student's exploring that area, exploring those toys. Just exploring their surroundings. But giving them the opportunity to learn what their body does and how they can manipulate their body to engage, get into things within that classroom, within that home environment is going to be very valuable as that student starts to develop. Because they start to get that level of comfort in their abilities to navigate and maneuver. And a lot of times, too, especially for our students who have some other needs, it may be something very small to them. Or it may look like something very small to us but it's very large to them. It's a really big thing. So giving them an opportunity to do it at their pace and explore those things that are interesting to them can be very useful for us as we move forward. Then we start talking about our students at that elementary level. You're starting to look at those advanced skills. So if we're talking about students who learn best through a verbal means, if they understand that laterality, those directional skills and you're able to communicate those skills to them verbally, then the speed and the reaction time is a lot quicker when you're starting to orient them to places. Or you're starting to talk about things within your conversation, they understand what you're talking about. So as we start talking about those mobility skills and that progression of need, before our students are able to truly internalize and understand what it is that we're asking them to do, they have to have a baseline, a skill set that would help lead to that. So you're wanting to introduce these skills, to give them the ability to know what a landmark is, right? Let's take time to talk about landmarks outside of your request to ask me to do something independently or to just to know what's in my surroundings as part of a session. We're just going to sit and understand what the concept of a landmark is. What do I use a landmark for, right? It gives me information. I know I hear you, Mr. Turner. You keep talking about landmarks. You keep talking about clues. Well, if I don't know that it has a purpose, then I'm not really internalizing a lot of the information that you're telling me. If I don't know how -- if I can't put my hand on the wall to trail because I have a texture issue or I have a physical limitation there, then how does that benefit me? So when you're thinking about evaluating your students and what their skill sets are, take those steps slowly to make sure that they have those skills that are going to lead to success later when we start talking about orienting them to their classrooms, orienting them to their homes or orienting them to the community. They have to have that foundation first before we can move forward into those areas. >>Emily: And I think we're going to talk a little bit more about grade level expectations related to some, in particular, to laterality and directionality skills and how those -- the instruction that's already happening in the classroom -- there we go. It's right there. >>Scott: I'll help you out. >>Emily: So in Texas, learning standards, Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, the students learn the cardinal directions in first grade. That's part of the social studies TEKS. By second grade they are creating and interpreting simple maps. And by third grade they're using complex maps and learning not just the four cardinal directions but also those in-between cardinal directions, southwest, southeast. So their understanding of what information they're receiving in the classroom -- and this is for students who would be in a Gen Ed classroom on a near grade level. These are the expectations that those students have in their social studies lessons in that classroom. So when you're thinking about the use of a tactile map or an enlarged map or something of that sort, keep in mind what the expectation is for that grade level so you can think about what's appropriate for that student. But also to know that these things are happening in the classroom so the student may -- later in the year you might be able to support that instruction in the cardinal directions, for example. But then you would know a student coming into second grade should have an understanding of what you're talking about when you're talking about north, south, east, west, et cetera. >>Scott: And I thought it was very important, just on this topic, of how early those skills are being developed. And if we're waiting for, you know, the optimal time to start working on mapping or we're working on the time to start talking about cardinal directions with our students. These students are learning that really early in their educational settings. So I just thought it was very interesting to see how early a lot of these skills are coming into play. And if we're looking as a COMS, if we're looking at getting them more aware of what's around them in their surroundings and how we communicate that to them and how other stakeholders, parents are communicating information to them, they're having to learn a lot of these skills that are really early age. So a lot of these kids are comprehending a lot of this information. So we don't have to wait. We can tag on to what's going on in the classroom and incorporate a lot of those skills that are learned there into what we're doing on the school campus or in that student's other environment. So I thought that was really an eye-opener to me to see how early they were getting introduced to those types of skills. >>Emily: From a collaboration perspective, this is something that the COMS and TSVIs can work together because that's happening in the classroom. That TVI may be supporting and accommodating those materials that are used. But then with the COMS, this becomes real world. So rather than just talk about it with some lesson, this is putting it into practice, which can be really valuable for those students, probably for any student that that opportunity can be provided by the COMS to do those things in real-world practice. >>Scott: And I think that collaboration piece is very important too. Up until this point all the things that we've kind of talked about. You have parents. You have teachers. You have other service providers who are working with our students. And if we're collaborating from our end, sharing -- for instance, we're working on landmarks and clues. So when you're walking to your area where you're having your PT session or you're traveling to the grocery store or you guys are in line going to gym with the class. If you would take the moment to point out one or two of those landmarks that we've been working on, that would be very helpful for my sessions and for our students' development. So just having those conversations with the other stakeholders that are involved, that are in that student's world will be very beneficial. It helps you because we're not there every day, every minute of the day. And so giving that reinforcement throughout the daily routines, their daily activities. Those kinds of experiences can only be beneficial to the students in the long run. But a lot of folks that are stakeholders don't have our background and so they're not thinking along those terms. So outline things for them to do when they're transitioning during other periods of the day. >>Emily: I'm just curious, for people who are not in Texas, do you feel like this reflects learning standards in your state or what you've experienced when working with students? Anybody wants to pop a comment in the chat, I would find that really interesting. You can go ahead, Scott. You want to go to the next slide? >>Scott: Yeah. All right. So we're talking -- as we're making our progression, we've gone through elementary. We've gone through early childhood. And we're talking about those secondary-level students. Now we're talking more about those advanced skills that are going to come. If our request is going to be -- that we're traveling routes independently, can you reverse it. Can you problem solve? Can you -- what happens when something goes wrong? What happens when you're out traveling longer routes outside of eyesight of teachers or peers, that sort of thing. What are your anchor points for reference? What does that specific route look like? What if you have to deviate from that? How comfortable do you feel as far as do we want to learn a portion of the route first or do we want to learn the entire campus? What is interesting to you? What is your priority for that student? And I think a lot of times at this stage of the game these students are what we typically would think about as orientation, our advanced travelers, our students who are maneuvering in an environment -- or we're hoping that we're maneuvering into an environment without somebody having to assist them. We're talking more about those Gen Ed students who are able to comprehend what's happening within their space, right? But if we talk about orientation just in general, some of our students may not be able to learn like the entire campus. Some of our students may not be able to learn a very complex route from -- let's say from the classroom outside of the building to the track area, things like that. So what part of that route that they do travel, if we're looking at independence, can we say is a portion that you can travel independently and then you will get assistance along the way. An example -- Emily, if you have one as well, just chime in and let me know. But an example would be if you have a student that comes to school on a bus, let's say. And they're traveling from their bus to their classroom. They may only be able to travel from the bus to the front door of the campus and there may be teachers standing there that are welcoming students to school that day. And then at that portion there may be a classroom assistant or somebody that helps them to the cafeteria or to the classroom from that point. Because you're basically breaking up portions of that route. As we reference back to understanding our students and what they feel most comfortable with, the student can tell you. When you ask those questions, how do you feel traveling from the bus to your classroom? And they may be more comfortable traveling within the school environment than on the outside part. So that's what you would make as your task for them to do, but they can get assistance from the bus to the front door. So when we're talking about those skills, I want to make sure that we're including all of our students. Because just to say that, hey, I've got to go and orient a student to their campus, it's not just our Gen Ed students, it's all of them. And we'll touch on a couple of points here in a few minutes. But it's all students and how can we make them most successful throughout that day or throughout their daily routines by giving them more information about what's in their surroundings. Giving them more orientation to their environment, whether that's indoors, outdoors, if that's within a classroom, that's within the home. What can we do to -- what portion of that can we do to make you successful? >>Emily: Go ahead, Belinda. >>Belinda: I was going to say you do have a question that came in from Judy. She was asking for secondary students, do you incorporate cell phone use? It's a timely question here in Texas. And, like, when to use a cell phone, cell phone apps, help when lost, who to contact. >>Emily: Right. What's interesting in Texas is now there's a ban on cell phone use in the schools for all students. And so the school districts are still working out what the policies will be about that. But you can jump in, Scott. But in my opinion the use of those apps is so valuable for students to be familiar with as soon as possible when it's appropriate, with parent approval, that sort of thing. But it's also important to me for the students to be able to walk routes and successfully get to where they need to go, whether on the school campus or in the environment without that assistance as well from cell phone. Because what if it doesn't work? What if you left it at home? It's not charged. You know, there's a bunch of reasons that things can go wrong. And that's true for us as well. How many of us have had GPS signal lost come up when we're trying to get from point A to point B? I view it as working on reversing routes and problem solving without using that device. And then focus on, you know, here's a way to do it with the technology. And to have the student practice with both methods. >>Scott: I'm sitting here nodding my head because I 100% agree with that. I've had students in the past where, you know, we've used cell phones. We've used some of our technologies that have come out to kind of help us with orientation. Knowing where we are. You know, that GPS positioning type of thing. And we've had tons of problems with it. And I totally agree with Emily. To have them aware of the options, I think that's important. But to solely rely on the technology would not be a smart move, in my opinion, just because some of those technology devices, when you're in downtown areas or when you're in areas where buildings are blocking signals, they don't work. I agree with Emily as far as using your cell phone and it's not charged or you don't have a cell reception or it's very slow. So you're in the moment travel is interrupted because you're waiting for spots where you can get a signal. Having that basic foundation for our students is our first step. But then letting them be aware that these are options. I know we're talking about orientation right now but I would say as far as orientation and mobility is concerned, that applies to everything. Give them all the information that they would need to use or that would be beneficial to them. Because we don't know what the situation is going to be. And so we're working with our students a lot of times in a very sterile environment where we're predicting we can see what's actually going to happen. It's happened the same way almost every day of the week. We don't have the luxury, a lot of times, of getting them in those situations where, hey, this isn't work. And I've been relying solely on this device to get me from point A to point B and now I don't have access to it. How do I work through this situation to get me to where I need to go, right? And, like I said, I agree with Emily on that. I think they should know all aspects of it but make sure they have those basics first before you introduce those other technologies. Because sometimes or oftentimes the technology fails. >>Emily: Exactly. I think we're moving on to tips. The checklist. Part of the tips. >>Scott: These are the tips. It's on a checklist, but these are the tips. And I know that -- go ahead, Belinda. >>Belinda: I was just going to give you your 15-minute warning. >>Scott: Like I mentioned before, a lot of things don't apply to everybody. And there's not just one way of doing everything. But we wanted to kind of share a couple of things that we've used in the past to kind of assist us with our orientation of our students. So if we're working with students who are returning during the school year or the next school year, then utilize your time you have at the beginning of the school when there's nothing going on. There's no distractions. There's no construction going on where the students are actually going to see the environment and they're not taking in all of these other influences that are happening around them, like students talking, teachers yelling or people running or traveling up and down. Use that time to prepare them. Whether you're using your visual maps, you're using your tactual maps, to kind of review a lot of that environment so they can internalize that before they are actually placed in it. That's one tip there. The other is ARD end time. I know especially for Texas, oftentimes what you're putting in that ARD paperwork is where you're going to get the least amount of pushback. So utilize that opportunity to put in -- an example would be we're going to have two hour-long sessions before school starts. Or we're going to have two sessions at the end of the school year where we're going to go to the new school setting to be able to practice before next year. But putting that in the ARD paperwork, now you know that your principals, all your administration are on board because it's in the paperwork. You mentioned it to the parents, now they're involved. They're bought in. And then you had that conversation with your student so they know what to expect. A lot of times they don't want to come back from their summers to start working on O&M stuff anyway. Or you may work on your skills after school. Again, putting all of those things in your paperwork gives you the least amount of pushback. >>Emily: And the other thing I would suggest -- I think it's important if you're doing anything with the students outside of regular school day, particularly before the school year even starts, working with families is really key to figure out the logistics of that. How is the student going to get to the campus and get back home or wherever else they go during the day. And if -- by being in communication with the parent and helping them to understand what this process is like and when it's the benefits of having it start before the first day of school, you also get -- that furthers the support with administration, with the parents understanding the importance of it and the documentation in your IEP. >>Scott: And use that guidelines and standards, especially for you folks that are in Texas. Use that guidelines and standards if you're getting pushback from administration about after-school, summer, those kinds of things that you're trying to provide that support to those students, as your back up for why you're making those recommendations. And then of course when those students are doing their tours for next year, when the whole class is going, just tag along, you know, and that's an opportunity to, again, point out some of those landmarks and utilize some of those clues that are going on during the time that they're traveling with their classmates within their natural setting. So that's a good opportunity to use some of that time as well. >>Belinda: And you guys have another question. This is from Judy. Where would you place requesting assistance? So requesting assistance is the topic for off-campus travel. Do you teach this skill, even though in this day and age asking a stranger for help may be problematic. >>Emily: You want me to answer this, Scott? >>Scott: Yes, if you want. >>Emily: I would say the teaching -- soliciting assistance is important at a young age, but also teaching how to identify who's appropriate to ask. So maybe plan for -- like, for example, if it's in the community, depending on the level of the student. But if they're traveling in a commercial area, soliciting assistance maybe comes from the bus driver. Maybe comes from somewhere in a retail location or a business area rather than someone just off the street. But also it would depend on the situation, how urgent it is and the safety, if there are safety issues involved. So that would be just working with the student on identifying, you know, what's the most appropriate action and when to take what step. Again, it's great that cell phones are around so you do have quick access to help. There are some apps that can help, for sure. Like we mentioned previously, all those things, all those amazing tech pieces that a student can use -- any person can use to assist them in those kind of difficult situations -- to take advantage of that and teach that. But also that awareness of surroundings and safety. >>Scott: And all of those are skills. This is the world that we live in and we're teaching our students how to be independent travelers in the world that they live in. So we can't shelter them from those types of situations because those are things that are going to naturally happen in their space. And so being able to give them the information to make them successful in those areas is important too, even though it may not seem the most comfortable thing to talk about or the most comfortable thing to do. We certainly need to make sure they're aware that that's an option but these are some things that you need to be aware of when we're approaching people or we're having to resort to those types of situations. >>Emily: Then we wanted to talk about the familiarization process. We are a few minutes away from the end. So this doesn't apply to every student but often that process is walking over the route without an expectation for the student to be using mobility skill other than the human guide. And then the next step -- and all this varies on the student's ability. But from my experience would be shadowing. So the student is traveling on their own and then you as the COMS may be fairly close to them. But then you back away your distance so that they are -- they don't need that close supervision. And then also thinking about that process are we talking about are you looking at the exterior, you know, perimeters of the building? Are you looking at the inside, interior walls and classrooms? So those sorts of things to go through simple to more complex. And then we talked about the use of the tactile and enlarged maps based on grade-level expectations. And then the student input. I've had students who have taken notes about routes. Have recorded them. That's something easily done on a phone. And sometimes just writing it, putting it in writing reinforces memory as it does for us. Sometimes just writing it down helps you remember. Those can be different strategies that the student can use for that orientation piece. >>Scott: I'm going to let you do the next one too, Emily. I do want to add too on that one about using your peer buddies, like we talked about earlier. Our students can learn different portions of a route. Don't wait until they can complete the whole thing. We can use buddies for portions and our students are gradually building confidence as they're moving along. >>Emily: And I think we've talked about this some but that idea of backward chaining. Thinking about what part of this route would provide the most success or might be the most rewarding for the student. For example, traveling to the cafeteria. The student may need a significant amount of support on the way there. But maybe the goal is once that last few feet to the cafeteria door, that the student is traveling that independently. Or something along that lines. And then you back it up and make it a longer distance, longer distance, longer distance until they are eventually traveling the whole route on their own without close supervision. And then also thinking when we're prioritizing routes -- again, as we've said already -- consider the needs and abilities of that student and which routes are most necessary and most motivating for that student. So sometimes getting to lunch in the cafeteria may be the key that helps the student buy into developing independent travel skills. And it's also an opportunity to relieve some demand from the classroom staff as well. So that helps them to have some buy-in as well about the benefits to having this student on their own when they have a number of students that they are supervising on the way to the cafeteria. >>Scott: And then in that last 30 seconds that we have, don't forget about our students who are in units or who are self-contained students. Orienting them to their environments, if they're getting a new teacher and the teacher is coming in and changing the classroom and they were there the previous year, that's going to be a huge disruption in their space for them. Don't forget about those friends either. And think about those procedures that are going on on those campuses. Those fire drills, evacuation procedures, to get the students included in that as well. When they start introducing different sounds and different crowded environments, that changes their whole world when that happens. So when we're thinking about that orientation, I know we're talking about travel a lot of times, think about those students who are in those self-contained or those unit classrooms. That orientation to their environment is also very beneficial to them. >>Emily: Exactly. >>Belinda: I like that idea about remembering how to support your students with complex access needs. And when you're changing things in those classrooms, it's very disruptive. Yeah. >>Scott: And that's where those behaviors come in a lot of times when that's happening.