Somebody's Jumping on the Floor: Incorporating Music Into Orientation and Mobility for Preschoolers with Visual Impairments (Practice Report) (Report‪)‬

Young children with visual impairments face many challenges as they learn to orient to and move through their environment, the beginnings of orientation and mobility (O&M). Children who are visually impaired (that is those who are blind or have low vision) must learn many concepts (such as body parts and positional words) and skills (like body movement and interpreting sensory information) to move safely and effectively in their environments. Professionals have proposed many techniques for teaching O&M to young children (Anthony, Lowry, Brown,&Hatton, 2004; Pogrund&Fazzi, 2002; Skellenger&Sapp, 2010). Somebody's Jumping on the Floor, is a program that uses rhythms and music to develop O&M skills and concepts in children with a developmental level of 2-7 years. Meaningfully incorporating music into interventions results in improvement for children with and without disabilities. Music enhances cognitive and academic development (Campbell, 2000; Colwell&Murrless, 2002; Register, 2001, 2004), physical development (Standley, 2003), emotional development (Hilliard, 2001), communication and language development (Trevarthen&Malloch, 2002), and social development (Kern, 2004; Kern&Wolery, 2001). The intentional use of sounds was effective in enhancing independent mobility in a preschooler who is totally blind (Kern&Wolery, 2001 ). Despite pervasive myths to the contrary, children with visual impairments do not have enhanced musical abilities (Madsen&Darrow, 1998), but they can benefit from interventions involving music (Bertolami&Martino, 2002; Codding, 2000; Kern&Wolery, 2001; Robb, 2003).