Website Marten van Doorn
I'm Marten van Doorn. I started in 1978 at the School for the blind of Bartiméus in Zeist as an Orientation and Mobility Instructor. I have more than 40 years of experience in giving Orientation and Mobility Instruction to children and young people between the ages of 5 and 20. First blind children / youngsters and after a while also partially sighted children / youngsters and children / youngsters with a multiple disability.
- I have experience in O&M instruction for children with visual impairment in combination with intellectual disability (difficult to learn), autism, and a cerebral vision impairment. I have specialized especially in this last disorder. In addition, I can make a small trip to the problems with sensory integration.
- Co-author of the echolocation, orientation and navigation instruction programs. And mobility in the twilight.
- Co-founder of the curriculum for O&M instructors in the Netherlands and I have been a teacher for 26 years in this curriculum.
- In addition, I gave the O&M module of the Special Education master's program at the HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht, through these last 2 activities I also have experience with adult visually impaired people.
- Certified instructor on orientation and navigation devices.
- Advisor accessibility adjustments (in traffic) for people with a visual impairment
What is my vision on O&M?
My vision on O&M is that I think based on the concept of orientation and less on mobility. This is especially important with children / young people. If you improve orientation, there is a greater chance of success than if you improve mobility. And with children, developing / training orientation is still very possible. When something goes wrong in the orientation and mobility of a blind child / young person, that is almost always the cause of poor or undeveloped orientation. That is the reason that a visually impaired child / young person loses his way, cannot cross straight and cannot follow the instructions of others.
Mobility problems such as a broken pavement, or no pavement, a busy street can almost always be solved. These are also always location-specific. Adult training often consists of these skills. And the O&M trainer for adults differs from the O&M trainer for children / young people. An O&M trainer for adults is more problem-solving oriented in the short term (fast learning routes to work and shops). While an O&M trainer for children and young people is much more problem-solving-oriented in the long term (orientation training so that there are fewer problems later).
What can I offer?
A multi-day course in the field of orientation and mobility aimed at (multiple) visually impaired people. Practice and theory. I can give this course to instructors and the visually impaired. About the content of the curriculum of this course we can discuss.
On this website you can find more articles about O&M. Just mail me and I will sent you these.
March 2020
Marten van Doorn
Advisor Orientation and Mobility
Crosestein 3124, 3704NK Zeist
The Netherlands
0031610843016
martenvandoorn@gmail.com
www.vandoorn-zeist.nl
