Richard Hoover and his staff at Valley Forge developed techniques to help blind adults become self-sufficient. Consequently, the profession of orientation and mobility, the techniques, curriculum, and philosophy, were all designed around the needs of blind adult males. The field of orientation and mobility remained focused on adults until the early 1960's when the first mobility specialists appeared in public schools. These school mobility specialists quickly learned that the Valley Forge curriculum was not adequate for blind children. An adult can learn cane travel over a few weeks.
Children take their entire childhood to grasp concepts and develop fine motor skills.
Children also go through developmental stages. At varying speeds, they walk, run, skip, go from gross to fine motor control, learn to read and write, gain experience with language, and develop the navigational, cognitive, and emotional centers of their brains. The original methods used to teach orientation and mobility to fully developed adults did not consider the immature, rapidly changing abilities of blind children. This distinction is critical. When I graduated from Western Michigan University in 1979, I was well equipped to teach blind individuals to use a long cane, to use a sighted guide, and to cross streets.