I was glad to have a recent request from a student for instruction with the use of sleepshades, but was at a loss for a teaching approach after observing her performance with them. My student is an 87-year-old woman who is highly organized and has an immaculate home. Although I think she is almost obsessed with preparing for complete vision loss, I do encourage her to learn non-visual skills which can, of course, serve her in the present. I am an NOMC working as an itinerant rehab teacher, and my student's most recent lesson was with cleaning (specifically vacuuming) skills. I initially encouraged her to use her sleepshades from the very start, and she found her vacuum cleaner which she plugged into the outlet after some time. She then proceeded to move a few chairs away from her dining table so she could clean beneath it, but quickly became much disoriented. After attempting to problem-solve with her through the challenge of locating a chair which was only inches from her (yes, she was that disoriented), I suggested we do the actual vacuuming under sleepshades and perhaps have a very simple O&M lesson during the following visit. However, she again became disoriented within just a few minutes of vacuuming. I would have suggested removal of sleepshades under rare circumstances when I taught cane travel many years ago, but I was at a complete loss here, as I have never seen someone so disoriented in her own home. My guess is that she was so much at a loss because she didn't have the opportunity to develop basic skills with the use of sleepshades-this was like one of those blindfold simulations that don't accurately capture the experience of blindness. I want to encourage the continued use of sleepshades, but don't have the luxury of working frequently enough to develop and build skills as I would have at a training center. Are there itinerant instructors who can offer some suggestions? Sumara This E-mail, including any attachments, may be intended solely for the personal and confidential use of the sender and recipient(s) named above. This message may include advisory, consultative and/or deliberative material and, as such, would be privileged and confidential and not a public document. Any Information in this e-mail identifying a client of the Department of Human Services or the Department of Children and Families is confidential. If you have received this e-mail in error, you must not review, transmit, convert to hard copy, copy, use or disseminate this e-mail or any attachments to it and you must delete this message. You are requested to notify the sender by return e-mail.