before touching a student's body. For example: "I
am going to touch your waist to show you how
this cane holster attaches to your belt. Is that
okay?" This informs students of what is going on
while simultaneously underscoring the idea that
the students are in control of who touches their
body and where they are touched. The very act of
talking about boundaries reinforces their impor-
tance. In a residential setting, staff should always
knock before entering a bedroom, even if the stu-
dent is deafblind. First, because this models the
behavior for other students who can hear, and
second, it reminds the staff to always respect stu-
dents' privacy.
Resources
One key resource we have used to teach
about boundaries at Perkins School for the Blind
is the Circles Curriculum from the Stanfield Com-
pany (see www.stanfield.com). Students learn in
a very concrete way to understand their relation-
ship to the people in their lives; with themselves
in the center, they move outward through concen-
tric circles to family, friends, and so on, to the far
periphery for strangers. Students place the appro-
priate people in each circle and label the suitable
behaviors (e.g. hugs, handshakes, etc.) that are
appropriate for people in that circle. This basic
framework can be expanded to teach more so-
phisticated social skills, e.g. how someone moves
from the friend circle to a closer, more intimate
circle through dating, etc. For students with low
vision, this already very colorful curriculum can be
further adapted with large print, picture symbols
and high contrast materials. For students who are
blind, the wall chart can be adapted with tactile
materials (e.g. hula hoops to indicate the circles)
or raised line drawings with tactile or braille labels
for each circle.
Although there are many wonderful sexual-
ity education curricula developed for school-age
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