IEP goals for sighted guide (human guide)

Sighted guide is a technique where a student who is blind or has low vision holds a guide's arm and follows the guide's body movement. The guide does not push, pull or steer. The student stays in control, feeling turns, stops and steps through the guide's arm. Many orientation and mobility (O&M) specialists now say human guide, because the guide does not have to be sighted and the term describes the role, not the guide's vision. This page uses both, since sighted guide is still the term most teams search for.

Human guide is often the first O&M technique a young child learns, and it stays useful for life: in crowds, unfamiliar buildings, and places where a cane is awkward. O&M is a related service under federal rules, delivered by qualified staff.^[1] The O&M specialist writes these goals and trains the adults and peers who guide.

The 20 goals below are grouped into four areas. Baselines and criteria are illustrations. Templates link to the orientation and mobility goals page.

The basic technique

Each step below can be one line on a task analysis.

Young children are usually too short to hold above the elbow. They hold the guide's wrist or two fingers instead. Write the grip into the goal.

Choosing the right goal

Basic grip and walking goals

Start in a quiet hallway with a trained adult. Then add peers, noise and longer routes.

Weak: "The student will walk with a sighted guide."

Measurable: "Walking with a guide down a hallway, the student will follow 90-degree turns and stops by feeling the guide's movement, with 8 of 8 task analysis steps on 3 consecutive trials."

Narrow spaces and doors goals

In a narrow space, the guide moves the guided arm behind their back. The student straightens their arm and steps behind the guide. At doors, the student uses the free hand to catch and hold the door.

Weak: "The student will go through doors safely."

Measurable: "When the guide signals a narrow space, the student will straighten the arm and move directly behind the guide on 4 of 5 narrow passages."

Stairs, curbs and seating goals

At stairs, the guide stops at the first step and says up or down. The student finds the edge with a foot and the handrail with the free hand, then walks one step behind. For seating, the guide brings the student to the chair and places the student's hand on it.

Weak: "The student will use stairs with help."

Measurable: "With a guide at a flight of stairs, the student will find the edge and handrail, then go up and down one step behind the guide with 8 of 8 steps on 4 of 5 trials."

Directing guides and handling offers of help

Most people who offer help have never guided anyone. They grab the student's arm or push from behind. The student needs to teach a new guide quickly, and to decline help politely when it is not needed. A move to release an unwanted grip, sometimes called the Hines break, is part of this.

Weak: "The student will accept help appropriately."

Measurable: "When an untrained adult or peer offers to guide, the student will explain the grip and what to say at stairs and doors in 2 to 3 sentences on 4 of 5 opportunities."

How to measure progress

Most human guide goals use task analysis. List each step from the technique table, score it every trial and graph the percent of steps done independently. Goals about offers of help use opportunities.

• Score the student, not the guide. A step the guide does wrong is not the student's error. Note it and retrain the guide.
• Record the guide: O&M specialist, trained para, trained peer or untrained adult. Performance with an untrained guide is the real test.
• Score prompt levels so you can see support fade. The prompt hierarchy examples help.

The O&M data sheet guide shows a full route sheet with numbers. Paste drafts into the goal checker.

Training the adults who guide

A goal for the student only works if the adults guide correctly. Paras and teachers often hold the student's hand or arm instead of offering theirs. The O&M specialist should train them early in the year and check monthly. Write that consultation time into the IEP's services. The paraprofessional responsibilities guide covers how paras support IEP goals.

Adapting by grade

Human guide sits alongside cane travel. See the cane skills progression for independent travel goals. Students who are deaf-blind use human guide with tactile communication; see deafblind IEP goals. For the wider set of goals, see IEP goals for students with visual impairments and the low-incidence disabilities guide. The American Foundation for the Blind publishes family guidance on guiding a person who is blind.^[2]

Frequently asked questions

Use it in IEP Atlas

• Orientation mobility goals (access skills)
• Goals for the O&M specialist role
• IEP goals for visual impairment
• Orientation and mobility in the IEP glossary
• Task analysis data sheet
• IEP goal checker

Related guides

• Low-incidence disabilities in the IEP: vision, hearing, deaf-blindness and physical needs
• Cane skills progression for O&M goals
• How to measure O&M route goals with an orientation and mobility data sheet
• IEP goals for students with visual impairments

Sources

1. 34 CFR §300.34: Related services, Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School
2. American Foundation for the Blind, American Foundation for the Blind

Written and checked by the IEP Atlas editorial team under our editorial policy. This guide describes general practice and federal rules. It is not legal advice; your state may add requirements, and the IEP team makes the decisions for each student.