Activities to Teach Reading Braille With Both Hands

Teaching Braille to Young Children

Getting Started

Teaching Braille to Young Children

Past Laurel J. Hudson, Ph.D.

Teacher of Students with Visual Impairments

• Introduction
• Make it Fun
• Make information technology Meaningful
• Make it Developmental
• Self-Check:  Instruction Braille to Immature Children

For more ideas on pedagogy braille to immature children, see Laurie Hudson's new iBook, Introducing Braille.  Information technology's available for download on the iTunes store and includes 14 linked videos showing clips of bodily Braille literacy lessons with young children.

Introduction

Every bit we teach young children with visual impairments/blindness to write braille, our approach needs to be developmental.  We need to look at readiness for formal instruction, and then we demand to adjust our pacing, expectations, and activities according to the learning needs of young children.  In the guidelines that follow, these approaches are addressed.

Before children begin a formal braille writing curriculum, they should be able to nourish for at least a few minutes at a time.  They also should be able to isolate their fingers and their thumbs, pressing each one separately and firmly.  (Modeling with clay and manipulating other art materials can increase mitt strength.  Children's songs and poems can be used to teach them to isolate and proper noun their fingers.  If these are non available, teachers tin can invent simple verses, themselves.)   Next, it would exist helpful if the children already have some feel with braille and tactile symbols, pretending to read tactile books and being involved as older children and adults read and write braille.  Lastly, considering literacy builds upon language, they should be able to speak or sign words and simple messages, and empathise as others communicate with them.  (Still, delight annotation that while language provides readiness for braille, sometimes braille literacy in plough builds spoken/signed communication skills.  In forming braille symbols, children at a pre-language level may come to realize that written letters deport meaning.  This may motivate and shape their spoken/signed linguistic communication skills.)

Make it Fun

1. Emphasize enjoying braille and having fun with information technology.  At that place is an expression that "play is the work of children." It's of import for young children with visual impairments to enjoy reading and writing braille, rather than regarding it equally an arduous job that is to exist resisted.  Adults tin can brand braille fun by incorporating children's ideas in what they read and write, in keeping sessions short, and in modeling their own pleasance in braille literacy.  ("Oh, it's a brand new page.  The dots are so prissy and crispy!"  or "I retrieve I'll see how fast I can write the numbers one-two-3-4-5.")  Some other marvelous way to bring enjoyment to braille writing is to pair it with music, such as singing an alphabet vocal while writing the ABCs.
2. Give children the opportunity to playfully explore reading and writing. Permit them pretend to read as they movement their fingers across pages, fifty-fifty if they take no idea what the messages and words say.  And let them class patterns and pretend to write earlier you ask them to produce conventional braille characters.  This might involve children simply pressing whatever keys until they reach the end of a line and the bell rings, or creating an up-hill-down-hill design past pressing dots three then 2 then 1 then four and so 5 then 6, or making a unproblematic tactile-graphic by alternating dots 1-2-4-5 with dots ii-3-5-6.  Information technology might involve pretending to write: pressing seemingly random keys while telling a story orally, just as young sighted children practice.  Children typically take great pleasure in doing what they notice adults and older children do, and even more than when the adult joins them in "reading back" what they have "written."
3. At the beginning of the curriculum, enthusiastically accept approximations, or all attempts to read and produce braille.  So gradually guide children to use correct posture and paw formation, to read existent messages, to decode existent words, and to produce Braille which is increasingly closer to conventional braille.  A component of incorporating fun into early braille is giving children the freedom to endeavor information technology without needing to attach to rules they are not  developmentally fix for.  That is, while some children will be motivated to course correct characters with right fingering right from the starting time, others will be easily discouraged if every early attempt is suppressed considering a key is pressed with the incorrect finger, or a character is inverted.  As long equally correct posture and fingering are expected in a reasonable corporeality of fourth dimension, inefficient posture and motion habits don't seem to persist.  Given this, a successful practice is to enthusiastically respond to all early on attempts to read and write, even when they are wrong, and so gradually expect greater and greater accurateness.

Make It Meaningful

1. Let children experience whole events, from obtaining books or a braillewriter and newspaper, using them, then putting them away. It clearly takes time for a child to walk to a shelf, pick upwards a piece of paper and a braillewriter, carry these to his/her desk, load the newspaper in the braillewriter, produce his/her piece of work, unload the paper, and pass in the newspaper and store the braillewriter back on the shelf.  Yet, participating in the whole issue allows the kid to understand the literary process and develop independent literacy habits.  The child doesn't demand to participate in the full procedure every time he or she writes.  All the same, it is important for him/her to practice this periodically, or at least to participate in some of the obtaining/putting away steps regularly.
2. Let children witness adults reading and writing braille.   Fully sighted children regularly run across adults equally they read books, signs, menus, instructions, etc., and they see them as they write notes, lists, letters, etc.  In witnessing adults doing literacy, sighted children acquire most literacy tools, literacy techniques, and purposes for literacy.  With these models, they go motivated to practice literacy, themselves.   Future braille users need these same models.  To accomplish this, even if adults read braille visually and not past bear upon, they might open their own  braille books as they are sitting beside children, explicitly labeling what they are doing. ("I recall I'll read this story.  Oh, I like how the design on the cover feels.  Now I'll turn the page and read who the writer is………")   Similarly, adults might brand information technology a point to save some of their braille writing tasks for times when the children are inside earshot (and possibly even within reach), and then the children can hear a braillewriter being carried to the table, the paper being loaded into it, the keys being pressed, lines periodically checked, errors corrected, etc..  The adults may mediate every bit they write, merely as they had when they read out loud, "I think I ought to write downwards this telephone number, and then I won't forget it.  Allow's come across, which dots is a number sign?" or "I'm going to brand a list of all the children in the class now.  I'll start with a capital letter sign……"  This exposure to purposes and methods of writing will introduce children to some  braille writing steps, and it will motivate them to write, every bit well.
3. Integrate reading and writing, so that children continuously read dorsum what they accept written.  Braille reading and braille writing are quite dissever processes. Start, they are based upon different sensory systems.  Braille reading is tactile and motoric; dots are felt through the touch receptors in the fingertips equally they move across lines.  Braille writing is kinesthetic/proprioceptive and motoric; dots are formed by moving the fingers to press specific keys, and braille writing is mastered by memorizing how the joints in the fingers feel as specific keys are pressed.  Secondly, when braille is produced with a braillewriter, reading and writing are based upon different layouts of the six dots.  Braille is produced in a one-by-six assortment, with the half-dozen keys in a horizontal line to produce, from left to right, dots three-2-one with the left mitt and so dots four-v-vi with the right hand.  Braille is read in a 2-by-3 array: dots 1-two-3 in the beginning column, and dots 4-five-vi in the 2nd column.  Given these differences, children should integrate reading and writing by writing a few characters, reaching upwardly and feeling what they produced, writing a few more characters, feeling these, etc.  This sets the stage for more advanced literacy processes, where students may write preliminary notes, write a showtime draft, read it dorsum, and then write a cease draft.
4. Approach the mechanics of braille production and reading within the larger context of Braille literacy.  Requite children opportunities to produce braille characters which are meaningful and functional for them as soon equally possible.  Children are often motivated to read and write their own names, and those of friends and family unit members.  Children who often ask, "What 's adjacent?" may quickly realize the importance of a unproblematic daily schedule taped to the corner of their desks.  Place a strong focus on reading and writing messages which have meaning for the children, fifty-fifty when their braille reading and production skills are extremely limited.

Arrive Developmental

1. Allow some portions of lessons to be child-led, that is, let the children take some choices as to what they write with the braillewriter.  This tin can provide more functionality and more motivation in braille literacy curricula.  For example, in introducing a specific letter of the alphabet, a teacher might permit the kid select a list of words that brainstorm with this alphabetic character, rather than pre-planning a instructor-made list.  Similarly, children may be much more than motivated to read and write  lists of family members, favorite toys, or preferred foods.

2. In sequencing both producing and reading braille characters, build from symmetrical to asymmetrical, from fewer dots to more dots, and from unique characters that are easily reversed and/or inverted.  In addition, in writing braille, attempt to brainstorm with letters that use the starting time and second fingers of each hand (dots 1,two,iv and v), and then build to writing messages with the third fingers (dots 3 and 6.)  (An example of a symmetrical braille alphabetic character is "X"  and an asymmetrical braille letter of the alphabet is "Thousand."  In terms of number of dots, braille letters "A" and "B" have fewer dots with one and ii, respectively, while  "Q" and "Y" have more with five dots each.  "Grand" is not easily reversed with other messages, while early on readers typically confuse "E" and "I", "Yard" and "U", "R" and "West", and "D", "F", "H" and "J.")  Published braille literacy curricula vary in their sequences of alphabetic character introduction.  That is, at that place is not a standard for exactly which letter is introduced first, second, tertiary, etc.  Nonetheless, all the braille literacy curricula for young children have into account these principles of symmetry to asymmetry, fewer to more than dots, and unique to easily reversible characters.  Beyond that, easily reversible/invertible characters should not exist taught together; for case, a teacher might accept the child learn the letter "R" to mastery before introducing the left-right reversal of  "W."  Specifically to writing braille, the fingers that are used is also a factor for sequencing.  The showtime and second fingers of each hand are typically stronger than the third fingers, so a braille "A" (dot 1) volition probably exist easier to form than a capital sign (dot vi.)  Of class, all iv of these factors may be trumped by messages/words that are near motivating and/or most functional for children, such as their own names.

3. Begin past scheduling curt lessons, and look speed and stamina but at the finish of the curriculum.  Young children have short attention spans, perhaps especially for the more than structured, seated tasks of braille literacy.   Physically, it takes time to larn to maintain right reading and writing posture and hand/finger positioning, to tolerate the sensation of running their fingers over Braille lines, and to strengthen each finger, specially for pressing the keys for dots iii and 6.   It likewise takes time for children to build up speed in reading writing, especially with the letters with more dots.  Accordingly, braille writing instruction might begin with just v or x minute lessons and expectations of just a few lines of braille.  (In braille writing, the margin might even be set in the middle of the folio, then that each line is shorter.)  As lessons progress, lessons become longer and longer and expectations for strength and stamina increase.  Sometimes children maintain their attending in braille, and sustain more arm and finger strength, when they stand (rather than sit down) at a tabular array or desk equally they read and write braille.  In any case, the pages or keys should be at elbow level or fifty-fifty slightly lower.

Self-cheque:  Education Braille to Young Children
Brand Information technology Fun Am I making braille literacy fun? Am I  letting children playfully explore the braille writer? Am I  enthusiastically accepting early on approximations of braille?
Make Information technology Meaningful Am I letting children experience whole literacy events from get-go to cease? Am I  letting children witness adults reading and writing braille? Am I integrating reading with writing? Am I approaching the mechanics of braille production and reading inside the larger context of braille
Make It Developmental Am I  allowing for child-led opportunities? Am I  advisedly sequencing the order in which braille characters are introduced? Am I adjusting for children'southward attention span, writing speed, and  stamina?

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Source: https://www.pathstoliteracy.org/teaching-braille-young-children

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