[AERNet] Deciphering Braille

[Ike Presley]

Hi Ayala,
 
I strongly recommend that you check out Diane Wormsley's book, Braille
Literacy: A Functional Approach,
http://www.afb.org/store/product.asp?sku=0%2D89128%2D876%2D7&mscssid=MAN
6RLLLQX8X8HKGFF472CPC658R98G5
 
and
Instructional Strategies for Braille Literacy
http://www.afb.org/store/product.asp?sku=0%2D89128%2D876%2D7&mscssid=MAN
6RLLLQX8X8HKGFF472CPC658R98G5
 
Ike
 

Ike Presley

National Project Manager

Professional Development Department
American Foundation for the Blind

100 Peachtree St., Suite 620
Atlanta, GA 30303
404-525-2303
presley at afb.net

Please visit our website: www.afb.org



Expanding possibilities for people with vision loss(tm)

 

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________________________________

From: aernet-bounces at lists.aerbvi.org
[mailto:aernet-bounces at lists.aerbvi.org] On Behalf Of Ayala Ballonoff
Sent: Monday, March 19, 2007 11:45 PM
To: AERNet at lists.aerbvi.org
Subject: [AERNet] Deciphering Braille


Hi. I'm looking for some feedback.

I have a student who has been instructed in Braille & exposed to Braille
since early  intervention.  At 10 years of age the student is reading
48 point print, and print on CCTV at a rate of 2 words correct per
minute.

Notes from previous teachers indicated she was reading Braille passages
with much greater fluency than that.  (Forensic examination of the
Patterns books reveals that some  passages were read multiple times over
a 2 week period, perhaps allowing for memorization of the passage)

She always requires a high level of prompting  & cueing to read new
passages, and even on the most familiar words she examines them for over
a minute with out saying anything if not prompted.

She seems to have great difficulty discerning the letters.

Today after we Brailled a  morning statement, "Today is Monday, March
19, 2007." Now, she does remember all the letter formations a-z, and
remembers where braille contractions go in the words.  

Dot-5 words were introduced in February, though she has been seeing days
of the week on the calendar all year (and hopefully before that).

She had a lot of difficulty with the spelling of Monday (the o-n part)
so I made a vertical list of the words "Today, Monday, Tuesday,
Wednesday, etc."

I had her look at each word, and asked her to find what was the same in
each.  No dice.

I asked her to look at the end of each word and read the letter at the
end of each word. She read the "D" in each word variously as s, l, j, &
d.

I asked her to look at the last 2 letters in the first word & the second
word.  She has trouble expressing her self, so I  will sometimes give
her 3 choices of a response.  After looking at the last 2 letters in the
first & second words I said "OK ,  are they  1) the same , 2) different,
3)I have no idea what I'm  reading."

My student chose "I have no idea what I'm reading" & seemed relieved to
say it.

An other factor to add to the mix, a recent evaluation shows that she
has close to grade level comprehension of auditory materials.

She  brailles much better than she writes, and keyboarding was
introduced this year.  She has good kinesthetic memory & already knows 2
function keys & some familiarity with the QWERTY keyboard. 

My question--to what extent should I spend time on reading Braille?  

Looking forward to thoughts from the group.

Ayala
  

 


Ayala Ballonoff, MS Ed-CTVI
Teacher of Blind/VI
Wallingford-Swarthmore School District
aballonoff at wssd.org 

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