[blindkid] Technology and Little Kid

[Carrie Gilmer]

Or..put another way, how many sighted children could or would want to draw
or write if they never so much as touched a pen, pencil, marker, or crayon
ever-at all--until age 8 or older and they learned to write solely on
keyboard. And then only did it maybe 10 or 15 minutes at a time.
Well it is creeping into the sighted world too somewhat; already time in
classroom spent on cursive writing has dropped dramatically. Kids are often
are no longer graded on handwriting. And it is showing, the discussion there
has begun. Does any parent or teacher of a sighted child even consider
though dropping early writing and waiting to introduce it until 3rd or
fourth grade, no. Will they ever? I doubt it will be dropped totally in my
lifetime. 
Carrie

-----Original Message-----
From: blindkid-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindkid-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of David Andrews
Sent: Thursday, February 18, 2010 12:13 PM
To: NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List,(for parents of blind children)
Subject: Re: [blindkid] Technology and Little Kid

Richard:

Thanks for the ideas.  Not to be argumentative but I don't 
necessarily agree with your placement of slate.  Most kids today are 
not good slate and stylus users because it is downplayed by 
professionals, and they get the Braille Writer first.  I started with 
slate first, at six and didn't get a Braille Writer until 2nd or 3rd 
grade, so I am very good with slate.  To do it the other way around 
guarantees that the slate will always be a second class citizen.

Dave

At 11:42 PM 2/17/2010, you wrote:
>Certainly the slate and stylus (as someone else mentioned) is not a
>bad idea, but a child in this age range is probably not going to have
>the fine motor control to master the tool's use easily or likely be
>ready for the whole mirror image concept.
>
>A child of nearly any age can begin using a Perkins Braillewriter-- I
>know we were using one by at least age three. At the very least a
>braille novice can "scribble" on a braillewriter, just like my sighted
>almost-4-year-old scribbles on paper with a crayon all the time.
>Braillewriting skill with a young child emerges at least somewhat like
>writing emerges with a sighted child-- not all letters at once and at
>first, just like penmanship is typically pretty poor-- this after the
>child has first just pressed the keys at random-- indeed "scribbling"
>just like sighted kids. Getting the feel of the tools to use is an
>important first step. It is hard for small hands to properly press and
>form braille mechanically with a Perkins, but you are building hand
>and finger strength and forming braille concepts all along the way.
>Many schools can provide a second braillewriter for the student to use
>at home for free once the child is in school.
>
>I think that often the way to go is to immerse the child within all
>the options that can be gotten as the child appears ready to take to
>them-- at least that was our theory when our daughter was born, and in
>fact, it continues to be the same way to this day, then we focus on
>what she seems ready to take to-- she'll ultimately use most all of
>these things. There is also an entire range of tactile graphics
>solutions and manipulatives. You can produce these with pipe cleaners,
>and a bottle of glue, or you can use a multi-thousand dollar
>thermoform; quite a range of options exists.
>
>Now at age 7, Kendra uses a BrailleNote and PAC Mate daily but still
>uses a Perkins often, as well as an abacus for her math, JAWS on her
>computer and so forth. She also works well with refreshable braille
>and that can be a really handy option. The next big challenge I see
>for her is needing to learn a qwerty keyboard, so there can be a lot
>of technology in use by an early age.
>
>It is also really important to expose the child to braille as much as
>possible. A sighted child sees print everywhere. Make certain this
>child runs across braille often. Now in first grade and a proficient
>braille reader, our first grade daughter still runs across the braille
>stickers on things all over the house-- refrigerator, dishwasher,
>table, drawer, oven, door, bed-- you name it. This will cause the
>child to ask questions-- just like a sighted child-- "what is this"
>and later "what do these letters say?-- what do they mean?" Also, use
>twin vision books-- sighted kids look at letters while parents read
>most every time. Blind kids can do the same-- that's why it is best
>when adding braille to a print book to always put the braille below
>the print-- a sighted reader can still read while small hands are
>exploring the braille.
>
>Screen readers can be used at that age as well as a victor reader.
>Things like Mt Battens are expensive but potentially useful, but be
>careful that an electronic (and expensive) solution like a Mt. Batten
>or a PAC Mate is not learned at the expense of being able to use a
>mechanical braillewriter as that need will almost certainly come up
>all of this child's life, at least from time to time.
>
>I'd like to rework this link, and our site is about to get a facelift
>overall too but here are some technology ideas that you might direct
>her towards. Let her see a range of options and then she can decide
>which way she wants to proceed.
>
>http://www.gopbc.org/gopbc_technology.htm
>
>
>Richard
>
>
>
>
>On Feb 17, 2010, at 10:01 PM, David Andrews wrote:
>
>>I got asked a question, the other day, and since most of my
>>experience is with blind adults -- I didn't know quite what to say.
>>A woman said she had a four year old totally blind daughter, and she
>>wanted her to keep up with her peers in technology, so what
>>assistive technology/technology is there  -- should she start using
>>with her child?
>>
>>Dave


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