[blindkid] Technology and Little Kid

[Heather]

Right on.  Many families that home school have a similar phylosophy.  That 
is if "Our daughter is aged at a second grade level, but she is reading at a 
first grade level, but her math is at a second grade level and her reading 
comprehention is at a fifth grade level and her science comprehention is at 
a fourth grade level, we, will keep working on reading and math, but not 
push them so hard that her outstanding science and literacy comprehention 
levels off or drops.  That is why kids are tested every two to three years, 
because their interests and aptitudes run in phases such that they might 
jump ahead in math one year and their english skills might bound ahead the 
next to katch up with or surpass the math.  All you can do is introduce a 
tool or theory or subject to a child.  Pushing it at the expense of other 
subjects can only hurt their best subjects and in the worse case could 
lessen the child's love of learning.  You and your TVI sound like you are 
doing an absolutely amazing job, and your daughter sounds very very bright. 
I think a lot of people are hearing parents say "Yes, slate good, other 
things good too, slate maybe slightly less important, will show slate to 
kid, will help them, will not push slate at expense of other technologies or 
skills..." and instead they are taking away from that "We hate the slate, we 
hate the slate, lalala lala..." *insert cartoon music notes for lightened 
mood*
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Richard Holloway" <rholloway at gopbc.org>
To: "NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List,(for parents of blind children)" 
<blindkid at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, February 18, 2010 11:42 PM
Subject: Re: [blindkid] Technology and Little Kid


>I feel like I stirred up a hornet's nest a bit. First, I must have 
>misspoken somewhere, no doubt typing and doing three other things at  once; 
>my apologies-- Kendra had some letter reversal issues but she is  past them 
>now and that was with braille reading; quite common at least  with young 
>kids.
>
> The issue with her slate & stylus is apparently one of fine motor 
> control, so we have decided not to focus on that heavily until she can 
> better control the tool on the advice of her TVI. I don't have a  problem 
> with that. In fact she does fine with the finger slate; no  reversal 
> issues at all. As with so many things, sometimes we have to  adjust the 
> schedule and order of things based on the needs and  readiness of each 
> child.
>
> I have mentioned several times that I agree slate and stylus are 
> important but I really don't think her education needs to be centered 
> around being record-setting fast with a slate and stylus. That is the 
> main point I would like to make.
>
> One cannot focus on being the absolute best and fastest at everything.  I 
> continue to think it makes sense to generally focus on the mastery  of 
> skills with which one is ready to proceed and which offer  reasonable 
> "bang for the buck", so to speak. I don't see a lot of  "bang" for my 
> child from pushing hard on the slate right now, and I  see no downside 
> from her being very quick with both a Perkins and a  BrailleNote / PAC 
> Mate. If she were busy putting everything into the  slate, she'd no doubt 
> be somewhat better at it now, but at what cost?  She's a first grader 
> working generally around a fourth grade level  with her braille work, just 
> not while using a slate. I see FAR more  value in that than in getting 
> over-focused on slate and stylus.
>
> As she becomes more proficient with her slate, we can begin to decide 
> what she should use when, just as she has already moved to much  heavier 
> use of a PAC Mate and BrailleNote this year while she was  using a Perkins 
> a lot from ages 3 through 5. She only started doing  much at all with a 
> BrailleNote in the last year (kindergarten). Still,  I doubt more than a 
> small part of her work is going to be done on a  slate, though we will 
> likely bow to the wisdom of her outstanding TVI  in that area. In five 
> years, she has yet to steer us wrong...
>
> Richard
>
> _______________________________________________
> blindkid mailing list
> blindkid at nfbnet.org
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindkid_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for 
> blindkid:
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindkid_nfbnet.org/craney07%40rochester.rr.com