[blindkid] Technology and Little Kid

[Mike Freeman]

BRAVO!

Another way to think of this is to remember that if you open a door to go into a room and the doorknob is on the right, when you go out of the room, it's on the left! Simple as that!

Mike

----- Original Message -----
From: "Bonnie Lucas" <lucas.bonnie at gmail.com>
To: "NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List, \(for parents of blind chn\(was <blindkid at nfbnet.org>
Date: Friday, Feb 19, 2010 14:03:33
Subject: Re: [blkid] Technology and Little Kid

>
>
> I am going to make just one comment here. At seven years old, I began first 
> grade which is when I began learning Braille. this was some years ago at the 
> School for the Blind in Berkeley, CA. At that time, I began learning on the 
> Braille writer. Then, one day when I got sick and had to go to the school 
> infirmery, the girl who was my room mate was in third or fourth grade. The 
> nurse brought her a slate and stylus and though I had seen them, I hadn't 
> learned how to use one. I distinctly remember her telling me a little about 
> how  to use the thing and low and behold, because I was determined to do 
> some writing to occupy myself, within the hour I was writing up a blue 
> streek. It was great fun and I used the cool piece of tech through college 
> (dating myself). Here's the deal. When writing with the Braille writer, you 
> have to remember that the 1 is on the left and you write and read from the 
> left. No right involved. When writing with the slate, the 1 is on the right 
> and you write from the right. The only time you do anything from the left is 
> when you turn the paper over and read from the left. At my current age, 
> writing for long periods on the slate hurts my wrist though using the softer 
> paper helps a lot. However, in the past week, I have written things down 
> twice because I carry one in my purse, no matter what else I have with me 
> and believe me, away from home it is never a Perkins, there is always a 
> slate and stylus with me.
> 
> I cannot say that using a slate and stylus would have been the same had I 
> had the option of a BrailleNote and computer. My daughter, Aubrie, 13, knows 
> how to use the S&S but definitely does not use it much compared with her BN 
> and the computer.
> With that, my best suggestion (hope I'm not out-of-line for saying this) I 
> think it's time to find something else to write about.
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Heather" <craney07 at rochester.rr.com>
> To: "NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing Listeaggfor parents of blind children)" 
> <blindkid at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Thursday, February 18, 2010 8:31 PM
> Subject: Re: [blkid] Technology and Little Kid
> 
> 
> > Several people have brought up the reversal issue and I think it depends 
> > on the age it is introduced, because for someone who already knows braille 
> > it might literally mean reversing the letters, whereas if a kid learns it 
> > in kindergardin both brailler and slate might become second nature. 
> > Bottom line, as a home educator of my own son I would show him both, and 
> > if he took to the slate like a duck to water, i would encourage him, but 
> > if it frustrated him to the point where he wanted nothing to do with 
> > braille or the perkins, it would be put on hold.  I would like him to be 
> > proficent at both, but I want him to naturally love reading both in 
> > braille and on recorded media, and if pushing a particular skill looked as 
> > if it would harm that natural love of learning, especially learning 
> > literature and braille, I would not allow that to happen.
> > ----- Original Message ----- 
> > From: "Albert J Rizzi" <albert at myblindspot.org>
> > To: "'Ationfbnet Blind Kid Mailing Listeaggfor parents of blind children]" 
> > <blindkid at nfbnet.org>
> > Sent: Thursday, February 18, 2010 8:15 PM
> > Subject: Re: [blkid] Technology and Little Kid
> >
> >
> >arI do not even know where to begin. First wow! these few  threads have 
> >argiven
> >ar me more insight and have shifted my position on things as never before. 
> >ar 1. I
> >ar am sickened by the fact that braille is not introduced to children at as
> >ar early an age as possible. 2. I have learned how mentors can  color 
> >ar choices
> >ar by predetermining  what is or is not best for children and 
> >ar unintentionally
> >ar limit that children's academic growth. 3. I learned braille as a sighted
> >ar person and I too was forced to believe that writing braile with a slate 
> >ar and
> >ar stylus was best learned by inverting  or perverting braille as I now have
> >ar learned. In this one thread I understood and now own why I do not and
> >ar eventually will carry a slate and stylus as I was inverting or reversing 
> >ar the
> >ar image. when I used my perkins brailler I see the dots on the page just as 
> >ar I
> >ar would feel them as I ran my fingers across the page. Now I realize that 
> >ar is
> >ar what keeps me from using a slate. I either use a hand held recorder which
> >ar unnerves others, or as I recently experienced  an intern of mine only 
> >ar uses
> >ar his computer. We were in a meeting and he did nothing but tap tap tap on 
> >ar the
> >ar computer. I had to stop him and ask him if he was paying attention or 
> >ar not.
> >ar He told me that he was taking notes. I knew he had to be missing much of 
> >ar the
> >ar important   conversation that was going on. I immediately  suggested he
> >ar invest in a hand held recorder. He is 26, and has been blind all his 
> >ar life.
> >ar My senior in a way. yet he did not take notes with braille as I later
> >ar learned he was not expected to know it for some reason. now I learned
> >ar braille as a sighted individual he learned it as a blind individual, yet
> >ar neither of us used it to take notes quietly and unobtrusively which is
> >ar always possible with a slate and stylus. I will most certainly be trying 
> >ar to
> >ar walk the walk and talk the talk and use my slate more then my handheld. 
> >ar Very
> >ar sobering  and eye opening thread.
> >ar Albert J. Rizzi, M.Ed.
> >ar CEO/Founder
> >ar My Blind Spot, Inc.
> >ar 90 Broad Street — 18th Fl.
> >ar New York, New York  10004
> >ar www.myblindspot.org
> >ar PH: 917-553-0347
> >ar Fax: 212-858-5759
> >ar "The person who says it cannot be done, shouldn't interrupt the one who 
> >ar is
> >ar doing it."
> >ar
> >ar
> >ar Visit us on Facebook LinkedIn
> >ar
> >ar
> >ar -----Original Message-----
> >ar From: blindkid-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindkid-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
> >ar Behalf Of H. Field
> >ar Sent: Thursday, February 18, 2010 6:42 PM
> >ar To: NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing Listeaggfor parents of blind children)
> >ar Subject: Re: [blkid] Technology and Little Kid
> >ar
> >ar Dear Richard,
> >ar The young child has no difficulty with the mirror image concept of
> >ar braille because he/she doesn't have one. The reason is simple. If a
> >ar child, is taught that l is dot one, two, threeeathen, wherever the
> >ar child is told he/she will find dot one, two, three, there they will
> >ar push the stylus. In over 30 years of teaching young blind children to
> >ar write braille using a slate and stylus, I have never had a child who
> >ar experiences difficulty with reversing things. I myself was first
> >ar taught braille as a five-year-old using a slate and stylus. I was not
> >ar given a braille writer until third grade. I can vividly remember
> >ar learning to write with both devises and reversals was never an issue.
> >ar If a child clearly knows the dots required for each letter then all
> >ar they need is to be told where to press each dot, given some practice
> >ar and feedback and reversals are a complete non-issue. I would strongly
> >ar encourage you to work with your daughter on developing at least basic
> >ar competence with the slate and stylus.
> >ar
> >ar This idea that writing on a slate is fraught with the problem of
> >ar reversals is, in my experience, a problem suffered by sighted learners
> >ar who are used to picturing things in their heads. Indeed, this very
> >ar fact is a major reason why adult teachers don't want to teach the
> >ar slate. They think the child will have the same problems with reversals
> >ar that they do. But, as usual, it is plain stupid reasoning when one
> >ar makes the jump from "I as an adult have trouble with braille and the
> >ar slate and stylus" to "so I won't ever teach it to a blind child." I
> >ar have met one extremely competent blind person, a braille user, who
> >ar doesn't like the slate. Guess why? She lost her vision around age ten
> >ar and her sighted braille teacher said that to write on the slate she
> >ar would need to reverse everything in her head. What an impossible and
> >ar totally unnecessary task. Of course no one could achieve any speed or
> >ar accuracy using that method, and, after such torture, would not have
> >ar any fondness for the slate and stylus.
> >ar
> >ar But, even if a young blind child did experience some initial trouble
> >ar with reversals when writing on the slate, does this mean that the
> >ar child should be deprived of the nonvisual equivalent of a pen or
> >ar pencil? Just because some young print writers sometimes write b and
> >ar d or q and p the wrong way, do early childhood teachers across
> >ar the nation abandon the use of pencil and paper for young sighted
> >ar children? Of course not and no one would be so irresponsible as to
> >ar suggest that we do so. Yet, this is largely what has happened
> >ar regarding the slate and stylus. The decline in slate usage was aided
> >ar by the rise of the "print at any cost" philosophy among sighted
> >ar teachers of children with low vision. Though many of these children
> >ar were Functionally Blind, they were told to use what sight they had.
> >ar completely nonfunctional strategies, such as the following, were, and
> >ar still are, taught to children with low vision. "well, you can use
> >ar print because, provided you have the right lighting, a very specific
> >ar kind of very dark ink pen, the correct dark line paper, can write
> >ar slowly and are not having trouble with eye-strain today, you're a
> >ar print reader. You don't need braille and certainly don't need a slate
> >ar and stylus to take notes." The fact that many of these students never
> >ar manage to write fast enough and rarely experience the perfect
> >ar conditions required to enable them to cmpete on equal terms with their
> >ar sighted peers/colleagues, does not appear to be a concern to the
> >ar teachers taking this stand. Somehow, in some strange, deep part of the
> >ar human psyche, having the student act sighted and using print, even
> >ar when they can't read what they write, when the student is complaining
> >ar of eye-strain and head-aches and print is not working for a student,
> >ar seems to be preferable to calling a child blind and giving them
> >ar totally competitive tools, like a slate and stylus and braille. Sadly,
> >ar because of the misconceptions about blindness, many parents would
> >ar rather have a print using pretend sighted child than a real, braille
> >ar using blind child as well.
> >ar
> >ar Why have I gone onto my antiprint rant you may ask? Because I believe
> >ar that there are psychological reasons, such as seeing the slate as
> >ar old-fashioned and low tech, too hard, too slow, too blind, and too
> >ar hard to teach, that influence teachers who don't or won't teach it to
> >ar today's blind children. There's no real data on slate usage among
> >ar those who are profficient users. I've never seen a survey seeking real
> >ar data on the value, or nonvalue, of slate and stylus to blind people.
> >ar Yet, somehow the decision that slate skills are no longer necessary
> >ar has been made.
> >ar This is sheer foolishness, the kind of logic that says because we can
> >ar now drive cars we don't need bicycles, or because we have replaced the
> >ar outdoor Main Street shopping experience with indoor shopping malls, we
> >ar don't need umbrellas.
> >ar
> >ar I cannot imagine the innumerable inconveniences I would experience
> >ar without recourse to my slate. I Write shopping lists on the bus, I
> >ar take notes quietly in meetings, I jot down phone numbers and addresses
> >ar of new contacts, I write or retrieve information in extremely noisy
> >ar environments with ease, I have quickly made notes for an impromptu
> >ar meeting, written down doses and instructions at the doctor's, copied
> >ar out a recipe I found in a magazine in the dentist's waiting-room,
> >ar noted the name and number of taxi drivers whom I wished to report for
> >ar good or bad reasons, written down info a bus or train clerk gave me on
> >ar my next connection, and who knows what I may still use it to write.
> >ar The
> >ar possibilities are endless... rather like the excuses that people give
> >ar why young children should be denied the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity
> >ar to learn to be competent slate users.
> >ar
> >ar As for technology for a young child, it depends on many factors but
> >ar should include games and teaching/learning devices that offer the same
> >ar exposure to the concept of what techology is and does that sighted
> >ar children are given. The child's preferences, parents' preferences and
> >ar the available budget as well as the co-operation of local educators
> >ar are all factors that will influcnce choices.
> >ar
> >ar Warmest regards,
> >ar
> >ar Heather Field
> >ar ----- Original Message ----- 
> >ar From: "Richard Holloway" <rholloway at gopbc.org>
> >ar To: "NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing Listeaggfor parents of blind children)"
> >ar <blindkid at nfbnet.org>
> >ar Sent: Wednesday, February 17, 2010 11:42 PM
> >ar Subject: Re: [blkid] Technology and Little Kid
> >ar
> >ar
> >ar Certainly the slate and stylus (as someone else mentioned) is not a
> >ar bad idea, but a child in this age range is probably not going to have
> >ar the fine motor control to master the tool's use easily or likely be
> >ar ready for the whole mirror image concept.
> >ar
> >ar A child of nearly any age can begin using a Perkins Braillewriter-- I
> >ar know we were using one by at least age three. At the very least a
> >ar braille novice can "scribble" on a braillewriter, just like my sighted
> >ar almost-4-year-old scribbles on paper with a crayon all the time.
> >ar Braillewriting skill with a young child emerges at least somewhat like
> >ar writing emerges with a sighted ch-- not all letters at once and at
> >ar first, just like penmanship is typically pretty poor-- this after the
> >ar child has first just pressed the keys at random-- indeed "scribbling"
> >ar just like sighted kids. Getting the feel of the tools to use is an
> >ar important first step. It is hard for small hands to properly press and
> >ar form braille mechanically with a Perkins, but you are building hand
> >ar and finger strength and forming braille concepts all along the way.
> >ar Many schools can provide a second braillewriter for the student to use
> >ar at home for free once the child is in school.
> >ar
> >ar I think that often the way to go is to immerse the child within all
> >ar the options that can be gotten as the child appears ready to take to
> >ar them-- at least that was our theory when our daughter was born, and in
> >ar fact, it continues to be the same way to this day, then we focus on
> >ar what she seems ready to take to-- she'll ultimately use most all of
> >ar these things. There is also an entire range of tactile graphics
> >ar solutions and manipulatives. You can produce these with pipe cleaners,
> >ar and a bottle of glue, or you can use a multi-thousand dollar
> >ar thermoform; quite a range of options exists.
> >ar
> >ar Now at age 7, Kendra uses a BrailleNote and PAC Mate daily but still
> >ar uses a Perkins often, as well as an abacus for her math, JAWS on her
> >ar computer and so forth. She also works well with refreshable braille
> >ar and that can be a really handy option. The next big challenge I see
> >ar for her is needing to learn a qwerty keyboard, so there can be a lot
> >ar of technology in use by an early age.
> >ar
> >ar It is also really important to expose the child to braille as much as
> >ar possible. A sighted child sees print everywhere. Make certain this
> >ar child runs across braille often. Now in first grade and a proficient
> >ar braille reader, our first grade daughter still runs across the braille
> >ar stickers on things all over the house-- refrigerator, dishwasher,
> >ar table, drawer, oven, door, bed-- you name it. This will cause the
> >ar child to ask questions-- just like a sighted ch-- "what is this"
> >ar and later "what do these letters say"-- what do they mean?" Also, use
> >ar twin vision books-- sighted kids look at letters while parents read
> >ar most every time. Blind kids can do the same-- that's why it is best
> >ar when adding braille to a print book to always put the braille below
> >ar the print-- a sighted reader can still read while small hands are
> >ar exploring the braille.
> >ar
> >ar Screen readers can be used at that age as well as a victor reader.
> >ar Things like Mt Battens are expensive but potentially useful, but be
> >ar careful that an electronic (and expensive) solution like a Mt. Batten
> >ar or a PAC Mate is not learned at the expense of being able to use a
> >ar mechanical braillewriter as that need will almost certainly come up
> >ar all of this child's life, at least from time to time.
> >ar
> >ar I'd like to rework this link, and our site is about to get a facelift
> >ar overall too but here are some technology ideas that you might direct
> >ar her towards. Let her see a range of options and then she can decide
> >ar which way she wants to proceed.
> >ar
> >ar http://www.gopbc.org/gopbc_technology.htm
> >ar
> >ar
> >ar Richard
> >ar
> >ar
> >ar
> >ar
> >ar On Feb 17, 2010, at 10:01 PM, David Andrews wrote:
> >ar
> >>> 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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> >ar org
> >ar
> >ar
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