[blindkid] Teaching Braille to your children?

[Eric Vasiliauskas]

Hi Anne,
We didn¹t use any specific program or book.
I attribute my kids¹ early braille skills to predominantly my wife.
We read a LOT to & with our kids. She added braille to many childrens¹ books
that we picked up at the bookstore (when we first started out there weren¹t
too many fun print/braille books to choose from). We also bought a bunch of
touch & feel, scratch n sniff, & alphabet books with sound buttons ­ my wife
added braille to those too. We encouraged the boys to follow along with
their fingers. My wife also put braille letters on a bunch of
talking/musical alphabet toys.
Now Seedlings, National Braille Press (NBP), & the Braille Institute have a
bunch of braille print books ­ they are generally low cost or free. Some
books can be found on eBay too.
The NBP has a 2 part great beginner series called Primary Phonics Set
(PHONICSSET) www.nbp.org/ic/nbp/PHONICS.html
<http://www.nbp.org/ic/nbp/PHONICS.html> &
www.nbp.org/ic/nbp/PHONICS-II.html
<http://www.nbp.org/ic/nbp/PHONICS-II.html> .
The Perkins Panda series is cute
https://secure2.convio.net/psb/site/Ecommerce?FOLDER=1082&store_id=1101
<https://secure2.convio.net/psb/site/Ecommerce?FOLDER=1082&store_id=1101> .
There is a great simple print series with lots of repetition & gradual
sequential of concepts by Nora Gaydos that it is pretty easy to add braille
to www.goodreads.com/author/show/36136.Nora_Gaydos
<http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/36136.Nora_Gaydos> .
There are some good cheat sheets that we kept handy
(http://uacoe.arizona.edu/viliteracy/Braille_Lessons/English%20Braille%20Sym
bolsNBP.pdf 
<http://uacoe.arizona.edu/viliteracy/Braille_Lessons/English%20Braille%20Sym
bolsNBP.pdf> or www.duxburysystems.com/images/bana_black.pdf
<http://www.duxburysystems.com/images/bana_black.pdf> ). If you start early
you kind of learn as they do. We introduced contractions as they came up in
the books.
Lots of kids have a favorite book or 2 that get read over & over. Reading
should be fun.
Both boys are quite different, so I can say that there is no one right or
best way to pursue this. You have to try see what works best for each child.
With my younger son, we introduced the BrailleNote in kindergarten &
encouraged him to write a journal. Each month for the last few years, before
going to be he writes 3 or so sentences of his top highlights of the day. He
starts a new file every month. It worked out great for him & he looks
forward to it still & has a pretty cool record of the highlights of his life
that he can hang on too.
Eric V
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On 5/11/11 8:12 PM, "Anne Ward" <inland2wards at att.net> wrote:

> Hi, all,
> I am wondering how many of you parents took an active part in teaching Braille
> to your children, and, if so, what system/textbook/whatever did you use to
> achieve that?  I've been asked to push our state into providing a certain text
> for parents to check out through the Braille and Talking Book section of the
> state library.  I am not sure that the specific text is the way to go, it
> seems a poor choice for teaching very young children, but at least it would be
> A tool to provide.  The text in question is APH's Braille Series 1992.  Some
> alternatives seem a bit pricey, but a better choice for teaching young
> children.  Myself, I used Just Enough to Know Better to teach myself, but my
> son's vi teacher taught him, and a very slow process it seemed at the time.
> If any of you have any recommendations, please let me know.  I can think of
> more than one young family that would benefit from this idea, but am not sure
> of the text to be recommended,  with the best bang for the buck, if I can come
> up with the buck (don't think the library has the buck in these times).
> Thanks for any input you can offer me.
> Sincerely,
> Anne Ward
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