[blindkid] slate and stylus

Bonnie Lucas lucas.bonnie at gmail.com
Sat May 14 18:36:37 UTC 2011


One other thing that I'd like to mention. When I was at the blind school as
a child, children did not learn to do Braille until first grade (many years
ago!) I was in first grade and had been working on learning uncontracted and
contracted Braille with the Braille writer. Then I got sick and had to go to
the school infirmary. When I was there, my roommate was a girl who was
several years older and they had slates that we could use. She had one and I
wanted to be able to write also. I got one, she explained it to me for about
a minute and I began writing like I'd been doing it for years. I'm not a
genius so if I could figure it out as a 7 year old, I think your daughter
will have no problem. You might consider getting some pocket slate as
Christmas gifts or birthday gifts for friends and family. Then they can
write notes with her with just an alphabet for fun. Aubrie's friends loved
having their own S&S. 

-----Original Message-----
From: Penny Duffy [mailto:pennyduffy at gmail.com] 
Sent: Friday, May 13, 2011 8:59 PM
To: NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List, (for parents of blind children)
Subject: Re: [blindkid] slate and stylus

Thank you Merry-Noel.

Abby is still learning (she learned her first braille letter in November)
but I think I think this is the right step for her.  Every letter in her
head she learned  its cell numbers (the same for the contractions) .  She
 loves to write but is starting to realize that lugging the Perkins Brailler
around the house  isn't the best method. (she was carrying it around and had
it drop on her foot, ouch)    I think the portability of it will really
appeal to her.

It doesn't hurt to introduce it and I think I my prefer using it for small
things over the brailler.

I ordered a slate, The Slate Book and The Bridge to Braille

I am hoping she will use the slate when she is in school for something quick
instead of the marker that she really can't see anyways.

I really think the slate will help ME too.

Thank you so much for the ideas. I think it will be helpful.

So I have to agree to the message earlier. You are a neat lady.

-
--Penny
----------
Adventures with Abby - visionfora.blogspot.com


On Sat, May 14, 2011 at 12:36 AM, Merry-Noel Chamberlain
<owinm at yahoo.com>wrote:

>
>
>
>
>
> Penny,
> One very important thing to remember are the dot numbers for each letter.
> When writing on the slate one must know the dot numbers and realize that
the
> dot numbers are the mirror image of the letter when it is read.  To start
> with the slate and stylus, sometimes I use the following that you can get
> through APH.
>
> Pop-a-Cell - create letters back and forth
> PegCell - create words back and forth.
>
> Also, to gain some practice before actually getting to the slate and
> stylus, I've used play dough.  I have them make a long snake and then
press
> it flat.  Using the stylus or a peg toy to press holes in the play dough
> from the right to the left.
>
> Another thing to do is place a sheet of Braille paper on the carpet (or
get
> a carpet square from the store) and use the stylus to poke holes through
the
> paper - all over the place - willy-nilly - then turn the paper over
> and discover how many letters were made.  This activity does NOT involve
the
> slate...
>
> As they get better, I use the sentences in THE SLATE BOOK to practice - I
> like to have someone read them to a student and myself as we compete
> to complete the sentence the fastest with the least amount of mistakes.
>
> Oh, and I don't use the word 'backwards'... I use 'mirror image' or
> 'flipped'.
>
> Above all - HAVE FUN!
>
> Merry-Noel
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