[blindkid] FW: [Pibe-division] Reading Braille with Special Hands

[Carrie Gilmer]

  _____  

From: pibe-division-bounces at nfbnet.org
[mailto:pibe-division-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Dr. Denise M.
Robinson
Sent: Friday, September 23, 2011 10:25 AM
To: Professionals in Blindness Education Division List
Subject: [Pibe-division] Reading Braille with Special Hands

 


Reading
<http://blindgeteducated.blogspot.com/2011/09/reading-braille-with-special-h
ands.html>  Braille with Special Hands 


I am always blessed to teach. I love teaching and seeking out the best
methods that will help my students the most keeps me going, so I have to
phrase this next sentence carefully because all my students bless me in
different ways.

In the last few years, I have been so incredibly blessed by one particular
child. The second grade teacher had gotten a hold of me at the end of the
school year, saying this particular student was having a great deal of
difficulty seeing and accessing her school work and wondered if I had any
ideas for her. This young lady was not on grade level and struggled with
everything. She has a condition where she was very small and has partial
limbs; she had a useable finger, and half-useable thumb on one hand and the
doctors actually made a finger of sorts on the other fixed limb. She had had
many facial surgeries and just many surgeries in general. I could easily
pick her out when I walked into the room. I just watched her for some time,
in her adorable pink outfit, on her tiny frame. She had figured out how to
grasp a pencil and was leaning over about 2 inches from her paper, slowly
but surely printing out letters. When recess came, I asked if she would stay
in with me and she agreed. The first thing I always ask children is "What do
you want to be when you grow up?" She immediately replied, "A Princess." I
smiled. Of course. Most girls want to be a princess. She was just like
everyone else. We all are inside and it does not matter what the outside
looks like.

Because it was the end of the school year and she had several more surgeries
scheduled, I could not begin instruction with her until the middle of third
grade. During the fall, I worked with the special education teacher, the
Para educator and mom; teaching them braille and the technology that she
would be using. She had an incredible team, all dedicated to her success. As
we began instruction, I noticed that the "finger" the doctors had created
and attached to one limb did not really have receptors to read braille, so I
was depending on that one little finger on her other hand to read. I did
have her use that specially created finger on the other limb to track the
braille as she read with her right finger so she could create some type of
speed. Over a couple of years and a lot of braille reading and computer
instruction, that wonderful brain created enough nerves in that "finger" to
start reading braille or at least the first word or two of each sentence.
She increased her reading speed to 115 words per minute with practice. Those
tiny little fingers started to fly across the page. Her computer skills
accelerated her also and with her blind skills, she is now on grade level. I
might add that she has the most supportive mom who followed through on every
lesson I handed out. Truly, her team of people at school and home has
contributed greatly to her success.

She has become one of my brightest shining stars...literally. She is the
first student I try out my new technology adventures with and she loves it.
She can email, text or SKYPE me, which has become her favorite mode because
of its accessibility features and ask how to solve a problem. With a simple
reply, she can fix whatever her issue is. She gets it, remembers and is now
excelling and succeeding in life. Where humans place such value on beauty,
her brains and abilities now can take her further than any pageant queen.

 

       Denise 

 

Denise M. Robinson, TVI, Ph.D. 
Teacher of the Blind & Visually Impaired
TechVision-Independent Contractor

Specialist in blind programming/teaching/training

509-674-1853     <mailto:deniserob at gmail.com>  deniserob at gmail.com

 

http://blindgeteducated.blogspot.com/

 

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