[blindkid] learning braille & print?

Wed Jul 18 17:40:59 UTC 2012

Ditto!

My son was a "dual learner" for his first year in school, but only because
I didn't know there was a "secondary medium" box checked on his IEP.  He
had enough sight to be able to read very large print flat up against his
nose.  As time goes on, and quantities increase and print decreases, that
modality just wasn't going to serve him well (here , thinking about college
reading loads and having to lug magnifying equipment as opposed to the
small and portable devices already available to the Braille reader  which
are bound to get smaller and cheaper too as time goes on).

I agree with Bernie and Kim whole-heartedly.  And where's the downside,
anyway?  I always figured I could teach my son print if it came to his
needing it someday--which is the basic logic the "experts" tried on me to
discourage Braille ("oh if he needs it someday, then he can learn it").  I
just turned it around and insisted that if he needed print someday he could
learn it, but in the meantime we will be writing "braille only" IEPs, thank
you very much.

It is a steep and overwhelming learning curve, all of this, and we all have
to make our own ways along it.  For me, single-media kept and keeps our
teachers focused (on reading comprehension, speed ,grade-level and above
expectations) on *reading*.  No divvying up precious instruction time, no
bickering about what assignments get done in which medium, no logistical
issues about switching back and forth, and above all no EXCUSES for not
holding my son to high expectations.

all best,
Lynda

Lynda Zwinger, Mom to Isaac, a literate about-to-be-7th-grader (yikes)

On Wed, Jul 18, 2012 at 10:26 AM, Kim Cunningham <kim at gulfimagesphoto.com>wrote:

> Bernie,
> Thank you for saying what we also have learned. My daughter was also
> deemed a "visual learner" and suffered the consequences. We were told by a
> doctor when my daughter was very young, that we needed to input as much
> "vision" into the brain while we can (as if vision made you a smarter or
> better person - ugh!). He said she could always learn braille, but could
> NEVER learn vision. I put my belief in that theory until the need for
> reading (5th to 6th grade) increased and the fatigue took over. If I only
> knew then what I know now, we would have started with braille straight out
> of the womb! Parents, please listen to Bernie and understand she knows the
> reality of things.
> Kim Cunnnigham
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: Bernadette Jacobs <bernienfb75 at gmail.com>
> To: "Blind Kid Mailing List, (for parents of blind children)" <
> blindkid at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, July 18, 2012 12:05 PM
> Subject: Re: [blindkid] learning braille & print?
>
> Sweetie:
>
> Take this from someone who's been there, done that!!  I speak from
> firsthand experience.  This duo-learning thing was only tried for a
> while till my mom put her foot down and said "She's learning Braille
> and I simply W O N ' T have it any other way!!!  I want her to have
> one very good skill that she'll be able to handle efficiently and
> profficiently for the rest of her life without any interuptions.  If
> she learns print and loses her sight, then what?  She simply becomes
> illiterate???  I won't have it!!!"  Since then gang, I've had both
> eyes removed and now have prosthetic eyes.  My mother will have been
> dead and gone now for 40 years in October.  and, guess what folks?
> I'm still reading Braille and loving it!!!  Braille lives on!!!
>
> Furthermore, I was a student at a school for the blind in Wisconsin
> from K-12.  I've seen way, too many students which were taken that
> route and later in life, they were profficient at neither reading
> medium!!!  I also have a very close friend in Madison, WI whose
> favorite passtime was, in fact, reading.  She used to present anywhere
> from 53-60 book reports a year in English Class.  One morning about
> fifteen years ago she woke up only to discover that she had lost her
> remaining vision.  Worst of all, to her absolute horror and
> devistation she suddenly became ILLITERATE???  Because she was never
> taught Braille???  What a horrible, cruel, rude awakening!!!  She then
> disappeared into the woodwork and very few of us ever hear from her
> anymore!!!  All in the name of teaching her N O T to be bline, after
> all, isn't it much better to allow her to use her remaining vision
> with all the headaches and eye strain to go along with it rather than
> teaching her an alternative technique that would stick with her for
> life???  After all, she was a very bright woman with loads and loads
> of potential!!!  God Bless her!  Wwe were best friends through high
> school and I guess that's why I feel her pain so terribly!  Oh Honey:
> I can think of story after story; name after name; and they all speak
> the same language!  Please don't do that to your baby!!!
>
> Bernie
>
> On 6/29/12, Nicole Cannon <nicole at cannonig.com> wrote:
> > My son is almost 5 with visual acuity about 20/200.  He can see large
> > print, but I've noticed he seems to be a tactile learner.  I've been
> > reading about learning to be a dual reader to give him the most tools,
> > but I'm somewhat concerned about overloading him with too many things to
> > learn at once.  Does anyone have any input on the best way to go about
> > teaching him Braille and print?  I'm going to talk to his IU teacher
> > also, but so far, the IU has been focusing on using the vision he has.
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Nicole
> >
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