[blindkid] Braille Literacy IEP Question

Richard Holloway rholloway at gopbc.org
Tue Mar 13 16:15:24 UTC 2012


That's a tough situation. I'm sorry he's having such a rough time. I'm inclined to say that while your point is well taken with the dyslexia, someone on the team may also come back with the fact that many book recordings for the blind are actually produced for "the blind and dyslexic".

I suspect the best results would come if they try to work with the braille as much time as possible and as effectively as possible, but I would want to be careful that you not avoid the speech synthesizer so much that Been falls behind on his work. It sounds like right now he is not behind on his school work as such, but only his braille reading, right? If you insist a particular amount of the work be done without the audio "reading", he might end up behind on the work AS WELL as the reading.

The other thing that really jumps out at me is the "Read Naturally" program. Is this an appropriate product for your son? I don't know if it is appropriate or not, but just being professionally transcribed doesn't mean this will be the ideal program for a braille reader. You mention the special ed teacher is a literacy specialist. Is she a BRAILLE literacy specialist? If he is having transposition errors, those are unique to braille reading (or at least the pairings are). A print reader may transpose b and d, for example where a braille reader would instead transpose e and i, or h and j.

I'm just wondering if prefab. exercises might be focusing on the wrong problems to correct. Somewhere in the mix, no matter what, a braille literacy specialist needs to be involved in finding the best solution. If you have to focus on more voice syntheses to stay on track while that is going on, that might actually be a reasonable short term fix.

Richard




On Mar 13, 2012, at 2:00 AM, Crystal Schumacher wrote:

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> Hello,
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> I would really appreciate some opinions on the question I am going to ask. I have a struggling braille reader. The question from the IEP team is as follows: Should we discontinue the Braille Literacy Goal which focuses on speed, fluency, and comprehension because Ben has made little growth for the effort put forth and he is missing other class time during this daily 30 minute pull out?
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> The Facts are as follows:
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> Ben is 11 years old and in the 5th grade. He was born 14 weeks premature and is blind with light perception from R.O.P. Ben is reading contracted braille at a 2nd grade level with a speed of 30 words per minute. He receives services from a TVI, 2 hours a day, who states he has learned most of the Braille code. He also receives services from the Special Education Teacher, 30 minutes a day, who is trained in teaching Reading Literacy. She is using a program called Read Naturally that was transcribed into Braille by the Texas School for the Blind. Ben is her only blind student and has been working with her since the middle of 3rd grade. The other students using this program are sighted. Ben has made some growth, but his progress remains slow. He has many Braille reversals and some tactile defensiveness. He writes Braille at grade level. Ben was tested for a reading disability, but do to the lack of statistics on blind children he could not qualify for our school district. For example, when given the Woodcock-Johnson Normative Test in Braille, Passage Comprehension, he scored at a 2nd grade level. When given the same part of the test auditory, Ben scored at 6th grade level. The IEP team has decided that moving forward, Ben's should receive his text books and some assignments primarily in a digital format. He does use a Braille Note, but relies heavily on the voice when reading or editing papers.
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> I have a good relationship with my IEP team. They will write the goal how I want, but they need evidence to support it. He will be moving to middle school next year and blind kids typically get less services, not more. Ben may never be a great reader, but Braille is a skill, and I think he needs to be working on it everyday. If a sighted child had dyslexia, would they stop reading with that child? He has a great mind and being able to get information he needs quickly and efficiently via a digital format is important, but I think the Braille is too. Please let me know what you are thinking.
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> Thank You,
> Crystal Schumacher
> (Ben's Mom)
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