[blindkid] Braille reading speed and more...

Heather Field missheather at comcast.net
Thu Mar 15 22:16:41 UTC 2012


Hello Carly,
I would begin by videoing your son reading at home. It's hard for them to 
argue with a video. If they do, which is always possible, I would make the 
point that reading is for the real world and so your son must be able to 
transfer the skills they are claiming he has at school to reading at home. I 
would also ask to visit a reading lesson at school so that you can see what 
they are actually doing with your son. I would visit several lessons if 
possible before speaking with them about your concerns. This way they will 
not be on the defensive. Gather your information first. Then call a meeting.

A video will also be encouraging to you when you see how much progress he 
will make in a short time when you work with him at home as I suggest. 
Others may have ideas as well.

I would do three things with his reading time at home.

1. I would immediately begin teaching him contractions. I would let him know 
how much faster he will read when he knows his contractions. The single 
letter and dot 5 letter contractions will be a great place to start. And, 
for, of, the with come next. After that the two and three letter 
contractions are a great next step. They increase speed rapidly. They can be 
learned in associated clusters which helps with recall. gd, cd, wd, shd; td, 
tm, tn; lr, ab, fr, al, fst (using dots 3-4); alw, alm, alr, grt, brl, abv, 
acr. Next I'd teach all the lower b and one letter contractions. Lower b is 
dots 2-3. Lower b-  -l, -t, -h, -f, -s, -ss, -c.  I have deliberately put 
the contractions and not the written out words to help encourage you to 
learn them (if you don't already know them) and to give you a little glimpse 
of how your son feels when he encounters them. :)

2. I would give your son practise using his right hand only. Perhaps get 
some flash-cards or write some words and letters on a page. Then have him 
read them with his right hand only. Some children, particularly those who 
are left-handed. do not seem to develop their right hand reading as quickly. 
I'm not sure why. For some children I have seen this as a symptom of their 
still not having mature "crossing the midline" development. Some exercises 
that do lots of "crossing the midline" may help. Even some simple tracking 
and discrimination exercises, using his right hand only for a short while 
each day, should help.
3. When you've increased his use of his right hand and his knowledge of 
contractions - in about 6 weeks of concerted effort working for at least 40 
minutes of homework per day including Saturdays - I would tell your son that 
he will be reading a certain amount of braille each day. for example, 4 
pages of braille that you have produced for him, or 5 pages from your choice 
of book. This will be nonnegotiable. So, if he takes one and a half hours to 
read them then, this is his problem. It is important that you don't give in. 
Remind him that reading using contractions and reading using both hands will 
speed up his reading tremendously. If he chooses to use both hands it will 
get him through his set amount in no time.
The fact that he drops his right hand off the page tells me that he's not 
bothering to work on good skills. Thus, letting him know that he has the 
power to shorten his braille reading time will give him a reason to want to 
work on his skills. You have a tough situation because your son has 
obviously had some bad experiences with poor teaching. So, you've got some 
unlearning and some achieving for him to do. You have to break the habit of 
non-left-hand use. they say it takes 21 days of straight of doing a new 
thing to make it a habit. The jump your son needs to make is from the habit 
of being reminded to use his hand and stopping when it suits him, to 
remembering himself to keep his right hand on the page and reading with it.

Other suggestions might include writing stories for him to read that are 
about himself and/or things he likes. Also, funny "yes or no" question 
sheets can be fun. A question might be "Good boys like to eat brl."
You can also institute an actual prize program so that the more contractions 
he learns the more small prizes he can win; culminating in a grand prize 
with every fifty. This is all about motivation and getting him achieving so 
that he realises just how much he can achieve when he decides that braille 
is easy for him.

Please keep us posted and ask questions. We love to help get children 
reading braille. I hope some of this helps.

Regards,
Heather
3.


-----Original Message----- 
From: Carly B
Sent: Thursday, March 15, 2012 4:32 PM
To: NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List,(for parents of blind children)
Subject: [blindkid] Braille reading speed and more...

Hello again,

I'm so glad we are talking about IEP stuff because I have another question
for all of you. I have a 9 year old third grader who has been reading
Braille for about 2 years now. He attends the state academy for the blind
because our home district was not providing services (although they said
they were) and he was not making any progress at all.

Last spring his IEP goal said he would improve his reading speed from 30
words per minute to 60 words per minute, and that he would know 130
contractions. I just received a report that said he has met his goals. Wow!
Except... I'm not seeing it at home. For the reading speed, it states that
he is reading a word list of familar words. Now, I thought reading speed
would be measured by having him read something real... not a reading list.
I guess we didn't specify that, though. And for the contractions, at home
my son refuses to read anything contracted because he hardly knows any. As
soon as he runs into a contraction he says, "Oh! Contraction! I don't know
what this is!" Very rarely he'll know it. So it hardly seems he knows 130.

Also, he totally reads with his left hand and does not use his right hand
without constant reminders. I mean, constant. He drops his right hand off
the page within a second or two and has to be reminded again and again.
When I brought this up with the school I was told that he's reading with
both hands just fine there. Really???

So how do I bring this up with the school? His Braille teacher and I are on
good terms, but still I'm not sure how to approach her. Any suggestions are
greatly appreciated.

<weary smile> --Carolynn
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