[blindkid] math for blind students

[JoyO]

> 

Dear Melissa,

I agree that math lesson plans are generally the same for blind students as sighted students, only using Braille and Nemeth.

In addition, blind students can learn to use a Cranmer abacus which is adapted for the blind. 

The abacus is fast and elegant, and can allow blind students to work problems at a similar pace to their sighted classmates who are using pencil and paper. It is one way to help avoid the issue that blind students sometimes face: that is, they are assigned half as many problems as their classmates. Long division and long multiplication problems can involve lots of brailling and lots of rolling the paper back and forth, when worked on the Braille writer. With the abacus, the problem can be set about as fast as it can be copied with a pencil.

The Hadley school has an abacus course for families. It is free to families of blind kids. I really like my teacher for the correspondence course. 

There is also information on the "print-compatible" abacus in the _Handbook for Itinerant and Resource Teachers of Blind and Visually Impaired Students_.

Fred Gissoni has a book on using the Cranmer abacus, and we have that book in braille for my daughter.

In addition to abacus and Nemeth, young blind students need to have manipulatives in their hands so that they can experience the concepts by touch. Using manipulatives is good practice for all young students.

Hope this helps!
Joy