[blindkid] Elementary math question

Thu Oct 3 14:39:06 UTC 2013

I think many congenitally blind children have more difficulty
understanding spatial relation so anything we can do to foster that
knowledge is very good.  Using a braille number line can help in this
area also.  Keep figuring this out.  I was very good at math as a
blind student but I didn't have access to tactile graph paper so I
still struggle some with plotting points on a graph.

On 10/3/13, Brandy W., with Discovery Toys <ballstobooks at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi, As both a blind adult and teacher I say absolutely she needs both of
> these things. The number line is an order of numbers and is just as
> important. She still needs to understand how she gets from number to number
> and why we do what we do to get to these places. She needs to see the number
> spaces between numbers. When it is time for negative numbers the number line
> down from 0 will be very helpful. I found the hundreds chart very helpful as
> a kid, and as a blind teacher. Now while it isn't as useful just on a piece
> of paper I recommend Brailling the numbers 1-100 on small cards that are all
> the same size. Then put magnet or Velcro on the backs and put them on a
> surface they can stick to. This way she can manipulate the numbers just as
> the sighted children are. So it won't be helpful for her to color all the
> numbers with 2 red, but she can either take them off the chart, or put
> manuplitives on the numbers the others are coloring. It is actually in my
> opinion even more important that she learn how the numbers work, how the
> correspond with one another as she will naturally end up doing more in her
> head than other children.
>
> There is no part of the math program that should ever be left out. The only
> way something should ever be left out is if it is ok to leave it out for the
> other 30 kids. If the answer is yes than you may know it is ok to leave it
> out for your daughter. If the other kids are practicing a skill in a visual
> way say a coloring sheet where they color in the right answer your daughter
> could have a math practice sheet where answers correspond with letters that
> will get a fun phrase instead of a picture in the end.
>
> Please keep asking away. www.tsbvi.edu is a great math resource.
>
> Bran
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: blindkid [mailto:blindkid-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Debby B
> Sent: Wednesday, October 02, 2013 7:26 PM
> To: Blind Kid Mailing List, (for parents of blind children)
> Subject: Re: [blindkid] Elementary math question
>
> One thing that REALLY helped Winona was when we convinced the school to pull
> out the MathWindow. We were able to set things up, for example fractions.
> Once we set them up vertically it was like the light bulbs came on!
>
>
> Debby
> bwbddl at yahoo.com
>
> ~"Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear and the blind can
> read."~Mark Twain
>
>
> ________________________________
>  From: b&s <lanesims at gmail.com>
> To: blindkid at nfbnet.org
> Sent: Wednesday, October 2, 2013 7:27 AM
> Subject: [blindkid] Elementary math question
>
>
> Emilia is now in 4th grade. I have been going in occasionally to
> help/observe during gen ed math time. I have always understood that the
> teaching of math (and all subjects for that matter) is vision centric. This
> is just a fact of life and I've been under the impression that teaching a
> blind kid is just a matter of tweaking the same information that is taught
> to the sighted kids. However, What struck me yesterday was the possibility
> that entire portions of the math curriculum may be fundamentally dependent
> on a visual approach, so that the issue becomes one, not of transcribing,
> but of truly translating the concepts to an entirely different language….and
> possibly even throwing out portions of the curriculum. This came up while
> thinking about number lines. Number lines figure heavily in the teaching and
> testing at this level. Emilia has a brailled number line at school that does
> a reasonable job of transcribing the visual information. She can read the
>  number line and mimic what other kids are doing with some effort. My
> question is whether a brailled number line is really useful to a
> congenitally blind student to help with understanding the underlying
> concepts?….or does it just make us sighted folk feel good about seeing the
> blind kid do the same thing the sighted kids are doing? Is she really
> learning the material?
>
> Unless I'm missing something, the abacus seems to cover the same territory
> and more as the number line. I don't even know how to approach the notion of
> the hundreds chart, which again, is available in braille, but is it really
> useful? If the answer is no, then there is the question of how to approach
> the issue of class participation, when everyone else is using these tools
> and concepts.
>
> I plan to talk to a couple of congenitally blind adult friends to get their
> perspective on this stuff. Any enlightenment from parents and others here
> would be great also.
>
> Thanks, Brandon
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-- 
Marianne Denning, TVI, MA
Teacher of students who are blind or visually impaired
(513) 607-6053