[blindkid] blindkid Digest, Vol 121, Issue 17 Discussion of the right goals and IEP for a legally blind child (Pui via blindkid)

Tue May 20 13:57:10 UTC 2014

Your children can still become braille literate.  I did not begin
learning braille until I was in the 7th grade and I am braille
literate.  I know it is hard to find the time to work on braille at
this point but it is critical for their future success.

On 5/20/14, Jennifer Duffell-Hoffman via blindkid <blindkid at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> Re: Discussion of the right goals and IEP for a legally    blind
>       child (Pui via blindkid)
>
> I want to thank Pui and Heather for having this discussion on our listserve.
>  The discussion, both from the standpoint of vision loss and the school's
> response to my earliest inquiries about Braille services, reflects my sons'
> experience very closely.  My sons are 15 and 13 and both, as of this school
> year, know the Braille code but are far from being Braille literate.
>  Because they are not Braille literate and because they cannot sustain print
> reading they face a jumble of accommodations to get them through each school
> day, each quiz/test/standardized test and PSAT/SAT. If they were Braille
> literate things would be much simpler not only for my sons, but also for the
> classroom teacher and the TVI.
>
> My understanding of IDEA is that the school system must prove that Braille
> is NOT an appropriate medium for the particular student--it seems to me that
> the student has to be Braille-literate before it can be proven this is not
> an appropriate reading medium!
>
>
>
> Jennifer A. Duffell-Hoffman
> NFB BELL in SC, State Coordinator
> SC Parents of Blind Children, State President
> Lancaster, South Carolina
> Mobile: 803-287-5391
> E-mail: jaduffell at yahoo.com
>
> The National Federation of the Blind knows that blindness is not the
> characteristic that defines your or your future. Every day we raise the
> expectations of blind people, because low expectations create obstacles
> between blind people and our dreams. You can have the life you want;
> blindness is not what holds you back.
>
>
> ________________________________
>  From: via blindkid <blindkid at nfbnet.org>
> To: blindkid at nfbnet.org
> Sent: Tuesday, May 20, 2014 8:00 AM
> Subject: blindkid Digest, Vol 121, Issue 17
>
>
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> Today's Topics:
>
>    1. Re:
>    2. QWERTY mPower for Sale (Debby B via blindkid)
> Thank you Heather for taking the time to reply. You write so eloquently of
> the struggles I am having with the IEP, and the reasons why. I know the IEP
> team wonder why I am "making my child blind" by insisting on braille.
> Firstly, My husband and I did make our son blind because we are both
> carriers of the genetic mutation that caused his LCA!! Secondly, now our job
> as parents is to ensure he gets those blindness related skills so his vision
> impairment will enable him to carry on with life just like his sighted
> brother. When I found out my son had LCA and it was degenerative I asked
> myself the same questions and did some research of low vision folks and
> their experiences with schooling. I quickly concluded that my son would be
> functionally illiterate without braille when the day would come when he
> would lose more vision. Of course I don't look forward to him losing more
> vision but it is what it is.
>
> I just requested the district perform a LMA on my son. A few months back the
> CA school for the blind did a technology assessment on my son at my request
> and concluded that technology would be a part of his future. The VI
> department did not label my son as a dual learner. I did. Their philosophy
> is to not teach a student braille until they go completely blind. However to
> their credit they did listen to me after I showed them the braille laws
> under IDEA.
>
> I know my child has a lot of functional vision and I do want him to utilize
> it. I am not asking for him to do all his work in braille. I understand that
> it will mostly be print, but I do want him to use braille on a daily basis
> so he is a part of both worlds.
>
> I remember reading an article in Reflections about your advice to a parent
> of a low vision child learning braille. I purchased the Mangold program and
> I put the sleep shade on him for the first few months. Now he is pretty good
> at using his fingers without trying to read braille with his eyes which he
> did a lot of last year. Seeing and hearing him read braille letters,
> contractions and basic sentences (with guidance) tells me that braille is
> working for him. He has some bad habits that are typical for beginners such
> as rubbing the braille sometimes, not always tracking correctly, not using
> all his fingers, incorrect fingering on the brailler etc. However I believe
> those are reasons why he needs daily braille. It isn't the minutes that
> matter as much to me as the fact that he continues daily instruction at
> school. Otherwise he gets the impression that school is for print everyday,
> and braille sometimes if the TVI shows up. I believe that will make him
>  resistant to braille because he likes to do what everyone else is doing and
> is even sensitive about wearing glasses sometimes. I have read too many
> stories of adults who wished they had learned braille as a child.
>
> Most of my comments I have made public on this forum even though many of you
> have been kind enough to offer an opportunity for me to discuss this
> privately. I have chosen to do it like this to aid other parents with low
> vision kids who may have similar issues.
>
> Thanks,
> Pui
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
> On May 19, 2014, at 1:14 AM, Heather Field via blindkid
> <blindkid at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>
>> Hello Pui,
>> Sorry this e-mail is so long but I really wanted to share all my thoughts
>> with you. Congratulations on standing up to the IEP
>>
>> team. That's a hard thing to do. You're obviously a great mum!
>> I would agree that these goals are too easy. He should know more than this
>> at the end of kindergarten. Also, it may be that
>>
>> you are dealing with a more complex situation than you realise. I have
>> observed this situation many times when attending IEP
>>
>> meetings as an advocate with parents who are fighting for braille for
>> their child. To most IEP team members, including the
>>
>> TVI, parents Insisting on braille for a child who appears to be
>> successfully functioning like a sighted child, seems bizarre,
>>
>> even cruel and harmful to the child; because, to them, "braille" equals
>> "blind". They cannot imagine why you would want to
>>
>> "make your child blind". This reflects their lack of experience with low
>> vision adults who use braille as one of their tools.
>>
>> Yet, to you, understanding the degenerative nature of your son's eye
>> condition, and knowing that braille is an invaluable
>>
>> tool in the skills toolbox of many successful low vision adults, you are
>> in a position to see the situation from a different,
>>
>> completely functional, unemotional perspective. I believe you're taking
>> the right approach in trying to reason with the
>>
>> district staff. You are on a mission to educate them regarding your son's
>> real learning media needs, despite the TVI.
>>
>> However, rather than arguing with them about instruction time I would take
>> another tack.
>> In the light of no hard evidence, IEP team members usually give far more
>> weight to what the "professional" TVI says than they
>>
>> give to what the parent says. They usually write you off as a difficult
>> parent who doesn't really understand what's going on
>>
>> with their child.So, what you need is evidence to show the IEP team that
>> children with some functional vision are often
>>
>> taught braille on the basis of researched, needs-based factors. To this
>> end, I believe that having your son assessed, using
>>
>> the NFB's Reading Media Assessment (RMA), would give a clear,
>> evidence-based determination on whether or not he should be
>>
>> treated as a duel learner or a braille reader/writer. The RMA does take
>> future learning needs, as well as parent observations
>>
>> into account in determining the results. It also considers the future
>> needs of your child as a learner with this particular
>>
>> eye condition. In my experience, most TVIs don't have a grasp of the
>> future ramifications of the reading media decisions they
>>
>> make for children and their decisions are driven much more by the emotions
>> around "making a child blind" by insisting they
>>
>> use braille, or by the need, albeit unconscious - to lessen their heavy
>> case load and keep a child using print as long as
>>
>> possible. They already have heavy case loads and they don't want to have
>> to find 300 minutes per week for a child who, in
>>
>> their opinion, doesn't need braille only instruction. Furthermore, the
>> members of your son's IEP team are almost certainly
>>
>> ill-prepared to make an informed decision on his future reading media
>> needs for the three following reasons.
>> 1. they fail to consider that your son's vision is currently the best it
>> will ever be; it will only get worse from here. Even
>>
>> those with normal vision experience some degree of vision loss as they
>> age. so, even under normal circumstances, your son's
>>
>> vision is going to get worse as he ages. With so little vision already,
>> any degree of loss has major implications for his
>>
>> functional use of print to read and write.
>> 2. They do not really understand the degenerative nature of his eye
>> condition and how that plays out, with possible vision
>>
>> loss occuring even while he is still in elementary school. They don't want
>> to consider it for all sorts of emotional,
>>
>> personal fear-based reasons.
>> 3. Few, if any, of the people on the IEP team - including the TVI, who are
>> supposed to be considering your son's future
>>
>> reading meadia needs, will even be acquainted with a blind adult, let
>> alone a person with your son's specific, degenerative
>>
>> eye condition. They don't know anything about what blind adults need to
>> function successfully in the sighted world.
>> For these reasons, they are ill equipped to make any fact-based decision
>> regarding his future reading media needs.
>>
>> The place to look, when considering your son's future reading media needs,
>> is among the adult population of blind and vision
>>
>> impaired people. . As an adult blind person I have a number of adult
>> friends who have your son's eye condition and I can
>>
>> assure you that not one of them use print to achieve the tasks of daily
>> living and working. Some of them have the vision to
>>
>> read print if they need to,but braille is their medium of choice. One
>> woman I know has enough vision that, if she wears very
>>
>> strong glasses, she can see to read regular print. But, she only uses
>> those glasses if she needs to see something she hasn't
>>
>> labeled in braille, or to check a child's worksheet etc. It is such an
>> unpleasant, eye-straining, head-ache inducing
>>
>> experience that she only uses those glasses in essential, work related
>> situations. She doesn't even read her print mail with
>>
>> them; she scans it into her computer or uses a human reader. So, you and I
>> know what a difference braille will make in your
>>
>> son's life as a blind adult.
>>
>> As a blind person who is a certified special educator myself, and knowing
>> all of this other influencing background
>>
>> information, my hunch is that the TVI isn't doing what's best for your son
>> by labeling him as a duel learner. In your
>>
>> position, I would request he be assessed using the RMA. The RMA is the
>> only assessment which is research-based and the
>>
>> results have been found to be extremely reliable over time. Alternatively,
>> his current assessment, the one used to label him
>>
>> as a duel learner, was done using a Learning Media Assessment (LMA). The
>> LMA is not research-based. It is a set of tests and
>>
>> suggested observational situations that a TVI can use to make a subjective
>> assessment of how well a child can use their
>>
>> vision to function in the school setting. In this assessment, a child's
>> vision is assessed as being functional based on
>>
>> factors such as how well they use visual aids, preferential seating,
>> optimal lighting etc. Ie. it assesses how functional the
>>
>> child's vision is under optimal conditions at school. Worse, the
>> assessment is conducted by the same TVI who will be
>>
>> providing the instruction. She gets to decide, on the basis of her
>> subjective assessment, whether she wants to teach this
>>
>> student braille or not. At very least this can be called a conflict of
>> interest. On the other hand, the RMA is research-based
>>
>> and also asks questions of the parent(s) and the classroom teacher, does
>> not permit the use of visual aids or optimal
>>
>> lighting etc. It seeks to gather information on vision use by the child at
>> home and in the community in an effort to
>>
>> establish the true, real world "functionality" of the child's vision over
>> time and strain during the day. You are legally
>>
>> allowed to request that your son be given an independent assessment for
>> which the school district must pay. the Reading Media
>>
>> Assessment (RMA) is provided free, online by the NFB. The tester fills in
>> the information online where the assessment and
>>
>> results can be accessed by anyone who is given the private login info.
>> Everything is provided, even printable reading
>>
>> passages for each grade level, and instructions for how the student should
>> sit while reading, and that no reading aids can be
>>
>> used during testing. The results/Report/recommendations can be printed out
>> and presented at an IEP meeting. So, it should be
>>
>> very easy to find someone to administer an independent RMA, eg. a
>> counselor, a psychologist, a special education teacher, or
>>
>> a TVI from another district could do it. When the members of the IEP team
>> see the evidence, obtained independently using a
>>
>> research-based assessment tool, it will be extremely difficult for the TVI
>> to refuse to teach your son using the reading and
>>
>> writing media which the assessment says he needs. If the TVI objects you
>> can request an explanation of the objections to the
>>
>> results of a research-based assessment tool administered independently by
>> an unbiased tester.
>> I suggest that you take this approach because, if your son turns out to
>> need braille exclusively and not to be a dual
>>
>> learner, then this "how much time" argument will disappear and no time
>> will be spent on goals such as developing visual
>>
>> efficiency and tracking. . You will be able to say that you are now not
>> discussing how much "braille" time your son receives
>>
>> but, instead, how much "reading and
>> writing" time he gets; braille is just the format/code in which he is
>> reading and writing. I encourage you to be proactive and continue to
>> reject the current IEP and request a new assessment and,
>>
>> on the basis of that, a new IEP. This assessment can be done within a day
>> or two of your request as it takes only a short
>>
>> time to administer it and, as soon as the parent report, and classroom
>> teacher report if you think it will be helpful, are
>>
>> entered on the website the results will be there at the click of one
>> button.
>> not signing it or arguing for more time will not be as effective as having
>>
>> your son assessed using the research-based Reading Media Assessment.
>> e-mail me off list if you'd like to chat about this more. I often attend
>> IEP
>> meetings in my area, assisting as a parent advocate in the same kind of
>> disagreements. So, I am very aware of how hard they fight to keep from
>> having to provide braille.
>> Again, sorry for the long e-mail but I hope it helps.
>> Warmest regards,
>> Heather Field
>> _______________________________________________
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>
>
> Winona is selling her 32-cell Braille Note QWERTY mPower. It is in like-new
> condition, although it hasn't been used for several years and the battery
> has died. All cords, straps, instruction books, cds, and case are included.
> Due to the battery issue, she is only asking $1000.
>
> We would love to deliver it to someone at convention!
>
>
> Please contact Winona at wbrackett42 at gmail.com or myself at
> bwbddl at yahoo.com.
> Thanks,
>
>
> Debby Brackett
> bwbddl at yahoo.com
>
> ~"Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear and the blind can
> read."~Mark Twain
>
>
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-- 
Marianne Denning, TVI, MA
Teacher of students who are blind or visually impaired
(513) 607-6053