[blparent] Penmanship.

Sun Sep 14 22:10:23 UTC 2014

You can buy stencils both that are a whole sheet with cutouts for each letter with arrows to show the strokes, and individual smaller stencils. I have them for lower and upper case. You can get them for denilian, and classic printing. They are a great tool. Using an Ipad with stylus pen and a handwriting app also works. Sand paper tracing letters and programs like handwriting without tears are also options. Simple handwriting practice sheets can be printed from the internet or bought in books. Children can write in play dough, sand or shaving cream. When I'm teaching children handwriting I use the methods and also have them write in a daily journal. Then once a week I have a reader look at the journal and tell me what the weaknesses and strengths of the writing are when it comes to penmanship are. I then note those things and work with the child. Sometimes the reader will copy a journal entry written correctly for the child to see and practice from. I also have writing practice cards one can use dry erase crayons and markers with. These are only a few options for teaching penmanship.

Bran

-----Original Message-----
From: blparent [mailto:blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Misty Dawn Bradley via blparent
Sent: Saturday, September 13, 2014 12:56 AM
To: Judy Jones; Blind Parents Mailing List
Subject: Re: [blparent] Penmanship.

Hi Judy and all,
I would be curious too, not just for my daughter but also if I do go into the teaching profession.
When I was a child, I used to have sheets with raised letters that I would trace with my pencil or pen, so I learned some writing that way and also what the print letters felt like. I wonder if maybe the same concept could be used to teach writing letters and numbers and things like that. It would be more difficult with assignments though, unless you could have the child place the paper he or she is writing on on a screen board so you could feel their writing. I used to have a screen board, and I think the American Printing House for the Blind or the Braille Bookstore sells them. It is a frame with a screen on it, and when you put a sheet of paper over it and write on it with a pen or pencil, you can feel what was drawn or written on the other side of the paper because the screen is rough and allows you to feel the markings.
There is also some kind of foam paper with special markers that you can write on it with and you can feel what you wrote, and a sighted person would also be able to see it. I had something like that when I was in school, although I am not sure where my VI teacher got it. I think it was from APH as well, but I am not sure. It was very thick and foam-like, and the markers felt like regular markers rather than the puff paint pens or tubes, and the writing or drawing would come out as raised-line due to some kind of reaction between the special paper and ink.
I will probably take a look online at the sites for adaptive products and see if there is anything else that I have not heard of yet, but these are some things that I used as a child that could probably work for a blind parent and sighted child.
Misty

-----Original Message-----
From: Judy Jones via blparent
Sent: Friday, September 12, 2014 10:01 PM
To: Blind Parents Mailing List
Subject: [blparent] Penmanship.

Hi All,

I would like to find out what you all do regarding penmanship.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, by the time we started home schooling, our girls were middle school and high school.  They approached me, said public school was “rude,” and asked if I would consider home-schooling.

I had looked into several curricula by that time, so was an easy choice. 
So, they had the penmanship thing down, and I did not have to worry about that one.

Thinking back, I may have asked for assistance from a friend, neighbor, or someone in our church.  But that’s the only thing I would have known to do.

I am an optacon user, so I did have chances to view their writing, but did not have the ability to give immediate feedback as one would write.

Before I was married, the public school classes I taught were foreign language, and when grading papers, hired a parttime reader to mark the papers how and where I told them to mark.  So I didn’t have to directly deal with it.

Here is a question maybe good for the blind educators list.  If anyone who is blind has had to teach penmanship, how did you do it.

Thanks for educating an old mom who is just curious.

Judy

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