[NFBWATlk] Looking for some Input on Teaching Braille to a Low Vision Student

Fri Feb 16 03:49:27 UTC 2024

Dear Humberto,

I am just starting on this thread, so may have missed some of what other people have said, so please forgive any repetition.

In Canada all students are expected to study the other official language beginning in Grade 4.  English students study French; French students study English.  The classes are completely separate from the rest of the learning day.  Students are taught grammar and vocabulary with a tiny bit of conversation.  The result is students who can parse a sentence but can't speak one.  After nine years of language study, most students have only a rudimentary mastery of the other official language.

The notable exceptions are students who find a way to immerse themselves.  Some go to summer camps in the alternate language.  A lucky few do an exchange with a student in Quebec if they're English or one of the other provinces if they're French.  

I'm afraid new Braille students are facing the same issue.  They learn Braille as if it were a separate subject.  It isn't.  It's an alternate script for reading.  How quickly can you get your student doing something that matters using Braille.  Instead of Braille lessons, how about writing a favorite recipe or a time line for history class?  What about actually reading a book?  I know Braille teachers want to avoid introducing reading material until the student knows the contractions it contains.  That means books designed for Braille learners can be weird and uninteresting.  If you haven't introduced the dot 5 contractions, you can't include "mother" "father" "part" or "some."

Teaching methods were different when I started school.  We used the same beginning readers as the sighted students.  Our Braille teacher gave us flash cards with all the words in each story.  The cards contained Grade One and contracted Braille.  We learned how the word was spelled and how to write it correctly in contracted Braille.  That meant contractions were introduced higglety-pigglety, but we didn't have any trouble with doing it that way.  The good part was that we were reading along with our sighted classmates very quickly.  We didn't think of what we were doing as Braille class, though we were learning Braille.  We thought of it as reading class.

For a student who already knows how to read and is changing from print to Braille, the methods are simpler, and harder.  I recommend the same flash card system, but choose short books your student would have enjoyed reading had he or she remained sighted.  What are that student's hobbies?  Is there a favorite sport?  What about a celebrity or favorite musician?  If there are no short books, transcribe a magazine article.  Worry less about the order contractions are introduced and more about making the process of learning to read using a different system interesting.

Facing vision loss can be incredibly daunting, especially for an adolescent.  Adolescence is daunting enough without introducing major new characteristics!  Introducing your student to competent blind people, in the pages of inspirational books or on uplifting videos is terrific!  If you know blind youth farther along the road of self discovery, making introductions can be life altering.  If your student realizes emotionally that he or she can be good, really good, at something, that's the beginning of the road to true acceptance and confidence

Judging by the thought you've already put into this, my guess is that your student will look back on your teaching as the turning point in his or her life.  So good that you're there to be the needed role model.

Mary Ellen.

-----Original Message-----
From: NFBWATlk <nfbwatlk-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of achristensen1991--- via NFBWATlk
Sent: Thursday, February 15, 2024 5:45 PM
To: NFB of Washington Talk Mailing List <nfbwatlk at nfbnet.org>
Ccs: achristensen1991 at gmail.com
Subject: Re: [NFBWATlk] Looking for some Input on Teaching Braille to a Low Vision Student

Hey all, this is a great thread, and a topic I often see in my own work as a teacher of visually impaired. I just want to remind folks to keep identifying information at a bare minimum. The blindness community is small, so just a reminder to keep things vague if we’re talking about specific People, etc. 

Thanks,
Angie
Sent from my iPhone

> On Feb 15, 2024, at 3:27 PM, Becky Frankeberger via NFBWATlk <nfbwatlk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> It is on youtube. There are a lot of examples of people playing this game:
> walking out in the middle of a busy street, falling over objects. The 
> one I saw was the one I mentioned about a person walking in the mall 
> and splash in the fountain.
> 
> Becky
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: NFBWATlk <nfbwatlk-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Humberto 
> Avila via NFBWATlk
> Sent: Thursday, February 15, 2024 2:03 PM
> To: Becky Frankeberger via NFBWATlk <nfbwatlk at nfbnet.org>
> Cc: Humberto Avila <humberto_avila.it104 at outlook.com>
> Subject: Re: [NFBWATlk] Looking for some Input on Teaching Braille to 
> a Low Vision Student
> 
> Becky,
> 
> 
> Where can I find this video you mentioned? It sounds like a great 
> example that maybe me or our O&M instructor that she works with can show to her!
> 
> 
>> On 2/15/2024 1:51 PM, Becky Frankeberger via NFBWATlk wrote:
>> The video of the person playing Pokemon walking in a mall and falling 
>> in a fountain. Now this is a fully sighted person, but distracted and 
>> not seeing the low wall of the fountain. If that can happen to 
>> someone fully sighted? I would say using a long white cane would be 
>> way less
> embarrassing.
>> 
>> Becky
>> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: NFBWATlk <nfbwatlk-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Humberto 
>> Avila via NFBWATlk
>> Sent: Thursday, February 15, 2024 1:32 PM
>> To: Corey Grandstaff via NFBWATlk <nfbwatlk at nfbnet.org>
>> Cc: Humberto Avila <humberto_avila.it104 at outlook.com>; Mike Jolls via 
>> NFB-Braille-Discussion <nfb-braille-discussion at nfbnet.org>
>> Subject: [NFBWATlk] Looking for some Input on Teaching Braille to a 
>> Low Vision Student
>> 
>> 
>>     Hello All,
>> 
>> 
>> I hope all is well for you. Happy Thursday.
>> 
>> 
>> I am reaching out to see if anyone can offer some input and assistance.
>> 
>> 
>> I am recently teaching a student in my local school where I work at.
>> She is learning uncontradicted Braille. In fact, she has mastered the 
>> whole uncontradicted Braille and we're moving on to contracted. She 
>> has low vision and is very new to blindness and vision loss.
>> 
>> She does enjoy learning about the Braille code, however, more 
>> recently, she has been becoming more and more resistant to learning. 
>> I work closely with another TVI and we've determined that this 
>> resistance may be stemming from her struggles with losing her vision, 
>> which is quite apparent when she says things like not wanting to 
>> learn to navigate with a cane or other blindness skills because she 
>> thinks she will not use them ever. I knew she was struggling, but I 
>> also know she really likes her class period where she is with me 
>> learning Braille. She in particularly likes Braille art, and I have 
>> tried to incorporate this type of art / concept as much as possible 
>> in my lessons. She also likes watching motivational videos about 
>> successful
> blind people.
>> 
>> It is more recently that she has begun doubting the skills that we 
>> have bee teaching her, and going out of her way to boldly and 
>> unapologetically say so. We have tried referring her to a counselor 
>> or therapy, but the student's belief system does not encourage her to 
>> go that rout. I, as a successful Blind person myself, have tried 
>> countless and numerous times to model the high expectation for her, 
>> with my use of my Braille display, and embossing the Braille lesson 
>> to read along with her, as well as traveling through the school 
>> proudly with
> my white cane.
>> I even labeled the classroom number(s) and stuck the labels on 
>> classroom doors, because the school I currently work at was built 
>> pre-ADA and sadly, has no Braille.
>> 
>> It is her recent struggles with mounting resisting to learn the 
>> alternative skills of blindness and the Braille that perplexes me and 
>> I am new to this, perhaps due to the lack of relativity with me being 
>> legally blind since birth and never experiencing sightedness, and her 
>> being fully sighted for the 14 bright years of her life and losing 
>> her vision. And, while she does enjoy inspiration videos of all 
>> sorts, I can not simply just flash out and shove NFB philosophy and 
>> blind culture in general without overwhelming her even more.
>> 
>> 
>> I am therefore looking for suggestions. In what ways can I ground her 
>> interests and create expectations without making her say she utterly 
>> dislikes Braille? What other strategies have proved useful to you, 
>> specifically for those who are either totally blind or legally blind 
>> since birth, and encountering this situation? How can I further 
>> relate to and understand her perspective of this person losing their 
>> vision and struggling in this way, while I have not had such an 
>> experience as a blind person? I'm not sure if i"m making sense here. 
>> But, anyways, your input is valuable and immeasurably appreciated. I 
>> think my student has a lot going for her and a lot she still has to 
>> live through. And I need to be able to supplant her with the seeds 
>> she needs to be a blind person because even though it sounds kind of 
>> hard and sad, this will now be her new life. So any way that I can 
>> say these things without really saying them in a realist, tough, or 
>> in a more
> positive and optimistic fashion will be appreciated as well.
>> 
>> 
>> Thank you! Have a blessed day!
>> 
>> - Humberto
>> 
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