[nobe-l] question about teaching writing

[Kelsey Nicolay]

Hello,
I am a registered tutor on Wyzant.com. I received an inquiry from a mom who
is looking for an elementary tutor for her daughter who is going into
kindergarten next year. She stated that her daughter needs help with
phonics, letter recognition, handwriting, etc. I can teach phonics and
letter recognition without much of any adaptation since I can purchase flash
cards with the print letters for the student and then braille them for me so
I can tell if she is getting the letters right or not. I can also find
phonics books in Braille and provide information for the family to purchase
the books or braille the books myself. However, I am not sure how I could
help with handwriting. I am totally blind, so I learned Braille from the
beginning and never learned print. Therefore, is there any reliable way a
totally blind person can teach a sighted student to print letters without
sighted assistance? What adaptations would I need in order to help the
student with this skill? I've tutored test preparation with a high school
student before and never had a problem since the student had his own laptop
he brought with him to sessions. However, I have never had to tutor a
sighted pre kindergarten student before, so I would appreciate any advice on
this.
Thank you,
Kelsey Nicolay