[Ohio-Talk] Article in the Sunday Times

[Wanda]

Thanks for this article.  Very interesting.
Wan

-----Original Message-----
From: Ohio-Talk [mailto:ohio-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Barbara
Pierce via Ohio-Talk
Sent: Tuesday, December 3, 2019 8:11 AM
To: NFB of Ohio Announcement and Discussion List <ohio-talk at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Barbara Pierce <barbara.pierce9366 at gmail.com>
Subject: [Ohio-Talk] Article in the Sunday Times

This is great advertising for Braille.

How to Teach A Child Braille 
By Malia Wollan 
 
'Encourage exploration with the hands,' says Jackie Anderson, who taught
blind students in Cobb County, Ga., for a decade and helped develop the
National Federation of the Blind's nationwide summer program for blind
children. Advocates point to what they call a Braille literacy crisis in
America, despite research showing that visually impaired people have better
employment and educational outcomes if they read and write Braille. To
decode Braille's little bumps, you need highly sensitized fingertips. Help
toddlers hone their tactile awareness by burying little objects like
marbles, toy cars and small figurines in a sand dish or bowl of rice. Tell
the child to find and match them. A Braille cell consists of three dots in
each of two columns that can be raised in different patterns. Anderson likes
to introduce young children to the concept using muffin tins and tennis
balls. If you can see and your child can't, you also need to learn Braille.
'Give me 30 minutes, and I can teach you to decipher the code,' says
Anderson, who was born blind and has a teenage daughter who has been blind
since birth. Let a child run his or her hands over picture books with
Braille as you read aloud. Find a way to write on paper either with an
embossing machine (expensive) or a Braille slate and stylus (cheap). Get a
Braille labeler, and label everything so that a child can move through an
indoor space and understand that these raised bumps describe and name the
textures and shapes under their hands.. Instruct children to tuck their
thumbs and use eight fingertips on a line of Braille cells. Hands move left
to right along a line. Beginners should track the same line back before
dropping both hands to the next line. 'No scrubbing allowed,' Anderson says,
describing the up-and-down scratching to decode an unrecognized cell. Teach
them to keep moving, and if needed, shift both hands back and try again.
Remember, literacy is its own kind of freedom. One of Anderson's fondest
memories is a rainy afternoon at her school for the blind in Jamaica, when
she was allowed to spend hours reading whatever she wanted in the library.
'They found me asleep,' she says, 'with a pile of books around me.

Barbara Pierce, President Emerita
National Federation of the Blind of Ohio
Barbara.pierce9366 at gmail.com
440-774-8077
 

The National Federation of the Blind knows that blindness is not the
characteristic that defines you or your future. Every day we raise
expectations for blind people because low expectations create obstacles
between blind people and their dreams. You can live the life you want;
blindness is not what holds you back.

_______________________________________________
Ohio-Talk mailing list
Ohio-Talk at nfbnet.org
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/ohio-talk_nfbnet.org
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
Ohio-Talk:
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/ohio-talk_nfbnet.org/wsloan118%40roadrunne
r.com