[Ohio-Talk] Pleas Read this inspiring post about the winner of the Jennifer Baker Award!

[Andra Stover]

Way to go!

On Sun, Nov 22, 2020 at 8:08 PM Suzanne Turner via Ohio-Talk <
ohio-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:

> Ohio,
>
>
>
> I thought I would share this post that I read. It is so inspiring and shows
> self-determination!
>
>
>
> Suzanne
>
> ///
>
>
>
>
>
> Melissa Lehman Riccobono is feeling proud with Nfb Maryland
> <https://m.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100004074219306&__tn__=C-R>  and
> Mark
> A. Riccobono <https://m.facebook.com/mark.a.riccobono?__tn__=C-R> .
>
> November 9 at 9:37 PM
> <
> https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=3919647634720266&id=10000025204
> 2342&__tn__=-R
> <https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=3919647634720266&id=100000252042342&__tn__=-R>>
> .
>
> This past Saturday, Oriana received the Jennifer Baker Award from the
> National Federation of the Blind of Maryland. We are very proud of her for
> this accomplishment. Below is the text of the speech given to introduce
> Oriana, which gives the background as to why she is the award recipient
> this
> year. I have also included a video of Oriana reading the speech she gave to
> thank the NFBMD for this award. Take a break from politics and enjoy! The
> Jennifer Baker award is given by the National Federation of the Blind of
> Maryland each year to a person who has overcome obstacles and yet become a
> braille reader. This award is given in honor of Jennifer Baker, who, in her
> short life, despite having a variety of disabilities which many people
> thought would prevent her from learning to read braille, became an
> excellent
> braille reader and enjoyed brailling books for children.
>
> The recipient of this year's Jennifer Baker Award is Oriana Riccobono.
>
> Oriana's journey to becoming a braille reader has been a complicated one.
> Despite having two blind parents who understand the necessity of braille,
> and have advocated for her to learn braille from the time she began school
> at age four, Oriana's braille instruction has been somewhat spotty. Like
> many blind children, Oriana has some useable vision. Because of this, she
> is
> classified as a "dual media reader"-both print and braille. On the surface,
> this seems like a fine approach. A dual media reader can learn print and
> use
> it when it is efficient, and also learn braille in order to use it when it
> is most efficient. Unfortunately, what often happens when a child is
> classified as a dual media reader is print is focused on most of the time
> during the school day, and braille is only focused on during the time the
> teacher of blind students works with the dual media reader. Despite many
> meetings, suggestions about how to incorporate braille into the classroom,
> and how to work on both braille reading and writing, Oriana received very
> little quality braille instruction which correlated directly to skills her
> classmates were learning in the classroom. Also, for some reason, much of
> her braille instruction was given outside the classroom during reading time
> in pre-k and kindergarten. This meant although Oriana was practicing
> letters
> in braille, and writing words in braille, she was missing out on important
> strategies in order to build a strong foundation in reading.
>
> By first grade it was clear Oriana was extremely behind in her ability to
> read both print and braille. Even with a fantastic first grade classroom
> teacher, and nightly practice at home, (practice which was agonizingly slow
> and sometimes ended in tears) Oriana ended first grade four reading levels
> below where she should have been when entering second grade. She continued
> to struggle in second grade, but was slowly beginning to make progress. She
> ended second grade only one level below where she should have been, which
> was a fantastic gain in one year.
>
> Third grade started out reasonably well, but in March of her third grade
> year, Oriana received a head and neck injury while playing a tug-of-war
> game
> on the playground with her class. She accidentally let go of the rope and
> fell backward, hitting her head and neck against a brick wall. This
> resulted
> in extreme pain, dizziness, fatigue, and sensitivity to light and sound for
> the next 10 months.
>
> Oriana finally healed, but it took several doctors, a hospitalization,
> acupuncture, nerve blocks, and a chiropractor before the pain was finally
> under control. Because of this medical ordeal, Oriana missed much of the
> last quarter of her third grade year, and was on Home and Hospital for the
> first two quarters of her fourth grade year. She was just beginning to go
> to
> school part time when the pandemic hit, and all school was moved online.
>
> During her time at home due to her injury, Oriana received very little
> braille materials, and no braille instruction. Then, when school moved
> online, she received no braille materials, although she did have some
> braille instruction virtually. Since Oriana was finally in a place where
> she
> was ready to learn everyday-her pain was much less-her parents and a family
> friend decided it was high time to begin practicing braille in earnest in
> order to make up for lost time.
>
> Oriana has read braille for at least 30 minutes a day for the past several
> months. Before this time, Oriana had never finished a chapter book in
> braille. She has now finished five of the books in the Meet Samantha
> American Girl series, and may be done with the sixth book by the time of
> this presentation. She has been motivated by the Library for the Blind and
> Print Disabled Summer Reading Program, where she won prizes for reading, a
> family friend, Karen, promising to take her to dinner if she read all but
> three days over the summer, and a trip to the American Girl Store with
> Karen
> when she finishes the final Samantha American Girl book. (She also earned a
> Samantha American Girl doll by finishing the first book in the series.)
> Oriana is also motivated because she is enjoying the stories she is
> reading,
> and she is noticing that she is able to read faster and more fluently the
> more she practices her reading. She also enjoys reading weekly with her
> Aunt, Jennifer, her grandma, and she has even had the opportunity to read
> with our National Rep, Miss Pam, who is without a doubt one of her very
> favorite people!
>
> Oriana has recently entered the Braille Readers are Leaders contest and
> looks forward to seeing how many braille pages she can read between
> December
> 1 and January 18. She's hoping to win some cool prizes!
>
> Although Oriana's parents are still fighting ridiculously hard to insure
> she
> has hard copy and electronic braille materials daily in school, and access
> to the training she needs to gain the skills to work with JAWS and her
> braille display to read and complete school assignments, neither of these
> things are happening regularly yet. Despite this, Oriana is still making
> progress in braille everyday. She is using braille in order to read and
> complete math assignments, something she has never done before. Oriana
> realizes her vision is not the best way for her to get all of her
> information. She realizes there are some things which are hard to see on
> her
> computer screen, that her eyes get tired when she has to read print for too
> long, and that braille is the one thing which she can always feel and never
> makes her eyes tired. Despite all of the obstacles Oriana has faced, she is
> succeeding in braille, and this success will only lead to more successes
> for
> Oriana in her future.
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> 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/astover%40kent.edu
>