[Pibe-division] Learning, starting at 3 months Old

[Dr. Denise M. Robinson]

Learning, starting at 3 months Old 
I always tell people I want to get children "Coming from the Womb." 
Well, 3 months is pretty close. I did not get him earlier because the 
family did not move into my district until he was 3 months old.

We spent the first 3 years with tactile and full sensory exploration. By
 3, he was ready to begin formal braille, technology and cane skills 
instruction. From 3-5 this little guy learned his braille and technology
 and by kindergarten was ready to fully participate as any other child. 
Since he was low vision, he learned his print letters and numbers also. 
He would type to output his work and hand it in to the teacher at the 
same time as his peers.

For Braille instruction, before reading time, he would go with the 
teacher of the blind or braille certified para educator, to learn the 
new contractions he had in his reading class book coming up that day, so
 when he was with his class he could read the same material as his 
peers. This enables him to keep on grade level now and in the future.

There are many wonderful Braille instructional methods, but if you go 
this route, the child will always be behind his peers until he learns 
all the contractions according to the particular Braille instructional 
methods and manuals you are using. You will also have a frustrated child
 because he is never reading the same stories as the rest of the class. 
This will lead to resistants’ in learning the braille. All they can see 
is they are behind their peers and braille is causing this lag.

If you just teach the contractions the child is using in class in the 
books everyone else is using, he can keep up with his peers. More 
importantly, the child sees braille as a method to help him, not keep 
him behind his peers.
 
       Denise 
 
Denise M. Robinson, TVI, Ph.D. 
Teacher of the Blind & Visually Impaired
TechVision-Independent Contractor
Specialist in blind programming/teaching/training
509-674-1853     deniserob at gmail.com
 
http://blindgeteducated.blogspot.com/
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