[stylist] New THOUGHT PROVOKER #151- The Braille Princess

[LoriStay at aol.com]

A child in kindergarten learns things globally, that is, without making 
judgments as to what is print, what is braille, what is math, etc.   Everything 
enters and is imprinted on his/her brain.   Adults might get overwhelmed, 
but a child simply absorbs.   Now whether they can absorb everything, who 
knows?   But they do get the foundation for later learning.   Once the 
foundation is built, all else rests on it, and it is for sure that a sighted child 
will focus on print, and that a blind or dyslexic child will focus on 
Braille.   (Some dyslexic children absorb Braille quicker than print)

So, overwhelming?   Maybe not.   A child learns what he learns.   We would 
do well not to underestimate children.   As a five year old, I absorbed both 
English and Hebrew, learning Hebrew quickly because I had somehow managed 
to teach myself print reading in English as a three year old.   No one taught 
me.   It was just all around me, and I figured it out.   I built the Hebrew 
reading based on what I knew of English print, associating sounds with 
letters.   My grandkids are the same way.   So if someone had taught me Braille 
then, I'd have done that too.   It's only our adult brains that are set in a 
mold.
Lori

In a message dated 11/16/09 9:33:11 AM, jbron at optonline.net writes:


> Aziza, Perhaps once the class masters reading hard copy, they can be
> introduced to Braille, but what I know is that a first grade child is
> overwhelmed with all the new material he or she is being introduced to.  
> If
> a child in the first grade class speaks Japanese, does this mean the 
> entire
> class should learn that language?  Judith
> ----- Original Message -----
>