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

[Judith Bron]

When I was in first grade I coldn't learn to read with the rest of my class. 
I was very sick in first grade.  measles, chicken pox, mumps and every cold 
germ in the world landed in my small body.  As a consequence of this, my 
mother taught me to read.  When I went to Hebrew school the same thing 
happened, but I wasn't sick that year.  Because I couldn't absorb Hebrew 
with the rest of the class, my father taught me.  No teacher, psychiatrist 
or education guru can say exactly what every child will be able to learn. 
Lori is the exception.  I'm, well, let's just say I'm me.  Two first 
graders, two different learning patterns.  Who's right?  Who's wrong?  Who 
was able to excel in school without learning disabilities?  Both of us were. 
Both of us graduated high school and then college.  We can't broad brush the 
entire population.  Judith
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <LoriStay at aol.com>
To: <stylist at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Monday, November 16, 2009 9:43 AM
Subject: Re: [stylist] New THOUGHT PROVOKER #151- The Braille Princess


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 -----
>

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