[stylist] Quote to ponder - taken to anotherlevel-spellingisfirst, recognition of a pattern

Anita Ogletree yrstrli at gmail.com
Sun Feb 10 01:39:37 UTC 2013


Donna, I like that.  A little hug (smiles) Anita

> ----- Original Message -----
>From: "Donna Hill" <penatwork at epix.net
>To: "'Writer's Division Mailing List'" <stylist at nfbnet.org
>Date sent: Sat, 9 Feb 2013 16:44:12 -0500
>Subject: Re: [stylist] Quote to ponder - taken to 
anotherlevel-spellingisfirst, recognition of a pattern

>I like the shape of the y, which as you know also means 'you.  It 
feels like
>a little hug.
>Donna

>-----Original Message-----
>From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of 
Lynda Lambert
>Sent: Saturday, February 09, 2013 4:20 PM
>To: Writer's Division Mailing List
>Subject: Re: [stylist] Quote to ponder - taken to another
>level-spellingisfirst, recognition of a pattern

>I think this has been an interesting discussion and I am learning 
so much
>through it.  When I was learning Braille I was envisioning the 
shapes that
>the dots form.  I found that there were some shapes there that I 
really
>enjoyed a lot and others I did not like at all.  For some wild 
reason I do
>not know, I was very partial to the "i" because of the upward 
movement - it
>was dynamic to me.  I felt like I could fly right off that page 
every time I
>felt the "i."   I know that is so crazy.
>Lynda





>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Donna Hill" <penatwork at epix.net
>To: "'Writer's Division Mailing List'" <stylist at nfbnet.org
>Sent: Saturday, February 09, 2013 3:52 PM
>Subject: Re: [stylist] Quote to ponder - taken to another level
>-spellingisfirst, recognition of a pattern


>> Robert,
>> First, it looks like there was something at the end of this 
message
>> that got cut off.

>> The other thing I was thinking about was about whether a 
totally,
>> congenitally blind person can visualize.  I believe they can.  
It may be
>> a matter of semantics, but there is also something which I think 
is
>> called spacial awareness.  It has to do with understanding, for
>> instance, shapes, how far away the table is or what it's 
proportions
>> are and where a cup was placed.  My understanding has always 
been that
>> in general men are better at this than women -- or should I say 
they
>> gravitate to it more readily and pick it up at an earlier age.  
The
>> theory used to be that this was because men were the hunters and 
women
>> the gatherers.  The thing I was thinking about with regard to 
blindness
>> is how this spacial awareness works with regard to both travel 
and
>> reading.  After all, those Braille dots are in patterns governed 
by
>> specific proportions.  A sighted person might look at a Braille 
letter
>> and see a design or pattern, but when a blind person feels the 
same
>> letter, they understand the same design, minus colors, perhaps, 
but in
>> terms of distance and placement of the dots, shape and depth, it
>> amounts to the same thing.  I think this is all related to the 
visual
>> cortex, which has other uses than strictly visual in both blind 
and
>> sighted people.  It would be interesting to learn what life 
without a
>> visual cortex would be like -- no, I'm not volunteering to have 
mine
>> removed, thank you very much.
>> Donna
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of 
Robert
>> Leslie Newman
>> Sent: Saturday, February 09, 2013 1:13 PM
>> To: 'Writer's Division Mailing List'
>> Subject: Re: [stylist] Quote to ponder - taken to another level
>> -spelling isfirst, recognition of a pattern

>> Hi you all, good discussion going here:

>> My take on spelling, or in the larger sense the ability to 
"read"
>> itself is not a question of vision, or touch or hearing --- but 
is a
>> question that begins with the human ability to recognize and 
decipher
>> patterns.  And I'm starting at this super basic point, and from 
that
>> we can plug in our questions of "is spelling and/or reading a 
visual
>> or tactile  or auditory reliant skill?" Or, "can someone who has 
been
>> blind all their life 'visualize,' in order to do things?"

>> Well, I think we know that  " people do learn to read and spell 
using
>> vision (interpreting visual markings which consist of a known
>> alphabet).  And we know that people also learn to read and spell 
via
>> touch, by the use of Braille (another system of set patterns
>> consisting of raised dots that represent the same stuff the 
visual
>> world is working with).  Also, we all know that most anyone who 
can
>> hear, is able to read via recordings.

>> Finally, we all know that some of us have a preferred mode of
>> learning, that tends to favor our dominant sensory modality like 
-- A
>> person might say, "I am a visual learner." Or, "I learn best if 
it is
>> hands-on?" Or, "Reading it in Braille is what makes it stick for 
me."
>> Or, etc.

>> And so what is my point? Well --- that we humans are intelligent 
and
>> adaptive.  That we all have more than one sensory modality that 
we can
>> use to read and know if a word is spelled correctly.  Also that 
we all
>> tend to favor one sensory modality over the others.  And yes, 
some of
>> us are "visual"
>> learners, where some are hands-on, and some are auditory.
>> Additionally, our proficiency with any of these sensory 
modalities,
>> our ability to read and spell is greatly impacted by how we have
>> worked with and trained to use our chosen mode of operating with 
that
>> favored sense.  Bottom-line, any and all of these sensory 
pathways will
>> work; hopefully as we go through life, we have the opportunity 
to make
>> use of our favorite sensory modality for all the tasks we find
>> necessary to perform.  And if we have to give up our favorite, 
either
>> in part or in its entirety, then that we have the opportunity to 
learn
>> how to make use of the next best pathway to reading and/or being 
able
>> to continue on with our lives.  (What is being said between the 
line is
>> - one group does not have it over the others! Second, there is 
much
>> ignorance and with the consequence, there is too much 
discrimination
>> that happens with all this going on.)

>> (This past Saturday, I attended a meeting of the Nebraska 
Commission
>> Board, and there was a testimony by a first year college student 
who
>> started out reading braille in elementary school; in later 
elementary
>> classes, got a new "Vision Teacher" and was switched to 
magnifying
>> glasses that allowed her to read 20 words per minute [with much 
eye
>> strain and headaches]; in high school she got a different 
"Vision
>> Teacher" and was switched back to braille and now she reads at 
485
>> words per minute.) And yea,  then was  , using


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