[blindkid] Technology and Little Kid

Richard Holloway rholloway at gopbc.org
Thu Feb 18 05:42:50 UTC 2010


Certainly the slate and stylus (as someone else mentioned) is not a  
bad idea, but a child in this age range is probably not going to have  
the fine motor control to master the tool's use easily or likely be  
ready for the whole mirror image concept.

A child of nearly any age can begin using a Perkins Braillewriter-- I  
know we were using one by at least age three. At the very least a  
braille novice can "scribble" on a braillewriter, just like my sighted  
almost-4-year-old scribbles on paper with a crayon all the time.  
Braillewriting skill with a young child emerges at least somewhat like  
writing emerges with a sighted child-- not all letters at once and at  
first, just like penmanship is typically pretty poor-- this after the  
child has first just pressed the keys at random-- indeed "scribbling"  
just like sighted kids. Getting the feel of the tools to use is an  
important first step. It is hard for small hands to properly press and  
form braille mechanically with a Perkins, but you are building hand  
and finger strength and forming braille concepts all along the way.  
Many schools can provide a second braillewriter for the student to use  
at home for free once the child is in school.

I think that often the way to go is to immerse the child within all  
the options that can be gotten as the child appears ready to take to  
them-- at least that was our theory when our daughter was born, and in  
fact, it continues to be the same way to this day, then we focus on  
what she seems ready to take to-- she'll ultimately use most all of  
these things. There is also an entire range of tactile graphics  
solutions and manipulatives. You can produce these with pipe cleaners,  
and a bottle of glue, or you can use a multi-thousand dollar  
thermoform; quite a range of options exists.

Now at age 7, Kendra uses a BrailleNote and PAC Mate daily but still  
uses a Perkins often, as well as an abacus for her math, JAWS on her  
computer and so forth. She also works well with refreshable braille  
and that can be a really handy option. The next big challenge I see  
for her is needing to learn a qwerty keyboard, so there can be a lot  
of technology in use by an early age.

It is also really important to expose the child to braille as much as  
possible. A sighted child sees print everywhere. Make certain this  
child runs across braille often. Now in first grade and a proficient  
braille reader, our first grade daughter still runs across the braille  
stickers on things all over the house-- refrigerator, dishwasher,  
table, drawer, oven, door, bed-- you name it. This will cause the  
child to ask questions-- just like a sighted child-- "what is this"  
and later "what do these letters say?-- what do they mean?" Also, use  
twin vision books-- sighted kids look at letters while parents read  
most every time. Blind kids can do the same-- that's why it is best  
when adding braille to a print book to always put the braille below  
the print-- a sighted reader can still read while small hands are  
exploring the braille.

Screen readers can be used at that age as well as a victor reader.  
Things like Mt Battens are expensive but potentially useful, but be  
careful that an electronic (and expensive) solution like a Mt. Batten  
or a PAC Mate is not learned at the expense of being able to use a  
mechanical braillewriter as that need will almost certainly come up  
all of this child's life, at least from time to time.

I'd like to rework this link, and our site is about to get a facelift  
overall too but here are some technology ideas that you might direct  
her towards. Let her see a range of options and then she can decide  
which way she wants to proceed.

http://www.gopbc.org/gopbc_technology.htm


Richard




On Feb 17, 2010, at 10:01 PM, David Andrews wrote:

> I got asked a question, the other day, and since most of my  
> experience is with blind adults -- I didn't know quite what to say.   
> A woman said she had a four year old totally blind daughter, and she  
> wanted her to keep up with her peers in technology, so what  
> assistive technology/technology is there  -- should she start using  
> with her child?
>
> Dave
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> blindkid mailing list
> blindkid at nfbnet.org
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindkid_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info  
> for blindkid:
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindkid_nfbnet.org/rholloway%40gopbc.org





More information about the BlindKid mailing list