[blindkid] Technology and Little Kid

Thu Feb 18 22:58:48 UTC 2010

I am glad that the slate works well for your son, really I am.  And for the 
record.  I am pretty proficent with a slate.  If I got it off the shelf 
right now I could probably get you a filled three by five card at about one 
and a quarter to one and a half the time it would take your son, and I 
haven't touched the thing in over fifteen years.  I used to use it to 
braille money, but then I just started rolling it into the brailler to do 
that.  And, I used to have a spiral bound three by five card note pad, that 
was ackward to get into the brailler, but then when I found a tiny six ring 
binder for three by fives, I ditched the slate completely.  When I was in 
school, I had enough to drag around with a brailler, a talking calculator, a 
clarinet, a cello, my cd player, my textbooks, my gym clothes, my purse and 
my lunch, that I didn't need one more thing to deal with.  Did I need to 
bring a lunch?  No, I could have bought the lunch room junk.  Did I need my 
CD player?  No, but I loved my music.  I could have carried a lap top too, 
but I prioritized with my cello.  To each their own.  Now, for fun, I think 
I will go try, for some light mental excersize.  One thing you mention makes 
me think.  Early scribbling with crayons for sighted children is usually 
developmentally appropriate practice at eighteen months to 24 months, but a 
styalis is not appropriate for an eighteen month old.  Perhaps they should 
make larger slate, perhaps for jumbo braille or in some other adaptation, 
that uses a blunter styalis, so that they can try it at that early age.  I 
know a friend who adapted a sharp tracing wheel with a guard, so that her 
fifteen month old could use it and that worked well.  My eighteen month old 
loves to play with my computer keyboard and also with my brailler.  If I 
gave him a styalis though, there would be holes in my apulstery or in my son 
within five minutes, I just know.  *smiles*  If no one minds, I would like 
to ask more developed of a survey on my blind parents list.  I asked "Do any 
of you really use a slate on a daily basis?"  I will ask "How often and for 
what do you use a slate, and how inportant do you all as blind parents feel 
that it is to teach the slate?"  I guess I may have misjudged when everyone 
responded with lols and rofls and similar when I asked if they used slates. 
Also, I will make note of who answers and who does not.  I think one mom who 
is a lawyer and two moms who are teachers posted "no" responses, but I want 
to be sure that my sample is not just the unemployed, underemployed or work 
from home moms.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Carrie Gilmer" <carrie.gilmer at gmail.com>
To: "'NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List,(for parents of blind children)'" 
<blindkid at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, February 18, 2010 10:59 AM
Subject: Re: [blindkid] Technology and Little Kid


> Dear Heather,
> I strongly disagree. Just as Braille is not outdated. Even paper Braille,
> neither is the slate and stylus as is also neither the pen or pencil. I 
> know
> hundreds of blind people as well. I know many in their twenties, thirties
> and one in his teens (my son) who are absolutely proficient with it, own
> Braille Notes or other notetakers (electronic), and yet still find times 
> on
> a weekly if not daily basis to jot something down most conveniently by
> slate. My employer who is a federal investigator with a federal agency
> regularly uses it for one, for note taking and for writing questions down 
> in
> interviewing witnesses, charging parties and respondents. My son has more
> than once found himself in class with a crashed BrailleNote, or at another
> place where it was inconvenient to carry the technology and the small 
> slate
> and note cards served him well. Indeed it was the best and sometimes only
> independent option. All these people only turn to this because they have
> proficiency in it. The abysmal truth is that I would wager that those who 
> do
> not use the slate are those who are not proficient in its use. Because you
> do not have proficiency or others you know I think it troubling that such 
> a
> strong dismissal of the tool as archaic is given here. And those I might 
> add
> who "could use them in a pinch" had at one time learned to use them to 
> some
> degree of proficiency.
>
> As far as age goes, it is a myth that a four year old can not figure out 
> the
> slate. Four year old sighted children have already been given thousands of
> attempts at the fine motor skill of holding a writing tool and making 
> marks.
> Then they work at getting the marks more and more accurate. It is a bad 
> idea
> to teach it as backwards, typically any trouble is only the trouble the
> teacher might feel and is transferred.
>
> Children learn hundreds of differing things at the same time. There is no
> reason to exclude technology or low tech things at this age. It is true 
> that
> I have seen some difficulty with learning typing on the Perkins and the
> slate at the same exact time. I think it fine to scribble or play on the
> Perkins, but if it were my child I would teach the basic of slate first
> (even starting earlier than four for holding and making dots) and then add
> the Perkins, keeping up daily practice of small writings on the slate. It 
> is
> indeed very difficult and requires much dedication to get the slate "in"
> these days. WE always drift to the easier thing, Perkins if often "easier"
> at first as is keyboard or six electronic entry "easier" than the
> Perkins...so it becomes more difficult for a student or child to accept 
> the
> slate the longer you wait.
>
> I have known several blind students (including an international student 
> age
> 16 from Ukraine we hosted once) who only used the slate and never did like
> the Perkins and could write as fast with a stylus and I can with a pen. 
> You
> use what you know, what is proficient is what seems easiest.
>
> The use of a stylus also can aid in developing fine motor strength further
> for learning cursive for signatures and if time and effort is taken to 
> learn
> to write print as well.
>
> Sincerely,
> Carrie Gilmer
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: blindkid-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindkid-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
> Behalf Of Heather
> Sent: Thursday, February 18, 2010 7:05 AM
> To: NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List,(for parents of blind children)
> Subject: Re: [blindkid] Technology and Little Kid
>
> No disrespect, but you've got to be kidding me.  No blind people I know,
> children or adults, down right brilliant to mentally challenged, men or
> women use those anymore.  Many own them, and could use them in a pinch, 
> but
> honestly, no one uses them as a main means of writing or on a regular 
> basis.
>
> Some people in the fifty or older set still rely on them, because they 
> were
> not able to keep up with the changing technology, which I can understand 
> and
>
> sympathize with, but even my sixty year old blind mother laughed when I
> showed her this, or rather told her that this had come up on list.  For
> confidentiality reasons I never show any one who is not on the list, list
> emails, and never give names or any spacifics..  I could honestly say that 
> I
>
> know over two hundred to three hundred blind people, and I asked on a list
> serve for guide dog users, one for blind parents and one for blind 
> students,
>
> and the uunanomous answer was "You've got to be kidding"  I think her four
> year old would best be served to learn how to use a cell phone or home 
> phone
>
> to call his mother and to dial 911.  I think he should be learning on a
> braille note, voice recorder or how to use a victor reader or ipod touch.
> Things like that, plus basic braille and print literacy.
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Mike Freeman" <k7uij at panix.com>
> To: "NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List,(for parents of blind children)"
> <blindkid at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, February 17, 2010 10:46 PM
> Subject: Re: [blindkid] Technology and Little Kid
>
>
>>A slate and stylus!
>>
>> Mike
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>> From: "David Andrews" <dandrews at visi.com>
>> To: <blindkid at nfbnet.org>
>> Sent: Wednesday, February 17, 2010 7:01 PM
>> Subject: [blindkid] Technology and Little Kid
>>
>>
>>>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
>>>here  -- should she start using with her child?
>>>
>>> Dave
>>>
>>>
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>>
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