[blindkid] What are your thoughts on coloring?

[Penny Duffy]

ahh the smell and taste of crayons. I can still remember what they taste
like and I am pretty sure Its been many years since I had a taste. I hope
its been a long time.


Richard I love hearing about Kendra and the Cape.
--Penny

On Sat, Oct 1, 2011 at 1:08 AM, Richard Holloway <rholloway at gopbc.org>wrote:

> Heather,
>
> I hope you don't mind if I weigh in on something you were directing towards
> Carol.
>
> Your point is well taken, but I think there is at least a little
> (underscore "little") merit in letting blind children, particularly
> interested younger blind children, color a bit, if simply to do what the
> other kids are doing. I also think that's pretty much the only reason to
> have a completely blind student coloring with crayons in class. (I'm not too
> convinced as far as the finger strength claims.) Let's not deny blind kids
> the experience of feeling the sticky feel of crayon wax or knowing that
> "crayon smell" up close, for example. Some kids even learn the taste, but
> I'm not encouraging that "common experience"! I do still remember that
> sticky sound they make when they are lifted from the page, and that takes me
> straight back to my grade school, if not pre-school days. It isn't so much
> doing the same exact activity, it is sharing the same common experience, at
> least as much as possible.
>
> My concern here is, to borrow the example of the profoundly deaf child,
> that this could be like telling a profoundly deaf child she MUST NOT go and
> sit with friends for a violin demonstration in a music appreciation class.
> There are socially appropriate reasons to offer these opportunities, and in
> that case, some visual learning that would sneak in to at least slightly
> offset the lost auditory learning opportunity.
>
> With that said, why not use raised glue lines or perhaps screen wire to
> make this more interesting and yet be a sharing opportunity for the same
> general (crayon) experience, or better still (it seems to me) after the
> child has experienced the crayon drawing a bit, why not offer a related, but
> more tactile activity that is similar to what the other kids are doing in
> the same place at the same time? This is the point where the poor planning
> really comes in from a teaching standpoint-- now being the time to start
> crafting the same cow the other kids are crayon-coloring out of play-doh,
> for example.
>
> Ideally (though it rarely seems to happen) some teachers even think to
> replace at least some highly visual activities for the WHOLE CLASS (like
> coloring with crayons) with other things at times which are more tactile.
> (Pipe cleaners, cotton balls, gluing pasta or sequins or beads, play-doh,
> clay, etc.) Some also give ALL the kids a couple of choices and make certain
> that at least one is non-visually focused. We have in fact sometimes found
> that the sighted kids think it is "not fair" that they cannot do the "cool
> things" Kendra gets to do. (A whole different discussion, but remember these
> are just kids...) So when feasible, why can't they? Let the sighted kids use
> clay instead of coloring. In fact, let the sighted kids use braillers too.
> Several of Kendra's sighted friends have learned a bit of basic braille
> during school, for example.
>
> Let me offer another real-world story: Not log ago on a group family
> camping weekend, all the kids were decorating capes (there was a "superhero"
> theme). Kids each got a plain white plastic cape and there were markers to
> draw on them. Kendra has no light perception, but she knew what the other
> kids were doing so she asked for markers and even specified her marker
> colors. She then scribbled a fairly random but even distribution of various
> colors all over the cape. She was quite pleased with her cape and wore it
> proudly for the rest of the weekend. I would not dream of taking that
> opportunity from her. I realize you are not suggesting I should. I just want
> to be cautious before we start offering a "thou shalt not" approach for
> these sorts of things. Other things can get lost in the process of
> preventing "wasted time" on seemingly inappropriate activities.
>
> Kendra has a favorite color, though she doesn't even know what a color
> really is. Her friends have favorites, so she does too. She wants to know
> people's eye color, hair color, clothing color-- you name it. She enjoys
> (conventional) letter shapes and knowing what at least some letters feel
> like. She doesn't  need to know print for most things she does, but she runs
> into A-frames, I-beams, D-rings, L-brackets, U-turns J-bolts V-belts,
> Y-splits. C-clamps, P-traps and S-curves just like we all do. We used to
> tell her not to "W-sit" when she was young and to this day, I doubt she has
> made the connection with a print letter. She hears that "X" marks the spot
> in drawings and maps, and she wants to know what the "K" in Kendra "looks"
> like to her sighted friends when it is on her shirt, for example. Only
> recently did she learn why an "O" and a zero ("0") are so easily confused
> for print readers. After all, for braille readers, a zero gets confused with
> a "J" but has nothing to do with an "O". Same thing with a lower-case print
> "L" and a one ("1"). If we shield her entirely from print learning because
> it may seem inappropriate, none of those things will make sense to her. It
> is, in a way, a similar problem as faced by non-braille reading teachers
> have when they fail to grasp D/F and H/J or other braille reversals or to
> get that a simple finger slip can quickly turn a "q" into a "p" or "r".
>
> As to finger strength, you know what I think is a great tool to help build
> finger strength for brailling? A brailler. (Why not try one instead of
> crayons?) If the student is not a braille user yet, have the child
> "scribble" on a brailler. Likewise with a slate and stylus. Many of our kids
> have done it. Surely Kendra did. Working with Play-Doh or Clay also builds
> strength, and there are various little devices for that as well as
> specialized putty (whatever they call it) for various sorts of therapy.
> ("Theraputty", is it?) It comes in different formulas. Some are softer,
> others more firm. Crayon-drawing as a routine approach for building blind
> kids finger strength is surely not the most practical or advisable approach,
> and using it all the time for a blind child surely is inappropriate.
>
> With all of this said, do I think that TVI's needs to spend time working
> with crayons or even clay? Well, not unless these TVI's have way too much
> time assigned per student. Far more than simply needed to complete much more
> appropriate braille-related lessons. Maybe the classroom teachers or a
> para-pros might work on this but it doesn't sound like the ideal path to
> learning braille as far as I am concerned.
>
> Surely you are right that there is too much incompetence and ill
> preparedness that many of our kids deal with. I just don't want us to react
> so strongly to it that we deprive our kids certain basic experiences when we
> respond to the incompetence. That's how it all strikes me-- your mileage may
> vary.
>
> Richard
>
>
> On Sep 30, 2011, at 7:02 PM, Heather Field wrote:
>
> > Hi Carol,
> > As, in the circumstances described in these posts by mothers whose
> children have no usable vision, I can think of absolutely no useful purpose
> to be served by colorin. Even coloring within raised lines has very small
> value, except for older children who have attained hand strength,
> co-ordination and abstract reasoning ability, and are working on some kind
> of diagraming/graphinc or tactile art project.
> >
> > I liken this to insisting that profoundly deaf 5-year-olds attend violin
> music appreciation classes. While your point on how much wasted time is too
> much, is well taken, I don't believe this is the issue in this case. The
> blind children are being compelled to take part in an activity under false
> pretenses. It does not develop hand strength, co-ordination or fine motor
> skills for what the blind child needs. When pursued in individual
> circumstances with TVIs and blind children with no usable vision, I have
> found in 100% of cases that the activity is chosen out of teacher
> incompetence or ill preparedness.
> > I would be interested to hear your thoughts on how coloring benefits
> blind children.
> > Regards,
> > Heather Field
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message----- From: Carol Castellano
> > Sent: Friday, September 30, 2011 1:56 PM
> > To: NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List,(for parents of blind children)
> > Subject: Re: [blindkid] What are your thoughts on coloring?
> >
> > I have a feeling there could be some middle ground on this issue.
> >
> > Some coloring may be a useful experience for some blind children.  I
> > don't think coloring itself is the real issue--the real issue is the
> > idea of wasting a child's time when he/she could be doing more useful
> > things.  I think the fact is that in any classroom on any given day,
> > part of the time of some child--not just a blind child--might be
> > being wasted.  Is it okay to waste some of a child's time?  How much
> > would be acceptable? Parents of many kinds of children--not just
> > blind children--grapple with this issue.  Teachers do, too.  If
> > parents/the team determines that the coloring is taking up too large
> > an amount of time and is really wasting all of that time, then it
> > should be stopped.  But if it's determined that the coloring serves
> > some purpose and isn't taking up an inordinate amount of time, then
> > it could be continued.  The answer would vary, depending on the child
> > and the circumstances.
> >
> > If we take the idea of not wasting a child's time to its logical
> > extreme, we find some difficulties.  In a classroom setting, we can't
> > realistically eliminate any and all activities that might be wasting
> > the time of any individual child.  Since classrooms contain a mix of
> > children with a mix of abilities and interests, there will be times
> > when the subject or activity is not completely appropriate for a
> > particular child's abilities and needs.  My own feeling is that this
> > can help a child to learn self discipline and self control :-),
> > attributes that can help them in their later academic work and
> > career.  It's a matter of degree.
> >
> > Carol
> >
> > At 11:28 AM 9/30/2011, you wrote:
> >> Hi,
> >> I am a TVI and blind myself. It is my experience that most TVI's aren't
> really very well trained in the area of early childhood. Thus, they find it
> difficult to come up with activities that really do develop fine motor
> skills for blind children. Further, many of them don't actually know the
> alternative, nonvisual methods that blind children will actually use to
> perform fine motor tasks, such as buttoning, snapping, zipping, tying,
> identifying coins, pouring, measuring etc. so they don't know the precursors
> to those skills. Also, as many of them are itinerant and must travel between
> schools, it is quite a challenge to organise and carry all kinds of hands-on
> activities/equipment for young blind children, replacing it often. So, it's
> not easy to do it well under the usual circumstances of the
> included/mainstreamed, young blind child needing fine motor skill
> development. It is much easier at the end of a tiring day when the children
> are doing art to simply justify the blind child's coloring with nonsense
> about fine motor skills and inclusion.
> >>
> >> In my opinion, this nonsense about coloring is simply a result of
> teachers not knowing appropriate alternative activities. Holding a pencil is
> a very specific fine motor skill that benefits writing for sighted writers.
> I have seen no evidence that it develops the kind of finger eexterity and
> sensitivity, or strength for that matter, that TVIs claim it does for blind
> children. It makes my blood absolutely boil when I hear of children's time
> being wasted on such rubbish. This is a skill that they will never use for
> anything. Yes, I've heard the old "strengthening for the slate for the slate
> and stylus and the braille writer", but I'm a blind adult and I never had my
> time wasted with coloring and I use my stylus and slate just fine. Also, the
> braille writer has three keys for each hand to push. If this rediculous
> coloring is supposed to be so important for developing hand strength,
> shouldn't the children be using a crayon or pencil in both hands? How does
> it mystically develop strength in the hand not used to hold the marker? This
> is clearly nonsense. Furthermore, Creative expression is supposed to be part
> of art and, unless children are specifically Coloring as part of an activity
> such as a math worksheet - "color the six dogs blue" - all the sighted
> children are expressing themselves creatively. I cannot agree with denying
> blind children this creative expression. When do they get to decide how
> their art will look?
> >>
> >> As for using coloring to justify inclusion this is perhaps the silliest
> reason of all. The blind child clearly cannot color and all his classmates
> see his incompetence. worse, they see that, unlike all of them who improve
> during the year, even with the help of an aide or teacher the blind child
> continues to be a pitifully bad colorer. How can this be seen as a positive
> factor in the inclusion of a blind child. Does anyone imagine for a moment
> that the blind child doesn't know that he can't color and that his coloring
> is worse than the other children? Why is it that TVIs will force children to
> color, telling them that they must learn to do what they don't like, but
> will not push them in areas of independence, such as being organised or
> travelling quickly down the hallway, even if they don't like doing so? these
> inconsistencies expose this coloring issue for the travesty is really is.
> >>
> >> there are so many things that young blind children should be learning.
> Threading, cutting, modelling, ripping, screwing - bolts & nuts, jar
> lids/containers - paper folding and twisting, a million and one
> manipulative/construction toys designed to strengthen small muscles. This
> coloring is just an excuse for lack of teacher versatility and
> imaginativeness.
> >>
> >> I have actually attended IEP meetings where we have challenged the TVI's
> claims for coloring for blind children. When closely questioned about their
> claims for its value, especially in reference to preparation for brailling
> when only one hand is actually being used, and with reference to future use
> of this skill beyond signing one's name in 10 years or so, they concede that
> it isn't really that useful. We then get it specifically written into the
> IEP that this child will "NOT be made to color with any medium for any
> reason. The child may use a crayon to mark with a check mark when correcting
> their work". Guess what, we have had to fight over it during the year,
> showing them the IEP to get them to stop making the blind child use scented
> markers in coloring; to stop them pretending to themselves that they are
> somehow providing a meaningful art experience to a child who has no idea
> what they're doing besides moving their hand randomly on the paper until the
> aide says "yes, that's good." The fact that the TVI agrees in an IEP meeting
> that it's meaningless as an art experience and inferior as a fine motor
> development activity, and agrees to have it prohibited in the IEP itself,
> and then proceeds to try to make a blind child color in class when they
> think they can do so without anyone knowing, speaks to me of the true nature
> of this activity.
> >>
> >> Can anyone tell that I am passionate about the topic of blind children's
> time being wasted by teachers making them color? If I were a parent of a
> blind child being made to color, I would immediately call an IEP meeting and
> have it written into the IEP that my child would not be made to color in any
> medium under any circumstances. Naturally they will argue but if you add up
> the time in any given week that your child is wasting his young life
> coloring, you will be convinced it's worth the trouble.
> >>
> >> Regards,
> >> Heather Field
> >> -----Original Message----- From: Meng, Debi
> >> Sent: Thursday, September 29, 2011 2:40 PM
> >> To: Katie Cochrane ; NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List,(for parents of blind
> children)
> >> Subject: Re: [blindkid] What are your thoughts on coloring?
> >>
> >> I did see the benefit at 3 and 4 but he should be beyond that.   Thanks
> for the advice.  I guess I need to find out what the goals are and if we can
> achieve them in another way.
> >>
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: blindkid-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindkid-bounces at nfbnet.org]
> On Behalf Of Katie Cochrane
> >> Sent: Thursday, September 29, 2011 2:05 PM
> >> To: NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List,(for parents of blind children)
> >> Subject: Re: [blindkid] What are your thoughts on coloring?
> >>
> >> My son is 3, and they spend a lot of time on coloring, too.  He is
> totally blind.  Our TVI explained to me it is important to build finger
> strength and dexterity for learning Braille, using a stylus to make Braille
> notes later, etc.  They also want him to get used to participating in tasks
> just like the rest of the kids in the class.  They do a lot of coloring of
> raised line papers, and they put textures under it.  We also have one of
> those musical coloring tablets (I think it's from Crayola) where it plays
> music as you scribble...the faster you scribble the faster the music plays.
> No matter what we do, it is not his favorite task, either, but I think the
> reasons they gave were reasonable.  Have you asked your TVI what the reasons
> are for focusing on coloring at this point in his education?  I know my son
> is younger, but I would imagine all of these reasons will still be relevant
> when he is in kindergarten.
> >>
> >> Take care.
> >> Katie
> >>
> >>
> >>
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-- 
--Penny
----------
A lucky mother to two amazing children - visionfora.blogspot.com