[blindkid] Braille reading speed and more...

Sally Thomas seacknit at gmail.com
Thu Mar 15 22:42:35 UTC 2012


Hi Carly,

As the parent of a reluctant reader, I'd say that effort you expend today
in improving your child's reading technique and speed will be well worth
it.  Reading is so fundamental to learning spelling and independent study
skills that it's importance can't be overemphasized.  My son's TVI's always
thought that whatever he did was good enough.  Even with my admonishments
that I knew he would step up and do better work if expectations were
raised, they continued to let him slink along.  I really think it would be
great if your child's TVI would learn something about the fact that braille
is not a slow reading medium.  So many teachers think that a blind kid
reading 2 grade levels below their peers is just the way it is.  We need to
have some videos of those fast, efficient braille readers like Dr. V's son,
to show teachers so they understand that it is not braille that is the
limiter.

I have to say that while keeping a good relationship with your child's TVI
may help you, having a healthy skepticism about the truth of the teacher's
reports to you is probably wise.  It really is astonishing to me how little
my son's TVI's knew about teaching a blind braille reader.  They did not
have high expectations either.

My son does not like to read.  Even in high school it is a struggle to get
him reading.  I know this is typical for many kids--not just blind kids.
 He would have been better served if I had pushed more in grade school.  It
is tough to push the kid, push the classroom teacher, push the TVI.  I do
think it is worth it.

I hope you have a chance to talk with other parents of blind kids and go to
a national convention.  You will get to see first hand the difference it
makes to learn to be a good reader.

I wish there was a magic trick to make this easy, but I think you just need
to keep after it.  It's like so many things with kids--brush your teeth,
don't eat with your hands, say please and thank you--whatever the child
needs to learn.  Teachers rarely care about your child as much as you do.

Best of luck.  The work is worth it.

Sally Thomas


On Fri, Mar 16, 2012 at 5:32 AM, Carly B <barnesraiser at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hello again,
>
> I'm so glad we are talking about IEP stuff because I have another question
> for all of you. I have a 9 year old third grader who has been reading
> Braille for about 2 years now. He attends the state academy for the blind
> because our home district was not providing services (although they said
> they were) and he was not making any progress at all.
>
> Last spring his IEP goal said he would improve his reading speed from 30
> words per minute to 60 words per minute, and that he would know 130
> contractions. I just received a report that said he has met his goals. Wow!
> Except... I'm not seeing it at home. For the reading speed, it states that
> he is reading a word list of familar words. Now, I thought reading speed
> would be measured by having him read something real... not a reading list.
> I guess we didn't specify that, though. And for the contractions, at home
> my son refuses to read anything contracted because he hardly knows any. As
> soon as he runs into a contraction he says, "Oh! Contraction! I don't know
> what this is!" Very rarely he'll know it. So it hardly seems he knows 130.
>
> Also, he totally reads with his left hand and does not use his right hand
> without constant reminders. I mean, constant. He drops his right hand off
> the page within a second or two and has to be reminded again and again.
> When I brought this up with the school I was told that he's reading with
> both hands just fine there. Really???
>
> So how do I bring this up with the school? His Braille teacher and I are on
> good terms, but still I'm not sure how to approach her. Any suggestions are
> greatly appreciated.
>
> <weary smile> --Carolynn
> _______________________________________________
> blindkid mailing list
> blindkid at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindkid_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
> blindkid:
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindkid_nfbnet.org/seacknit%40gmail.com
>



More information about the BlindKid mailing list