Well, it happened. I am obsessed with Braille right now. The more I learn about it, the more fascinated I become. And the more excited I am about teaching Charlotte and opening these doors of literacy for her.
The Hadley course we are taking, Braille and Your Blind Baby or Toddler, is amazing. We are learning all about the importance of literacy right now, and how to promote early literacy in your blind children. We are also studying Braille ourselves as children whose parents understand Braille are more likely to be more successful with it.
I'm learning that at this stage, Charlotte doesn't need to understand the Braille letters yet, but I DO want to instill a love of reading in her! And since she can't see the pictures, giving her something to feel, like Braille text, texture, or objects representing characters in the story, will help engage her in reading. It's also important to be animated with my voice to keep her interested, and to involve her in the reading by asking her to turn the page! So right now, the focus is on her language development, her interest in reading, and her learning how to use her hands to explore things, on top of just exposing her to Braille so that when she gets older, she will already have that foundation.
In my last Braille post I listed some of the books that I had purchased in Braille. Lately, we have been taking other books and toys and adapting them to meet Charlotte's needs and make them more interesting to her. I ordered The Black Book of Colours, which is in Braille and all the illustrations are used with raised lines so blind readers can see the pictures with their fingers! I am excited for this to arrive. We have a few numbers books, and I went through with my Braille labeler and added the Braille numbers to each page so Charlotte can touch them as we count. I also took our shapes puzzle and added the Braille word (square, circle, etc) to the shape so we can read it and learn the names of shapes as we do the puzzle!
What is most challenging right now, for Charlotte and especially Brianna, is that both are resistant to touching things with their hands. We are trying to incorporate touch into their lives by doing activities which involve touching objects of different textures, and just being sure that whatever we do with them, we use their hands very purposefully to feel everything around them (not just during school time, but throughout the day). Right now Brianna screams and cries if we have her touch anything. Many of the activities we do with Charlotte, we do with Brianna as well, but only for very short periods of time as right now, our only focus for her is helping her overcome her sensory challenges. When she is more comfortable with touching things with her hands, then we will be able to really spend more time with these activities. Charlotte isn't as resistant, but she prefers to pick up an object and toss it across the floor. She very rarely will sit and just feel anything (musical toys, Braille books, sensory toys, etc) unless I sit with her and hand-over-hand encourage her to do it. Right now I am putting Charlotte in the Bumbo chair for a little bit of time every day, when I am occupied with the other kids, and putting toys or books on the tray to give her the opportunity to have those objects close by so she can explore them. Usually she just throws them off the tray, but I hope she will start exploring more often!
Resources:
Eight tips to introduce reading to your young child who is blind
Braille for my baby
Braille Literacy (CNIB)
CELL Practice Guides with Adaptations
Eleanor's In-sight: Early Literacy for the visually impaired
I'm learning that at this stage, Charlotte doesn't need to understand the Braille letters yet, but I DO want to instill a love of reading in her! And since she can't see the pictures, giving her something to feel, like Braille text, texture, or objects representing characters in the story, will help engage her in reading. It's also important to be animated with my voice to keep her interested, and to involve her in the reading by asking her to turn the page! So right now, the focus is on her language development, her interest in reading, and her learning how to use her hands to explore things, on top of just exposing her to Braille so that when she gets older, she will already have that foundation.
In my last Braille post I listed some of the books that I had purchased in Braille. Lately, we have been taking other books and toys and adapting them to meet Charlotte's needs and make them more interesting to her. I ordered The Black Book of Colours, which is in Braille and all the illustrations are used with raised lines so blind readers can see the pictures with their fingers! I am excited for this to arrive. We have a few numbers books, and I went through with my Braille labeler and added the Braille numbers to each page so Charlotte can touch them as we count. I also took our shapes puzzle and added the Braille word (square, circle, etc) to the shape so we can read it and learn the names of shapes as we do the puzzle!
Resources:
Eight tips to introduce reading to your young child who is blind
Braille for my baby
Braille Literacy (CNIB)
CELL Practice Guides with Adaptations
Eleanor's In-sight: Early Literacy for the visually impaired
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