Reading and Writing Instruction
Children who are blind or visually impaired who will use braille as their primary literacy medium are learning to read and write braille much like children who are sighted learn print reading and writing. You will be an important member of the educational team for braille-reading children who are learning to read. Including your student in class literacy activities will be very important and can be done with the help of your student’s teacher of students with visual impairments. The following information may be helpful:
Who will take responsibility? Teaching braille reading and writing to students who are blind is a shared responsibility. While the teacher of students with visual impairments will be highly involved in reading and writing instruction and will likely take the lead in reading instruction, he or she will not likely be available throughout your student’s school day. Because early reading and writing instruction is infused throughout the school day, it will be important for you to take responsibility for making sure that your braille-reading student is included in balanced literacy program throughout the day.
What is unique about what my braille-reading student will learn? In addition to learning the same reading and writing skills as your print-reading students, a braille-reader will need support from a teacher of students with visual impairments in the following areas:
- Use of tactile skills for discriminating different braille cells, tracking across the line and moving the fingers smoothly and evenly.
- Concept development for student’s understanding of visually based information (e.g., a flickering flame of a candle, a zebra’s stripes, the moon and stars).
- Use of unique characters (contractions) in the braille code.
As with print reading students, it is important to create a strong foundation for literacy early in the student’s life. To create this foundation, the teacher of students with visual impairments and the general education classroom teacher should make sure that a significant amount of time is dedicated to reading and writing instruction each day. This instruction should be conducted by a qualified teacher.
In addition, it is important to create an accessible literacy environment in which your student has numerous materials available for reading and writing independently, and in collaborative groups. Finally, it is essential to create opportunities for braille reading and writing skills to be applied throughout the school day and at home.