My son Liam is a happy first grader in a mainstream classroom. He is a braille reader (he LOVES braille!) and happens to be deafblind. Liam brought home a “Peg Slate” from APH the other day from school. He was so excited about this tool. I thought that I would share how we use it at home.
![Depress a peg on one side, flip the peg slate over...and the peg is raised on the other side. Peg slate from APH](https://www.pathstoliteracy.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Peg_slate_APH.jpg)
- Peg slate from APH
Procedure
- Liam loves when I form words on the Peg Slate and he gets to read them (keeps me on my toes with my braille skills!).
- His favorite is when I write simple sentences and he gets to read them back to me.
- I wanted to share that the Peg Slate is a great learning tool to use in the classroom, but I also see it as something that was very engaging for my son in the home setting as well!
- I have been planning to try to take Liam and his brother to a “sit down” restaruant (so far, we have only mastered buffets and fast food;) and I thought that the Peg Slate would be a good tool to bring to a restaurant to ‘”entertain” and use together while we waited for our food.
![Using ASL to read sentence from peg slate Boy signing word from peg slate](https://www.pathstoliteracy.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/ASL_peg_slate.jpg)
Variations
- Other options for the Peg Slate are that you could practice letters, contractions, words, sentences etc… so many options!
- Your child could also work on writing letters and words themselves!
- Below I have listed a few other fun “toys” to create a braille cell/word that we have at home that Liam loves! They are reasonably priced.
![Pocket braille cube Pocket braille cube](https://www.pathstoliteracy.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/pocket-braille-cube-learning-device.jpg)
![Pocket braille block Pocket braille block](https://www.pathstoliteracy.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/pocket_braille_cube.jpg)
![Collage of using a peg slate to practice braille skills](https://www.pathstoliteracy.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/peg_slate_collage_0-512x1024.jpg)