Literacy starts when a child is very young. It can be anything from reading a bedtime story to singing nursery rhymes. As children grow older, letters get introduced into the mix, providing opportunities to discover and create a whole new world.
With our students who are visually impaired who may not be able to see print well, these letters need to be introduced through braille. I have a student who is three years old and attending a Montessori preschool.
The Montessori way of doing things is through exploration. Allow the child to explore and learn on their own. There is beauty in this, but for a child who is visually impaired, this type of learning is not always possible to the same degree as with a sighted child. What most children learn incidentally through observation, our students with visual impairments have to learn through explicit instruction.
So, my student started attending this Montessori school where direct teaching was discouraged. Braille will be the medium through which she will access literacy and I had the challenge of figuring out how to fit all those prebraille learning activities into her preschool day using the Montessori method.
I brought a braille writer and paper for the writing area of the classroom. My student already had a braille writer at home and had learned how to use it. A stack of large print/picture/braille books was also added to the classroom library. The alphabet and number cards had braille stickers added to them. The teacher was very willing to work with me to include braille throughout the environment.
The next idea came to me as a perfect work setup for the classroom. I made alphabet cards with the print letter on one side and the braille cell and corresponding dots colored on the other. I laminated these cards and applied a braille sticker on the outside. Then, using a six hole muffin tin, Velcro was put on the bottom of each hole. Six tennis balls were included in the kit.
Since making this “work”, the teacher and I have worked out a routine where I am able to work with my student directly during the week. During this time, I will teach her how to use this work system. She will pick a letter card and make the same letter to match using the tennis balls and muffin tin. Once she understands how to do the activity, I will put it in a nice basket and include it as another “work system” for all the kids to do. It is independent learning plus my student will be becoming more familiar with braille and obtaining those prebraille skills!
In the meantime, we will be having fun with all sorts of other tactile activities building those skills!
