Fillimon Njala
GRADE 1 BRAILLE
Introduction
Every child is unique, brings his or her strengths and needs to the learning task. Like everyone,
the child with congenital total blindness needs to be able to obtain information in an effective
way from teachers. Children with congenital total blindness have the rights just like the sighted
peers. Without being helped, the children cannot perform well, so it is very important for a child
with congenital total blindness to be taught just like the sighted peers. This essay shall illustrate
how the writer can teach grade 1 Braille to a child with congenital total blindness. For better
understanding of this paper, the terms grade 1Braille and blindness shall be defined.
Definition of terms
Swenson (1999) states that grade 1 Braille is in full spelling and consists of the 26 standard
letters of the alphabet, punctuation numbers and numbers of composition signs which are special
to braille. It is bulky and larger than normal printed text. Grade 1 Braille is used only by those
who are new to learning the grades of Braille. This type of Braille is uncontracted, the word is
written fully and is good for starters like the child with congenital total blindness. Holbrook &
Koenig, (1992) defines blindness as a term used for complete or nearly complete vision loss. It is
a condition where a person suffers from total absence of sight, visual acuity not exceeding 6/60
or 20/200 in the better eye with correction lenses or limitation of the field of vision subtending
an angle of 20 degree or worse. One can say blindness is a disadvantage of not seeing something
clearly or not having light passing through the eyes.
Discussion of issues
A teacher who teaches a child with congenital total blindness should try by all means that their
instructional strategies are consistent with the way a child who uses braille process information.
The child must be helped developing of good hand movement so that she or he becomes efficient
readers. For a child to be efficient in Braille, he or she has to be taught all types of braille reading
and writing skills. Braille is divided into grade 1, 2 and 3. The child should start with pre-Braille
activities before grade I Braille when learning Braille. Holbrook, D’Andrea & Sanford (2011)
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states that Braille creates an effective way for persons with visual impairment to communicate
through reading and writing. According to Hatlen (2003) teachers teach the alternative skills that
facilitate access to general education and teach the expanded core curriculum that supports the
learner in and allows them to benefit from the general curriculum. Teaching grade 1 Braille to a
child with congenital total blindness needs educators who are committed and patient because the
child knows no image, he or she needs to be abstract oriented to the objects properly. The child
with congenital total blindness substitutes the sense of site by the sense of touch. The educator
should teach pre-Braille tactual skills, introduction of the devices used in Braille and Braille cell,
introduction to pre- Braille worksheets and introduction Braille alphabet and numbers.
Teaching pre-Braille tactual skills
A child with congenital total blindness has limited experience in using his or her hands. As an
educator it is important that you help the child develop good ability to move fingers. It is
important that for a child with visual impairment attention be given to the development of tactual
perception and listening skills (Marshall & Hunt, 2002). The educator should help the child do
various activities which boost finger dexterity before the Braille alphabet is introduced. Child
with congenital total blindness has to be given some toys so as to improve finger dexterity.
Mangold (1979) teach a child with congenital total blindness to vocalize letter names while
touching the Braille stimulus. It takes time for a child with congenital total blindness to develop
tactual sense since he or she has limited experience in using hands. The child never saw sign and
not knows any shape or letters in life. As an educator the child with congenital total blindness
should be introduced to the world by giving the child activities which will make them able to feel
of the world.
The educator shall give different objects to the child with congenital total blindness so that the
child navigate through them by fingers, the objects comes in different sizes. Each of these
objects will have braille labels and when giving the child the objects verbalize everything in
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front of the child, starting with big object to smaller ones. The objects will help the child become
familiar with Braille and help the child realize that there is a written language (Horton and Killer,
1988).
A child with congenital total blindness can be taught grade 1 Braille after having taught how
some object are. A child can be given rough, smooth, small and hard objects to navigate through
them.
The development of tactual skill is gained and the Child is provided by instruction in tactual
skills in a variety of environment. The teacher assist the child with congenital total blindness on
how to use fingers and hands to explore, identify, discriminate and interpret all tangible materials
in the environment. The child should be given time on the devices used in Braille and more on
the Braille cell.
Introduction of the Braille cell
The writer should illustrate grade 1Braille to the child with congenital total blindness by firstly
introduce the devices used in Braille. The peg slate is a paperless device used to introduce
writing on a Braille slate and instead of dots pegs are used to form a kind of Braille. The child is
given the opportunity to touch and feel the dots rose on the peg slate. All letters are formed on
the peg slate. Perkin Braille, slate and stylus are other devices used by persons with visual
impairment. The child will be given the devices to have a feel on them and the educator will
illustrate to the child how the papers are inserted on both Perkins machine and on slate and
stylus. The child will be oriented on the devices so that he or she is able to use them.
In introducing the Braille cell, the educator should give the child bake pan of six holes. The child
with congenital total blindness will touch the pan and the teacher will verbally tall the child that
even Braille cell has six dots just like the hole found in the pan in front. Hallahan and Kauffman
(1994) state that persons who are blind rely much more on tactual and auditory information to
learn about the world. The baking pan used to symbolize the six dots help the teacher carry out
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activities that will help the child gain much information as possible through the non-visual senses
and by participation in active, practical experiences (Howard & Orlansky, 1992).
Introduction to pre-Braille worksheet
Pre-Braille worksheet helps the child with congenital total blindness in the tracking of the Braille
writings. Since the child now knows the Braille cell and has had a variety of experience in
developing tactual discrimination and finger dexterity, he or she is introduced to the worksheets
to gain training of the movement of the hand from left to right, identifying the location of the
Braille dots and the differences among Braille dots. According to Horton & Killer (1988)
worksheets increases tactual awareness. They are very useful and may be used when teaching
Braille to both adults and children. The child with congenital total blindness will be taught preBraille worksheet when the teacher is teaching him or her grade one Braille for dots
discrimination. Worksheet will help the child in the use of his or her hands and tactual sense to
what letters are represented by Braille without having to worry about the meaning of the writings
and self-efficacy is develop as the child track and trace the worksheets.
The child with congenital total blindness will spend quality time on the worksheets trailing and
tracking on the dots. The teacher will help the child improve and develop good hand movement
by trying to identify dots on the worksheets.
Worksheet 1. The child shall follow the Braille lines
The teacher will make a worksheet with Braille lines using dots 3 and 6. Make three lines of
different lengths on a page. The child have to count the number of lines, the child will feel the
lines by moving his hands from left to right.
Worksheet 2. The child will follow Braille lines and identify breaks.
The teacher will leave a single four cell break in the line and the child will feel the lines,
identifying where the breaks are located. This shall be done several times with different breaks.
Worksheet 3. The chill shall follow the Braille lines and identify the misplaced dot.
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Four Braille lines with dots 3 shall be given to the child. In one place of each line dot 1 instead of
dot 3 and have the child find the misplaced dot. This shall be done several times, using different
dots.
The child with congenital total blindness will follow the Braille lines, identify breaks, identify
misplaced dots, count the dots and tell how many dots are in each dot formation (Swenson,
1999). Worksheets are used as warm-up exercises after the child with congenital total blindness
begins to learn Braille alphabet.
Introduction of Braille alphabet
The alphabets all are taught orally before the child with congenital total blindness start to learn
the Braille letters. Songs and games are used in the learning of the alphabet to a child with
congenital total blindness. As the child learns the alphabet, the sounds that the letter makes will
sink into the mind of the child (Horton & Killer, 1988). Device like the peg slate can be used to
teach alphabet to the child with congenital total blindness. The teacher shall illustrate to the child
orally and at the same time illustrating how to use the peg slate for alphabet. The teacher with the
child will begin by pushing all the pegs to one side. The side with all of the pegs up becomes the
writing side and a small raised ridge on top. The peg slate turned over from right to left like a
page in a book. The child with congenital total blindness will feel a small raised ridge which
represents a letter of the alphabet. The raised ridge is read as dots are read.
The alphabet should be started as the way we say them, the teacher will letter A to J first letters
of the alphabet and is the basis of all of them. The letters only uses the top four dots in each cell.
Letter A is dot 1 and B you add dot 2 from dot 1. Letter C dot 1 and 4, D you add dots 4 and 5
from dot 1, E is dots 1 and 5, F is dots 1, 2 and 4, G dots 1, 2, 3 and 4, H you add dots 2 and 5
from dot 1, I is dots 2 and 4 and letter J is dots 2, 4 and 5. These letters should be illustrated on
the bake pan which represents the six dots of the alphabet, using folded papers put on the holes
of the pan. The learner with congenital total blindness shall feel them as the teacher demonstrate
the letters of the alphabet.
From the first ten letters of the alphabet the teacher illustrate letter K to L. The teacher should
illustrate this on the pan and the child with congenital total blindness.
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From letter A to J dot 3 is added on each cell to form letters K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S and T. In
letter U, V, X, Y and Z the letters are formed by only adding dot 6 to the letter K to T.
Letter W is the only letter that does not fit the pattern. It has dot 2 on the left side and dots 4, 5
and 6 on the right side.
Introduction of punctuation marks
For the punctuation marks, orally tell the child with congenital total blindness that the first ten
alphabets are dropped down to the lower part of the cell.
Comma has dots 2, letter b dropped down one line, and semicolon has dots 2 and 3,
Period has dots 4, 5 and 6.
Exclamation mark has dots 2, 3 and 5 while the question mark has dots 2, 3 and 6.
Quotation marks have 2 cells, the first represent single or double and the second represent
opening or closing.
For the single quotation the first cell has dot 6 and double has dots 3 and 4. After telling the child
orally, the educator will give him or her Brailed examples of the alphabet and punctuations so
that the child touches the dots with the preferred finger. This will be done together with talking
so that the child follow what the teacher is teaching and memorizes the dots of the alphabet and
punctuations. The educator will hold the hands of the child, directing him or her on what is being
said.
Crawford and Elliot (2007) educators should use songs and games, as the child learns the
alphabet he or she should learn the letter sound the letter makes. This shall help the child learns
the alphabets and also teaches basic skills that will be used in reading, develop better reading
skills and increase listening skills. For the child to learn Braille alphabets the educator shall play
games with the child with congenital total blindness. Games with a word and the child have to
tell the sound, letter it starts with. The educator shall also give the child an object and the child
tells the educator what letter it begins with. This game needs to be done over and over until the
child masters the letters of the alphabet.
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The educator should also give the child a letter and the child has to tell the teacher word that
begins with that word. For example letter D, the child may give the teacher answers like dog,
duck, dig and donkey. This activity shall be continued to words that have the same sound and
after the words shall be increased. Crawford and Elliot (2007) singing a song to a learner as she
or he touches Braille symbols is effective in establishing early braille-letter naming, teaching the
relation between the braille symbol and a visual stimulus. The activities in Braille should not be
in English alone but even in siSwati.
Introduction of numbers
Numbers in Braille are introduced starting from 0 to 10, the child count objects given to him or
her by the teacher. Every object given to the child has numbers written to them. A child with
congenital total blindness shall be asked to count the object orally first while the teacher allows
the child touch them. After this activity the educator introduces the numeral sign which is used
for numbers in Braille. The educator will give the child solid object to touch and this will help
the child recognize how the numeral sign look like.
Another object will be given to the child with the numeral sign and a number closer to each
other. The teacher of the child with congenital total blindness shall illustrate how to write
numbers in Braille. When writing numbers in Braille, we start with a numeral sign in every
number even if you are writing a date or a year.
Conclusion
Everyone should help in the education of the children with congenital total blindness so that the
challenges they face can be minimized. All children with total blindness should have basic
education so that they fell welcomed in the society. They must be assisted so that their future
brightens and be able to write and read independently. Introducing Braille to the child closes the
gap that is there with the sighted children. Treatment of the child with congenital total blindness
should be the same with those with sight. Children with total blindness today are less dependent
than they have been before because of multiplicity of devices which are off help and are more
active in the society.
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References
Crawford, S. & Elliot, R. T. (2007). Analysis of phonemes, graphemes, onset-rimes, and words
with braille-learning children. Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness, 101:534.
Hallahan, D. P. & Kauffman, J. (1994). Exceptional Children. Introduction to Special Education.
Massachusetts: Allyn and Bacon.
Hatlen, P. (2003). Impact of literacy on the expaned core curriculum. Paper presented at the
Getting in Touch with Literacy conference, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Holbrook, M. C. & Koenig, A. J. (1992). Teaching Braille reading to students with low vision.
Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness. P. 44.
Howard, W. L. & Orlanksy, M. D. (1992). Exceptional Children: An Introductory Survey of
Special Education. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company.
Horton, K. J. & Killer, H. (1988). Guide for Education of Visual Impairment. Pupils in Ordinary
Schools. Unesco international.
Mangold, S. S. (1979). Tactile perception and Braille letter recognition: Effect of developmental
teaching. Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness, 259.
Marshall, R. & Hunt, N. (2002). Exceptional children and youth. New York: Houghton Miffin
Co.
Swenson, A. (1999). Beginning with Braille: Firsthand experiences with a balanced approach to
literacy. New York: AFB Press.
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