Texas Focus 2007
The World on a String:
Connecting through the
Expanded Core Curriculum
Parents and
the Expanded Core Curriculum
Cay Holbrook
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
1:00 PM – 3:30 PM
Supporting Literacy Acquisition in the Home
Cay Holbrook
Texas Focus
June 20, 2007
Link to the Curriculum
Parallel
to the Core Curriculum (reading, writing,
language arts)
Compensatory Skills (including Communication Modes)
Critical to academic, vocational, social, recreational
success
Key to a child’s definition of self
Assumptions Before We Start
Parents
are their child’s first teachers!
Parents play an early and on-going role in the
acquisition of literacy skills for their child.
Children with visual impairments can and do develop
literacy skills at the same rate and with the same
excitement as children with typical vision, given
appropriate support.
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Assumptions…
Children
with visual impairments need rich and varied
experiences equal to those of their sighted peers.
Children who are blind or visually impaired use a
variety of methods to gather information. Each of
these methods is a valuable part of the child’s “literacy
toolbox”.
Individual decisions should be made based on
individual strengths and challenges.
Print and braille have equal value as literacy media.
Who will help you?
Teachers
of students with visual impairments.
Preschool and classroom teachers
Local library/local literacy councils
Other parents/parent support groups
Do you need to learn braille?
Yes.
Clarification of Previous Slide
There
is no substitute for knowing braille to be fully
involved with your child.
Changes are occurring in the acceptance of early
literacy experiences in fully uncontracted braille.
Parents, sibling and other family members can support
literacy development more fully by knowing contracted
or uncontracted braille.
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Experiencing with…
Literacy
in Daily Life
Using Senses
Common Activities
Developing Basic Concepts
Understanding Words and Letter Sounds
Books
Pictures
Reading Aloud
Shared Reading
Writing
Experiencing Literacy: A Parents’ Guide for Fostering
Early Literacy Development of Children with Visual
Impairments by Cay Holbrook and Alan Koenig
Available from the Overbrook School for the Blind
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Ideas for Adapting Books
As part of fostering early literacy development for your
child, you will want to have a wide variety of interesting
books in your home. While some adapted books can be
borrowed from nonprofit agencies or purchased from
commercial companies, you will also need to adapt or
make other books on your own. Some simple strategies
for adapting books will go a long way in expanding the
range of books that can be enjoyed by your son or
daughter. Here are some ways to adapt books:

Create book bags for books that will be used for
reading aloud and shared reading. A book bag
contains a variety of important objects that go along
with a particular story. As you read the book, your
child can explore the objects that accompany a
certain page or part of the book. The objects in a
book bag, along with some description and
discussion by you, provide a wonderful substitute for
pictures in books. In assembling a book bag, look for
objects that portray essential elements (not all
elements) of the story. For example, a book bag for
Goldilocks and the Three Bears might include three
stuffed toy bears (two adults and one baby bear) and
three real bowls of different sizes. Since chairs and
beds wouldn’t fit in a book bag, real chairs and beds
from the home can be explored and compared as
part of the literacy experience. A nice extension
would be to have porridge (oatmeal) for breakfast.
Book bags are a wonderful addition to any book and
are equally as helpful and enjoyable for children who
read braille and for children who read print.
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
Create print-braille versions of books if your child is
learning or may learn braille. If you are unsure, then
provide both print and braille. When using the
shared reading strategy (see Experiences with
Shared Reading, p.) to promote early braille reading,
it is essential to have a braille version of the book.
While not essential when reading aloud to your child,
it is desirable to have braille available. For young
children, a print-braille version literally contains both
print and braille in the same book. There are three
simple ways to create print-braille books:
 Use a braille labeler (see Information on Resources,
p.) to create braille labels for a book containing a
very small amount of print. The braille labels are
then placed above or under the print words.
 Use sheets of stick-on transparent plastic (see
Information on Resources, p.). In this approach,
you use a Perkins Brailler (see How to Use a Perkins
Brailler, p.) or a slate and stylus (see How to Use a
Slate and Stylus, p.) to braille on the sheets, then
cut them to size, and stick them on the appropriate
page.
 When there is a lot of printed text on a page, the
space may not be sufficient for the brailled text.
Insert additional clear plastic sheets for any runover text (e.g., the sheets used for transparencies,
two sheets of lamination film attached together).
Remove the binding of the book and interleaf the
braille pages into the print version of the book.
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Then the book can be rebound using a plastic comb
binder or some other binding method.



Create original tactile books that relate specifically to
your child’s experiences. These books might contain
objects alone or include a braille story (see Ideas for
Writing Experience Stories, p.). Objects can be glued
to pages or placed in envelopes, plastic bags, or
other holders that are bound within the books. The
advantage of placing the objects in some kind of
holder is that they can be taken out and explored
thoroughly. Objects that are glued to a page will
limit tactile exploration.
Include tactile pictures sparingly. Using raised lines
on a printed picture will not convey the same
information to a child who is examining it tactilely
(see Ideas for Producing Simple Tactile Materials,
p.). Real objects, supported by actual, concrete
experiences with the events, are often the best
substitute for the pictures in books.
Label books with an object on the cover. Gluing an
identifiable object on the cover of a book will provide
a way for your child to locate specific books. This
object will become the title for the book, and your
child will refer to this symbol when selecting his or
her favorite books to read.
Be creative in storing adapted books. Since these books
tend to be bigger and have greater bulk (because of the
tactile materials and objects in them), they may not store
evenly on a self. Placing adapted books in a box will allow
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them to be stacked in an organized manner on a shelf.
Be sure to include the title of the book and an identifying
object on the outside of the box, so your child can easily
find the desired book. Another option, especially for book
bags, is to attach the bags to a hanger and hang them on
a rod. The goal is to have an organized collection of
books that will allow your child to browse through them
and make the selection he or she wishes to enjoy.
From: Holbrook, C. and Koenig, A.J. (2005).
Experiencing literacy: A parents’ guide for fostering
early literacy development of children with visual
impairments. Philadelphia, PA: Towers Press.
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Ideas for Writing Experience Stories
Your child needs to have access to reading materials
that are meaningful and understandable given his or her
experiential background. One way to ensure this is to use
your child’s personal experiences as the basis for stories
and books. These are typically referred to as experience
stories.
Stories are meaningful when young children have
experiences with the events and activities portrayed in
the story. For example, if a story is about splashing in
the local swimming pool, your child will be able to
understand the story if he or she has had experience with
splashing in a pool. It does not have to be exactly the
same, but should be similar. If another story is about the
antics of a roadrunner, and your child has never
encountered a roadrunner, such as petting one at a
petting zoo or feeling one that has been prepared by a
taxidermist, then the story will be less meaningful or not
meaningful at all.
Stories for young children should be within their range
of experiences. However, as children grow older and have
a solid foundation of experiences, then they will use
books to expand their knowledge beyond their own
experiences. For example, if your child has been on an
airplane and has explored models of space shuttles, then
stories related to space exploration will allow him or her
to gain knowledge of something that is not likely to ever
be a personal experience. The point is to have a solid
foundation of early experiences, since this is how your
child’s concepts about his or her environment are formed
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(see Experiences with Common Activities, p.). Here are
the steps in writing an experience story:



Arrange an experience for your child. This might be
something that is a typical part of your daily routine,
such as going to the supermarket or playing at the
city park. Or the experience might be something that
is special or unique, such as a trip on an airplane to
visit grandparents at Thanksgiving.
Take time throughout the experience for your child
to explore, using all of his or her senses. For
example, in the supermarket, take time to explore
the way in which the shopping carts are stacked
together, the way that can goods are stacked on the
shelves, the way that produce is stored in
refrigerated units or in ice, and so forth. Be sure to
have your child explore tactilely as much as possible
and when appropriate. Of course, some items, such
as fresh-baked donuts, cannot be touched unless
they are purchased. If possible, collect some items
from the experience to put into the book later on,
such as a small paper bag from the supermarket, a
wrapper from a purchased item, and the sales
receipt.
Sit down with your child right after the experience
and say, “Let’s write a story about [the experience].”
You might want to start with a title, though
sometimes it is easier to write the title at the end of
the story. If your child has trouble getting started,
you might prompt, “What did we do first? Then…?
What happened next?” Write down the story as your
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child tells it, using his or her exact words. If your
child reads print, then write in the size of letters that
are easiest for him or her to read (see Ideas for
Arranging the Visual Environment for your Child with
Low Vision, p.). If your child reads braille, write the
story in braille using a brailler or slate and stylus. If
you do not know braille, ask a teacher of students
with visual impairments or a blind friend to
transcribe the story.



Read the story aloud to your child as soon as you
finish writing it. Since your child just told you the
story, he or she will probably want to help you read
the story, and this should be encouraged.
Make a book out of the story. Put a piece of
posterboard or a heavy piece of paper on the front or
back and mount the story inside. Feel free to be
creative. For example, you might use small paper
bags for the front and back covers. Also, you might
want to include other objects inside the book that
will remind your child of the experience. Placing a
very identifiable object on the front cover or drawing
a picture, along with a print-braille title, will help
your child identify this special book.
Continue to read the book over and over again in the
days and weeks to come. This will be an important
book for your child, and he or she will likely continue
to enjoy it. As you continue to re-read the book, you
will probably find that your child wants to read along.
Allowing and encouraging your child to help with the
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reading is a very valuable literacy experience (see
Experiences with Shared Reading, p.).

Add more books to your child’s library based on his
or her own experiences. This can be a continuing
source of fun and enjoyment throughout your child’s
toddler and preschool years and even into
elementary school. Also, expanding your child’s
range of experiences is very important—not only to
literacy development, but to everything else that he
or she learns.
From: Holbrook, C. and Koenig, A.J. (2005).
Experiencing literacy: A parents’ guide for fostering
early literacy development of children with visual
impairments. Philadelphia, PA: Towers Press.
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