Early Literacy

Early Braille Literacy

Peter Lumley

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Zoe is a young blind girl. Today is her first day at school and as she enters the classroom she is immediately surrounded by the noise of children laughing, shouting and talking. When the teacher asks everyone to sit on the carpet for a story the classroom becomes very quiet. Even so Zoe is still aware of the other children, the one sitting beside her she can touch and smell and the one in front she feels when she stretches out her legs. She knows from the faint sounds of breathing and the occasional coughs that she is amongst other children.

The teacher tells the children she is going to read them a story called "Just Like Jasper". When she hears the noise of the teacher turning over the first page of the book Zoe is given a soft furry toy cat to hold. The teacher shows the other children a picture of Jasper and asks the class who they think the story is going to be about. Zoe feels the cat's head and whiskers, its long tail and legs and as she does so she remembers how warm and soft her Auntie Betty's cat Poppy is and how she purrs when she strokes her. A little boy beside her suddenly calls out that he's got a cat called Ebony and he tells the class that Ebony is black and that he once scratched him on the hand when he tried to pick him up. The teacher says that you've got to be careful when you pick cats up. She tells them that Jasper got some money for his birthday and he wants to spend it on a toy. Zoe opens a small bag she's been given and inside she finds a small, round, hard coin. She remembers buying a lemon lollipop with a coin like this, she gave it to the shopkeeper and he gave her the lollipop. A little girl calls out that it was her birthday yesterday and she had a party and she got lots of presents. The teacher says that was nice and continues reading the story. She tells the children that Jasper goes into a Toy Shop to spend his money. Zoe is given a small rubbery sphere to hold which she recognises as a ball. The teacher asks the children if they think Jasper will buy a ball with his money. Nobody thinks Jasper will buy a ball and everyone shouts out "No!" As she listens to the story Zoe explores the things that Jasper might buy. Some children think he'll buy a Jack-in-the-Box, some think he'll buy a robot and Zoe thinks he'll buy a clockwork mouse but in the end he doesn't buy any of these, he buys a toy cat just like himself.

What does Zoe learn from these early literacy experiences?

	That literacy is a social activity and its fun to listen to stories with other children.
	That stories are meaningful.
	That she can join in discussions about the stories sharing her ideas and experiences with other children.
	That the ideas and experiences of other children are sometimes the same and sometimes different to hers.
	That she can ask questions about the story and try to guess what might happen next.
	That other children in the class laugh with her when the story is funny and go quiet when it's scary or sad.
	That she can retell the stories she hears to other children.
	That she is able to predict and anticipate words and phrases in the story.
	That she enjoys stories and wants to read them for herself.

Zoe has now been in school for a few days and as she enters the classroom she is still surrounded by the noise of children laughing, shouting and talking. Today her teacher is reading a story called "The Gruffalo". Zoe is holding her own copy of the book. As the teacher introduces the book and talks about the picture on the cover, Zoe feels the fur on the front of hers. It's a strange piece of fur with spiky things sticking out of it and two soft circles in the middle. The children listen quietly as the teacher reads the story and each time Zoe hears the teacher turn a page she turns a page in her book and every time the teacher starts to read Zoe finds the Braille dots in her book and lightly runs her fingers over them. Everybody laughs, when the Gruffalo with terrible tusks, terrible jaws and terrible claws, runs away from a tiny mouse because he says he's going to eat him.

What does Zoe learn from these early literacy experiences?

	That books are nice to handle.
	That the front of the book is called the cover and it usually has a picture and the title of the book on it.
	That books contains pictures.
	That you turn the pages of the book when you read it.
	That when you read a book in either print or Braille the story stays the same.
	That you read Braille by running your fingers lightly over the dots from left to right.
	That Braille dots represent letters and punctuation, which make words and sentences, which tell stories and convey information.

Zoe has now been in school for a few more days and as she enters the classroom she is still surrounded by the noise of children laughing, shouting and talking. Today her teacher is telling the class about the letter "s". She says that one day she took her dog for a walk and heard an ssssssssssssssssss sound and saw a snake slithering away. Zoe traces the letter "s" on a card and is shown how to wave her arm like a snake saying sssssssssssssssss with all the other children. The teacher asks if anyone can think of a word beginning with the sssssssssssssssss sound. Zoe puts her hand up and says "socks" and her friend Gemma says "sun". The children are then asked to colour in a picture of a spotty snake and practice writing the letter "s". Zoe has a feely sheet to colour using smelly felt-tipped pens and she practices writing the letter "s" first in sand and then on plastic embossing film.

What does Zoe learn from these early literacy experiences?

	That each letter has its own name
	That letters represent sounds.
	That words beginning with the same sound often begin with the same letter.
	That in print each letter has its own shape and is written using straight and/or curved lines.

Zoe has been in school for a few weeks and as she enters the classroom she is still surrounded by the noise of children laughing, shouting and talking. Today her teacher says that some visitors have come to tell them about Braille. All the children are quiet and one of the visitors, called Terry, tells them how he was born blind and has learnt to read using Braille. He tells them that he enjoys reading books, newspapers and magazines in Braille as well as listening to taped stories. Another visitor, who Zoe recognises as the Braille teacher, says that because Zoe can't see print she will learn to read Braille books using her fingers. The children are shown some books with Braille in them. Zoe recognises a book as one she's already been given to 'read'. The other children recognise it too and call out that they've read it. They are told that these books will be kept in the Book Corner for them to read. After they have examined the Braille books they are all shown how to make dotty patterns and Braille their names using a Perkins Brailler. They are told that a Brailler will be left in class for everyone to use and if anyone is interested in learning Braille that there is a Braille Club in school on Tuesday and Thursday dinnertimes. Everyone is excited about Braille and wants to join the Braille Club.

What does Zoe learn from these early literacy experiences?

	That everyone can learn to read and write using Braille.
	That blind people use Braille because they can't see to read print.
	That lots of things are available to read in Braille.
	That her friends want to learn Braille.
	That she is not the only person in class who knows Braille.
	That she can write to other people in Braille and they can write to her.
	That Braille is fun.

The next day Zoe has her first Braille lesson. After Zoe has listened to the class story "Rat-a-tat-tat" and after Zoe has knocked the big brass knocker on the small wooden door and after Zoe has met a dragon and a crocodile and a monster Zoe goes into Room 7 to begin to learn Braille.

Room 7 is a quiet room and as she enters there is no noise of children laughing, shouting and talking but a friendly voice asks her to sit down. The Braille teacher tells Zoe the story of Little Snow White and the Seven Dwarves and after she has explored the picture of Snow White who she can easily recognise because of the big bow in her hair and the Wicked Queen who she can easily recognise because of her sharp pointed crown and the seven dwarves who each has a different pattern on their hat Zoe is shown how to press the keys on a Perkins Brailler. Zoe makes lots of dotty patterns on the paper as she brailles the story of Snow White, which she later reads to the other children in her class. The children all give her a clap at the end.

Later that week when Zoe goes into Room 7 the Braille teacher reads her the book called "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves". Zoe listens carefully to the story turning the pages, exploring the tactile pictures and patterns, feeling the Braille and Print writing. By the end of the less Zoe can remember the story herself and retells it to the teacher. Zoe turns the pages at the right time and uses clues from the pictures to help her remember what happens and the sequence of events in the story. Zoe takes the book home that night and reads it to her Mum and Dad. Her parents are very pleased with Zoe and take her to the park to play on the swings.

Towards the end of the week Zoe's parents come into school with Zoe to meet her Braille teacher. They are shown how Zoe will be taught Braille in school and are given a guide, "How to help your child learn Braille", on how they can help Zoe learn Braille at home. Zoe's parents ask if they can learn Braille themselves and they are given the first lesson of the school's "Braille Scheme". They all go home to do some Braille work together. Zoe has her book to read while Mum and Dad have to practice brailling the letters of the alphabet.

What does Zoe learn from these early literacy experiences?

	To handle a book and interact with the characters in meaningful story based activities.
	To use a Perkin's Brailler to produce sequences of dots and assign meaning to them.
	That her parents are interested in Braille and will learn to read and write it to help her at home.

During the next week Zoe and the Braille teacher continue using the story of Little Snow White and the Seven Dwarves and Zoe learns to recognise the tactile symbols for a comb and a mirror, a loaf of bread and a bed, a plate of food and cutlery. Each time a new symbol is introduced Zoe is given a real object to examine and she is encouraged to talk about it and to identify the critical features that will help her to recognise it in future activities. She plays games with tactile symbol cards and the objects they represent.

During the story Zoe is shown how to track using both hands to follow Snow White on her journey into the forest. She goes along a straight road, then a zig-zag road and then a bumpy road till she finds the cottage of the seven dwarves deep in the forest. She finds the talking mirror and uses both her hands to track along lines while reciting "Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?" and then shouting out when she discovers it's Snow White. On another page she discovers one of the seven dwarves called Sneezy. She can recognise Sneezy because he has a spiky mouth from sneezing all the time. She uses both her hands to track along these lines and shouts "ACHOO!" at the end.

In the next book Zoe helps Doc, who is very clever and wears glasses, find Grumpy's lost hat, the Queen's lost crown, Snow White's ribbon, Dopey's plate and Sleepy's bed. In finding all these things Zoe learns how to discriminate between different shapes and textures. Later she helps Dopey, who is not very clever and is always breaking things, find the mug he broke the handle off and the comb with some broken teeth. After that she helps sort out Happy's practical jokes, invent some spells to cast on the wicked Queen and shut the door before Grumpy shouts at her.

What does Zoe learn from these early literacy experiences?

	To recognise different tactile symbols.
	To discriminate between different textures, lines and shapes.
	To tack from right to left across a page using both hands, find the beginning of the next line and continue tracking down the page.
	To develop a light fingered touch for reading Braille.

Zoe has already started to read class reading books and has been given copies of the Oxford Reading Tree stories translated into Grade One Braille; including the letters of the alphabet, capital letters and some punctuation signs, complete with tactile pictures. She reads these books to her teacher and then takes them home to read to her Mum and Dad.

Today the Braille teacher begins to teach Zoe Grade Two Braille using the 'Braille for Infants' reading scheme. Zoe learns about the structure of the book including the title, spine and page numbers. She learns how to Braille the letter 'a' using one finger, the letter 'b' using two fingers and the letter 'g' using four fingers. Zoe already recognises these letters in her Braille reading book and can read a write the word 'bag', now she also learns that the letter 'b' stands for the word 'but' and the letter 'g' for 'go'.

As Zoe progresses she learns more letters and wordsigns till she can read and write sentences like; 'I like Bill.' and when she begins to learn abbreviations she can even read and write sentences like; 'I have a little cat.' Zoe using everything she learns in her lesson back in class. She is beginning to take books from the class library home to read and use the letters, wordsigns, abbreviations and punctuation she has learnt in her own emergent writing. She even has a go at inventing some wordsigns and abbreviations of her own.

The Braille teacher shows Zoe a book called 'Little Kali'. It's about a little girl who is only four. She has a big bag to keep all her toys in and a little bouncy ball, which bounces over the garden wall and rolls down a big hill. There are two versions of the story in the book; one, which tells the story in full that Zoe enjoys listening to and a simple version, which, because she already knows the story, Zoe can read fluently. When she takes the book home to read to her parents Zoe chooses to read the full story to them.

What does Zoe learn from these early literacy experiences?

	To recognise brailled words in a variety of settings.
	To use a variety of cues when reading.
	To expect brailled text to make sense.
	To track Braille text from left to right, page-by-page, top to bottom.
	To read and write letters that represent sounds and words.
	To read and write the Braille symbols that represent other sounds, letter strings and words.
	To read on sight a range of familiar words.
	To decode unknown words using phonic and context cues.
	To Braille letters, wordsigns and contractions using the correct fingers.

Zoe has now been in school for about two terms and as she enters the classroom she is still surrounded by the noise of children laughing, shouting and talking. She has had a wide experience of tactile books and story sacs within the classroom. Ashe has taken part in class Literacy sessions using tactile materials and has a good grasp of her letters and sounds, and has developed concepts about 'print' including; word, first and last letter, page, cover and enjoys stories. Zoe is currently reading books in the class 'Oxford Reading Tree' reading scheme reading scheme which have been translated into Grade 1+ Braille and uses her current knowledge of Braille to produce written work in class using a Perkin's Brailler. The whole class have been introduced to Braille during 'Class Awareness' sessions and a Brailler and tactile materials are available in class for general use. Zoe is now learning fully contracted Grade 2 Braille and for this specific teaching she is withdrawn to Room 7. She has completed Stage 1 of the 'Braille for Infants' reading scheme and has just started Stage 2.

In today's lesson Zoe will learn to use the letter 'n' to begin and end words such as 'nut' and 'bun' and relate these words to meaningful concrete experiences. She will also learn to read sentences, which include words beginning and ending with the letter 'n'.

To begin the lesson Zoe is reminded about the formation of the letter 'n' (dots 1,3,4,5), the correct fingers to use when brailling and the wordsign 'not'. Zoe brailles a row of 'Nots' starting with Mummy and Daddy Not, then Nora Not who's got a spot, and Baby Not who's asleep in her cot, and Grandad Not who's very hot, and Nigel Not who ate a lot, and Nellie Not who's still a tot. Then she goes down two steps and back to the beginning of the street where she meets Lucy Like who's on her bike, and...

Zoe is given two things to explore and she guesses them both. One is a 'nut' and the other is a 'bun' and she brailles the two words. While she cracks the nuts she tells her teacher that she had buns on her birthday and some big nuts at Christmas.

The Braille teacher tells Zoe she can make some buns and he gives her a recipe to read. She reads out the ingredients and the teacher passes them to her to explore. Then she reads what she has to do and she mixes some flour, water and currants together in a bowl and spoons the mixture into little paper cases. Zoe drops some flour on her teacher's foot but is very careful when she is pouring the water and doesn't spill a drop. Zoe carefully puts the buns into an oven and later that day, when they are cooked, she shares them with the other children in the class who all think they're 'Yummy!' Zoe brailles; 'I like buns.'

Zoe tells her teacher some other foods, which begin or end with 'n' like noodles, naan bread, chicken and backed bean.

At the end of the session Zoe says she can read and write words beginning and ending with the letter 'n' and make buns.

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