I picked up the grade 2 braille code fairly quickly at Dorton House School for the blind – despising the "babyish" braille scheme I had to plough through: little pots going bang and ting didn’t grip or amuse me like the exploits of the bear from darkest Peru! All the children at the school were learning to read grade two braille though, so I just got on with it.

Forty years on I remain a keen reader - for work, study and pleasure - much preferring to read to myself using braille than to be read to in any audio format. Having said that, I nearly always have a talking book on the go for when I'm doing tedious household chores, but nothing beats reading to yourself on the train or in bed (and as a braille reader, the book can come under the duvet with you!).

I am an extremely enthusiastic advocate of braille, and am deeply saddened by its decline. Of course technological advances have offered far more possibilities to those of us who can't access print, and even the most avid braille readers generally use a combination of electronic and audio methods as well to access the written word. Far from being opposed to other methods of reading for those unable to access print, the combination of braille, electronic text and audio is very powerful, and each has its strengths. However, for a child or adult with no useful sight, what alternative is there to braille for labelling a large collection of CDs, playing a card game with the family, reading in a school assembly, accessing a map with braille labels and key, joining in with the hymns and prayers at a special church service, giving a presentation or reading the menu at Pizza Express? Whether grade one or grade two braille is used for these activities seems to me to be immaterial.

Strangely, it is because I am so convinced of the importance of braille in enriching my own life that I now believe that we should be seriously considering teaching children just grade 1 braille, certainly at primary level. If we don't take this step, I have real fears that braille - and the ability to read independently - will die a lingering death. Grade two is a complex code and, according to Marjorie Troughton "The complexities of the contracted braille code overload the brain circuits for many people and prevent them from reading and writing as well as they could". While most children will learn to read, only a small proportion will become avid readers, and carry that pleasure in the written word into adulthood. What is true of the whole population of children is also presumably true of blind children, many of whom can't wait to dump braille as their computing skills increase.

What advantages does grade two have over grade one?

Clearly the use of contractions reduces the bulk of the material, although only by about 25 per cent. While this saving is undoubtedly very valuable when trying to stuff the 6 volumes of braille that make up a slimmish paperback into your rucksack for holiday reading, or when the 20 books you own in braille already take up a large set of book shelves, it is not science fiction to suggest that braille may be mainly read in future on a portable "soft" braille line from an electronic file.

It has always been assumed that a faster reading speed can be achieved in grade two - but Scandinavian research suggests that a person who learns and continues to use grade one from the very start can achieve an equal speed to a grade two reader. Presumably this is because a fast reader recognises the shape of a word in either grade rather than decoding each character to build words as they flash under the finger pads.

When blind children were nearly all educated at special schools, virtually all the children learned and used braille, so plenty of time was built into each day for learning and practising all the grade 2 braille signs, and later working on increasing reading speed and fluency. All the teachers were braille experts, who were immersed in braille all the time, and learning support assistants were virtually unheard of. Now children are usually educated in the mainstream, where they are nearly always the only braillist. Their braille input generally comes from a visiting qualified teacher of the visually impaired, but depending on where they live, this input can be anything from as little as half a day a week to almost full time support. Between visits, braille practice, and to an extent, braille teaching, is provided by a learning support assistant, who is often only keeping a step or so ahead of the child with their own braille learning.

It is a fact that children (and adults) without sight need longer to learn and do things – because of the lack of incidental learning through sight, and the inability to take in lots of information at once when using the fingers rather than the eyes. Holding your own with sighted children in all aspects of education is a frighteningly demanding challenge, which we should do everything in our power to make less daunting.

With pre-braille skills well advanced by the end of nursery and using grade 1, a blind child could learn to read and write with the rest of their class with few extra hoops to jump through. They could then practise these reading and writing skills like their sighted peers while accessing new subjects. The time spent learning the vast amount of signs which make up grade two braille could perhaps be used more productively for practising search and scanning techniques and increasing reading speed and fluency. As it is now, time to cover grade 2 braille has to be pinched here and there from the school day, meaning youngsters are not being fully included in activities their classmates are doing, which may foster resentment and a negative feeling towards braille, especially if "fun" activities are being missed. It may also increase the feeling among the sighted children that the visually impaired child is "different", which may in turn damage the child's chance of good social inclusion.

As the complete grade two braille code is so complex, children have often not completed it by the time they hit their first SATS in Year 2, which may mean they appear less able readers and writers than they would be if they were using grade one. Too often expectations of braille users are low - and yet we have visually impaired adults with excellent brains in high places.

There has always been a problem providing books for children to read while they are in the long transition stage between grade one and grade two. As any teacher or parent knows, the best way to improve reading ability is by reading, reading and more reading - preferably of books that will engage the child's interest. Grade one and a bit books, where the "bit" can be almost infinite in variety, have to be specially produced, and aren't very sharable. If young children were taught grade one, producers such as RNIB and the National Library for the Blind could stock plenty of contemporary and classic children's books to choose from, which would hopefully encourage children to read, and thus improve their skills from a young age. The ClearVision Library already produces books in grade one or grade two, as does the Living Paintings Trust.

Grade one braille is easier for sighted people to learn. If children were taught grade one, it might be reasonable to expect that, as they moved up the primary school, their class teachers could master this basic level of braille and interact directly with the child. At present, it is more likely that a braille using child usually works through an intermediary, such as learning support staff or the teacher of the visually impaired. Work has to be transcribed from the child's braille original so that the class teacher can mark and comment on it. How inclusive it would be if, as the teacher moved around the room helping individual children, she could also comment directly on the braille user's work. Parents, siblings and friends could also learn grade one braille relatively easily, and thus support the child better.

Learning support staff would also find it easier to learn and support grade one braille. This would give them more time to help the child with other activities needing extra input - how to use and interpret tactile pictures, maps and diagrams; techniques for using scissors effectively; and organisational and mobility skills. At present, it isn't unusual for learning support staff's braille knowledge to be just a step ahead of the child they support. This isn't their fault, and as a breed, these are some of the most dedicated and conscientious people, who give a hundred and ten per cent. However, to learn braille well, children need to be presented with consistently accurate, good quality materials. Sadly, I have not infrequently seen text produced for learner braillists which is littered with mistakes, including braille contractions used wrongly, reversed characters and so on.

Even highly trained and motivated qualified teachers of the visually impaired can feel daunted when faced with a child who needs to learn to read through braille - which currently means grade two. There are only estimated to be around 850 children between four and sixteen years of age using braille in the UK, and some teachers may go for years without supporting any such youngsters. Unused skills become rusty, and confidence dwindles. Brushing up grade one skills and how to teach braille is a lot less daunting than getting to grips with grade two again, to the point where you have the confidence to teach the code. Enthusiasm is infectious and grows with confidence; that is true for the teacher and the braille learning child. There may even be the temptation to persevere with very large print rather than start braille with some children, simply because the latter task is just too daunting when grade two is the norm.

It is often thought that visually impaired people have poor spelling skills, perhaps due to using grade two braille signs without also being taught how to spell words. How difficult too for young children taking part in class spelling tests. They know, for example, the correct braille signs for "there" and "their", and which to use when, but have no idea how to spell the words. Until they start using a computer and qwerty keyboard, this doesn't matter terribly; but poor spelling doesn't do anyone any favours when taking exams, applying for jobs and so on.

Modern technology means that a braille copy of a text can be produced incredibly easily from an electronic file via an embosser. Braille translation software that turns the text into grade two braille has its quirks, and as there isn't time to proofread everything, children can be left trying to decipher weird and wonderful mistakes! A straightforward grade one braille copy would eliminate these problems.

Electronic braille notetakers and "soft braille" lines attached to computers provide the braillist with powerful tools for independent study, reading and writing. Often grade one braille is more useful when using these devices than grade two, because of the one to one correlation between computer keys and braille signs.

There is no obvious answer as to when to introduce grade two braille to the keen young grade one braille reader, if indeed this needs to be introduced at all. The very fact that some children soak up literature and actually enjoy the mechanics of reading to themselves will make the task of later learning the grade two braille signs less daunting for those youngsters. A six year research project by Marjorie Troughton found that a group of children who were initially taught grade one and then started on grade two two years later were still out performing a similar group who were taught grade two from the start.

A number of teachers are already teaching just grade one to their pupils, especially to slower learners who find reading of any kind terribly difficult. Adults who lose their sight late in life are also increasingly opting for grade one braille, which allows them to label items, read short documents (such as bank statements) and take part in social activities, while perhaps using audio for longer reading tasks.

Surely the time has come to conduct some proper, fairly large-scale studies in the UK now that the education scene for blind children has changed so radically, and technology continues to provide many more choices? The grade one versus grade two debate certainly raises people's blood pressure, but it would be very interesting to have some actual findings. Any research would have to take into account that most visually impaired people will realistically use a range of media to access the written word, but appreciating that there is no substitute for braille for some tasks - as there is none for print for those who can use it but could also use audio and electronic text. So, to quote the great Helen Keller, who relied so heavily on braille for communication: "Tradition does not validate practice. Now is the time to shake ourselves free of old ideas and traditions. WE should not look back, but rather go with youth, who always look toward tomorrow."

Claire Wilson