A Parent's Perspective on the Importance of Braille for Success in Life

Abstract

When my daughter, Cara, was 3-1/2 years old, she had some remaining vision in one of her eyes. However, her vision was unstable due to a partial retinal detachment and various treatments she had received for retinal cancer. Her prognosis for improved sight was poor. Despite continual monitoring and medical treatment, her useful vision was decreasing. Cara attended a preschool program in the neighborhood, at a school where I taught half days. The program she was enrolled in provided social opportunities for her with non-disabled children her own age. These social experiences were very important for her. However, I became aware of a need for a different school setting for Cara. The schoolwork was causing her increased frustration due to her limited vision. Some of the skills she had developed were decreasing. She could no longer identify colors, numbers, and letters with accuracy. Also, Cara would stumble over toys and objects during playtime, and often bumped into other children or objects in the room. It was obvious she needed some classroom accommodations and modifications that she could not get in a private neighborhood preschool. I looked for a school program that would best meet her needs, spent some time talking to various doctors, and called the school for blind students in my state and the local school district to find out what programs were available for a child who was rapidly losing vision. After comprehensive educational evaluations, and considerable investigation on my part, I enrolled my daughter in a preschool program at a public school that had a full-time teacher of students who are visually impaired in a resource room. Cara's resource classroom had five preschool students with one teacher and a classroom aide (now known as a paraeducator). Almost immediately, Cara began to learn tactile discrimination skills and the fine motor skills that would prove to be very helpful for future braille reading. She also began to learn about protective extension used in travel and other techniques, such as trailing walls. The orientation and mobility (O&M) specialist offered me some basic O&M instruction and showed me the techniques Cara was learning. I was very excited to have these specialized teachers work with me and increase my understanding on how to teach Cara some very specific activities and techniques designed for children with visual impairments. INTRODUCING BRAILLE Cara loved time, and every night I would read a book to her before bedtime. I realized her vision was failing and soon she would not be able to identify the pictures and letters in her favorite books. This realization made me very sad, knowing how much she valued books. I could see her frustration as her sight diminished to the point that she could not see the print or pictures very well anymore. Her resource room teacher explained that it would be a good idea to introduce Cara to braille even though we would still encourage her to use her remaining vision to identify letters and numbers. I followed the recommendations of the teacher of students with visual impairments and worked on prebraille skills with Cara. We explored tactile discrimination skills and fine motor skills. Like most parents who have no previous knowledge of braille and its usefulness, I was clueless. I had occasionally observed adults who were blind reading braille books or magazines when we were waiting for an appointment at the eye clinic of the University of Illinois. I was amazed by how rapidly their fingers could fly over the pages of dots. LEARNING BRAILLE TOGETHER Because the university programs that offered braille instruction in my state were too far from where we lived (there were no distance-learning programs then), I sought out a place where I could take courses in braille. Fortunately, I found a community college program that offered braille classes in its adult education program. In my classes, I learned about the braille cell and was absolutely amazed! …