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How to set up a column operation

Teaching braille: Lesson Plan 2

A visually impaired child can learn to do columnar operations in the same way as their sighted peers. But teachers need to make sure that students have all the prerequisites to do so.

Teachers often don’t suggest column operation to their blind students because it’s very visual. But mental arithmetic is also very complicated for a blind child and requires considerable cognitive skills. With the right preparation and tactile equipment like LEGO Braille Bricks, it is possible to carry out an operation in columns.

But before teaching how to do an addition, the teacher must be sure that the student has all the 
skills needed to succeed.
What do students need to be able to do before they start setting up an operation?

A person assembling colorful LEGO bricks labeled with letters, numbers, or symbols on a grey LEGO baseplate. One hand places a red brick, while the other stabilizes the baseplate on a wooden surface.
  • Understand the concepts of hundreds, tens and ones.

  • Know how to read and write multi-digit numbers.

  • Be able to follow a line or column with both hands.


This last basic skill is specific to visual impairment. All too often, children fail to perform operations because they are unable to follow lines and columns correctly.


A lesson plan allows the teacher to work on these skills so that the child can be successful in the particular task of making a column addition.
The following activities will help the child make progress while having fun.

1. TIC TAC TOE
This tactile adaptation of the famous game allows work on concepts of spatial organisation and orientation in a grid.

2. MYSTERY NUMBER
This activity builds on the concepts of the numbering table. It ensures that the basic elements of numbering are in place.

3. UPSIDE DOWN NUMBERS 
By playing with 3-digit numbers, the child becomes familiar with the concept of number.

Once they have practiced these 3 activities, the students are ready to learn how to carry out operations in columns. This is done in the same way as with the sighted pupils in the class. The vocabulary used should be as precise as possible: columns, rows, tens and hundreds. We suggest leaving spaces between each brick to ease their manipulation.

It can be tricky for blind students
to write an operation,
especially when your sighted peers can use
a paper to write operation in column.
First thing, you take the number sign
and you place it at the top left corner
of the baseplate to indicate that it is a numerical baseplate.
Then it’s like on paper.
Let’s take an example. 43 plus 15.
And I leave a space between each line and rows. Equals…
3 + 5 = 8
4 + 1 = 5
43 + 15 = 58
We can also make more difficult additions.
Let’s take another example.
27 plus 38.
7+ 8 = 15
So I have 5
and one tens.
1 + 2 + 3 = 6
27 + 38 = 65