Braille
Battle of Numbers
Pick a higher number and win the battle!
Teaching braille in inclusive environments
With letters, numbers and symbols printed in black, sighted classmates and adults can play and learn simultaneously with blind and visually impaired children.
My advice is don’t
be afraid and use a lot of common sense.
“So in this game, you’ve got bricks.
And what can you see on the bricks?
Just equal signs okay?”
Very quickly
you start to think how can I help them.
But there are lots of very simple things
you can do.
Just putting someone next to them
who can say what they need
rather than saying to yourself,
oh, they won’t be able to do it.
But you mustn’t worry
that they won’t do everything.
They’ll always
take something away with them.
“It does make ten.
So you win.
So you take the bricks, take them off.”
Often people say to me,
oh, I don’t want to do that.
For example, on the geography, because I
show them pictures, but it doesn’t matter.
They just need someone to describe what’s
in the picture and then they listen.
In any case,
they have to listen to people talking.
They have to learn like that,
and then they’ll have
their written document,
which will be different, and that’s that.
I don’t think you should say that
unless everything is perfectly adapted,
I can’t do it. That’s just not true.
I think you have to do it
because it’s never exactly right anyway.
So you have to get going,
and then you see how it goes.
In many countries, inclusion is mandatory in schools. But beyond accepting an obligation, teachers have to work out how to do it. Most mainstream teachers don’t have the experience or training to welcome a disabled student into the classroom.
Teaching braille through play and academic skills to a visually impaired student in the middle of a classroom of sighted children isn’t that complicated:
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Goals must be realistic
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Teachers can follow basic advice or training.
Children with disabilities have needs, but above all they have potential, and the school must allow them to express this potential. Their presence in the classroom, with adapted pedagogy, can benefit other classmates.
For example, manipulation rather than verbal explanation may help a child with learning difficulties.
Try these activities with VI and sighted children together
“People think, the child in a mainstream classroom, how can they do the same kind of things? The LEGO Bricks really help. It’s easy for their peers to do the same activity. Whatever it is.”
Lorraine Wynn, specialist teacher adviser for visual impairment