Braille Brain: A Training Program to Promote Literacy and STEM Instruction

Submitted by Charlotte Cushman on Oct 17, 2021

Professor Cheryl Kamei-Hannan and a team from CalState LA have created Braille Brain, which is a training program funded by the US Department of Education, Rehabilitation Services Agency. The overall goal of the project is to promote literacy and STEM instruction provided by pre-service and in-service TSVIs, paraprofessionals, parents and educational team members. This grant is in year 3 of a 5-year project.  STEM Best Practices are in development and will be released soon.

Braille Brain is a new microsite on Paths to Literacy and it consists of three main components:

  1. Braille training materials that focus on UEB literary braille and Nemeth Braille
  2. Braille reading and writing assessment
  3. Instructional materials and evidence-based practices that support braille literacy and STEM instruction

A girl places pegs in a swing cell while looking at a book with print letters of the alphabet and corresponding braille dots.

Teacher Tips and Evidence-Based Best Practices

This section of the Braille Brain microsite includes numerous videos of professionals in the field presenting strategies that teachers can use to further develop their student’s braille literacy skills.  A number of experts in the field share video lectures and demonstrations on topics of particular interest.  The experts are Liz Barclay, Anna Swenson, Tessa McCarthy, and Stephanie Herlich.

Topics include:

We invite you to explore this wonderful new resource!

Braille Brain collage