Shared storybook reading with caregivers is one of the first and most important book experiences of children with visual impairments.
It can be a wonderful way for parents or caregivers to enjoy an activity together, while also helping the child to...
Emergent Literacy
Posted by Liamsmom
Create your own books and activities for the blind or deafblind child in your life!
Liam’s story
A brief summary (very brief) of our Liam’s story: When my son was 2 ½ years old, he became sick with meningitis, the end result...
Posted by Katie Armstrong
In a strategy posted by Charlotte called Labeling the Environment in an Accessible Format, she talked about texture symbols and object symbols. Name symbols are something that I have used in my preschool classroom for years! This practice is an easy...
Posted by Charlotte Cushman
Updated on May 2022
Using iPads can be an important educational tool with children who are blind or have a visual impairment, including those who are deafblind or who have multiple disabilities. This post includes ideas for using an iPad as an assessment...
Posted by Steve Perreault
Marcela Viviana Toscano, especialista en educación temprana de la provincia de Buenos Aires, Argentina, creó una presentación de powerpoint sobre un proyecto de alfabetización temprana para las familias. La presentación...
Posted by Steve Perreault
Marcela Viviana Toscano, an early intervention specialist from the province of Buenos Aires in Argentina, created a powerpoint presentation about an early literacy project for families. The presentation includes information about the importance of...
Posted by Charlotte Cushman
When Dr. Lilli Nielsen died last month, the fields of blindness, deafblindness, and the education of children with multiple disabilities lost a great friend and teacher. Dr. Nielsen was born in Denmark in 1926, and worked as a preschool teacher, a...
Posted by Penny Rosenblum
I am often asked for information about how to support the development of braille skills and braille literacy at home and I put together a packet for a conference a few years ago with some of my favorite resources. The packet, which can be downloaded...
Posted by Liamsmom
I adapted Goldilocks and the Three Bears for my 4-year-old son who is deaf-blind.
2 Bears:
I wanted to create a story box for my son that was based off of a classic children's story. My son is beginning to learn ASL. I chose the...
Posted by Katie Armstrong
Handwriting Without Tears (now called "Learning Without Tears") is a multi-sensory writing curriculum created for early childhood through 5th grade. I have been using the pre-school program called, Get Set For School, in my early...
Posted by Jaime Brown
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle is a classic loved by children and adults. This is a great story for teaching many topics and concepts, including big/little, life cycle, colors and foods. Teachers can adapt the story to meet varying...
Posted by Diane Brauner
I have created a number of emerging literacy kits for TVIs to use to help young children to develop pre-braille skills. Each kit includes print/braille books with tactile pictures, real objects, activities, interactive concept alphabet book,extensive...
Posted by Jaime Brown
This month we are learning about friendship and how to have fun with our friends. We are reading two books in class and many of our activities are based upon the stories. My students are learning how to participate in parallel and cooperative...
Posted by Liamsmom
Concept book:
My 3-year-old son Liam, who is newly deaf/blind (lost his sight and hearing to Meningitis a year ago) is learning ASL and picking up on sign language very quickly. The next set of books I wanted to make for my...
Posted by Laurie Hudson
My three-year-old student with Cortical Visual Impairment (CVI) has difficulty finding items unless they have solid, contrasting backgrounds. I have been using the CVI Complexity Sequences Kit with him, written by Christine Roman and...
Posted by Katie Armstrong
These activities are designed to support fine motor skills, pre-literacy skills, math, and overall independence in the preschool children I teach. I have been slowly but surely introducing more independent work activities into my classroom and try to...
Posted by Katie Armstrong
Is it Winter or is it Fall? In Phoenix, Arizona it is hard to tell! In my classroom it is Winter, however when you look at all the leaves under the tree on the playground you would think it was Fall!
Hot and Cold
Here are a few ways that we...
Posted by Liamsmom
My son became deafblind a year ago from Meningitis when he was 2 and 1/2 years old. Before he became sick, one of his favorite things was to be read to and look at books. I didn't want that to stop just because he lost his sight and...
Posted by Laurie Hudson
This activity is a way to make braille fun for emergent readers!
I have a collection of about 20 balls...all different sizes and shapes and textures and weights, including a tennis ball, a fuzzy ball, a football, a spiky ball, a bumpy ball, a koosh...
Posted by Katie Armstrong
By Katie Armstrong, Preschool Teacher at the Foundation for Blind Children, Phoenix, Arizona
(This blog post is a follow-up to Story Box Ideas for Holiday Stories)
I teach in a preschool classroom for students with visual impairments, and love every second...