Blog Posts

Screenshot of Bring Your Mom to Braille Day video
Posted by Liz Eagan
Pictures and videos are an amazing way to share progress, as well as activities, behavioral concerns, strategies and more with parents and teachers. I have found that pictures and videos help parents know what we are doing with their child. ...



A girl and her teacher doing the prayer position
Posted by Linda Hagood
Yoga is rich in teaching opportunities, and can be used to support learning in a wide variety of skill areas-- improving movement patterns and spatial concepts, social interactions, emotional regulation, and language and literacy skills. It is a perfect...



Back of girl's head with words "Today is"
Posted by Peg Palmer
This week I arrived at a school just as Justine, a beautiful little four-year-old girl, arrived off her bus. Justine was recently diagnosed with cortical visual impairment (CVI) and is in Phase III on the CVI Range (Roman-Lantzy). She has some gross motor...



Robo brailler
Posted by Linda Hagood
Through the years, I have co-created many stories with many kids—some with autism, some who were blind, some who were deafblind, and some who were just Interesting Kids (without any diagnoses at all!). Sometimes we just make up a story together, other...



Ann Cunningham demonstrates how to add sound to tactile images.
Posted by Ann Cunningham
I always have print and braille labels with my artwork but sometimes being able to access audio files is preferable. I would like to share the methods I am going to be using at my next exhibit. There is a broad range of solutions. If you have some solutions...



Apples hanging on a tree
Posted by Cheryl Kamei Hannan
My interest in bringing storytelling to life grew out of a growing interest in Waldorf-inspired education.  While story boxes have been around in our field for many years, I wanted to try to create a full multi-sensory experience to bring stories to life...



Pages from experience book: popcorn and carnival necklace.
Posted by Charlotte Cushman
Purpose of Experience Books Personal book is motivating How many of you scrapbook or keep a journal to remember important events/people in your lives?  An experience book is a way for a student with deafblindness to record such...



Adult using Perkins brailler
Posted by Penny Rosenblum
The title for this post comes from an experience I had recently.  As many of us do, I posted about that experience on Facebook.  My language was casual as this posting was intended for my “friends” (Okay, many of my friends are also in...



Image of graph with braille and tactile graphics
Posted by Belinda Rudinger
There is NEVER enough time in the school day for everything I want to create and accomplish for my students with visual impairments, so having an assortment of low tech options and quick fixes is essential. Making Notebooks with Reference Concepts and...



Liam drawing at the table
Posted by Liamsmom
I have two boys, Liam (age 8, deafblind, braille reader) and Finn (age 5, typical vision and hearing). I remember when someone first suggested that I expose Liam to scribbling and art, I thought they were crazy!  It made no sense to me at the time that a...



A girl with a reflective expression
Posted by Marnee Loftin
Maria is a second grader who currently uses braille for most of her learning, but supplements the materials with audiotapes.  She was quite successful in first grade and was often complimented on her amazing memory.  Maria could often quote stories...



Detailed view of the cell bulletin board
Posted by JFBamber
When my braille room followed my 5th grade student to a new area of the building, she quickly noted that there was a bulletin board hanging in our new classroom. As we chatted, she shared that she had never had bulletin boards that she could "see"...



Carrot car
Posted by Linda Hagood
I’ve been helping kids tell their imaginative stories for almost twenty years.  I once believed the myth that kids who have autism, and sometimes kids who have visual impairment or deafblindness, are not creative—that they are rigid and...



A student lies on the floor and writes on the underside of a desk above her.
Posted by Anna C. Gayle
In 2011, I was a poster presenter at the Getting in Touch with Literacy conference held in Louisville, Kentucky. I presented on creating tactile memory for understanding.  My information came from a lesson I had used in class for reading comprehension of...



A young girl sitting in a chair with her arms up in the air
Posted by Jodi Floyd
Systematic building of skills in toddlers and pre-schoolers will facilitate learning to read and write braille in the future! Skills to build include: concepts such as same and different, tactual awareness and perception, and fine motor such as exploring...



Two young girls outside holding hands
Posted by Debra Goodsir
I’m a TVI in NSW, Australia, and started working with a girl named Sarah halfway through her first year of Kindergarten. She is in a regular class with a class teacher and a wonderful teacher aid, Leanne Prior, who has been working with her since she...



AA boy measures salt.
Posted by Liamsmom
My son Liam (age 8, deafblind, braille reader) has always loved to help me in the kitchen. When he was younger I started out with small things, like putting dishes away from the dishwasher that were at his level or I would let him put his fish sticks in the...



A girl putting braille paper into her Perkins braillewriter
Posted by Penny Rosenblum
I  mean, why should your child bother learning braille, right?  There are screen readers, audio books, and somebody can always read textbooks to your child at home.  Maybe you’re thinking your child can just pick up information in class...



Look under bag
Posted by Renee Ellis
Cardboard is my friend. Thank goodness for Amazon, UPS and FedEx. I look forward to a delivery because I use the boxes to create books and activities for my students with visual impairments.  I like things that don't cost much that I can send home...



pages of a book labeling the parts of a beaver, one is in braille and has tactile objects and the other is large print and has a black and white picture
Posted by Liamsmom
I am the mother of a sweet and busy third grade boy named Liam. He is deafblind and a braille reader. I have been wanting to create a book for awhile now where the objective was to focus on the conventions of a nonfiction book. I wanted the conventions to...



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