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Monday, January 14, 2019

French Club: Learning to Read Braille Letters and Numbers - 6 Activities Suggested by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

French Club:  Learning to Read Braille Letters and Numbers – 6 Activities Suggested by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget


Military Background of Braille:


The Braille international alphabet and its ancestor of night-writing for military use were both invented by the French.

Captain Charles Barbier de la Serre (1767 – 1847) developed night-writing to communicate field orders at night to avoid revealing field positions with lanterns for reading.  As a member of Napoleon’s (1789 – 1821) army, Barbier had also seen soldiers killed for using lanterns at night for general reading as well.

The night-writing system he developed used 12 embossed dots that a single touch could not read at once according to the American Council for the Blind’s history website page.

Development of Braille for the Blind:

Louis Braille (1809 - 1852), a student at the National Institute for the Blind in Paris (France), further developed Barbier’s alphabet, which was later popularized by the French as an international alphabet for the visually impaired. 

The Braille alphabet is still in use today for the visually impaired.

Louis Braille’s alphabet used a 6-dot, embossed system that allowed a single finger touch to encompass a letter.  The blind read left-to-right in rows as sighted people at speeds that the American Council for the Blind records up to 125 words per minute.

Activities

The following activities have short instructions, but are long to master.

Activity 1 – Read about Famous Blind People

In Greek drama, the blind seer Tiresias makes appearances in Oedipus the King (Oedipus Rex) and Antigone.

Helen Adams Keller (1880 – 1968) – author and first deaf-blind person to earn a bachelor of arts

Stevie Wonder (1950 - ) – singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer

Mario Bocelli (1958 - ) – singer, songwriter, and producer

Activity 2 – Letter and Number Shape Recognition – Day – English and/or French pronunciation

You need a Braille Alphabet and Numbers Panel to do this activity.  (These cost $15.99 on Amazon as of January 12, 2019.)

Place the index finger of your right hand on top of the letter “A.”  Note how it feels on the left of your finger and then the right.

Glide you index finger left to right over the character to memorize how it feels.

Note memorization cues in a notebook.

Do this for the letter “B” as well.

Not memorization cues in a notebook.

Activity 3 – Noting Differences - Day

In particular, note differences between the letters “A” and “B” in your notebook.

Then, do the letters “B” and “C” the same way until you go through the entire alphabet.

Do this until you have the alphabet memorized in daylight.

Activity 4 – Letter and Number Recognition – Night

Start somewhere in the middle of the board and try and identify a letter at night.

Take a guess.

If you are mistaken, use a flashlight and note the similarities and differences between the letters you guess wrong and the actual letter in your notebook. 

Start with the second row of letters and see if you can identify a letter. 

Go through all 26 letters and ten numbers until you can name all 26 letters and 10 numbers at night.

Going left-to-right should help with memorization, because that is how reading is set up.

Activity 5 – Easy Practical Braille Reading

There are some elementary exercises to “read” braile once you know letters and numbers to practice it.  More advanced reading should be taught by certified teachers.:

-read braille characters in elevators
-read braille character next to hotel doors
-use playing cards with braille

Activity 6 – Think of Ways to Use Braille for Fun and Life Skills

The American Council for the Blind lists some areas on their website where the visually impaired would like to have products developed that do not exist yet such as “braille” translations for:

-board games
-cookbooks
-restaurant menus

These activities might encourage students who master basic letter and number recognition to become braille teachers or special education teachers.

The following books has games to help learn Braille as well:

Guidelines and Games for Teaching Efficient Braille Reading by Myrna R. Olson in collaboration with Sally S. Mangold Ph.D by AFBPress (American Federation for the Blind Press - ISBN 978-0-89128-105-4)


By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Click here for:  Ruth Paget's Amazon Books