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
Click here for: Ruth Paget's Amazon Books
