JVIB:Literacy:Beginning Braille

## Beginning Braille: A Whole Language-based Strategy

G. Lamb

Abstract: This article describes the whole-language philosophy of teaching reading and writing and its application to teaching braille reading. It presents examples of activities that are an effective vehicle for enhancing the development of early reading behaviors in children who use braille and that integrate the critical components of literacy learning with the special skills that are necessary for reading by touch.

The whole-language view of literacy learning, based on the psycholinguistic theory of Smith (1973) and Goodman (1973), has dramatically changed the way many teachers view the reading process and how children learn to read. According to this view, the acquisition of literacy is a natural process-an extension of oral language learning-for all children. That is, children learn to read and write in the same way as they learn to speak and listen.

Although the process is natural, it is not innate. Therefore, children learn best when teachers are cognizant of the conditions under which children learn to talk and actively promote these conditions in the classroom. Structuring an effective learning environment is based on children's immersion . . . in demonstrations of our language-written and oral; ... of skills, processes, techniques, genre, concepts, vocabulary ... [and] a high expectation of children's capabilities and the responsibility they will take for their own learning. Positive feedback is a necessary part of this environment as children ... practise their developing skills and knowledge in relevant and meaningful ways. (Brown & Camboume, 1992, p. 192)

Whole language is thus a way of thinking about how children learn, rather than an approach to teaching. In its broadest sense, it integrates learning in the classroom with the child's life. Within this framework, the four modes of language (speaking, listening, reading, and writing) are integrated, and each mode serves as a medium for the development of the others.

Whole language-based literacy

programs

In a whole language-based literacy program, the language is kept whole and in context, so all aspects of it can support each other and meaning is maintained. Since children learn to read by engaging in real reading, the use of real language is integrated into early learning activities. As Yatvin (1991) noted, any teaching method that breaks down language into meaningless pieces, offers no motivation, and divorces tasks from the context makes learning more difficult and less worth doing.

Reading instruction proceeds from the meaning of the whole context to the meaning of sentences, words, and letters, or, as Miller (1985, p. 3) put it, "from the simple to the complex." Progress is viewed as an accumulation of successive approximations to mature functioning, rather than as mastering a sequence of hierarchical subskills. Readers exhibit the characteristic behaviors of each stage of the process-emergent, early, and fluent reading according to the difficulty of the text they are reading and their facility with the reading process.

According to this view, the concept of a predetermined point at which a child is ready for reading is inappropriate. That is, there is no particular day in a child's life or degree of knowledge that a child must have when it can be said that he or she has gone from being unable to read to a state of being ready to read (Smith, 1978). Furthermore, unlike traditional reading readiness programs for sighted children that focus on the development of visual perception skills, whole language-based programs concentrate on the development of language and concepts based on direct, personal experience and experiences with real literature.

PREREQUISITES TO READING

The prerequisites, or literacy set, necessary for developing reading skills in this framework are as follows:

Mastery of oral language, especially receptive language. The reader's facility with language or intuitive knowledge of the language enables him or her to make sense of a passage because the structural cues are consistent with each other and with the reader's internalized sense of the structure of the language.

Conceptual framework to deal with messages in the text. For reading to be meaningful, the reader must be able to relate what he or she is reading to his or her experience. Therefore, it is essential for the reader to have a background of experience and a conceptual framework for understanding the meaning of and the concepts involved in the message being transmitted.

Immersion in oral and written language. In their everyday experiences, young sighted children are exposed to numerous forms of written text, including books, signs, and advertisements. They also have many opportunities to witness the communicative aspects of written texts, such as shopping lists, newspapers, greeting cards, and letters. Therefore, many young sighted children have a well-developed literacy set and actually read and write before they begin school.

Braille literacy

Some delay in translating new theories and strategies used with sighted children into relevant practices for blind children is inevitable. Therefore, it is not surprising that the impact of such research in the 1970s and 1980s is only now being felt in teaching braille literacy. Thus, in both the literature and pedagogy of teaching braille reading and writing, the terms pre-reading and pre-braille are still prevalent. Furthermore, preoccupation with the mechanical aspects of reading by touch and the notion that tactile perception is a precursor to braille literacy are still evident, although increasing reference is being made to the role of language and experience in the development of early literacy concepts. In this regard, Danielson and Lamb (1983, p. 10) stated that their rationale for developing a whole-language braille reading program was based upon the notion that despite the obvious differences in the mode of sensory perception and the unique characteristics of the braille code itself, the reading process and the skills required for success in reading are the same for all children.

In addition, these authors made the following observations:

- Braille readers and print readers are primarily language users and undergo similar processes for extracting meaning from text.
- The differences between the graphic and tactile codes are not sufficient to interfere with the strategies that children use to learn to read.
- The whole-language philosophy is an appropriate framework for developing cue systems of information in braille readers.
- Although the braille code involves a structured complexity, it does not necessitate a predetermined sequence for introducing braille characters, contractions, and so forth. Despite the similarities between visual and tactile learning and the way sighted children and blind children acquire literacy skills, children who are blind cannot learn by visual imitation; have fewer opportunities than do sighted children for incidental learning; may acquire different concepts; have limited experiences, including those with books; and have less access to published materials and role models for reading.
- The best predictors for "reading readiness" are tasks that are similar to reading, and the best preparation for reading is the teaching of reading.
- Visual, auditory, and tactile perceptual training is not a prerequisite for the development of initial literacy skills. Like their sighted counterparts, many young blind children have adequate perceptual skills for learning to read.

TRAINING IN TACTILE PERCEPTION

A number of researchers (see, for example, Mangold, 1977; Olsen, 1976) have described effective methods for enhancing the special skills needed to develop tactile perception and to become fluent in braille reading and writing. These skills include the following:

1 . tracking horizontally from left to right (and later, vertical tracking for reading graphs and similar material)

2. a light touch, with slightly curved, relaxed fingers

3. fluent, rhythmic hand movements

4. the use of as many fingers as possible

5. the use of two hands, both simultaneously and independently

6. an efficient return sweep from one line to the next.

For totally blind children, the tactile modality is obviously one of the major means of learning about the world, so it is essential that they develop fine motor skills and good searching and scanning skills not only to learn braille reading and writing, but to help them explore and make sense of their world as efficiently as possible. Because these skills are so important, for many children they will have been the focus of early childhood practices and will have been developed in the context of play, daily living skills, and other activities.

However, reading is essentially a language task, so it is within this context that teachers need to investigate strategies and resources for fostering early braille literacy skills. Therefore, early braille reading activities must be language centered, experience based, and associated with meaningful text. To be relevant for the reading process, training in tactile perception must be concerned with language, must be meaningful to a child, and should take into account the special skills required for reading by touch.

Furthermore, although good habits need to be fostered early, it is not necessary to isolate the skills just mentioned for specific training outside the language-literacy program. The whole language-based classroom offers many opportunities for acquiring these skills and an appropriate context for simultaneously developing concepts about literacy.

TEACHING STRATEGY AND SAMPLE ACTIVITIES

The teaching strategy described here is compatible with the whole-language philosophy and was devised to be linked with the special skills required for reading by touch. It involves the use of braille symbols as simulated, and sometimes as accurate, text to "map" a published text or dictated writing. The text is written (initially by the teacher), then read (perhaps co-actively), and then used as the basis for a number of activities that link the special skills of tactile reading with real reading and writing.

The example presented next involves the published text, The Three Billy Goats Gruff. The activities for this example have been used with beginning braille readers and writers and are authentic examples of children's work. In this instance, the story may have been read to the child and a chosen section brailled and perhaps read co-actively before the following activities were implemented:

1. Text (read co-actively): "The big billy goat went over the bridge to eat the grass."
2. Patterns used to represent key elements:

b,idg. gras.

3. Sample activities

You be the billy goat and cross the bridge. Tiptoe over the bridge, so the troll can't hear you [encourages left-right tracking and a light touch].

Can you get across the bridge without the troll catching you? Go quickly and lightly [encourages speed and a light touch].

Where's the troll? Can you find him? [develops the concept of the word and scanning skills].

What does troll start with? Let's write the letter "t." What other words do you know that start with "t"? [develops sound-symbol relationships and early writing].

Critical features of activities

Regardless of the level of complexity, all activities are characterized by the following essential features:

- The child learns that the essence of reading is the pleasure gained from understanding the meaning of the text and illustrations.
- The medium used is braille, rather than simulated braille (such as string or a ribbon). Thus, from the beginning, the child learns that the braille dot conveys the message, that he or she must make the dots say something, and that knowing what the dots say (the message in the text) comes largely from experience with the subject matter and facility with the language.
- Braille is confirmed as a viable medium for conveying a message.
- The hand and finger movements required for braille reading are developed before detailed perception is required.

- Concepts of reading and writing, as well as the conventions of written text (for instance, the idea that what can be said can be written down and read back and the subtle beginnings of such concepts as words and spaces and punctuation), can be developed in this context.
- The development of the following skills is facilitated: one-to-one correspondence, discrimination of different-same symbols, letter and word matching, and identification of words.
- A semblance of real reading is created, and opportunities for modeling the reading and writing process are provided.
- When dictated stories are used, the child's language and experiences are the bases for the message, so meaning and motivation are high and feelings of self-worth are conveyed.

The use of dictated stories

Both published texts and the children's personal writing can be used with this technique. Children's dictated stories are an accessible context in which to develop the special skills discussed earlier while integrating reading and writing. The imaginative presentation of the dictated story will capture the child's interest, and the individuality of the presentation allows the teacher to match the task accurately to the child's level of skill.

Clearly, the nature of the activity and the symbols that are chosen will be determined by the skills that the child has already attained. The difficulty of the activity can be increased by including words or letters, rather than patterns, and by requiring a higher level of discrimination for the activity. Sequential elements can be added, so the activity more closely resembles reading a real book. The nine exercises presented in Box 1, which are based on children's personal experiences and language, illustrate these aspects. These braille examples were created in a 24-point font and were reduced by 50 percent; some of them were condensed for the journal's format. They were produced on the Macintosh LC using Braillit fonts for the braille and the overwriting. For the overwriting, contractions are highlighted in capital letters, for example,

b EA CH

Capitalization is also indicated (Cap).

References

Brown, H. & Cambourne, B. (1992). Evaluation in the whole language classroom, In J. Turbill, A. Butler, & B. Cambourne (Eds.), Frameworks: Theories of Others. Wollongong, Australia: fllawarra Technical Corporation.

Danielson, E. & Lamb, G. (1983). Beginning reading/writing for braille or print readers: A teacher's guide to the psycholinguistic viewpoint. Melbourne: Royal Victorian Institute for the Blind. Goodman, K. (1973). The psycholinguistic nature of the reading process. Detroit: Wayne State University Press.

Mangold, S. (1977). The Mangold developmental program for tactile perception and braille letter recognition. Castro Valley, CA: Exceptional Teaching Aids.

Miller, D. (1985). Reading comes naturally: A mother and her blind child's experiences. Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness, 79, 1-4.

Olsen, M. (1976). Faster braille reading: Preparation at the reading readiness level. New Outlook, 70, 81.

Smith, F. (1973). Psycholinguistics and reading. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.

Smith, F. (1978). Understanding reading: A psycholinguistic analysis of reading and learning to read (2nd ed.). New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.

Yatvin, J. (1991). Developing a whole language program for a whole school. Virginia State Reading Association.

Gayle Lamb, M.A., lecturer in special education, School of Studies in Disabilities, Faculty of Health and Behavioral Science, Deakin University, 221 Burwood Highway, Burwood 3125, Victoria, Australia; E-mail: gayle@deakin.edu.au.