Category: Parent Talk
Heehee, first off, wipe that smirk off your face boys and girls for I need your help in answering a question!
Ok, I have a 14 months old little heart stealer, and I’d love to be able to read to her before bedtime.
The problem is finding interesting accessible books. I’ve acquired a dozen or so of the touch and feel ones, and had a friend of mine typed them out on a computer, as well as described the pictures which would allow me to better interact with my baby girl(i.e. teach her colours, play questions and answers once she learn how to talk…). My friend came through for me marvelously, but I haven’t done my share, that is Braille out the books.
As you all know, there’s only 24 hours in a day, much to my regrets, and, by the time I finish what needed to be done in the day, I just don’t have time or the energy needed to sit down with a dimo in hands in spite of how short these books are.
I’d be interested in hearing how you parents go about reading /finding adapted material for your kids.
Thank you for reading my post.
Kim
Not sure of the age rnage, but seedlings has a lot of children's books in braille and twin vision. Not sure if its proper for a 14 month old though. Might be worth checking out though.
I don't know who makes them, but hmy parents had these ooks that were both print and braille, for young kids. I'll ask my mom if she remembers where she got them, but they do exist. AT least I think that's what you're looking for?
Also, I think a lady named Anne Kunningham may make some books that'd do the trick.
good morning kim,
first of all congratulations to you for reading to your little girl. no age is too young to start this wonderful activity.
national braille press has a book club called childrens book of the month. their website is http://www.nbp.org. they have all kinds of books from infancy to preschool. your child would enjoy the preschool ones as well because she can understand a lot more than she can say. braille institute of america has a lot of the books. i would imagine that your local library for the blind or whatever they call it in canada should have some titles. seedlings is another great source. hope this helpps.
I have a friend who reads to her twin boys and has been since they were about 12 months. The shorts stories ffrom NPB, or seedelings are pretty nice in my opinion. and they even have books for when she gets in that toddler age. If you are on the blind parenting google groups list, you might want to ask this question there as well. I'll see if I can find out anymore information.
Congratulations by the way.
Yvonne.
Kim, I believe there are organisations both in the UK, and North America that provide books with both print and braille for young children. I'm certain there is one here in the UK that offers books for children under 5, and could investigate further if you'd like me too.
Kim, heheheh i know your situation very well. My daughter is 10 months and I started before she was born. I had all these plans of having all of her books brailled and ready to go. Blah, I think I've finished 2 of them. As others have said, seedlings.org and nbp.org are the two main ones I use. they do offer free matter for the blind shipping, but i'm not sure of overseas shipping. i've also seen some braille children's books on ebay. they are the print books, with the braille on each page. if you are interested in anything here in the u.s., i'd be more than willing to forward the free matter for the blind stuff on to you, if they won't ship directly overseas.
well I still braille alot of noah's but like you said there's just no time, so I also reccomend seedlings.org that's where alot of noah's come from. he loves it when I read to him, he gets a book before nap time and bed time. and even when we're at the park, when I pull the book out of the diaperbag he gets so happy. he's 13 months. it's never too early, good for you for reading to your little girl.
Yeah, Seedlings.org and NBP are both my best friends when it comes to books. Also, the prices are decent too. At least, they used to be. Like somebody else said, try your local Braille Library and ask for Print/Braille books.
Something I forgot tomention in the last post. Try APH.org. They might have books, too.
Thank you all for your input. the suggestions are very useful. Kev, let me check on the sites mentioned, and if I need you to look into things for me, I'll bug you then.
Pippi, You are very sweet for extending a helping hand. I'll call first to see if they would ship things to Europe. If not, I'll just wait till I get back to Canada. i really apreciate what you offered to do. Goodness know you're busy enough with a baby, I should know... heehee
seedlings also will send u 1-2 books a year for free but u have 2 sign up like 4 xmas and stuff.
Ok, first of all, how much can your child see? If your baby is absolutely totally blind then you don't have to worry about adapting picture books, and can simmply take out books from your library, have someone read them to you and then put them on Braille paper, or into a Braillenote or similar. Also you will want books with scratch and sniff stickers, various textures and books and pages that are shaped to fit the theme of the book if your child is total or partial, or even fully sighted, as these stimuli enrich the sensory experience for all children. If your child is blind or partial they will need books for them, that aren't neccessarily story books at first. That is, you can read the contracted Braille and close together words in a Dr. Suisse book that you have purchased or made yourself, but your toddler will never be able to make sense of that jumble of dots, just as a sighted child would have trouble with small, close set type in a print book,. Simple books with a visual image, tactal or olfactory experience on each page paired with just one Braille letter and then just one Braille word would be most appropriate for your child to interact with. Even if your child is sighted, it would not hurt to at least expose them to beginning Braille literacy. As for books to read to your child. I reccomend three measures: 1. Tell stories. Memorize kids books, or the gist of them, classic children's stories and make up stories from scratch for your child. 2. Get some nice, unabridged children's books to play for your baby and toddler on cassette tape or CD. 3. Use a combination of pre-Brailled books and print books that you have Brailled for yourself. I would reccomend looking at what various and sundry resources have available to borrow or purchase in terms of Braille or Braille and print kids' books, and then buy for yourself those more contemporary titles that might not yet be available. Try reviews on amazon, or try asking a friend who works in a day-care center, pre-school or kindergarden program what books have come out within the last five or ten years that they think are inovative, interesting and developmentally appropriate. For instance, they are likely to have books like the Beatriss Potter stories, but maybe not more contemporary children's books that deal with blended families, homosexual parents, interracial families, cultural diversity, disabilities, etc, that are just recently becoming readily appreciated and available. There is a really nice series of books called Lama Lama, there are a few different books that deal with very real personal issues to toddlers, that are really awsum. Lama Lama Mad at Mama and Lama Lama Misses Mama, are two of my favorites. The Fall of Freddy the Leaf and Heather Has Two Mommies are both great books as well. I'm not just another parent blathering on at you, although, admidetly, I do tend to blather. I am also in the Early Care and Education field. Good luck, and if you would like any spacific book recomendations for some of the different ages I'd be happy to help, although babies around 12 to eighteen months will love anything you read to them, whether it was written for three year olds or eight year olds.
I'm a new mother myself, my son is just 16 weeks old. i wanted to start reading to him so i could get my braille up to speed again and i thought what better pratice than to read to him out loud and get my confidents up. i am a tad shakey reading out loud to people always have been. your suggestions have been a help to me as well, so thank you very much everybody.
I'm not a mother but I remember when I was really young, I had these books with shapes embossed on them. Looking back, I now know they were made with a dot-matrix embosser, on regular braille paper so they weren't all smooth and whatnot. But as a child, I loved them and couldn't get over how they could make shapes that I could feel on paper. The book was hard cover and the first two pages were hands, if that jogs anyone's memory for a title. I also had another book with the alphabet and each page had a bunch of a single letter. I believe that one had print in it as well. Another book that I had was one of animals. It was on this really thick material, like card board, and the names of each animal were dimotaped onto the various pages. It was also hard cover. I still them all have somewhere, so if I find them, I'll let you know. I also had many talking dolls like Teddy Ruxpin, Corky, Cricket etc, and loved to listen to their stories. But if you want to do the reading on your own, I'd suggest looking online for a good children's e-text and then simply downloading it into your notetaker if you have one. There are also places that will transcribe a few pages of braille for free, and some do it at a very low cost. So that's an option with these books too. There's also
http://www.braillebookstore.com/
which has an amazingly huge selection of braille books at wonderful prices. Hope this helps and good luck with your little one.