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Early reading experiences for a tactile learner

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Jacob reading tactile bookJacob is a 4 year old who attends his local kindergarten. He has limited vision and a profound hearing impairment and explores his world through the tactile system.

Jacob is learning how to access literacy through tactile collage pictures and braille.

Here his Resource Teacher of Vision, Leanne Stubbing talks about how she supports him in his learning.

Accessing Information

Jacob reading with his teacher

Figure 1 Jacob reading with his teacher Kelly

Jacob is learning how to orientate a book, turn the pages and find the information on each page.  The books he is accessing are collage with braille from the Homai Special Formats Library.

Jacob is making connections between aural literacy and tactile literacy – which means what he is feeling is connected to the story that he is hearing.

Jacob is bringing other people’s hands towards the activity so that he can share the experience with them.  In figure 1 we can see Jacob showing the book to his teacher.

Tactile Discrimination

Finding buttons on a board

Figure 2 Jacob locating buttons on a board

Jacob needed to be able to tactually differentiate between textures in order to be able to begin reading the tactile pictures in the book.  Jacob also needed to increase his ability to tactually discriminate smaller sized objects on a page.

Jacob has had a lot of different books read to him by his teachers and parents so is familiar with storytelling and the ability to anticipate “what’s next?”.  In figure 2 Jacob is locating buttons on a board.

Possible next steps for Jacob

  • Matching and sorting objects.
  • Activities that increase the use of 2 hands.
  • Participating in finger plays and songs.
  • Searching for dropped objects.
  • Tracing marks and lines.
  • Choosing books for Jacob that have more braille in them.
  • Increasing exposure to braille in other formats.
  • Continue with activities that decrease the size of the object needed to be tactually discriminated.
  • Supplement tactile reading programme with auditory based literacy (storytelling, podcasts, audiobooks).

Teaching methods and strategies

  • Modelling reading braille/collage pictures by the adult.
  • Sitting behind the learner and using “hand under hand” to do this modeling.
  • Explaining to Teacher, Parents and Education Support Worker the similarities and differences between learning to read print versus braille.
  • Accessing collage books from Homai Special Formats Library and BLENNZ Wellington library.
  • Supplementing reading activities with activities that encourage tactile discrimination.
  • Using Objects of Reference to help with communication and literacy skills.

Learning adaptations

Jacob is very routine based so he was more interested in books after morning tea time in the library/mat area.  There were fewer children there which means he could use his hearing more functionally.

Jacob also likes to sit in a rigid beanbag so that he is upright and can have the book rest on his lap.  At home he explores books that are on his resonance tray.

Assessment

It was evident through observation that Jacob’s primary learning channel was tactual. I used the Tactual Observation Checklist to see where Jacob was at with his tactile skills and the Braille Readiness Grid to see where was in the different areas of literacy.

Both tools helped me plan the “what next” aspect of Jacob’s program.  They were also good tools to share with Jacob’s wider team so that they could understand where he was at with his literacy.

Useful Links

More information

Email us at BLENNZ Online for more information about this subject.

We will link you up with either the author of this post or another BLENNZ colleague with whom you can continue your conversation.


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