Out of Sight Teaching

Is your child a Bookshare member? Do you have a tablet? Now you can bring Bookshare to your child's tablet!  I have had multiple parents tell me that their child no longer fights them to read. These applications below allow your child to access books in the learning media that best fits their needs whether it be Braille, Large Print or Audio. Tablet : IPAD Bookshare Application : Read2Go Tablet : Android Bookshare Application: GO Read Tablet: KindleFire Bookshare Application : Darwin Reader

Introducing a CCTV to a young or old child can be intimidating.  Below are some games I enjoy playing with my students to help them become more comfortable with their CCTVs. 1.) Buy Memory at the store and play it under the CCTV. Have the child practice using the zoom function by exploring the small details on each card. 2.) Give them their favorite children's book and have them go on a scavenger hunt for certain pictures in the book. 3.) Print a hidden picture and let the students complete it under the CCTV. 4.) Draw different sized lines horizontally across a page one under another. At the end of each line, put a surprise.(I often use small edible items such as a goldfish or skittle.) Have the child practice using the CCTV to track each line to the surprise. Repeat this activity with vertical lines.  5.) Have the child read jokes, complete word searches or play Mad Lips under the CCTV. 6.)  Have the child color pictures with small details. What games or activities

As we all know, toddlers and preschool students learn best through play. When working with a student who is blind, that is the key age to get in those pre-braille skills. Below, I listed a few of my favorite pre-braille games/activities. Feel free to comment and share your child's as well!  Candyland Make Candyland tactile by assigning each color its own texture. Now your child can participate in game time with his or her peers AND is learning to match and identify textures.   (I can't take credit for this idea because I stole it from my amazing supervising teacher during student teaching.) Dominoes A couple years ago, my grandfather asked me to go through his game closet and take anything I thought my students may enjoy. I was lucky enough to come across   Pavilion Games: Double 12 Dominoes. These dominoes pieces are actually tactile which make them perfect for practicing Pre-Braille skills!  Go Fish   Create a tactile Go Fish game by attaching

This weekend, I had the privilege of attending New Jersey's Division of Parent's of Blind Children Conference: When I Grow Up . I met many incredible families and VI professionals who had much valuable information to share. Today I would like to share an Apple application that I had the opportunity to experience at the conference. For years, individuals with visual impairment have had their own ways of insuring they received the correct change when in the community. Some always used their credit card or wrote checks to avoid the need for change. Others requested their change in all $1 dollar bills so that they could count their change back to themselves. Now, with the LookTel Money Reader Application, individuals with visual impairment can easily determine if they received the correct change. The LookTell Money Reader uses an Apple devices's camera to instantly identify currency and speak its value.  When looking for a video of the application to share, I fou

As a TVI or a parent of a Braille reader who is partially sighted, you may find that it can often be difficult to convince your child/student to read Braille. Below are some games/activities I use to make Braille fun for students who are partially sighted. TWINGO Players: 2-4  Materials: Twister Board Twister Spinner High Contrast Tape 24 BINGO Chips or Math Counters How to Make TWINGO: 1. Use black tape to box off 4 Braille cells on a Twister Board. (The picture above shows 1/2 of a TWINGO Board) 2. Put at least 25 BINGO chips or Math counters in a zip lock bag. How to Play TWINGO: 1. The teacher/parent assigns each player a contraction and a section of the TWINGO board.  2. The teacher/parent spins the spinner and calls out the color it landed on. 3. If a player need that color to build their contraction, they should put a chip/counter on their board. 4. The teacher/parent should continue calling colors until a player is able to build their contraction. The first