Learning Disability and Blindness

I was working with a child with SOD-Septo optic dysplasia. She had a lower IQ and struggled socially and behaviorally. If a child can talk, walk and wiggle their fingers, there is a good chance I am going to teach them braille, technology and other blind skills. For 2-3 diligent years she learned her braille and typing skills for class and her orientation and mobility skills to move around the school. She was integrated into her regular education classroom, minus the direct one on one time with me to go over the contractions she would be reading in her classroom.

One day as they began their spelling test (story told to me by the regular education teacher), every time the teacher gave the spelling word, she would notice this child reach up to the braille sheet to the left of her keyboard. The child would feel something on the page, then go to the keyboard and type the word. After a couple more words, the teacher figured out that the child was reading the braille word, then typing it on the computer. The children were then let out for recess. When the test was done, she called me in to check her thoughts. As she told me the story, I walked over to the child's computer and sure enough, the braille-spelling list was sitting on the table.

We called her in from recess and asked her about the spelling list by her computer. She wiggled, squiggled and squirmed and finally fessed up she had not studied for the test. She knew the teacher did not know braille, so she thought she could get away with cheating. She had clearly moved into the power of Braille and understood the magic that it carried. Now, we just needed her to use it for good. --smile :)