Adventures in Braille: A good day

Abby has been STRUGGLING with reading Braille.  She knows most of her letters but when it comes time to feel them she has been struggling a lot. She is having a hard time telling one letter from the next and when its come to feeling the letters her letter recognition was much lower then when she writes them with the Brailler.  It was making her become very unexcited about Braille. I had gotten some braille flash cards with just the letters on them and I first started having her practice with them.. Better It was less stressful but she seemed to loose interest quickly. She still seemed to struggle. A member from an online group of  parents of blind/visually impaired children gave me this amazing idea.

She recommend making a large tackle version of a braille cell with a 6 muffin baking pan and 6 tennis balls.

Now you can take away and add balls to represent different letters. Not only is it really easy for Abby to feel she can see it so she gets the reinforcement two different ways.

So with the flashcards we made up a game.  I would hand her a card.  If she could recognized the letter and recreate it in the pan she would get 3 points. If she didn't know the letter but could recreate it in the pan she would get a point. If she could recognize the letter once I fixed it for her in the pan she would get a point.  Abby is very completive. She breezed through all the card and did better then she ever has.  She had a smile on her face during the whole time. She now has a score to 'beat'.

(picture of Abby playing the game)