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From: Pat.Goltz@f3.n300.z1.fidonet.org (Pat Goltz)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: Re: Braille
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Date: 12 Jan 90 02:16:20 GMT
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Hi, Gene!
  That was a neat description of how you helped Allen learn Braille. Isee 
we have another Montessorian among us! These are precisely the kinds of 
methods I prefer to use. They work quite well. The reason most young kids 
don't learn things at early ages is that we don't know how to teach them; 
NOT because they have limitations of their own. My theory is that a baby 
has maximum potential, and it begins to decay unless effort is made to 
help him do something with it. The more you do with it at an earlier age, 
the brighter he will be when he grows up. I've worked with kids a lot 
with this idea in mind, and we have done some experiments, and gotten the 
most remarkable results. For example, I had each of my kids reaching and 
grasping objects within hours of birth (except the oldest, who was born 
before I started this, my LD, who did it at 3 weeks, and my youngest, 
who, it turns out, doesn't like to let people know what he knows: he did 
it at 4 days when I wasn't looking, out of a total of 7, and also the 
newborns of several friends of mine.) Normally babies are not expected to 
do this until they are 3-4 MONTHS of age. More on this when I have more 
time.
  I can sympathize with your inability to find children's books in 
Braille. I like to study foreign languages, and the way I like to do it 
to begin with is to read children's books. I have a limited budget, and 
this means buying used books. Although the bookstores have racks full of 
books in foreign languages, I am lucky if I find five or six children's 
books in all foreign languages combined. And with a child like Allen, it 
would be prohibitive, timewise, to Braille books for him. He'd read you 
out of house and home! Hark, you Brailling volunteers! Here's an unmet 
need.
  Pat

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