Pre-Braille Skills &

1. Pre-Braille Skills & Fine Motor Development

2. Pre-Braille Skills • CONCEPTS AND LIFE EXPERIENCES • Just like words, braille is a symbolic representation of real objects and experiences • Provide & expose child to as much of the real world as possible while adding the language to describe it; this is how we all learn concepts. (example: door knob) • Lightly touch while exploring and when possible from left to right • Your child's hands are their eyes. Let them see the world as you do! They will understand more then you can imagine

3. Pre-Braille Skills • BRAILLE EXPOSURE • Sighted children see letters and words all day and every day. Let your child see braille in their natural environment as the sighted child sees words. • The exposure to braille will help them understand what the meaning of braille represents. • Read story books to them with braille and tactual objects. • Count to your child in patterns of six and play using toys to help represent the braille cell

4. Fine Motor Development

5. Building Blocks • IN ALL INFANTS: The body matures and develops from its core to its extremities. • A stable shoulder allows position and support for hands and arms to be used for fine motor (FM) tasks. • All FM activities are build upon THREE basic strategies • REACH, GRASP, RELEASE * Grasp cannot be taught, but by observing the type of grasp your child is using, you can provide the toys and activities to help them move along to the next developmental stage. • It is important that your child has the pre-development skills, before you ask them to complete a FM activity they are not developmentally prepared for. • Ex: Children should have strength and dexterity in their hands and fingers before being asked to use a pencil, paper or braillewriter. Working on the pre-developmental skills prior to the task can eliminate inappropriate pencil grasp; which is becoming more common as children are pushed to use their hands before they are ready.

6. Importance of Weight Bearing! • The connection between weight bearing and learning to use one’s hands is very important! • Weight bearing gives the type of feedback that makes the baby aware of his/her arms and hands. • It also provides the stability for the arms to be raised/straightened out and be used. Only then can they be used for purposeful activity! • Weight Bearing Activities include: • Lying on his/her tummy and pushing up to hands, sitting, rocking on hands and knees and crawling. • This is often delayed in blind or low vision babies because sight is the motivator to lift the head in prone.

7. Birth to 3 • During this stage your child should begin: • Playing with hands • using hands for purposeful action • retaining objects placed in hands • playing with toys that produce sound. Full fisted or Palmer Grasp: at this stage this grasp pattern is a reflex and the child has not obtained the concept of ‘release’ yet. -at this stage you should choose toys with a variety of textures, sizes, shapes and weights (take some time to play with developmentally appropriate toys for this age group!) *Use hand under hand as much as possible to ‘invite’ but not force your child’s hands. Studies show that many children are tactually defensive with their hands by kindergarten because their hands have been handled too much!

8. 4 to 6 Months • At this stage of Development your infant should begin: • Reaching for objects in contact with body with one hand • Place objects in mouth • Use pads of fingers to grasp small objects (building blocks of pincer grasp) • Transfer an object from hand to hand • Bring an object to midline (building blocks for bilateral coordination) • Pull objects out of container *Draw attention to their hands by painting his/her nails, having them wear bracelets or half gloves or mittens. (Take time to look and play with toys for this stage of your infants development!)

9. 7 to 9 Months • At this stage your child should begin: • Using purposeful reach to explore different textures • Placing an object in container • Pulling strings to activate toy • Playing patty-cake (playing or manipulation at midline) *Bilateral Hand use involves stabilizing with one hand and manipulating with the other hand *Pincer Grasp (using thumb and forefinger together) develops between 8-12 months -this skill allows them to pick up small objects and will be later used for holding an eating utensil or buttoning a shirt. The brain seeks novelty: changing or rotating toys frequently keeps a child’s interest.

10. 10 to 12 Months • At this stage the following are appropriate: • Placing one peg repeatedly into a hole • Using pincer grasp • Releasing objects into the air using full arm muscles to throw • Manipulating objects with moving parts • Removing rings from stack • Turning pages of a book *Child typically uses pincer grasp to manipulate toys, pick up small objects and to complete other purposeful activities • 18 Months • Child can: • -Place rings back on post • -Attempts to use mechanical means to activate toys (pulling, twisting, turning) • -Places objects through small opening

11. CoNtRaSt! • It is important for low vision kids to add contrast to activities. • Ex: if picking up cheerios from highchair tray, use black or dark placemat or outline tray with colored electrical tape to show visual boundaries of a specific space.

12. 22-24 Months • Child should be able to complete some of the following activities during these months: • Stack large objects • Pound pegs with a hammer • String large (1 inch) beads • Roll, pat, pound and pinch clay/play-doh balls • Adjust finger opening according to toy/object size and shape • For sighted children this is done visually. Totally blind kids only k now how far to open hands to grasp an object. The brain now learns by repeated exposure. Take time to get some hands on experience with the appropriate toys for this age group!

13. 24 Months-3 Years • Child should be able to: • Close Ziploc bags • Manipulate objects with both hands simultaneously • Use hands for complex tasks • Throw a ball • Turn knobs on toys, TV and stereo • Unscrew threaded objects • Make horizontal, vertical and circular motions *Using Rotary Motion which takes place from the wrist with a stable arm. -This is also a function of vision-turning the wrist to see the object from another perspective * Using Finger Isolation which will be necessary for using a Braille writer

14. Next… • Now that your child has developed most of these FM developmental milestones you can begin strengthening and refining movements, fingers and grasps. • There are many, many activities to do this, we will take some time to show you a few.

15. Remember... • It is important to remember: • the month that a skill is expected to develop is not important as the sequence. Many children have neurological issues or were born premature. So the month a skill is learned or integrated is not the measure of the child. Knowing the sequence helps determine which toys and activities will facilitate development!