DESCRIBER: A title: ÒLiam: Literacy.Ó
SANDY: And on to one of my favorite topics: literacy. Before Liam became sick with meningitis, one of his favorite things to do was read. So after, when we brought him home, now deaf-blind, he happened to stumble upon his little box of books. And heÉI distinctly remember him picking it upÑpicking his books upÑand whipping them across the room. He no longer loved his books. And as a mom, that was heartbreaking to me, and I decided that dayÑit was very early onÑthat Liam was going to love to read again. He was going to love literacy again. And I was going to do everythingÑI didnÕt know anything about working with a child who was blind, helping them to read or to love readingÑbut I was going to do everything I could to make books accessible to him and for him to be able to enjoy books again. And so that started us on our journey ofÉone of my first books is I justÉI just made a book for himÑit was very, very soon after the throwing book incident. I found these little blank cardboard books at the local hobby store. I glued some shapes onto there. I asked my sonÕs TVIÑI didnÕt even have a brailler or knew anything about braille at the timeÑI asked him if he could braille me a few words, so he could just have exposure to braille, and I made a shape book for him. A whole bunch of different shapes that you get to feel. And IÕve been modifying and adapting books for him ever since.
DESCRIBER: A page from a homemade book about birds includes both print and braille, as well as a 3D model of a nest with eggs in it.
A page from a homemade book on trains has two cardboard pouches shaped like train cars, with paper people that can be put in and taken out.
A number of homemade cardboard books lie on a table. Their covers include tactile elements such as shapes, shells, and plastic grass.
Liam sits on the couch facing Sandy with his homemade book ÒLiam Can GoÓ on his lap. He reads the braille on each page, and he and Sandy converse in sign language.
SANDY [signing]: No, no, itÕs your turn.
LIAM [signing]: Liam can go with Leslee.
SANDY [signing]: Liam can go with Leslee, yes!
LIAM [signing]: LiamÕs house.
SANDY [signing]: Yes, LiamÕs house, yes.
LIAM [signing]: Finn with Grandma?
SANDY [signing]: Liam can go with Grandma.
LIAM [signing]: Car.
SANDY [signing]: Car, yes.
LIAM [signing]: Liam can go with Papa.
SANDY [signing]: Yes, Papa. Finished.
LIAM [signing]: Show him book?
SANDY [signing]: Yes, can.
DESCRIBER: At school, LiamÕs intervener sits at a table, holding up a book called Words Their Way.
INTERVENER: Part of the first grade literacy program is learning the speech and the recognition of all the vocabulary, and then the letter recognition, and they use a program called Words Their Way. So this booklet has various words starting with the different letters of the alphabet, and we have made reinforced pages for Liam to be able to identify the letters, and itÕs got the braille letter and then the word for each of those items on the page. So this was at the beginning of the school year. We have gone through and used these continuously as just a review for him to kind of warm up when weÕre going to do working with words. And so here shortly IÕll be going into the classroom, and heÕll be selecting one of these pages, and then he will read the entire page to me. And usually he will fingerspell the word and then do the sign, which is just incredible. Another thing that we do after we do this is come into our other work area, and we then reinforce by him using a Velcro strip board and perhaps doing more word work with the letter and then the words on these little Velcro cards. We do a great deal of material modification for him. And so he could select a card with the letter or the word on it, and then itÕs got the Velcro on the back, so he could match it up with where it belongs. WeÕre also getting into consonant blends now with the sh, ch, wh, and th. And for him, in addition to learning the individual letters, all of these consonant blends have an entirely different braille identifier. So he has learned what these are, and again, I could teach him what the signÑthe braille signÑfor sh is, and spell ÒshÓ for him, and he has been able to identify it within words ever since. So itÕs incredible that his ability to read braille now has gotten to the print, instead of the larger braille that we started with, and now heÕs able to read complete sentences.