Autistic Blind Practicing Braille Flashcards
Autistic Blind Grocery Shopping Fun
Old Key West Resort – Pool Day
Kali River Rapids
Being A Nurse
Jess is being a nurse today. It’s her favorite thing to do. She loves being a caregiver to people in need.
Ebaying with Granddad
Nightly rituals. This one with Granddad is her favorite. He has so much love and patience to do this with her every day. Jess has him on FaceTime. She flips cards while he reads lists of songs from children’s CD’s that he finds on eBay
Stores Are Open After Dark
We stay home so much in the evenings that just said she didn’t know the store was open after dark.
Happy Traveler
Jess loves to travel. She is usually happy the whole trip – It’s just my ears and nerve that get a little weary.
Jess Cooks Hashbrowns
Jess cooks her own breakfast, a skill that took over a decade to come together.
Autistic and Learning Braille at 16
Autistic, blind and developmentally delayed. When Jess turned 16, she decided she wanted to try living at the school for the blind. While she was there, she had a teacher who believed in her enough to begin teaching her Braille. This video of Jess was taken about 6 months later. Not only was she reading, but also note how Jess is focused and able to process quickly.
At one point, we enlisted the aid of a rubber band on the wrist as a self-stim alternative. The hope was that when experiencing an urge to pick a scab, she would snap the bandaid on her wrist. It didn’t really work for Jess, but her explanation was quite funny. The reward, had she resisted scab picking for 5 days, was a trip out for chicken nuggets.
Routine Changes
Jess has anxiety about a change in her routine schedule. Every Thursday she goes to spend the day with her Granny. This Thursday, Granny had an appointment. Jess likes making videos about what is bothering her so that she can listen back to what she said.
Ebaying with Granddad
A daily ritual, often done over the phone. Granddad reads Playlists from CDs he finds on eBay. They call this eBaying. This video was from a visit to see Nonnie and Granddad in Florida in the spring of 2016.
Jess Reading Large Print Flash Cards
In “A Vision of Literacy”, I addressed the issue of when to teach Braille to low vision students. A minimal font typically used on a document is 12 pt. Large print is 18 pt and larger. Most publications available in large print are in 18 pt. According to The American Printing House for the Blind (APH), if a student needs 28 pt or larger, they should be considered a candidate for Braille education.
Static Electricity
After returning from her volunteer work at a local nursing home, Jess bounced a basketball so long she built up serious static electricity. Once she figured out she was being video recorded, she got hyped up even more. She is so much fun and entertains us with her joyfulness. This colorful example is from 2009 just before high-school graduation.
Rollerblading
In 2004 she asked for rollerblades for a gift and so she got some. Her little sister was a great help!
Reading Her Name In Braille
Jess Reads a Sentence in Braille
At 16 Jess learned to read for the first time. The teacher had amazing patience and believed like we did that Jess could learn to read. The first thing the teacher is trying to get Jess to read is the symbol at the beginning of the line that indicates the first letter is a capital letter. Then, she is trying to get Jess to slow down and focus.
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