(Describer) Title. Tracking Techniques When Reading Braille. Presented by Candy Lien, braille teacher at NDVS/SB.

Hello, my name is Candy Lien. I am a braille teacher here at North Dakota Vision Services/ School for the Blind. And today I wanted to demonstrate good tracking techniques when reading braille. The first thing I want to say is that eventually each braille reader is going to develop his or her own style of reading, just like someone who's learning to play the piano is taught proper fingering, but the piano virtuoso is going to have his or her own style of playing. And that happens with braille readers too. But as teachers, we want to demonstrate and enforce a good, efficient way of tracking when reading braille, and then you leave it up to the reader eventually to develop his or her own style that works best for them. Another thing I want to say is that it's important to be comfortable when reading braille, so having the good, proper height of table and chair is important. And we like to see a table that is at a height that would enable the reader's arms to rest comfortably on the table, and that the forearm and the upper arm are pretty much at a 90-degree angle. It doesn't have to be exact, but that seems to be most comfortable for people. Especially as a beginning reader, you want the student to feel comfortable, because they might be kind of tense as they are starting to learn to read braille. OK, I'll just open the book now. And another thing to keep in mind, especially with beginning readers, is to have the reading material at a good angle. So you don't want the book to be slanted like this or something, to have it kind of... the edge of the book parallel to the edge of the table or desk where the student's reading.

(Describer) Title. Tracking Techniques for Right-Hand Dominant Readers.

First thing I'm going to show is a good reading technique for someone who is right-hand dominant, and then I'll show a good technique for someone who is left-hand dominant. Okay, so the right-handed reader should have the middle three fingers of their hand on the line of braille. The pinkie will be up there too, but the pinkie is shorter and doesn't really do a lot. But having those three middle fingers on the line of braille is very important for good tracking. You see that the fingers are curved a bit. And reading with what they call the pad of the finger. It's not the very tip, it's not the flat surface of the finger, but it's kind of in between those two areas. And use some experimenting to see which--you know, the exact area of the fingertip that is the most sensitive. So I'll be reading with my right hand, but I'll use--my left hand is important too. I will have my left hand marking the beginning of the second line of braille. And you'll see how important that is as I read across the page. I'm gonna be moving my finger across, or my hand across the page reading here. Now if I encounter a word and I'm not sure what it is, and I want to go back over it, I go back to the left and move across to the right again. You want to maintain that left-to-right motion. You don't want to stop and go up and down. That is going to slow you down. So even though that's tempting to do, try not to do that and try to maintain that left-to-right motion. When I get to the end of the line, I pick up my right hand and I go to where my left hand is marking that next line, and then I can start reading with my right hand again while I drop my left hand down to the next line, which would be line three. And I leave it there to mark, and I read across the page. Once again, if I have to go over a word, I move back and go over it again like that. I get to the end of the line and bring it back over to my left hand, drop my left hand down to the next line. Once this reader becomes more comfortable with this pattern of reading, you can actually begin reading with the left hand while the right hand is moving, so that'll even help you gain more speed and fluency. So let's say I'm reading across the page like this, I get to the end of the line, my left hand can actually start reading, and then my right hand will meet it, and my left hand has already read a word or two before my right hand comes over. Then I still need to drop my left hand down to the next line and mark that. And that pattern is called the scissors pattern, because you're meeting and then you're separating; or sometimes it's called a butterfly pattern. But that is a good way for students to learn to read to track across the page if they're right-hand dominant.

(Describer) Title. Tracking Techniques for Left-Hand Dominant Readers.

Okay, now I'm going to demonstrate a way of reading for someone who is left-hand dominant, and it's gonna be a little different. It still will work fine, though, for a student or a reader who is left-hand dominant. I still say keep, you know, keep your right hand up there and tracking along, because the right hand will tell you what's coming up. The right hand will let you know if you're getting to the end of the line and so forth. But the left-hand dominant reader will probably be reading mostly, you know, with their left hand. That will be picking up most of the information. When you get to the end of the line, then the left hand is gonna have to retrace that line and drop down. And that still works fine. And go across...

(Describer) She moves her hands across the paper.

You get to the end of the line, you've got to retrace, and drop down. Okay, that's for the left-handed reader. Once again, each reader is gonna develop their own style after they've been reading for a while, but try to teach these techniques from the very beginning, even when they're only reading single letters, because it's very hard to unlearn a bad habit.

(Describer) Title. Tips for Better Braille Reading.

A couple of tips for better reading is-- one of them would be, if your hands are dry, you're gonna have a harder time picking up the braille dots, so might want to use a little bit of hand lotion. That helps a lot. Also, if your hands are cold, it's going to be more difficult to detect the dots, so if you've been outside, or if you're just a person who has naturally cold hands, you might want to run your hands under some warm water before you start reading, or just rub them together to kind of increase the circulation, and that helps too. Remember you're reading the pattern of the dots. You're not going to be picking up each individual dot as you're reading. You're learning to read the pattern of the dots, and eventually you learn to read the pattern of frequent words. If you do have some difficulty, and you're not quite sure of the word, like I said, go back over it, avoid going up and down. And it's okay to bring that left hand over and feel with both hands if you're not, you know, having some trouble detecting a letter or a sign too. And those are my tips for better tracking when reading braille.

(Describer) Contact Candy with Questions or Comments, cmlien@nd.gov. Accessibility provided by the US Department of Education.

Accessibility provided by the U.S. Department of Education.