Hi, Richard!  Recently you wrote in a message to Ardith Hinton:

RW>  AFrican signal or war drums require a whole lot of
RW>  of space to capture [...] as those drums are designed
RW>  to be heard.


          Ah... like the Scottish war pipes, I guess.  :-)



RW>  .


          How ya gonna keep 'em down on the farm
          After they've seen Paree?   

                                     -- Joe Young & Sam M. Lewis, 1918



RW>  at that time became the beginning of the big slide down
RW>  the slope of braille illiteracy, which is a crying shame.
RW>  THey were doing experiments with kids reading large print,
RW>  even with desktop magnifiers, etc.  I'm sure in Canada as
RW>  well, from stats I"ve seen, but there is currently a
RW>  worldwide braille literacy crisis among blind children.


          I find the trend disturbing too.  A family friend who graduates
from elementary school this year has a rare syndrome which is causing
deterioration in her vision.  Years ago I had a student who was in a
similar position... and who got Braille lessons from an itinerant teacher
who came to the school.  Our friend's mother wants her to learn Braille
because she's reached a point where the printing has to be enlarged so much
that even at elementary level a single word may not necessarily fit onto a
single page.  But it seems that everywhere Mom goes looking for help she's
told "We don't do Braille any more"... (sigh).



RW>  part of that is the mistaken belief that synthesized
RW>  speech, etc. can supplant braille.


          I don't believe it can... not yet, at any rate.  I've heard what
the synthesized speech on a GPS makes of "Lougheed Highway",
"Shaughnessy Street", etc.  And as one who's taught developmental
reading I understand how important it is to be able to read words in groups
& to notice subtleties in intonation.



RW>  DUring the formative years especially it's good for
RW>  children to actually "see" written language, even if
RW>  they "see" it with their fingers, and audio doesn't
RW>  quite make the same connection to the brain.


          Makes sense to me.  There is now an increasing body of evidence
that human beings can "see" via the skin & I think our friend
would take to Braille like a duck to water.  She is very sensitive to
touch, and she already knows a bit of sign language.  As a teacher I
generally found a multi-sensory approach most effective... i.e. the more
connections one can establish the better.  :-)




--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+