Celebrate Braille Literacy Month!
January is Braille Literacy Month in honor of Louis Braille’s birthday on January 4. How can you foster early literacy skills in a very young child who is blind or visually impaired? Here are some ideas!
Make a Story Box
A story box is a collection of items in a box or bag that correspond to the items described in a story. As you read the story out loud with your child, you introduce and play with the objects in the story, using all your senses. It’s a fun, sensory and interactive way for children with blindness or visual impairments to experience a story – and they’re easy to make and read together! Hands-on learning is important for children with visual impairments because it will help them take in information, build concepts and understand their world. To make your own story box, click HERE.
Parents Learn Braille

Braille Courses, Hadley Institute for the Blind and Visually Impaired -- Hadley offers a wide range of classes, from those designed for parents to those for adults with vision loss.
Dots for Families -- Free lessons for families to learn the basics of braille.
Just Enough to Know Better -- This book from National Braille Press is designed to help parents learn enough braille to help a young child who is blind learn to read.
Read to Your Baby or Toddler
It’s never too early to start reading to your baby or toddler. Reading together out loud encourages language and concept development, which are especially important for a child who is visually impaired to gain access to the visual world. To get started, try one of these easy tips HERE.
Free Braille Books
Several organizations that support children with blindness and visual impairments are encouraging literacy by offering subscriptions to FREE braille books. Go to these websites to sign up.
Spotlight on Sally Burch

Sally works full time as a Teacher of Children with Visual Impairments and an Orientation and Mobility Specialist for the Boulder Valley School District. She joined A Shared Vision as an Early Intervention Teacher of the Visually Impaired in 2018. “I love the time that I have with the A Shared Vision families. My role is truly to support whatever their needs are at the time I am there,” explains Sally.

Sally especially enjoys teaching Orientation & Mobility. Her favorite part about O&M is “seeing a child make a connection with the long cane. I am in awe of the freedom and independence the cane provides,” says Sally. She loves to teach O&M skills on the ski slopes, where she volunteers with students who are visually impaired. She has worked with skiers at the Adaptive Sports Center in Crested Butte, the Breckenridge Outdoor Education Center and Ignite Adaptive Sports at Eldora. Learn more about Sally HERE.
Take a Trip Inside Your Home

Other than going to other family members’ houses or appointments, you probably spend a lot of time at home with your child who is blind or visually impaired. That is the best place for early learning to occur. Your typical day moves from one routine to another – bathing, dressing, mealtime, playtime, napping and bedtime. As your child becomes more mobile, their movement becomes more purposeful as they go from one activity to the next. The better understanding your child has of location and travel concepts, the better equipped they will be to navigate your home with confidence.
 
We've created a new activity which involves traveling inside your home while introducing Orientation & Mobility concepts. It doesn’t matter how old your child is or their mobility level. Do this activity first with your A Shared Vision EI-TVI as your tour guide and then you and your child will travel with confidence. LET’S GO!
A Shared Vision is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and the leading provider of in-home and community early intervention vision services in Colorado. We inspire and empower families to nurture the development of their very young children who are blind or visually impaired so that all children may discover their brightest future.
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