Using a subset of data from the Alphabetic Braille and Contracted Braille Study, researchers analyzed the patterns and characteristics of hand movements as predictors of reading performance. Statistically significant differences were found between one- and two-handed readers and between patterns of hand movements and reading rates.

The Alphabetic Braille and Contracted Braille Study found no difference between high and low achievers in the development of literacy skills on such measures as age, etiology of visual impairment, family attitudes and behaviors regarding literacy activities, class size, and time spent with a teacher of students with visual impairments. Some differences between the groups were seen on measures of social interactions, the introduction of contractions, and time spent with paraeducators, but the most demonstrated difference was the provision of consistent structured reading instruction.

This article describes the components of the Individualized Meaning-centered Approach to Braille Literacy Education for teaching braille reading and writing to students who are blind and have additional cognitive impairments. A theoretical rationale is presented for the approach, along with some limited empirical evidence for using it with this population.

Twenty-one children ages 6 though 13 were taught to use their hands independently when reading braille to determine how this pattern of hand movements affected reading variables, excluding character recognition. Although all the children learned this pattern of hand movements during the 20 days scheduled for training, only nine children exhibited a dramatic decrease in inefficient tracking movements such as pauses and scrubbing motions. Because these children were younger and more intelligent than the others, read braille more slowly, and had received less training in braille at school, the results strongly suggested that skill in tracking and use of an efficient hand movement pattern is closely tied to perceptual ability. Thus when teaching children to read braille, the motor aspects of the task should be combined with the perceptual aspects from the beginning.

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