SETTING THE STAGE FOR TACTILE UNDERSTANDING

SETTING THE STAGE FOR TACTILE UNDERSTANDING Setting the Stage for Tactile Understanding is a set of materials intended to encourage and informally assess the development of early tactile literacy in young children with visual impairments and blindness.

The tangible items and activities included in the kit assist young tactile readers in making the transition from exploration of real objects to the interpretation of two- dimensional representations, both in thermoformed formats and simple raised-line illustrations.

Learning to interpret tactile pictures is not comparable to recognizing and identifying visual illustrations. A childs ability to find tactile graphics meaningful requires practice and repeated exposure to a variety of raised-line pictures over time. Setting the Stage for Tactile Understanding can be used as an initial step towards tactile literacy.

SETTING THE STAGE FOR TACTILE UNDERSTANDING The suggested activities in Setting the Stage promote a childs development of the following skills and concepts: 1)Awareness of Tactile Quality: The child needs to have direct contact with a variety of textures and shapes. Concept-rich experiences with real objects should be encouraged.

2) Shape Recognition and Part-Whole Relationships: The child needs to actively handle and manipulate real objects, noting identifying features and understanding how separate parts are pieced together to form a whole.

3) Understanding Graphic Representation: The child needs to understand how an abstract representation or symbol, such as a raised-line drawing, can stand for something real.

4) Hand Skills/Exploratory Skills: The child needs to acquire exploration strategies (e.g., tracing edges and contours while maintaining a reference point) and scanning a graphic in a methodical fashion (e.g., top to bottom, left to right).

SETTING THE STAGE FOR TACTILE UNDERSTANDING Setting the Stage presents a systematic way of bridging a young childs experience of familiar objectsa ball, a key, a cupto the exploration of tactile representations.

SETTING THE STAGE FOR TACTILE UNDERSTANDING The kit includes 12 real objects to help with the transition from 3-D objects to 2-dimensional drawings. These objects include the following: ball block comb crayon cup key puzzle piece scissors spoon string of beads toothbrush zipper

SHOWTIME Chapter SHOWTIME activities assist in concept development related to each of the real objects included in the kit. The main goal of these activities is to intentionally teach, within the context of purposeful tasks, the function and physical attributes of the real objects.

CENTER STAGE Chapter CENTER STAGE activities introduce thermoformed objects that serve as an intermediate tactile format between real objects and less detailed raised-line illustrations. Thermoformed images have the advantage of retaining some of the identifying characteristics of the real object (e.g., the teeth of a comb, the bristles of a toothbrush) that help the child to tactually recognize it.

CENTER STAGE Chapter Yet, tactile thermoformed objects still pose challenges for instant tactile recognition because the function of the real object is lost (e.g., the spoon cannot be used for eating) and the real objects texture is forfeited (e.g., the soft bristles of the toothbrush is altered).

FINALE Chapter FINALE activities bridge tactile experiences of thermoformed objects with exposure to simple, raised-line illustrations. Raised-line representations introduce tactile complexity on many different levels and therefore require more effort and practice on the childs part to make accurate interpretations.

FINALE Chapter Raised-line illustrations usually lose their texture similarities with the real objects because raised lines are presented at a uniform height and in outline format. Raised-line illustrations require the child to connect individual pieces of tactile information to form a complete mental image.

ENCORE Chapter ENCORE activities transition the child from exploration of tactile displays that maintain one-to-one correspondence in both shape and size with real objects to a reduced model of an object (e.g., a house) that is not tactually at hand. It cannot be tactually experienced in its entirety.

ENCORE Chapter The house model can be used in combination with 20 tactile house view cards to teach perspective (e.g., top view, side view, front view). The kit includes a model of a house with differing textures representing real-life equivalents (e.g., stone, brick, stucco, tine roof, etc.).

ENCORE Chapter Five correct house view tactile cards are included. Fifteen incorrect house view tactile cards are also included. These cards are incorrect because the image differs from the house model by a textural change and/or a positional change (e.g., a window is missing).

ENCORE Chapter Other ENCORE activities include: My House : Discussing physical characteristics of the childs own home. Create a House Drawing : The child creates a model/drawing of her own house using playdough, collage materials, Picture Maker, Quick Draw Paper, etc.

Other ENCORE activities include: Pretend Play : Using the house model in combination with other miniature models to create a tactile scenery and practice spatial concepts.

SETTING THE STAGE FOR TACTILE UNDERSTANDING The following items are included with the kit: Large Print Activity Guidebook (Braille Gdbk available separately) (12) real objects (12) thermoformed cards depicting each of the real objects (12) raised-line cards depicting each of the real objects

SETTING THE STAGE FOR TACTILE UNDERSTANDING The following items are included with the kit (cont.): (12) black-line masters of the real objects that can be used to produce raised-line graphics on microcapsule paper (1) activity sorting tray with Veltex® backing (3) black tray divider cards (1) three-dimensional house model

SETTING THE STAGE FOR TACTILE UNDERSTANDING The following items are included with the kit (cont.): (20) tactile correct/incorrect house view cards (1) package of Crayola Model Magic® (1) package of Wikki-Stix® (1) carrying case Complete Kit ( )…$190.00