TRANSCRIPT
The Building Blocks of Early Literacy
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>>Emily: Our title slide has an image of wooden blocks that have upper and lowercase letters on them, numbers. Fingerspelled letters, signed letters, and Braille. So pretty awesome set of blocks. Now you can move forward. So we're going to be talking today about the foundations of literacy development, including print awareness, which is a part of that literacy development. And we'll also talk about creating quality literacy experiences and literacy-rich environments. We also have some resources to share with you, which will also be in the handout. 

>>Kathi: All right. Foundations of literacy development. The picture on this slide shows two toddler -- a preschooler and a toddler sitting and looking at a book together with their backs facing the camera. So when we think about literacy, a lot of people jump to kind of that reading and writing aspect. The act of reading and writing. And that's kind of what we think of literacy. But in the early childhood years, just like with any milestone that our young children are working on, whether it's learning to walk or learning to ride a bike, or learning to do any of those things, there's other components that are involved in that. So when we think of literacy, we're thinking of I want to broaden our scope of that to include listening and speaking as well as reading and writing. So the early childhood years are super important to kind of build that foundation and kind of reading and writing is the culmination of that. It's kind of the last -- I don't want to say the last step but it's later in the process. And so this slide just has some pictures of clipart that represent listening, speaking, reading, and writing. So early literacy we say begins at birth. Some people even say before birth, since we think of listening. And continues as young children develop -- hold please while I fight with my Zoom controls. There we go. And it includes the ability to communicate, which could be spoken words but also just communication in general. Like crying is communication. Behavior is communication. Touch cues, any of that kind of nonverbal communication counts in this. It includes building and developing sensory awareness. This could be for students who are going to be Braille readers, this would be tactile discrimination but also auditory skills as well. And as well as visual skills in terms of using vision, you know, residual vision, maybe efficiently. So we talk here -- the next bullet says visual and/or tactual discrimination skills. And early literacy also includes building an awareness of books, prints, Braille, and their purpose. Why is this important? Why are we reading and writing? What do these squiggles mean and why is this important? Emergent literacy is the continual process in a child's life from birth until their formal reading and writing begins. For most kids we think of that formal reading and writing really beginning in school-aged kids. So you've got all these years before that. Five, six years before that where we're doing this emergent literacy. And as a child develops knowledge and skills, they gradually emerge into formal literacy by developing tactile and other sensory skills, like we talked about previously. Developing their motor skills to be able to move from left to right, turn pages, and even just sit up or be in a position that allows them to engage with more formal literacy. Forming concepts, which is a really important thing to be able to build and develop our students' concepts, understanding of concepts about the world. You know, you have to have that conceptual knowledge to understand what you're reading and writing about. Learning language and building awareness of oral and written language as well. Learning to read. What does a child need to become literate, to read and write with meaning? They need access and exposure to a wide variety of experiences. And that's what we're going to talk about a lot more today. How to give them that access and exposure to those experiences. Opportunities to explore their world. Experiences that link words to meaning. So this is kind of that if you think about -- we're not going to focus a ton on the pillars of a comprehensive literacy program, but this to me directly ties into the vocabulary pillar, helping kids understand words and their meanings and the communication behind that. Knowledge about language and how language works. Knowledge about letters and/or letter sounds, which is directly tied to the phonemic and phonological awareness. 

>>Emily: So print awareness is a part of that development and it starts with emergent literacy. This is a picture of a toddler laying on the floor touching pictures of crayons in a book. I think those are crayons. Of different colors. So pictures matter for young children. They support comprehension but they also support that interest in a book, drawing attention to what's going on in a book. So for very young children, they are primarily paying attention to the adult that's doing the reading. So that is a key component of the language development but it also assists with bonding and those interactions with that child. So that's talking about the book, pointing at the book together, assisting the child or the child co-actively turning pages in the book with the adult. But the other thing that children will pay attention to first is the pictures or images in the book. Before they look at or really pay attention to, like Kathi said before, the squiggles on a page or the bumpy dots on a page, if the book has Braille. Pictures are important and that's something that should be taken into consideration when thinking about that emergent literacy. Often, those are disregarded that an adult may think, you know, that's inaccessible to the child so we'll just ignore that it's not important. But it is really important. You want to go to the next? So in thinking about the fact that the pictures are important for that student or their child, that young child to gain their attention and interest in a book and motivation to explore a book, making those images accessible is really important. And one way to do that is by using real objects that tie to the book topic or images. All of that goes back to what Kathi mentioned previously with concept development and the development of language. So the opportunities, the more opportunities that a child has to explore real objects, it's working on supporting concepts but it also works on tactile skills. That's how they can develop tactile skills and practice discrimination. It also supports the language development and those interactions between the adult and the child or between an older child and the infant or toddler. That's really important as well because it's a component of developing social skills. So there's so many opportunities that are created by reading together. And of course making those images accessible so that child has that engagement. So another way to do that is adding textures to pages for a child to explore. Those are sometimes commercially available -- they are commercially available that have textures in them already, because that's attractive to all children. But it's especially important to our children who are blind or low vision, Deafblind to have something that is attractive and interesting to them. And then another important piece of it is drawing the child's attention to the pictures, the textures, and encouraging that visual and tactile exploration. When you're thinking about visual exploration you can think about the color and the size of the images. Are photographs better than drawings? So what does that child engage in most and how can you continue that engagement? And adding tactile to any book is a benefit to that child as far as drawing their attention, giving them something that is motivating them and interesting. Also thinking about allowing enough time for that child to explore, especially tactually. But sometimes you may be reading -- the adult may be reading the same book to a child over and over because they really like that story and they really want to explore the tactile, you know, the textures added to the pages, and they need the time to do that. Sometimes you think this is the 27th time we've read this book. Let's just get through it quickly. But the child needs those repeated opportunities to explore, to explore visually, to explore tactually and even go back and use those real objects paired with the books that have accessible photographs in them, instead of drawings, and they have those tactiles added to the pages. So my question to everybody out there is: What are some of your favorite commercially-made or go-to commercially-made books that have tactiles in them, that have things to touch? I don't think we put a picture of our bugs in there, Kathi. 

>>Kathi: No, we didn't. We should have. My favorite books with things to touch we make with kiddos. I know we're not going down that road today. 

>>Emily: Books from Seedlings. Those are good. APH. You want to go to the next slide? 

>>Kathi: Yeah. 

>>Emily: Okay. So after that attention to the images, the textures, those sorts of things, the objects that pair with the story, then the child will begin to pay attention to those squiggles and the little lines, the dots that are on the pages. That's the next step in that development. I just saw Never Touch a Spider, Dragon, Unicorn. Is that the name of a book? 

>>Kathi: Oh, yeah. I think there's a lot of books like that. Like never touch a snake, et cetera. If I'm remembering correctly, they're board books with some silicone-type rubbery textures inside that you can touch. Those are cool because they are commercial books. You can buy them at Target or whatever. If I'm thinking of the right book. 

>>Emily: I have a book that's Christmas themed and it had things to touch in it. I paired that with some real objects as well related to Call it a Season. I added Braille to it so that was one that was really attractive to the child I was working with at the time. And it gave an opportunity for the family, as well, to put in the things the child directly experienced as part of the storytime with their child. 

>>Kathi: Yeah. I used to make some when I was in the classroom, around holiday-themed books with things to touch. Instead of having the real object, we would have whatever it was to touch in the book. But also I would use one of those speech output buttons and I would record sounds, like real kind of holiday sounds that they could interact with with the book. And so we were getting that listening component in there, outside of me just reading the book. That was fun too. 

>>Emily: Awesome! There are a lot of good suggestions coming in the chat of different books. 

>>Kathi: Yes. I'm so glad too. I was going to say at the beginning, if you have connections with anything that we're saying or ideas about anything that we're saying, please put them in the chat, things that you're doing. We're just trying to spark a conversation here and the chat will be archived and so it's nice to have that repository of ideas for people who are looking for that. 

>>Emily: And it's fun to go to used bookstores and find these types of books with the feely stuff in them. 

>>Kathi: Uh-huh. 

>>Emily: Once this child has developed language, they are ready to learn the squiggles and dots on the page have meaning. That could be supported by drawings the child's attention to the words or Braille on the page. You could help the child co-actively using hand-under-hand. That brings the child's attention to these have meaning and this is how that interesting story, how the parent, how an older child knows what to say because they're looking at the words or reading the words in the text. And then the next step of that, once the child knows that they do touch the text, they're doing that on their own. They're touching, looking for Braille. Then your next step is to show that the individual words have meaning by, again, co-actively with the child, under hand-under-hand, touch each word as you read. So that helps to make those squiggly lines become more clear to the child. That each one of those sets of letters or that long word or the short words, you can talk about things like that too and have it have its own meaning and support the story, help make things fun. And they go with the pictures or the textures that you have added, the paragraphs, the objects that are paired with the book. So the child can point to the word that says "flower" and then you're also encouraging the child to touch the texture that you put in the book that represents flowers or a book that came with a representation, tactual, of flowers. That sort of thing. So it's helping to link the concepts with the words and to help the child to understand that those sentences are broken down into words and that's where the story comes from. So with early writing, again, it's modeling co-actively using a pen and paper, computer, or Braille writer. So it's just communicating and creating awareness for that child of how things get written down. How those words get on to a page to make a story or to create a list. A parent makes a shopping list before going to the store. How does that happen? This is a way to model to the child how that happens, using a pen and paper. Or the list could be made using a Braille writer. Just those everyday activities are opportunities, provide opportunities for the child to begin to show interest and engagement in the writing process. Writing words or a sentence dictated by the child and then rereading that together is also very engaging. It helps to promote that idea that writing is how you get to the sentences in a word that makes sense. And then encouraging the exploration of writing methods and materials along with the child's attempts to write. Encouraging exploration of a Braille writer, scribble Braille, just push on the keys and see what happens. Picking up a marker and paper and attempting to write a sentence by making their own squiggles, not words. And providing positive feedback for the child when they're doing that. Next. And have fun with this. There's so many opportunities to make this a really special time for a child to read with the parent, read with an older sibling. And to read themselves. You know, we know that when you and a child have read a book 52 times that they'll read it back to you later because they've memorized the story. The pictures, the tactiles, the objects you have paired with the story to help them remember what the story says. And then you provide that acknowledgment that they're reading to you, and praise that. Another engaging activity to do is make stories up together. So real or pretend stories. We talk about using real objects and making a real story, but pretend stories are good too and can be really motivating for that child in a set that supports imaginative play, that's part of early development. And then you and the child have made up a story but allow the child to select the objects, the textures or pictures that go along with the story to help them -- so then they have true participation in it and that, again, supports their ability to retell a story, to understand and remember what the story's about. And whatever the child has made up in their pretend story, write it all down together. Using a pen and paper, use a Braille writer. Do it together co-actively and then reread it often. Write an experience story. Yes. That is what we love to do with these kids is make experience stories. And create experiences for them so that they do have something to write about. And that's super fun too. 

>>Kathi: So that kind of leads us perfectly into this section on quality literacy experiences. How can you develop, and more importantly -- because we know you're teachers and so you're in this mindset a lot. But how can we support families to have quality literacy experiences with their kiddos? So on this slide is a picture of like a preschool-aged kiddo standing outside. She's wearing a hat and has her cane and glasses on and she has a butterfly perchon her finger. I'm imagining this would be the perfect kind of picture you could put in an experience story about going on a nature walk or something. Promoting literacy, there's lots of ways to promote literacy. Again, it requires you to kind of think about the big-picture literacy and moving away from thinking about just reading and writing. This is something I think that we can do a lot to support parents in broadening -- parents and family -- and broadening their idea of literacy and how all of the things that they may already be doing with their kids are supporting that literacy development. So there's reading together, of course. And reading aloud to your child. But there's also talking about book concepts. You know, this is the kind of like what are the parts of a book and where are the parts of the book? And this is the page and this is the pictures. This is the words. I feel like I said 400,000 times to my kid, oh, this person wrote the words and this guy drew the pictures. And we would talk about the names of the people that did that. You can play with sounds in the book and if you have a silly book, you can come up with other silly names, characters, that might be in the book. I remember sheep in a Jeep and books like that. It was like, oh, yeah. You could have a duck in a truck. And scribbling, of course we talked about that. I think scribbling is so important, not just -- it's really important for kids because it allows them to work on those fine motor things and that finger strength as well. But I think even kids who are going to end up being Braille readers, scribbling with a pen on a piece of paper or a marker. Having that freedom to move their hands like that and kind of coordinate those movements I think is really important. So it allows kids to kind of free write. Pretending to read and write. So what do you think it says? You read me the story. Even if they're kind of just looking at or touching the pictures or touching the tactile enhancements. What do you think it's saying? We talked a little bit about making lists together. Some lists that I used to make with my kiddo were: Who do you want to invite to your birthday party? What toys do you want to look at at the store? It was getting that idea of let's make a list. Or here's the things we have to do before we go to bed. Going on community outings is really, really important because it's giving kids those experiences, helping them develop concepts about the world around them so that then when they're reading about these things, they understand. Cooking together. Sensory play is a big one. If Hillary Keys is watching this and I don't talk about the importance of play in early literacy development, she might disown me as a co-worker. So play is super important when we're talking about promoting literacy. It makes me think -- there was a quote in a movie. They won't have anything to read or write about. If you take away the music and the art, they won't have anything to read or write about. Those are their experiences. That's what's important to them. Doing chores can promote literacy. A lot of this stuff too can promote those early literacy concepts like sequencing. First we're going to do this and then we're going to do this. Sorting. We're going to put away the laundry but let's put all the pants in a pile, all the socks in a pile. And then also those activity routines. I'm talking specifically about things that have been kind of identified as routines and are scripted as such in the home. And so some of those things again focus on that sequencing, vocabulary, language, and concepts and all of the important things that we talked about for early literacy. 

>>Emily: There was a question in the chat. Belinda, can you read it all? I only saw part of it when it popped up. 

>>Belinda: Yeah. Marybeth says I have a sensory media, pre-Braille students and want to ask is it necessary or appropriate to present Braille when accommodating their instructional material? 

>>Emily: If there's Braille, putting it on instructional materials is always positive. You're wanting to think about creating engagement, something interesting for the student. And just as there is print all around us, that student may be limited in their access to the print and access to Braille or exposure to Braille is equally important as that exposure to print. 

>>Kathi: Yeah. It makes me think of the importance of environmental print and environmental Braille. Even if the kiddo is not reading, formally reading. If you think about young toddlers without visual impairments, I think for years we referred to the yellow M and the orange W when we were driving down the street for different places. And the red and white circles. I want to go to the red and white circle store. So it's all of that, you know, carries weight in developing those concepts and understanding. So I agree. It doesn't mean that you have to spend three minutes holding their hand to the Braille and saying, okay. This is letter A. This is letter -- this is a bin of sand. Here's the S. There's the A. Here's the Braille, it says sand. And then moving on to touching the sand or whatever you want to do in your sensory experience. Integrating language with experiences. This comes from some of the work I did with the group on Literacy for Little Ones. So daily -- the daily activities that we do with kids offer opportunities to combine language with sensory awareness and development of basic concepts. And so as you go through an activity, give your baby or young child an opportunity to use all the senses and pair language with what's being experienced. I like the clipart on this. The baby in a bathtub with a rubber ducky. I think bathtime can be a really great bonding time if experience for babies and their families but also it can really allow a lot of language development and concept development. For any O&Ms in the audience, all of those body concepts and body parts and, you know, in letting kids practice doing that, doing the washing and things like that. So I think that, you know, kind of the point here is any time you can integrate that conceptual language with whatever you're doing is really going to be valuable for the child. So that later when they're reading about these things, they kind of understand. So shared language is, you know, we talk about that a lot when we're talking about turn taking and shared interactions. Share your child's focus. Your kiddos are going to more easily learn language that's related to their needs and their interests. This is an opportunity, during play, to have it be child-led. I see you're putting the ball in the bucket. Oh, now you've dumped all the balls out of the bucket. And if you're sharing their interests, they feel empowered that what they're doing is meaningful to someone else and allows them to kind of develop that interest for communication and language development. Watch to see where their attention is placed and provide language about what they're doing at that moment. So you're helping them build that language and those vocabulary words to use later in and out or whatever. And then understanding that all of our senses are involved in communication. So just also seeing nonverbal cues, if there's vision involved, but also hearing and hearing the shifts in tone and understanding that sometimes that nonverbal communication or those facial expressions, that may or may not be visible to the child that we're talking about here but are all important to that. We talked about the importance of all these experiences and concept development and kind of where does that -- I've already kind of done a spoiler alert for this slide. How do these experiences shape into literacy? On this slide we have a picture of a little boy touching a horse, on the left. And, you know, typically I ask for people to put in the chat or to share out about what concepts do they think that he is learning about this horse by being able to have this experience and this interaction and explore this horse? And so then that transelates to now the middle picture shows the line drawing of a horse. When he sees this horse in a book, he's able to bridge back to that experience he had with the horse and he can say things like, wow! The horse in the book is as big as the tractor! And that's actually true in real life. Or they made this horse, you know, too big or too small, or whatever. He's able to make those comparisons because of what he remembers about the experience with the horse. The same can be true for when he is able to read the word "horse." Now he understands he can bridge back to those experiences. The picture, the line drawing, and the actual experience that he had with the horse. So it all kind of gives him a bigger picture of prior knowledge for when he starts reading. That being said, not every word that a child is going to encounter in school is going to -- they're going to have been allowed to develop in this sequential order. So it works both ways. You can have the word and then you can provide an experience that will allow them to build that framework for what that word means when they see it in the future. Again, you know, thinking about we have to make it meaningful and realistic. I know many kids love to read about dinosaurs and we can't bring a -- I was going to say can't always. We can't ever bring a dinosaur in. But how do we give them experiences that will allow them to compare? You hung out with that horse and he was a lot bigger than you. Well, a dinosaur is this many horses stacked on top of each other, ore whatever. So being able to see is that this kind of linear way of developing concepts can be really helpful to kids as they're in that early literacy phase. 

>>Emily: And while you were talking about, it just made me think with the hands-on experiences. There is a really nice book from National Braille Press. It was written by a woman who herself was a Braille reader. She was talking about her childhood experiences of sometimes because the adults were in a hurry, not being allowed to touch things. And explaining how helpful it is to touch. Even because there's so many things in the environment that are available to explore for a child that we may see as not very interesting, but it's really important to support concept development, even with saying things like this thing feels like this other thing you were touching. You were just exploring. And they don't relate to each other but it's connecting the idea, just like Kathi was saying, of whatever that image is in a book or even that word is like this other thing. And so I like the book because it's helpful to share with families or to share with other teachers about why this is important and being allowed to have the time to explore things tactually or visually up close, if that's what works for that child, so they're constantly gaining experiences they can tie to other things that they might not be able to really get their hands on. 

>>Kathi: Yeah. And also what can you do besides putting their hands on it? How can they experience it, besides putting their hands on it? Can they will to it? Can they smell it? Whatever. I know in this particular slide it's an animal, but I'm just thinking in general what are some other ways that we can give them that experience. 

>>Emily: So creating literacy-rich environments is really important for this whole process, this development of literacy. Here is a picture of a cute little toddler surrounded by children's books. And behind him is a bookcase that's probably full of those children's books and he probably pulled them all off the shelves. And that is a really cool thing. So when you're thinking about creating those quality literacy-rich environments, again using real objects. So this is the third or fourth time that we've talked about real objects. But that is important. It goes back to the opportunity to explore, develop as well as the concepts. In addition to the real objects, just items to explore to look at different characteristics of that item, its color, about its size, about how it feels in your hand. Those sorts of things. The more things that the child has to connect with or interact with, that supports interest in literacy. It supports concept development. And then having that place to share your interactions. So we just saw the picture of the bookcase with the books all around that child. Your home library, classroom library, the book nook at home may be a particular chair or time when there is reading time one-on-one with that child, with a family member. So that that child knows where it is and can anticipate when that happens as part of when we have consistent routines, is one of the bullet points. As part of that end of the day, that bedtime routine, if that includes reading a book, where does that happen? Does the child sit on the adult's lap? Is it in a particular chair? Is it in their bedroom? Is there another time during the day where that child can share a book with another person? And during those routines as well. Getting ready to go to the store and we're going to make a shopping list. That can be a consistent routine of these are the steps we take before we go out the door to go to the store. And then access to that functional print Braille and pictures. So again that goes back to making those things accessible for the child but also ties to environmental print. Braille pictures are really important for a child as well, especially when you're thinking about a child whose access distance to those things -- if you're thinking about print and pictures. And then those repeat and novel experiences. There's things that happen every day, of course, just like with any child, any family, or any school structure. And then there's also novel experiences that can happen. Those are great opportunities to create stories that talk about those repeat things that are going to happen every day. And then here's something that's coming up that we're going to do. We can read a book about it, talk about this thing that's going to happen that's different. And then write a story to record that so the child can continue to revisit a memory of that novel experience and all of that supports that concept development, as well as the interest in books and the development of book skills and all the things that we have mentioned previously. And then opportunities to notice others reading and writing. Even if it's happening at a distance and you can talk to the child about what you're doing. I'm reading a book because I have to do it for my work. Or I'm in school too, just like you and I need to read this thing. Or it's time to relax and I want to read a book and it's time to write the shopping list or type something on the computer or write something with a Braille writer. So the child may not be doing it with you at that time, but they know it's happening. Often through description or through listening. Like Kathi mentioned before, to what that sounds like. So some things you can do. This again goes back to environmental print. Environmental Braille is labeling things in the home that the child is going to come into contact with that you can stick something on a couch, maybe not so much. But the toy bins, cabinets, a desk, a table, chair as well as pointing out that there is print out in the world and describing the print in stores, for example. Again, this takes some time but allowing a child to look for a particular cereal box in the cereal aisle or compare that these two things, this part of this label on the cereal box is the same and these two are the same and these two are different. And then using -- we mentioned before the to-do list. But also a simple calendar. What's the order of things that are going to happen today during this activity. Another is thinking about making books with photos or objects of favorite events or people. So, you know, that's similar to an experience story. But I made, for my children, a book of pictures of all of the people in the family. And other favorite people they would see. Their teacher, grandparents, all of that. Just for that language development piece and to talk about who they were going to see that day. Who were they doing the see first and who were they going to see later. And this was just during their development of language. And then later adding print to that. Adding the word, you know, "Nana" to that picture of the grandparent. And that participation in chores or daily routines builds that concepts of sequence, of first and last. And just concepts about what it means to be doing these particular things during the day. Or within a particular routine. So we have an activity idea to share that is super fun. I think this was Kathi's creation. So using a tagboard mat like for framing that would go in a picture frame to frame the photo. And laminating sheets that are already sticky. That's just attached to the frame with the sticky-side up. This is an image of that type of board with the laminated sheet and the person is standing behind the board holding it and the board is covered with nature items from outdoors, from a walk outdoors. Leaves, grass, flowers, sticks. Things that the child encountered on their walk. And this is a way to make it engaging for the child. They are choosing what to put on their mat board or sticky board. And covering that with a sheet of wax paper helped to protect it so that could be referred back to. There are spaces on this example where the child could go on another nature walk and find something different and attach it. It doesn't have to be nature. It could be anything the child might encounter that the child could pick up and stick that thing on the mat. It can't be too heavy. It can be a lot of fun and the child can go back and read this story the you and tell you what happened. 

>>Kathi: This one was pretty cool, actually. We did this as part of a make and take training and we sent extra materials home with the TVIs. This particular TVI was working with a student who had very complex medical needs. So she brought in objects from nature and let him choose what he wanted to put on there. She told me in the e-mail that -- she was doing home bound instruction. She told me in the e-mail, what was really awesome, the mom was so happy because the SLP had been there and was trying to get him to communicate about things and he was really not engaged and one to two-word utterances. She brought this in and did this and said we're going to make up a story about what happened here. She said he told her a multi-sentence story about a dog -- I don't know if it was rolling in the grass. I can't remember. But they were so impressed because it actually really encouraged him to talk and share about this activity that he had participated in. I thought that was really cool. 

>>Emily: So we have some resources to share. And this is an image of a child -- it looks like they're sitting on a dog with books all around them, looking at a book on a table. You want to talk, Kathi? 

>>Kathi: No, go ahead. 

>>Emily: So finding activities is always -- teachers like to find activities, right? And there are some places to look for them. So there's the pre-K guidelines for Texas has ideas. There's an activities and resource guide from Perkins. The Oregon Project, if you have the full thing and not just the assessment, the books have activity ideas as well. And then elementary concepts from us, from TSBVI has activity ideas. And then there are preschool and early educational references to look at. Carolina, Little Texans, big futures. Places to look for those activities. Laptime and lullabies is a product from APH. And teaching life differently from Perkins. That's specifically for young, early childhood age ages. It's focused on ECC and so it has the some explanation as what those areas are, how they are pertinent to young children and activity ideas. I really like that book. 

>>Kathi: We also have some slides about Braille reading and writing. So this slide talks about the different -- some different evaluations you can use. This is not an exhaustive list but it's some that we are aware of and have experience with. There's the early tactile learning profile through TSBVI. It's like a checklist, which is really helpful. The assessment of Braille literacy skills out of Region 4. The Oregon Project. The EVALS kit from TSBVI has a pre-Braille checklist, essential tools of the trade. And there's also the Braille readiness grid. Those are some that can give you an idea about building those early tactile and early -- pre-literacy skills. For instructional strategies, I know that a lot of people use building on patterns. There's also beginning with Braille. The Oregon Project has some other strategies. Lots of dots. Braille fundamentals is up and coming, right, Emily? We were talking about that. 

>>Emily: Yes. I think it should be coming out soon. 

>>Kathi: Essential elements in early intervention. Laptime and lullabies. I really like that one. And reading connections. 

>>Emily: The book, beginning with Braille, has a lot of activities as well as a resource for, you know, thinking about approaching Braille. It addresses a lot about reading, development of reading and writing skills. But there's a lot of fun activities in there too. 

>>Kathi: Some websites that we love are Active Learning space. Strategy to see, a big focus on CVI. Paths to literacy, of course has some amazing ideas. You can get really lost in there. NCDB has some information about literacy for children with combined hearing and vision loss. Reading rockets. Emily likes to talk about reading rockets. 

>>Emily: Yeah. 

>>Kathi: Zero to Three and the center for early literacy learning, CELL, is another one. Oh, and this is how you can get a hold of us if you have questions that we did not address in this Coffee Hour.