Description of graphical content is included between Description Start and Description End. Transcript Start Chapter 1. [Silence] Ann: Hello, I want to welcome you to the tenth webinar in our series on the Expanded Core Curriculum for students with visual impairments. I'm Ann Adkins with the Outreach Program, here at the TSBVI. We've done a series of these webinars, we did 8 on ECC last year. In September, we did a webinar on the ECC and the Family. Today, we're doing a webinar on Compensatory Skills. Compensatory skills is just so huge and so big, it's one of the areas we did not address last year. And because it's so important and has so many important components that our kids need in order to address all the areas and make them be-- have access to their environment, we've decided to break it down into some of the components of compensatory skills. One of those is tactile skills. And that is what our webinar is about today. And we are very fortunate to have two very knowledgeable and excellent presenters: Debra Sewell, director of the curriculum department here at TSBVI. And Jeri Cleveland, a member of the curriculum team in the curriculum department. They have so much great information to share with you with on tactile skills. Debra: Good afternoon. My name is Debra Sewell. I am the Curriculum Director at the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired. And... Jeri: And I am Jeri Cleveland and I am a curriculum teacher at the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired. Debra: And we are here today to talk about developing tactile skills for students with visual impairments. And we're going to spend a few minutes talking about the importance of tactile skills development and how to get that going for your students with visual impairments. And then we're going to talk about some activities-- some specific activities that you can do to... get that development... going. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Importance of Tactile Skills Development Text: The overall development of tactual learners, such as concept development, O&M, communication, academic achievement, and ILS, depends greatly on how much information students can receive and interpret through tactual means. Image: Drawing of hands holding a stuffed animal Description End: The first slide is The Importance of Tactile Skills Development and, as you can see, it says "The overall development of tactual learners, such as concept development, O&M, communication, academic achievement, Independent Living and all areas of the expanded core curriculum, depends greatly on how much information students... receive and interpret through tactual means." [ Slide end: ] We wanted to make sure we emphasize that "and interpret" because they could-- they could... be exploring all day long but if they don't interpret their- their tactile information then it's- it's pretty meaningless to them. On the next slide... [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Hand-in-Hand Content: Text: In the best of all worlds, concept development, tactile skills development, & language acquisition happen simultaneously in the context of meaningful infant and early childhood experiences. Image: Photo of hands with interlocking fingers. Description End: We again talk about the importance of tactile skills development. And in the best of all worlds, these things all happen at the same time: concept development, tactile skills acquisition, and language development and acquisition should all happen in the context of meaningful infant and early childhood experiences. You cannot start these... these instructional methods too early. [ Slide end: ] So despite our unfortunately, despite our best efforts, if a student's blind or visually impaired you can assume that he's missing a lot of information by the time he... gets to school about the world around him and about his immediate environment. This will not only impact the learning of Braille eventually for those tactile learners but it will im-- impact all areas of academic learning as well. If a student misses out or a child misses out on these experiences in early childhood, we're going to be filling in the gaps for a very, very long time. So we want to make sure we start as early as possible with tactile skills development. And what are tactile skills? [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: What are tactile skills? Text: Awareness of tactual qualities of objects such as textures, temperatures, vibrating surfaces, and different consistencies • Shape conception & recognition (three dimensional forms) • Understanding of graphic representation (raised-line forms) • Utilization of symbology Description End: This is one definition from... two- two men called Griffin and Gerber that it's not a- it's not a new quote, it's listed as 1982, but this- these- these definitions have not changed. So tactile skills can be awareness of tactile qualities of objects such as textures, temperatures, vibrations and different kinds of consistencies. They're also... shape conception and recognition of three dimensional forms, tactile skills also include the understanding of graphic representations, such as raised line forms and then the last ‑‑ the last, most difficult level of this- this definition is the utilization of symbology. So that means the Braille symbols, that the student with visual impairment will be learning. [ Slide end: ] So now we're going to talk about gross and fine motor skills, because you cannot have a discussion about tactile skills without talking a little bit about motor skills. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Gross and Fine Motor Skills Text: • A motor skill is a learned series of movements that combine to produce a smooth, efficient action. • Motor skills fall into two categories: – Gross – Fine Description End: So a motor skill is a learned series of movements that- that combine to produce a smooth, efficient action. Motor skills fall into two categories, gross motor and fine motor. [ Slide end: ] It's really difficult to... to have any kind of smooth tactile exploration skills without- out having some pretty good motor skills. On the next slide, we're continuing to talk about the gross and fine motor skills. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Gross and Fine Motor Skills Text: • These skills are built upon, improved and better controlled throughout early childhood, and continue in refinement throughout most of the individual's years of development into adulthood. • Everything is much harder without efficient motor skills Description End: And these are built upon each other and they're improved and better controlled and coordinated throughout early childhood. They continue... in refinement throughout most of the individual years and in development and... in adulthood. Everything that we do in life is much ease-- or much harder without these efficient motor skills. [ Slide end: ] You know, when we're learning something new like how to sew or how to ride a bike or how to knit, as adults we are also learning new- new motor skills, so we need to think about that as- as we are talking about the development of tactile skills. Because those really don't... ever stop. They- we- you know, we continue learning tactile skills throughout our entire lives. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Why is hand development (Fine motor) so important? Text: • Unlike the eyes of a normally seeing child, the fingers of a blind child have not had constant incidental stimulation throughout the preschool years. • The environment challenges and motivates the eyes; fingers must seek out the environment. Description End: So why is hand development or fine motor skills why is that so important for our students? Unlike the eyes of a normally seeing child, the fingers of a blind child have to seek out ‑‑ and- they have not had the constant... incidental stimulation throughout their early childhood and preschool years, and the environment challenges and motivates the eyes and fingers have to seek out the environment. Hand development is important for students with low vision as well. [ Slide end: ] Not just for students with blindness. But... the sighted child has been taking in a whole kaleidoscope of... visual information throughout their entire lives, and the- the fingers of the student with visual impairment have to seek out the environment and explore it. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Why is hand development (Fine motor) so important? Text: • Why is hand development (Fine motor) so important? • Developing muscle tone in both large and small muscles may precede work on the development of the fine muscular attention and coordination essential for the tactual perception of braille. • If hands are underdeveloped a child may gain only partial or inaccurate information from exploring and thus be delayed in knowledge of objects and concept development. Description End: Developing muscle tone in both the large and small muscles has to proceed work on the development of the fine muscular attention and coordination essential for tactile perception of Braille, but also just for the tactile discrimination of objects. If hands are underdeveloped a child may gain only partial or sometimes inaccurate information from exploring and he must-- therefore he will be delayed in knowledge of objects and concept development. [ Slide end: ] Gross motor skills must be developed before we can expect a child to sit in a chair and to explore to sit in a chair and to read Braille. So we really have to think about the foundation of gross motor skills and how it goes, you know, from gross motor to fine motor. And the development is usually from the top to the bottom, from head to toes, and from inside to outside. So from the internal parts of the body to the outside parts of the body. Jeri: You know, you're so right. Because it's so hard to teach Braille when you've got kids leaning on their elbows. And long, long before I'm teaching a student Braille, they should be having a firm, sitting position. And being able to, you know, ground themselves with the feet on the floor and their bottom in the chair and have their arms and hands free to move. So, I want to talk now about using touch for learning and all that it involves. Cuz it's huge. It involves so much more than- than we think about. Just- just, you know, "yeah, well, your hands and fingers, you know." Um. Chapter 2. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Physiological Aspects of Tactile Learning Text: • Using touch for learning involves: – Tactile Sense – perception of the sense of touch – Proprioceptive sense – unconscious perception of muscle movement and spatial orientation (internal) – Kinesthetic sense – perception of the sensation of movement Description End: But you're going to use your tactile sense. Which is the perception of touch. You're gonna use your proprioceptive sense. Which is unconscious, we're not even aware of using it. But... It's perception of muscle movement and internal spacial orientation. So, it's your internal awareness of where you are in space. And- and we see kids who- who have that underdeveloped. We- we've all seen that. Um. Then there's your kinesthetic sense, which is your perception of the sensation of moving. [ Slide end: ] And of course that brings us back to the importance of motor skills and, and, and motor control. Debra: May I insert something here, please? Jeri: Please. Debra: Um. We think about... We think about these tactile skills, as Jeri was saying. The proprioceptive skills and the kinesthetic skills are really what we're talking about when we're talking about exploration because it is movement. And that's what Jeri was just saying. It takes us back, you know, to the motor skills. But it really is, you know, reading Braille is a movement skill... Exploring the dog is a, is a motor- is a movement skill. So we have to remember that, as well. Jeri: Yeah, get any kinda-- To get any kind of sense of the, the size and shape of something you've got to move your hands. And- and did you ever stop and think about, you know, "I've got one finger sitting on... the nine, between the number sign and the period. And really all I can feel is those two dots." Um. So. The next slide. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Haptic Perception Text: • Haptic perception is the active gathering of information about objects outside of the body through the tactile and kinesthetic senses Description End: Is about haptic per- perception. Which is what we think about as the sense of touch. It's our conscious, active gathering of information about objects outside of our own bodies and it involves both the tactile and the kinesthetic sense because... that reenforces our point about movement. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Object and Function Knowledge (Smith and Toy - See Hear Article) Text: Tactual learning as it relates to developing skills that compensate for lack of vision falls into two categories: – Object knowledge – Functional knowledge Description End: This is from Millie Smith and Roger Toy. It was an old See Hear article. Um. And they go into- to great lengths to talk about how tactile learning as it relates to developing skills that compensate for the lack of vision. So we're not just talking about what everybody touches but we're talking about using that sense to- to make up for the vision that we don't have. Um. It can be divided into two categories. And that's optic-- object knowledge and function knowledge/ [ Slide end: ] What is the object, what are its attributes? And, and what do we do with it? And if you think about it kind of oil-- all boils down to that. So, clearly the compensatory area of the ECC includes all the ways that we use touch to help gather knowledge of the world around us. And not just using Braille instead of print. And I think that sometimes we get so focused on the reading part of it that we-- that we maybe sleight the other- the rest of the world with that. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Object and Function Knowledge Text: Both object and function knowledge are necessary for learning!! • Object Knowledge – recognition of the attributes of an object • Function Knowledge – understanding what the object is used for Description End: So, let's talk about object and function knowledge. Both of them are necessary for learning. Object knowledge is the recognition of the attributes of something. And it's the ability to discriminate among those attributes that are unique to that particular object. [ Slide end: ] Function knowledge is understanding what the object is used for. And that's built on haptic and proprioceptive and kinesthetic information from having experienced using the object. Debra: Um. I know a lot of times we've all- we've all done this with students with visual impairments is we label, label, label. We label everything. You know, we-- we talk about "what this is, what this is." And- and we need to make sure as we're labeling it- and we'll talk a little bit more about this later- as we're labeling it we need to talk about "what is it used for?" You know. Jeri was saying "You talk about the attributes of- of those objects." But we also need to talk about the function of those objects. And that's, you know, that's the whole point of Millie and Roger's article was not just labeling everything, but- but also talking about- about the functions of- of, of all those objects. Jeri: And you do have this handout. It's-- it's called The Guide for- and I've lost my page with the note on it. It's called Guide for... for Functional Applications of Tactile Skills and it's in your set. Debra: And we'll-- we'll talk about that later... Jeri: Yes, we will. Debra: In more detail later, too. Jeri: Well, all of this discussion leads us to passive versus active touch. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Passive vs. Active Touch Text: • Without encouragement and opportunities for tactual exploration, blind children often become passive receivers of whatever happens to come their way instead of engaging in the active exploration and experimentation that is necessary for the full development of their sense of touch. (Hampshire, 1975) Description End: And you know, I don't know if you have experienced this, but as a visually impaired person, I've had people put my hands on something and, you know, it gives me a little information. [ Slide end: ] But I have to move my hands over it, I have to hold the weight of it, I have to feel the shape of it, I have to make it my own. And that involves my independent movement. Um. So that's a- that's a big lesson that I learned about how to help kids to explore. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Content: Reference: Description End: Without encouragement and opportunities for tactile exploration, blind children often become passive receivers of whatever happens to come their way- whatever you put under my hand, you know. I'm not- I'm not looking at it, I'm just-- whatever it is. Instead of engaging in the active exploration and experimentation that's necessary for the full development of their senses of touch. [ Slide end: ] And that's a quote from- from 1975. This is old news. [Laugh] Debra: [ Laughter ]. Debra: It's still news. Jeri: It's still- it's still valid. It's so easy to- to not have time to do the experiences, to not- to not think about the child's need to, to own that object and feel all of its attributes. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Passive vs. Active Touch Text: • If the child is passively manipulated through a task, no memory of the event is stored and function cannot be learned. • Having control allows information about muscle and joint movement to be stored so that movements can be repeated almost automatically in the future (muscle memory & proprioception). Description End: So, if a child is passively manipulated through a task, no memory of the event is stored and function cannot be learned. Having control allows information about muscle and joint movement to be stored so that the movement can be repeated almost automatically in the future. And that's called muscle memory and proprioception. If that doesn't happen when a child is brushing her teeth after breakfast, the child must control at least some of the movement [ Slide end: ] and gradually more and then most all of it in order to be able to brush her teeth independently. Which is our goal, right? [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Opportunities to touch Text: • Historically, by the time our students with visual impairments enter school, they have not received enough instruction in tactile development, or had enough opportunities to touch and explore their world.Description End: Historically, by the time our students with visual impairments who are tactile learners-- by the time they enter school, they have not received instruction in tactile development-- well, not enough instruction-- or had enough opportunities to touch and explore the world. [ Slide end: ] This slide makes me cry. Did you know that initiative grows out of a feeling of freedom to explore and safety to explore and move in the environment? Did you also know that it begins around the age of 3. And initiative is one of those big blindness problems with adults. And they're missing it between the ages of 3 and 5. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Therefore... Text: • They are behind in concept development, which has a long-term impact on their ability to benefit from traditional instruction • They don’t get a chance to be tactile learners, so they won’t choose to do things tactually • We assume they will be auditory learners Description End: So our tactile learners are behind in concept development, which has a long‑term impact on their ability to benefit from traditional instruction. They don't get a chance to be tactile learners by having those early experiences. So they won't choose to do things tactilely. And that means then we eventually stop giving them- to them tactilely. And it's assumed that they are going to be auditory learners. [ Slide end: ] Debra: And often this will skew the information on the LMA that we're doing and so we have to be careful about, you know, about looking at their tactile skills and their auditory skills as we're doing their LMA, so it- so it won't completely skew those results and they will not be getting any kind of tactile methodologies and materials. Jeri: Right. Chapter 3. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: How do we get our students ready for tactile learning? Text: • • • Real life experiences Concept development Tactile skills development Image: A hand covered in dirt holding a small plant that has its roots exposed Description End: Debra: So, how do we get our students ready for tactile learning? We have to give them many real-life experiences, we have to talk about concept development, and we have to talk about the tactile skills development that they're going to need. Title: TVIs and COMS must evaluate and teach both: Text: • Tactile skills (including motor skills) • Concept development. • Because it takes more time to amass tactile information for building concepts, we should expect to continue instruction in these areas throughout the students’ education. Image: None Timecode: 17:22 And how do we do that? The TBI and the COMS must evaluate and teach both the tactile skills and the concept development. You know, it takes more time to amass tactile information for building concepts so we should expect instruction and that area to continue throughout the student's education. I think I mentioned earlier that-- because what happens if an older student loses their vision? [ Slide end: ] Then we're going to have to make sure we go back and work on those tactile skills. There are many times that I would inherit kids that were in the 6th grade, 5th grade. They had already learned how to read, but they just had lost their vision. And I just figured, "Oh, they know how to read." Well, they didn't know how to read Braille, and I had to go back, backpedal a lot and figure out how to develop their tactile skills so then they could be more proficient Braille readers. We also have to think about, you know, the students reading tactile graphics. Even though we've developed their tactile skills in early childhood, we're going to have to continue developing their tactile skills when they get into... the older grades when they're having to read graphic representations. All right, so where do we start in this process? [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Where to Start Text: • The Four E’s • Evaluation • Start Early • Start Easy • Provide Meaningful Experiences Description End: We like to call it "The Four Es." Evaluation, start early, start easy, and provide meaningful experiences. [ Slide end: ] Jeri and I have both said a couple of times already today about early. You know, we really, really, really have to start early. So let's look on the next slide at some evaluation tools. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Evaluations Text: • Insite Checklist • Oregon Project • Carolina Curricula • Functional Schemes: Nielsen • Inventory of Purposeful Movement Behaviors (Tanni Anthony) • EVALS: Beginning Concepts, Pre-Braille Skills, Tactile Graphics Skills Description End: These are not all the evaluation tools that talk about tactile skills development. It's just some samples of them. And they're pretty prevalent in our field, if you don't have access to them, possibly their school districts might have access to them. The insite checklist is one of my very favorite uh checklists for early motor development. The Oregon Project also has early skills in tactile development. The Cara-- the Carolina Curricula, there are two of them. There's one for infants and toddlers and there's also one for preschoolers. It also is chock-full of um evaluation objectives for early tactile learning and early motor skills. Lilli Nielsen has the Functional Schemes evaluation that's broken into very small incremental steps in many areas of haptic perception and motor development. The inventory of purposeful movement behaviors by Tanni Anthony is now part of the TAPS curriculum. It is uh in the appendixes, and there are several-- there are several evaluations in the appendixes for TAPS, but this is one of my favorite ones. The Inventory of Purposeful Movement Behaviors. And then there's EVALS. The EVALS publication comes from Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired and the uh- the evaluations that are included in EVALS are beginning concepts, pre-Braille skills, and then tactile graphics skills. There are other evaluation tools but we just wanted to give you some samples of those. [ Slide end: ] One of the other things that we're working on in the curriculum department right now is an early intervention O&M curriculum called "Texas Two Steps." And it has a booklet of probably about 70 pages of objectives for early motor skills and how that, you know, impacts movement of kids as they grow older. All right, so start early. We did the evaluations, now we're going to talk about starting early. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Start Early Text: • By the age of two a child will have formed most of the synapses he is ever going to have and will burn two times the energy of his parents. (See/Hear Fall 1997, Adams and Hay) Image: Two boys standing with arms outstretched on a tree-lined sidewalk. Description End: Let's think about this. By the age of 2, a child has formed most of the synapses he is ever going to have and will burn two times the energy of his parents. I know those of you who are parents will understand this. [Laugh] And it is so absolutely true. [ Slide end: ] They um... They are little balls of fire at that age and they're learning, and they're learning, and they're learning and they're repeating all their motor skills. I remember when my very old children were babies, they would turn over and then they'd turn over and turn over and turn over about 15 times and then they would, you know, they'd have that skill down and they'd want to move on to something else. We have to remember that tactile learning starts at birth. And we've got to get them the real life experiences they need for those tactile-- tactile learning. I really do love that, that the child forms their synapses- all synapses by the age of 2. I think now at my age they're all gone. Jeri: [Laugh] Debra: But... Jeri: I love it, too, but it's really scary-- Debra: It is. Jeri: --from a teacher's point of view. Debra: It is especially scary because if they have not gotten, you know, the-- the early experiences then we're going to have to spend a lot of time making up, you know, making up for lost time by the-- by the time, you know, they come to school. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Start Early Text: • We can’t wait until they start formal schooling • Encourage family and caregivers to promote tactile learning Image: Drawing of a man’s hand holding a drinking glass. Description End: Uh. The next slide is begin early continued. We can't wait until they start form-- formal schooling. We have to get into the homes. We have to make sure that the family and the caregivers promote tactile learning and figure out why it's important. And make sure that it is happening. [ Slide end: ] And that the movement is happening and they're not just being, you know, put on the floor. That they-- that they really are being encouraged to move and the families get down on the floor and move with them. And when, you know, the TVIs and O&M coms are visiting the home-- or the physical and occupational therapists-- we need to make sure that they are encouraged to start early and start moving. [ Slide start: ] Title: Start Early Text: • Build on the skills the student already has – Increase movement – Increase interaction – Increase stimulation – Increase access Description End: Okay, the next slide is start easy. This is one of the four. We've got evaluations, early, and now we have easy. What we want to think about when we're talking about easy is build on the skills they already have. Increase the movement. If they have a little bit of movement, try to increase that movement. Increase the interactions with objects, with people, with environments. Uh, increase stimulation. Make sure that you're providing enough stimulation for the child to want to move out into the environment. And increase access to all of those things. [ Slide end: ] You have a handout that it titled Sensory Integration and Sensory Motor Activities. If you could look at that briefly, we're going to talk just-- just a little bit about it. This was written by Lisa Rickets, Chapter 4. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: The Sensory Integration and Motor Activities Text: The Sensory Integration and Motor Activities handout Description End: one of our... occupational therapists here at the School for the Blind. And it has a lot of pl-- tactile play activities, has a lot of sensory integration activities that you can hand to the parents, you can hand to the classroom teachers, you can hand to the preschool teachers. And it is just chock-full of activities for our students. The reason that we wanted you to have this in your hand is so you could share it with other people. And then you can also do these activities also in your time with the student. But it's nice to have-- have this uh for parents and for other caregivers. [ Slide end: ] Real life experiences and concept development. I know that this presentation really is about tactile skills development, but you can't really have a discussion about tactile skills development unless you talk about uh the importance of real-life experiences and concept development. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Real Life Experiences and Concept Development Text: • We can’t have a discussion about tactile skills development without an understanding of the importance of real life experiences and concept development. • If students are not provided many meaningful experiences to develop basic concepts, tactile skills, and language, braille or print will hold little meaning Description End: It all goes hand-in-hand. If students aren't provided with a lot of meaningful experiences to develop basic concepts, to develop these tactile skills, and to develop the- the language that goes with it, then Braille or print is just going to be dots and- and little letters on a page. They're not going to hold much meaning. And we can't be there all the time, the TVI and the Coms can't be there all the time. [ Slide end: ] So we really have to rely on others to provide some of the experiences when we're not there. That's why you have several handouts. Um. Because we wanted to provide you with some activities to give to the other caregivers. It takes many experiences of a similar type to have to- to develop a concept. I think years ago we-- we knew from brain research that you have to do things at least six times for them to be embedded into your brain. So we have to have repeated concepts. You know, we-- then we also have to make those generalizations that: this little puppy is a puppy but the big giant dog your neighbor has is also a dog and a puppy. So, we- we just have to have repeated, repeated uh experiences to develop concepts. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Provide Many Meaningful Experiences Text: • Research suggests that when sensory input, including tactile input, is imbedded within a purposeful activity, it is meaningful to the central nervous system and can promote learning. Description End: Okay, next slide. Again, is emphasizing providing many meaningful experiences. So, what research is telling us is that when sensory input-- including the tactile input that we're talking about today-- is embedded within a purposeful activity it's meaningful to the sensory nervous sys-- the central nervous system and it can promote learning. [ Slide end: ] Jeri was talking about that a little bit earlier when she was talking about the kinesthetic and the proprioceptive um senses that we have and the muscle memory that we have. So we don't want to passively manipulate kids through an activity. We want them to be in control of some of the movements and that builds that muscle memory. But we also want to make sure that the experiences are meaningful: like brushing your teeth, like- you know- contributing to the family meal preparation. So it's not just "we're going to, you know, sit them in the corner and let them play with- with blocks or balls," which is also great. But-- But we want to make sure these things are meaningful in their daily lives as well. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Concept Development is: Text: • More than spatial relationships • Linking the tactile interpretation of parts to build an entire perception of the whole • Having enough experiences to find patterns, and make connections and generalizations (tall- ness, hour-ness, dog-ness)Description End: Okay, concept development is ... more than spatial relationships. I know a lot of times when we think of concept development, we think of, you know, up, down, left, right, inside, outside. But it really is more than that. And we also have to link the tactile interpretation of the parts to build an entire perception of a whole. Vision gives us the ability to look at something and view the entire thing as a whole. When you're- are exploring things tactilely, you have to uh explore pieces and parts of it and then put that-- put that uh those pieces and parts together to build the whole. And that really is more difficult uh to do than just, you know, getting that visual snapshot. Um. We also have to make sure they have enough experiences to build patterns and make connections and generalizations. And I just was talking about that a second ago. [ Slide end: ] What-- You know, we have to make the generalizations of tallness and dogness and catness and toothbrushness. So, we- you know, we have to make sure that we have enough experiences that they can generalize that information across the board. The building of concept has to receive a great deal of attention during... the early childhood and readiness programs for our kids. And then again, it has to continue throughout reading instruction is... until, you know, they graduate from high school and probably even beyond that. The other thing we need to think about here is the ability to understand even simple stories and probably even nursery rhymes, depends on the knowledge that we've gained from common experiences and probably even less common experiences. We need to make sure that we give our kids lots and lots of experiences. They're not going to know what they like or they don't like until-- unless we can give them those experiences. Okay. How to facilitate concept development. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: How to Facilitate Concept Development Text: • Use a developmental sequence • Provide meaningful experiences (with students actively involved) to imbed concepts into long-term memory • Model and teach the language that links perceptions and concepts - using the descriptive words that label the things they are seeing or touching or tasting or doing Description End: Use a developmental sequence. We did not include one in your handouts but they are all over the place. You can google "developmental sequences" on the website and you can come up with a thousand of them. So you can use a developmental sequence that you like and provide meaningful experiences with students who are actively engaged in the activity. And that will embed uh the concepts and the tactile skills into long‑term memory. You need to model and teach the language that uh links the perceptions and concepts using the uh descriptive words that label the things they're seeing or touching or tasting or doing while they are seeing or touching or tasting or doing them is really, really critical. [ Slide end: ] So we need to make sure that we go beyond "rough and smooth" when we're talking about concepts. That we uh model and describe the finer tactile qualities of all of the objects that we want them to be able to identify. Jeri: So let's get in a little deeper and talk more about tactile skills development. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Tactile Skills Development Text: • For the development of tactile skills you must have: – Motor skills (Mechanical Skills and Hand Development) – Cognitive skills (Hierarchy) – Sensory skills-physiological tactual development (Levels) These strands are part of a developmental process, and mesh together as the child progressesDescription End: You've got a handout called "Tactile Skills Development." And on this handout there are some tips for motor development... for hand development, for cognitive skills... And there's Dr. Barraga's Hierarchy of Cognitive Skills. [ Slide end: ] And I'm pointing this out partly because it links to what Debra was talking about: using a developmental sequence. And-- so if you know what we can cognitively take on as we're building up, up concepts, we can- we can use that to, to structure experiences. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Tactile Skills Development Text: "Tactile Skills Development" portion of handout Description End: Um, and then also the- the levels of development which is really also a, a miniature developmental sequence talking about, you know, which comes first. Um, all of those things are in that handout, it's a ‑‑ it's a, it's a compilation of um small things that meant a lot to Debra and I in terms of teaching tactile skills. Debra: When-- when Jeri and I started thinking about tactile skills, oh, a very long time ago... Jeri: Mm hmm. Debra: We-- We were trying to gather information from various sources. So we kind of came up with these three sort of big chunks. And, like Jeri said, this was kind of what we thought it was important. [ Slide end: ] Those hand skills, those mechanical skills, the cognitive skills which, you know, are the concept development but-- and the sensory and the levels-- but, you know, there's so much information-- well, there was not all that inform- much information, but now there's more information, but we kind of like dividing it into these- kind of- these big-- these chunks. Jeri: Yeah. Debra: Maybe that will help you. Jeri: We both found it helpful. Yeah, we hope it will. And then I want to point-- point out another handout that you also have. I'm hoping these will prove to be resources for you when we're not talking to you. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Motor Activities to Encourage Pre-Braille Skills Text: "Motor Activities to Encourage Pre-Braille Skills" portion of handout Description End: Um, so "The Fine Motor Skills to Encourage Pre‑Braille." And so we're talking about working our way towards Braille, meanwhile, gathering a world full of motor control and tactile information and experiences to-- to be able to have some background for that reading that we're going to do. Um... So... Let's talk about um the fine motor and the hand development first. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Mechanical Skills & Hand Development Text: • Grasp and release • Rotary motion • Finger isolation • Bilateral hand use • Hand and finger strength Description End: Um. Okay, so on there there are ideas and- and- and what it looks like for grasp and relief. Rotary motion. Finger isolation. Bilateral hand use. Hand and finger strength. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Mechanical Skills & Hand Development Text: • Proper finger position for Braille • Light touch • Tracking • Tactile discrimination Description End: Tactile discrimination. Light touch. Tracking. Proper fi-- finger position on Braille. [ Slide end: ] Don't look at mine. [Laugh] I just have to stop for a second and tell you about my friend, who obviously did not grow up with- with good tactile instruction. When I show her something, she- she does this. And just kind of pats it a couple of times and if it kind of interested her she might do it again. And that's it. It's- it's like, "No, take it and hold it." You know, you never stop being a teacher, even with your friends, right? Okay. So. We're back to that same handout-- I mean, back to the, the big Tactile Skills Development handout. And we're talking about the hierarchy of tactile skills. Chapter 5. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Hierarchy of Tactile Skills - (Concrete to Abstract) Text: • Real objects • Object representations • Graphic representations – Two dimensional objects – Solid embossed shapes – Outlines of objects – Raised lines (solid and broken) – Symbols/letters Description End: It moves from concrete to abstract. This is how we learn. This is how our brains work. It's important to go that way. You want to give real objects. You want to give a lot of real objects before you ever move to tactile graphics. Even 3D representations and then especially to 2D. Um. The child may let us know when they're ready to go to um representations, when they start doing pretend play [ Slide end: ] and, and using something um that they had to hand as something else. Like um a block of wood as a car. Um. Or a piece of rope as a... a baby. I've seen it. You know. The knot is the head This is the head and... Anyway, so. Graphic representation is going to come down, down the line and you're going to need to make-- help her make the connections by pointing out that most easily recognizable attributes between the real object and the tactile graphic. Um, setting the stage is, is recommended. It does a pretty good job of going from real object to different levels of representation. So that there's still a 3D and then a 2D. Um. And the, the sequence of going from real to abstract, um [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Content: Reference: Description End: so you're going to partially 3D and then you're going to two‑dimensional objects and then you're going to solid, embossed shapes on a page. And then you're going to outline of objects. And then you're going to raised line, solid, and broken. And finally you're going to sys-- symbols or letters. [ Slide end: ] So, it's a long way really before we ever get to letters, even though they're seeing them in early childhood, for us to expect them to get what they mean, both the sound and putting them together in words, it- it takes a lot of touching. Debra: You know, I think what- what- what we do frequently is that we just skip right down to the- to the letters, and we don't go through ‑‑ Jeri really did already say this and allude to this. But we don't go through those steps, we don't-- we don't give them enough time to explore in all of those areas of grap-- graphic representation before we go, "Okay, here. Here's some Braille under your fingertips." So, every step of this hierarchy is just as important as- as the previous step and the next step. So you need to make sure you spend as much time as the student needs in- in each one of- of these steps of the hierarchy. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Levels of Tactual Learning Text: • Awareness and attention • Structure and shape • Part to whole relationships • Graphic representations • Braille symbols (Barraga and Erin, 1990)Description End: Jeri: Levels of tactile learning is another thing that's on that big Tactile Skills Development handout. Um. And it- it moves through a hierarchy of paying attention to- to objects, and it's by Dr. Barraga and Dr. Erin. For awareness and attention, you know, we have a lot of students with multiple disabilities who really have to be taught and have to be encouraged to- to reach out. And we have um... [ Slide end: ] I've seen a lot of older blind people with no other disabilities who were never encouraged or taught how to reach out and- and find out what's in the world. And on the other hand I've seen a lot who have and who- who it's scare- scary to go shopping with us because we touch everything in the store. Debra: [Laugh] Jeri: And Debra cringes in the glass section. Debra: [Laugh] I don't either! Jeri: No, she doesn't. So, it's important to model awareness and attention, paying aw-- paying attention tactilely for students who are visually impaired. It's important for you to do it. Because they want to do what you do. And- and you watch any- any baby‑ any toddler. A toddler is a very busy doing the laundry, feeding the horse, washing the car, everything that she sees you do. Cooking dinner, you know, filing your fingernails. She's- she's going to mimic that as much as she can because she wants to be like you. And if we don't model those tactile skills, those tactile um explorations, our kids aren't going to think they're important. They're not what real people do. And I really believe that's a strong, strong motivator. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Content: Reference: Description End: Um, so awareness and attention. And then part-to-whole relationships. Does it have legs? Does it have a body? Does it have legs? Does it have a seat and a back? Um. Paying attention to that and helping kids understand those relationships and then graphic representations, of course, um and then Braille symbols. [ Slide end: ] Notice that the graphic representations come before Braille symbols. I always find that interesting. And I don't know how to explain it or talk about it, do you? Debra: I think it is probably early graphic representations like you were talking about in the last slide, the... embossed outlines of shapes, and the embossed.. You know, the broken outlines of shapes. So I'm thinking maybe that's what they were thinking here is that... these graphic representations are very simple graphic representations and not like the stem plot and leaf plot and other things that they're going to be- that they're going to be... learning later in life. That's as- that's as close as I can get to that explanation. Jeri: Well, no, that's a good explanation and I- I think you're right. And I find it interesting that we tend to- we tend to- to classify those kind of graphics even as too sophisticated for early childhood. Debra: Yeah, yeah. Jeri: And I think we're wrong. Debra: Well, and I think we also have to make sure that if- if- even for those simple graphic representations, we have to know that they know that if we're going to give them a bunny-- a graphic of a bunny, then we have to know they know what a bunny is. So, it's not... You know, the graphic representations, even the very simple ones are going to be meaningless unless they, they know ‑‑ you know, have experience with, with the real object, with the real thing. Jeri: And we're talking real, not stuffed. Debra: [Laugh] The, the handout that Jerikeeps referring to is the Tactile Skills Development handout. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Content: Reference: Description End: And again, Jeri and I for those three- those three things: the mechanical skills, the hierarchy, and the levels, we came up with activities and resources for all of those. And that handout is a little dense, like Jeri said, but it's got some activities on it, and some resources for you that you can go look at and refer to later on um after this training is over. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: And... Text: • For future tactile instruction as it relates to braille – Teach tracking and discrimination of braille symbols – Teach skills that relate to reading tactile presentations – Make the reading & writing connection – Practice, practice, practice Description End: Next slide is ‑‑ so now, what's next? For future tactile instruction as it relates to Braille, we need to think about these things. We have to teach tracking of tactile lines and those could be, you know, pipe cleaners, they could be raised lines, they could be lines of letters. And then we also have to talk about the discrimination of Braille symbols. We have to teach skills that relate to reading tactile presentations. And that's something when it gets to be the more complicated tactile presentations that they're going to see on their testing and in their books. And we have to make reading and writing connections. We can't ‑‑ a lot of people just do, "Oh, we're just going to concentrate on reading or we're just going to concentrate on writing." And we have to make sure that they understand that they are connected. And we have to practice, practice, practice, practice, practice. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Teaching the skills for reading tactile presentations Text: • Tactile presentations are not automatically meaningful to a blind child because of lack of experience • Understanding the tactile “picture” requires that the reader have an abstract concept about the real thing (From AFB workshop) Description End: So now we're going to talk about teaching the skills for reading tactile presentations. That's what I was talking about, that first bullet a, a few minutes ago is that the tactile presentations are not automatically meaningful- meaningful to a child because they don't have the experience. So if we give them a tactile representation of a bunny or even something more simple, if they don't have the experience with a block or with a bunny, then that's going to mean nothing to them. So we have to make sure that they've got the experience with the real thing before we give them the tactile representation. [ Slide end: ] Jeri: Can I interject? Debra: Yes. Jeri: You also need to teach kids about the, the visual side view outline that we see an of bunny all the time. Debra: Oh, yeah. Jeri: Because it's not- it's not going to be um an easy cognitive jump for kids. We, we-- If you're blind, you don't see that side view as a flat outline of the fur, against the background and to make, you know, to make the whole bunny. And it is so, so obvious visually. And it's so completely... Debra: Not. Jeri: ...not obvious tactilely. Debra: That second bullet really alludes to the same thing. Um. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Teaching the skills for reading tactile presentations Text: • Tactile presentations are not automatically meaningful to a blind child because of lack of experience • Understanding the tactile “picture” requires that the reader have an abstract concept about the real thing (From AFB workshop) Description End: We have to understand that the tactile picture requires that the reader have uh an abstract concept about what that representation is. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Teaching the skills for reading tactile presentations Text: • Proportion is a difficult concept for blind children • The transition from a solid object to a plane figure requires the use of perspective and abstraction (From AFB workshop) Description End: And proportion is ‑‑ I thought that's what probably you were going to say ‑‑ proportion is really, really difficult to ‑‑ it's a- it's a really hard concept for blind kids. So that whole proportion of, you know, even within an object, the proportion of the head versus the tail versus the body. But the proportion of things that are side‑by‑side and how, you know, how those sizes are different. How this chair proportionally compares to this table. So we really have to think about proportion when we're- when we're talking about tactile skills and tactile presentations, representations. The transition from a solid plane to a figure requires the use of perspective and abstraction, and that's, that's what Jeri was talking about, that perspective, that side view [ Slide end: ] that um top view. So we have to make sure that we- that we have all that information embedded into their brains. The other thing that's not on this slide but that we really need to think about is systematic search patterns. We have to make sure that kids have systematic search patterns when they're- when they're starting to read tactile presentations and tactile representations. Okay, next slide. Let's talk about the reading and writing connections. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Reading & Writing Connection Text: • Making sure a brailler is part of the student’s life • Encouraging students to “scribble” with the brailler • Showing children that people write for real purposes • Showing children that writing is important • Showing children different ways to write Description End: You need to make sure that a Brailler is part of the student's life. Because just, you know, when I make a grocery list I pick up my pencil and paper. Sometimes I actually put it on my iPhone these days, but um the Brailler is a huge, critical part of the students with blindness' life and we need to make sure that even if they're scribbling on it-- that second bullet that says "encourage scribbling." If they are even just scribbling away on their Braille writer, it's their mode of writing at the time. We have to um include speech software for those kids, you know, that's- that's applicable for. And now computers are a huge part of literacy learning and all of the digital formats that, you know, are around. We just have to make sure that they are making that reading-writing connection. They're not just listening to things but they're actually physically writing and physically reading the things that we are giving them. Showing our kids that we write for a real purpose. [ Slide end: ] Now, tell them when you're making a grocery list, tell them when you're reading um something online on, you know, you Google something and you're reading it online. Share with them that we read and we write for- for real purposes. That it's not just something that we're, we're forcing them to do. That, that it's really going to be beneficial for them in the- in the long run. Showing them why it's important. Showing children different ways to write. Again, you know, if you have an i‑device, maybe they can be reading or writing on the i‑device. Or they could be reading and writing on their Braille writer or on their computer. So it's just-- Show them as many tools in the toolbox as you possibly can. Jeri: Can I interject again? Debra: Yes. Jeri: Pairing a Braille display if you're going to use that iPad with- with kids Debra: Mm hmm. Jeri: Pairing a Braille display. Um, asking kids to actually print out and proofread their work before they turn it in. Debra: Oh, yeah. Jeri: So that- so that they see what they push key-wise comes out dot-wise and it may or may not be what they meant. Debra: Okay, the next slide: Connection continued. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Connection, continued Text: • Setting up the expectation that children will write. – The motivation does not come from talking about it! – It comes from a desire to do what others are doing Image: Drawing of two hands on Perkins Brailler. Description End: We have to set up the expectations that children are going to write. We have to uh motivate them, and it doesn't come with us just talking about it, you know. "Here we're going to talk to you about writing, let's blah, blah, blah." You know, sit down with them. Write experience stories with them. Make them- make them... put their answer ‑‑ even if they can't write yet, have them do the scribbling and then dictate the experience story to you. Hopefully you can write it down and read it back to them, what they're scribbling on their Braille writer. But, but- it's got to come internally, you know. It comes from seeing what others are doing and doing and having a desire to do what others are doing. And if they know how important reading and writing is in our lives [ Slide end: ] then maybe they will be more motivated to- to do that. Practice, practice, practice is next. Um. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Practice, practice, practice Text: • Sensory-motor integration activities • Fine Motor Skills • Tactual Skills Development • Guide for Functional Application of Tactual Skills (Teaching Students with Visual and Multiple Impairments, p. 176-185, TSBVI) Description End: The sensory motor integration activities that we have given you, the fine motor activities, the fine motor skills to encourage pre‑Braille, as we have given you those activities, the tactile skills development handout that Jeri's referred to several times has lots of activities on it and it's also got lots of resources on it that you can- you can order and find. The last handout ‑‑ and Jeri talked about it a little bit earlier-- is called the Guide for Functional Application of Tactile Skills. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Guide for Functional Application of Tactile Skills Text: "Guide for Functional Application of Tactile Skills" portion of handout Description End: It's from the Purple Book, Millie Smith's Purple Book. The Teaching Students with Visual and Multiple Impairments. It's on pages 176 through 185, but we have included it as a um- as a handout for you for this training. And it's got some great activity ideas in it. It's got the areas for functional uh application of tactile skills are locating objects, exploring objects, manipulating objects. Recognizing them, using objects for communication. Comparing objects and organizing objects. Millie Smith and Nancy Levack went through what are the tactile- the functional application of tactile skills when they were writing this book. And they gave us some ideas. There are student behaviors you can look at on the handout and then there are applied contexts. On that first page, it's got locating objects and what does that mean? The skills are that it comes into contact. The object comes into contact with a body in a little room that they can obtain the object. That they uncover a partially hidden object. And some of the student behaviors are orienting your head toward an object, if you have a little bit of vision you can see it. Grasping an object, touching an object with some part of the body. [ Slide end: ] So it just gives you some skills you're looking for, some student behaviors and then it gives you the applied context. So you can use the little room, you can use toys in a play area, you can use tactile calendars for- for the "locating objects" piece of this. And dressing activities. Those daily living skills activities are- are hugely important in... in locating objects. Mealtimes and snack activities, grooming and hygiene, and work activities so they can, you know, retrieve something from their work um location that- that they're- that they're going to. So this- this document just, again, it's on pages 176 through 185 in the Teaching Students with Visual and Multiple Impairments book. But you have it now as a handout. And it again gives activity ideas for you to do with your students that are multiply impaired or- or- or, you know... Jeri: Or not. Debra: Young. Right. And it also gives you an, an activity ideas that you can give to parents and, and other folks. So we just want you to ‑‑ I know that you're not going to probably have time to read all of these right this minute, but just for future reference, it's got ‑‑ if, you know, if the classroom teacher is going, "What in the world do I do with this student for developing functional, you know, tactile skills?" Then- then you have this- this handout you can give them. Jeri: It's a great early childhood guide for anybody, in my opinion. It gives you a good breakdown, it gives you good context in activities. You know, your activities may be a little more sophisticated for some kids. Debra: Right. Jeri: But, but really- you know- adapt it up. Too Debra: Right. If you need to, absolutely. Okay. Next slide. You make the difference, but you cannot do it all. Chapter 6. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: You make the difference... Text: • But you can’t do it all!! – You cannot be with the young student 24/7 – Get help from other team members including family members – Teach the team members the reasons for, and the basics of tactile learning Description End: You cannot be with the young student or any student 24-hours-a-day, seven days a week, developing the tactile skills that they need to be successful in life. But you can get help from other team members, including the family members. [ Slide end: ] You can teach the team members the reasons for and the basics of tactile development. And tactile learning. You know, we have to make sure that we are teaching all of the areas of the ECC and we have to talk about early intervention with our administrators. So we need to make sure that... we connect all of those people and we connect all of those dots and get all of the people on the team on board with us for those early, early tactile learning skills. The last slide is... resources. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Resources Text: • Guidelines and Games for Teaching Efficient Braille Reading (AFB Press) • Learning Through Touch (David Fulton Publishers) • Foundations of Braille Literacy (AFB Press) • Tactile Strategies for Children Who Have Visual Impairments and Multiple Disabilities (AFB Press) • Reading Connections: Strategies for Teaching Students with Visual Impairments (AFB Press) Description End: This, of course, is not an exhaustive list of resources. It's just some of our favorites. The Guidelines and Games for Teaching Efficient Braille Reading. Learning Through Touch is not a new book, but it's a really good book. Foundations of Braille Literacy. One of my other favorites is that fourth bullet... Tactile Strategies for Students-- or for Children Who Have Visual Impairments and Multiple Disabilities, it's an AFB Press book. And it is really very good. Um. The last one on there is called Reading Connect- Connections. It's a fairly new book and it's strategies for teaching students with visual impairments. [ Slide end: ] It was not my favorite book on first glance. But it does have some good strategies in it for- for teaching tactile skills and for teaching reading skills in general. Jeri: Yeah. Debra: But... that, that ‑‑ those are all good sources for you and resources for you. And there are many more and if y'all have any fabulous favorite resources, please send them to Jeri and I. Jeri: Yeah, sure. Debra: We would love to add them to our, to our repertoire. Okay, that is the end of our presentation. And I suppose now is the time for questions. Ann: Thank you so much, Debra and Jeri. So much really good information on tactile skills. Um. Couple things I want to highlight as if you didn't hear it enough. But I also know how much they compressed what they know about tactile skills into this presentation. In fact, I know Debra and I just recently did a, you know, a whole session training on tactile skills. If you were like me, you didn't receive that much training on this when you were in your teacher prep programs. We talked about pre‑Braille skills and that was kind of a general catchall phrase for some of us, I think. Uh. Because we didn't actually know what to do. The Hierarchy of Tactile Skills is so important. And I bet nine-out-of-ten on-sites that we do through Outreach that are involved with a student who is a tactile learner, we discover that there's a student who has probably gone through that hierarchy too fast. They didn't spend enough time at each level and mastering each level, going from concrete to abstract, before they moved on to another level. The other... comment I'd like to make... is all the great activities included in the handouts. I know, like now, it's- it's- that's so much information and it is so valuable. Please share it. Uh. It will be up on our website, some of it's already there. And, yes, Hillary's going to work on getting them in Spanish. Um. One other comment I'd like to add because Debra and Jeri talked about that whole hierarchy: going from concrete to abstract. A question I often hear is, "So how do you help a child go from the three dimensional stage to that two‑dimensional stage?" One... suggested resource for that is that APH product... Setting the Stage. We've used that quite a bit even though it is [Indiscernible]. Debra: Yeah, we talked about that. Ann: But now I want to make sure you have time to ask Debra and Jeri questions. Debra: I would like to make a couple of comments. I know that we talked... a lot about Braille and getting kids ready for Braille. But every time we say "Braille" also think about the kids who are going to be tactile learners. They may not be Braille readers in the long run. But if they are tactile learners they still need to have the hierarchy as much as they can have it and they need to make sure-- we need to make sure that we give them massive quantities of experiences with tactile exploration and tactile skills. One of the other- One of the other things... handouts that we did not include is a- is an article called Object Books. Stacy Schaffer and I wrote it years and years ago. It's also on the TSBVI website. Ann: Yeah. Debra: But it's another great way of doing tactile exploration and writing experience stories and including, you know, making object- object books after- after you go out and have some great experiences with kids. And then making sure they- they explore them tactilely. The handouts you have- two, two of the handouts were in links on the TSBVI website. And the other two are embedded within your handout after the PowerPoint. Again, I know it's a lot of information, but it, but it will give you some activities that you can give, you know, to other people who are working with your students. Jeri, any comments? Jeri: Two. One is start easy. When you get overwhelmed. And the other one is remember to help your very low vision kids who maybe are using enlarged print... also get those tactile skills and go through those hierarchies. Because they're going to have gaps. Ann: I think that's a hugely important thing to share, Jeri. So many of our students who have vision... still need... to help ‑‑ still need work with tactile skills development, too, and to help reinforce what they're seeing. Debra: And it may be a secondary channel or it may just be a reinforcement channel for- for what they're learning, but don't- don't forget about those low‑vision guys. Jeri: And it's enrichment for sure. Ann: Yes. Debra: Anyone have any... Ann: Questions? Debra: ...questions in the next two minutes? [Chuckling]. Ann: Our contact information is on your PowerPoint. Please get in touch. Thanks so much for joining us. Debra: Thank you. Jeri: Thank you. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Thanks for joining us! Text: ECC Series: Compensatory Skills - Tactile Skills December 10, 2015 Image: TSBVI logo Description End: