Unknown Speaker 0:08 verses that you have found that you'd like to share, we would love to know about those as well, because there's probably other families that could benefit from them if you're finding them useful. Unknown Speaker 0:19 So I'll open it up again, to any of our newcomers. And we also have Stephanie, who is a teacher of blind students in Louisiana on the call so far. Unknown Speaker 0:37 And if you'd like to speak, please feel free to unmute. And Unknown Speaker 0:41 let us know who you are and Hi. Unknown Speaker 0:45 Hi. Hi, how are you? I'm okay. I'm just gathering my thoughts because I'm not even sure what I need, Unknown Speaker 0:51 if that makes sense. Unknown Speaker 0:54 Well, because I mean, quite honestly, my family in some ways is very privileged right now and I'm thankful for that. Unknown Speaker 1:00 Because, like you said, Melissa, we have a lot of blindness stuff around our house because we're blind parents already. We actually bought a Perkins Braille Raider from early intervention when my older daughter was in early intervention. And we just never gave it back. And they never asked for it. So I mean, sure, but if they ask, but they haven't. So we have a Perkins and the the school district lent us a smart brailler. We have to give it back at the end of this month, but we've had it. We didn't have a charger for a while, but we did eventually get that too. So. Unknown Speaker 1:31 But my kids are really little, it's just not working. I don't know that little kids are designed for virtual instruction. I just don't know that they are. And as long as that's the case, I feel like Unknown Speaker 1:42 we have a lot of resources. And it's not necessarily improving things, if that makes sense. And I don't even know what to ask for in that case, because it's not that we don't have things it's that maybe we don't have things that work for my family. I don't know how to explain it better than that my little there, therefore, and my little ones Oh, Unknown Speaker 2:00 too, and they're both blind. And, you know, they're both Braille learners. And they're typically developing and I just, I don't, I can't get, I can't quite get a handle on what it is we need. But we actually, we we dropped out of public school we pulled my four year old out of public school Unknown Speaker 2:21 when the stuff with the waivers went down about a month ago now, maybe six weeks ago, and we're homeschooling now. And we're using our my state I'm in Arizona, they've got an empowerment scholarship, which gives some funding to families of kids with IEP s. In some of the state funding, it's a percentage of what they would get in public school. So that you can pursue other education like home school or private school. And so because my thinking was if we're homeschooling anyway, which is what we are, I'd rather choose the type of homeschooling we do rather than trying to adopt distance education that is not adapted for a blind kid, because it wasn't we sure we Unknown Speaker 2:59 can Unknown Speaker 3:00 printables you know, things that that were inaccessible. And over time we were able to work some of it out. And I do think that teachers tried we, we were getting some materials for the TBI she was dropping off some patterns curriculum. Unknown Speaker 3:11 And all of that helped a little bit. But ultimately, I was worried about the waivers and I just decided if we're already homeschooling, I might as well just homeschool. And so then we've since hired tech vision to do Unknown Speaker 3:23 real instruction with the list of my four year old and that's also not working well for different reasons, which goes back to I think that my foil is just not really meant for virtual instruction. And that is what we have for now. But that's not always a little half hopefully. And it's not anything anybody is or isn't doing it's just not a fit. Unknown Speaker 3:43 It's hard and go ahead, girl. I was gonna say important thing is sometimes teachers aren't fits either. Yeah, that's in person or online, Unknown Speaker 3:53 depending on the person and that would be the public school teacher or anyone else. Some people Unknown Speaker 4:00 Don't click. And some people aren't great working with young ones, especially because yours are younger than most teachers work with. Unknown Speaker 4:11 So I would just encourage you to not Unknown Speaker 4:18 assume that it's not going to work at all that there may still be some some things, I think, definitely what has been done isn't working, obviously. Unknown Speaker 4:30 But that doesn't necessarily mean that nothing could work. Unknown Speaker 4:36 That makes sense. And to be fair to check vision, like they're letting us try out a couple teachers before we pick one. We're on our second week. And so we're on our second teacher and I like the first one much better than the second and they're letting us my one or two more. So I agree with it. I feel like they are willing to work with us on that. I'm just feeling discouraged today because it's just, oh, as soon as think she has to go. So you go ahead. I'm here for a minute you go ahead and do whatever questions you need to Unknown Speaker 5:00 Do we can circle back to me? Unknown Speaker 5:02 Oh, no, no, no, no. Just in case when we logged out. It wouldn't be like a surprise like I got bored or anything. No, we Yeah, we just have to leave in 15 minutes for her TBI calling. So what they've been doing in Hawaii with Eliana Unknown Speaker 5:21 The teachers are finally able to get in yesterday. So yesterday RTV I went in and got all of her Brill stuff and like things that she's been typing out at home, and she was able to give that to us. But up until now, we've just had calls. Thankfully, we've had her Braille note Apex at home. They were going to switch her to a touch plus, but that was left at school, and that's going to be a different learning curve at this point, too. So we've finally got the Brill note Apex set up at home, and they've just done Unknown Speaker 6:00 have been doing buttons like her to TV is calling every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and they both have an hour each and they try to listen in on the audio. Unknown Speaker 6:13 And it's just been a lot of like hard back and forth because they can't see what she's doing. She's too fast for me for for them to like, listen to it. And she's going ahead where she's not supposed to go ahead. So then we take half an hour to backtrack Unknown Speaker 6:29 and erase what she did. Unknown Speaker 6:32 Really difficult. And as for her math, all everything Unknown Speaker 6:38 in her mouth has been verbal so far, because I'm just getting emails of the math from her teacher and I've just been only able to do it verbally. Unknown Speaker 6:49 So when I say I mean it's great that you have the apex, you could actually have her do the railing and then email that file to her teacher and then the teacher would be able to know Unknown Speaker 7:00 Whether she's brilliant at crime, it's not instant feedback, which isn't the greatest, but it sounds like she's and I know her a little bit. So I know she's a pretty fast learner and probably wants to kind of go ahead. And that might be, it might be more frustrating for her to have to. I mean, certainly she has to learn to follow directions too, which is maybe a skill you're working on, I don't know. But if she's really frustrated and kind of wants to go ahead and she's feeling like she's being slowed down, that can also be problematic. So maybe it's not worrying quite so much having her read through it and see if she can catch mistake, but then also having her email it to her teacher at the end. If you're able to do that. You should be able to save it on a either use the Braille notes, email or save it on a thumb drive or something and cook it up to a desktop or, you know, there's lots of ways that you could email it. Unknown Speaker 7:51 Might Yeah, using just a regular Perkins Go ahead. Unknown Speaker 7:55 Oh, no, she she is emailing all of her. Like her journals. Unknown Speaker 8:00 Her spelling work her. So she knows how to do that. Right now she's just distance learning, like block command movements onto apex, which is completely new. So Unknown Speaker 8:14 yes, that's the stuff where she's like jumping ahead. Unknown Speaker 8:18 Yeah. Go ahead, Carlton. I was also gonna say on the brayla node Apex it can support NEMA two. Unknown Speaker 8:26 I don't know if y'all knew that. But Unknown Speaker 8:30 go ahead. Go ahead. We, um, we know we've just never really done it on abroad. Now. I guess she's done most of her math on paper like on just printed out paper. Right, which actually makes a lot of sense, especially for lining things up. The Braille is a little harder because you don't have more than one line. But I mean, audio nice. You can practice some of the skills. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, her teachers and said Unknown Speaker 9:00 sending you an email, they could send her something for her brown licked file. Mm hmm. And their TV eyes. So hopefully, if even if they don't know how to do it, they could spend a little time and learn how to do it. Unknown Speaker 9:13 But because it's not appropriate for her to be getting only audio math, unless all the other students are getting only audio map. Unknown Speaker 9:24 Yeah. It's it shouldn't be something that you have to do. And Sasha, I mean, it really is. Yeah, this is something is to TVI. So just kind of amazing. Between the two of them, they couldn't figure it out. Yeah, well, like when does all the Braille note stuff and the other one does all the Braille stuff so we kind of did it that way. Yeah. And the I think they didn't have access to an embosser at home either because that was stuck in school. So they haven't been able to print out too much. So whatever was Unknown Speaker 10:00 The school already they gave Unknown Speaker 10:03 and the math. I don't know, I guess she's never had math files sent on her Braille note for her to read through my birth and ask. Unknown Speaker 10:15 Okay. Is she a first grade? Or kindergarten? What is your first grade? First grade? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, so definitely, you know, she should I'm sure she knows basic Namath. A lot of the problems at this age too, are just written across anyway, they're not always written vertically. So it really might not be again, I totally agree with the paper Braille. Unknown Speaker 10:36 I have no, I totally understand all of that. In this time, though, sometimes you have to do what you can do to get the Braille under her fingers. And it seems like since she has that Braille note, that can do math, that that would be a really good way possibly to do that. Unknown Speaker 10:55 So yeah, yeah, we've just been Unknown Speaker 11:00 Doing like Abacus skills a lot. And then Oh, that's nice walk combined. So it doesn't technically follow what the cost is doing. Unknown Speaker 11:13 But they're working on more blindness skills like in the distance learning meetups on Monday, Wednesday, Friday. It would just be differently nice though she can get actual text math, as opposed to audio math. Yeah, again, unless normally audio. Unknown Speaker 11:32 Right, or even just story problems. I mean a lot of a lot of stuff that he was like, Sam had three apples. He gets two more you know how many like that would practice her reading and her math. So even things like that can be helpful. Yeah. Unknown Speaker 11:57 I'm really glad she's learning the abacus though. Yes. Unknown Speaker 12:00 Really good skill? Absolute really, really good skill. Alicia's learning it too, ironically, I don't know the Unknown Speaker 12:08 so Unknown Speaker 12:12 I took a Hadley class on the abacus and it blew my mind. And so I Unknown Speaker 12:19 so Darryl knows it thankfully her dad does. So that helps a little bit so he could do this with her. Yeah, it does. At least one of us does. But I admit I don't really I guess. Unknown Speaker 12:30 I think the hard part, at least for me with all of this has just been Unknown Speaker 12:36 the amount of time that I mean, it's better now we're more in a routine. But particularly with Unknown Speaker 12:46 I guess, with everything, I feel like I sort of have to be Unknown Speaker 12:51 there, at least, to a certain extent, sort of looking over their shoulders, and particularly because Unknown Speaker 12:59 my daughter's Unknown Speaker 13:00 Braille note actually died. So it had to get sent away in the middle of this. Unknown Speaker 13:06 So both of them are doing stuff on the Braille writer so the teachers can't see the dots and they can't tell what they're doing. So luckily, I'm able to be there and kind of come at, you know, first I kind of sat with them, especially oriana cuz she was being really distractible and not really putting forth her best effort. Unknown Speaker 13:28 And so then I sat with her and then she did great. And now I can kind of come in and out. But I feel like I'm always sort of have to be sort of omnipresent and sort of like, okay, yes, they did that right. Or, oh, you know, this is what I see. Or this is the problem that I'm seeing. Unknown Speaker 13:44 And I'm sure Allison especially you know, if you guys are homeschooling now Unknown Speaker 13:50 that's a lot like any parent that makes that homeschool decision is Unknown Speaker 13:55 there's a lot of prep that has to go into it and there's a lot of responsibility then. Unknown Speaker 14:01 You know you to, to do it. And that's kind of been like it really makes me grateful for Unknown Speaker 14:09 makes me grateful for the school that I can send my kids kind of away to to get sort of those basic education things. But it also really does make me see kind of what's missing, or how I sort of would like to do it differently or, you know, kind of I'm doing a hybrid right now, actually, because my daughter had a bad injury and was kind of in and out of school for the end of third grade and has just kind of come back to school. Part time now that fourth graders have been and so we're really for math, we're really focusing on fractions, because that's really the skill that she missed. And that's what she really needs and her basic timetables, that's what and and, you know, I will defend it all day long. So we're not doing all the online stuff. for math. We're doing it in a different way. Science. Yeah, we're Unknown Speaker 15:00 Doing that English language arts. Yes, we're doing that. But, you know, some schools don't let you do that hybrid approach and in either way, I just think it's easy to feel kind of overwhelmed by oh my gosh Unknown Speaker 15:16 Ah, how do we even tackle this or Unknown Speaker 15:21 so I feel you Alison when you say I don't even really know what I'm looking for because it can be very overwhelming in that way. Right. And I feel like it's um, that makes sense for me. I would like to kind of hyper approach to this is we're trying this Unknown Speaker 15:34 because Unknown Speaker 15:36 like I said, we're kind of homeschooling anyway, I figured I'm gonna homeschooling my my son to it this way. But I don't know if it's our long term solution. Only because I am not particularly in a place where I can homeschool I still work full time and I am still working full time virtual you know from home because I've always worked from home. And as long as it is tricky for me to be the main anything for my kids education. So but on the other hand, since we already distance learning, I figured it was Unknown Speaker 16:00 Least when I'm homeschooling I can choose who's doing my kids distance learning rather than the public schools cobbled together curriculum. So that's what I tried to do. Yeah, but I'm not sure that it works because at the end of the day, I've still got my kids are little, I mean, early intervention, my little ones that earlier mentioned that's a Unknown Speaker 16:14 it's so pointless. I am struggling with fertility futility, I actually have her sister's old TVI. Further Vegeta, who we like very much, but Unknown Speaker 16:24 like, nobody's learning anything. I don't know what they're supposed to get out of remote early intervention, I truly don't know. But whatever it is, we're not getting it because we don't need parents support. I don't need them to sit there and hold my hand and cry with me because I'm used to blindness. And I don't know, what else are they getting out of it? They can't do pre Braille stuff with her, which is what I prefer, because it all is really hands on. And I just don't want to do that through a video when she's a toddler. She's only engaged by video for so long, which is a good thing. Alison, I'm gonna push back with you about it being hands on. Because I don't think that I think most when I was teaching students Unknown Speaker 17:00 hands were all over this children's bodies all the time. Yeah. Unknown Speaker 17:05 They just my body was close to them. And I'm guessing that somebody's body either DeRose or yours. Yeah, yeah. It's usually one of us. Yeah. But usually mine. I mean, what, what the, the Unknown Speaker 17:17 distance education is really making parents, the pair of professionals unpaid. That's Yeah. Unknown Speaker 17:24 Yeah, like or not. So if you can see yourself in that role, perhaps it's not as difficult. I mean, you we know that hand over hand is bad. And the research is really clear that it's a it's a terrible method and it doesn't grow. So we don't want that. Unknown Speaker 17:44 Do we expect that I would hope the TPI would be pretty descriptive. But it might be that there needs to be some hand under hand modeling, and maybe there's a parent available. If not apparently available, right then maybe I don't do that activity because I Unknown Speaker 18:00 No, for three and four year old, my activities aren't gonna be more than three to five minutes apiece. Unknown Speaker 18:06 And part of the issue is what was my little one? The one earlier invention is like, I don't get the TV, I have a plan. I think she had to do a motor section. It's like, it's not even like we're doing lessons. It's we're chatting, and she's watching my kid play. Like, I just don't think, yeah, we don't have. Unknown Speaker 18:21 We don't have a plan. And I feel like, I think what I'm struggling with is I have the teachers I have to work with, and I can't make them do something that's actually educational for my kids. And also, I can't do it myself as much as I would want to, I just can't because I'm not available, but I'm also working and, you know, keeping my kids alive. And so, so that's why that's why I switched to a tech vision for Hello. That's why I switched to tech vision, my older one thinking that would at least solve some of the problem, because at least then I have mentors who think a little more closely to what I do. But that's got new challenges, but also it doesn't solve early intervention. That's That's why I'm Unknown Speaker 19:00 Coming from, right? So what would you like early intervention to do? Like what would help? What would be like a good lesson? Um, would it be like putting popsicle sticks on paper and having her follow those popsicle sticks would Yeah, yeah. Know what kind of pre Braille would be the thing that you'd like that would be fine. The truth is even I've done this once before with my older one, I cannot remember what we did at this stage. Unknown Speaker 19:26 And if she just reminded me, you know, oh, we're gonna work on this skill this week, whether it's, I don't know, following lines or, or sorting textures or whatever. She just said, this is what we're doing this week. Here's how you do it. That would help me I just don't remember and she's not got any structure to her classes. Mm hmm. But she doesn't. Unknown Speaker 19:45 And I have to say that with my early intervention options available, she is probably the best one. Sure. So when goals because I know you always do really nice IFSP Yes. So what are the goals that she's supposed to be working on because Unknown Speaker 20:00 way that you could really pull her back like, Hey, I was looking at her IFSP last night. I see we have this school. I think she's got this one down. But oh, this one, how would I work? What could we do to work on this at home in between times? Or would Could you do a lesson on this with us at some point? And kind of use her that way? Yeah, I can do that. That's a good idea. I need to actually review the IFSP. Because I, one of them is definitely a tactical goal, though, like, prepare. And I mentioned that. I didn't necessarily forget FSP. So Excuse me, I will do that, because that's a good approach. I did mention about a week ago, and when our phone chats I said, you know, you know, I know we're working on pre Braille stuff. What's the next thing because I don't really remember she just basically said, I'll just keep doing it. And I'm like, thanks. Yeah, and Alison Carlson here. I've really encouraged you to stop using the word pre Braille. Yeah, it's a bad word. Okay, because we don't use pre pre yet. Right. So pre literacy, pre loaded Unknown Speaker 21:00 Secret literacy. Yep, perfect pre reading, pre writing can be because unfortunately that pre Braille kind of create a wall Oh, Thou shalt not go to the Braille. Pre Braille is the same thing as pre print, which is immersion in it. Unknown Speaker 21:17 And tactile Yes. I hope she has flashcards. One thing I love doing with my kiddos was the egg carton manipulatives I would have the matchbook flashcards with those Unknown Speaker 21:33 that Unknown Speaker 21:35 tactile but my body doesn't need to touch their bodies to make that happen. Right, right. That makes sense. I feel like Unknown Speaker 21:44 you have great ideas and I hear great ideas on the various groups I'm on. But when I'm with the teachers I'm with I'm not getting those great ideas and I don't have Unknown Speaker 21:53 whatever I need to have to pull them together my own. Partly because I feel like I'm always scrambling for materials. That's one thing I miss about how the actual Unknown Speaker 22:00 teachers in our lives, it's like they always had the materials, leaving mom to like scout around. It's like, do I have tennis balls? Do I have cotton balls? Do my tips today? Right? And yeah, that wouldn't necessarily stop. Most parents don't track it does for some reason for me that does I just get easily overwhelmed by sequencing all the materials. It's just not my thing. And that's fine. But it's not it's not any one thing. That is one thing I miss about teachers what I'm trying to say. But the other thing is, I feel like I know there's good ideas out there. Yeah. And this is actually where we left public school, honestly, is that I felt like if I wasn't feeding my kids, teachers, the ideas, they weren't getting done. And even though I had basically good teachers who will do ideas, if I suggest them, I cannot be the one to suggest them all the time. I can't do that and do the other things I need to do for my family. Unknown Speaker 22:49 Yeah, Unknown Speaker 22:51 I mean, it sounds like and maybe it would be great to share with them some of the NFP distance learning resources. Unknown Speaker 22:58 I think we've been really Unknown Speaker 23:00 Focusing on parents, but honestly, a lot of teachers have been coming to his mom. And that's not bad. That's great. Um, and they actually just had one on sheets that you can make at home easily with lines that kids can track. And so maybe even just sharing, you know, sharing that video with them and saying, Hey, could we do something like this? Would you? I don't know if they can make materials and drop them off or mail them to you like, could you make I don't know five popsicle sticks. I don't know if I have this but could you could you help me out by it because I'm working full time and you know, whatever else can you help me out by making these and bringing them over? I know in the last, I think we had a thing about egg matching like different textures putting different textures on plastic easter eggs or on note card, you know, whatever you have handy or whatever the teacher has handy and then having the kids match those textures, rough to rough, smooth, smooth, soft, soft, soft, you know, all of those are pre reading, especially for two years. Unknown Speaker 24:00 I mean, that's, Unknown Speaker 24:01 that's a good idea. I think that kind of gets her. That's Yeah. Anything that you can share and say to them like, Hey, I saw these and I'm really excited about it. I'm having trouble just making them but could you could you know, could you guys is this a way that you could help us out? And could we focus on these for some lessons, and I hate the fact that you're feeling like you have to spoon feed them, but Unknown Speaker 24:29 maybe they'll think, oh, wow, there's this whole resource. Maybe I will check it out and see what else I can add to my toolbox maybe and maybe they won't but it's worth at least a Unknown Speaker 24:41 quick go to quick try. It is worth a try. The other thing is do those videos I have to say I haven't been watching the videos posted I know mostly because I'm Do they have transcripts? I admit I have almost no patience for videos. They're really long. Unknown Speaker 24:54 Ah, let me check real quickly. I don't because that would help me a lot because I admit I don't watch anybody's videos. It's not It's not an MPC screen. Unknown Speaker 25:00 videos. I don't watch any of his videos. I hear you. I'm just saying like, Unknown Speaker 25:05 I like, I hate news stories online. I don't have actual transcripts. I don't care about the price, right. It's just not the way I learned things, huh? Yeah, let me see real quick. I think they should but I'm looking. Yeah, it's okay. I think I totally understand that everybody's only got the resources we have. I'm just saying that would definitely help me and I have the same thing. I'm on a Facebook group for the early intervention parents locally, and they post videos too, and I don't watch those either. So yeah, I will say that most of our distance learning resources are text. Okay. There's only one zoom left larimar Okay, the one I was thinking I was like the the one about I don't know you were building a supply planning a flower non visually and then there was one about tracking and there was one about shoe tying. I don't know if I'm, oh, yeah, those are the zoo. Yeah, those are those things. Okay. Yeah. Okay, good. They're not Yeah, yeah, you're right. Unknown Speaker 26:00 Let me look and see. But it's also possible I've missed resources because I will be the first to admit that I am getting bombarded with resources from all sides and I will never keep track of them all. Yeah, yep. No and that's that's the issue and that's why I kind of tried to pick your favorite is and that's usually what people do. So and that's I we definitely can wish he would just consolidate our resources because like I know the different affiliates have different zoom calls. And then on PBC has some like, I just even that's their email that comes out every Wednesday that says NFP, virtual events, and a lot. I mean, not everything. Not everything is on there. But there there is it is as much as we can they Oh, yeah. I hear Yes. Is that something from NFP net? Or how do I find that? Yeah, yep. No. Unknown Speaker 26:46 If you're on that list, I think you should just get it. Yeah. See, I thought I just can't. I don't think I get them. I don't think I'm getting us. I was just checking. Unfortunately, we're not do not have transit. Unknown Speaker 27:00 reps. Okay. Unknown Speaker 27:02 Oh, that's too bad. Yeah, maybe we can fix that. Wait. Yeah, I hear you. I know, transcripts are pages. But they're important but there are a lot of resources that don't. They are important and there's a lot of resources that are just texted they're not transcripts. So they're on. If you just go to nfb.org, slash COVID-19, there's a tab or there's a link under there that says distance education, and that's where I was grouped. Browse through that. Some storytime resources to that both your girls might like they're just people that are fluent Braille readers reading stories, which obviously your girls get all the time, but it would be a different person. You know what they like anybody? Unknown Speaker 27:41 Yeah, there you go. So that might be a good one for you. Like Mary Noel Chamberlain's been doing a Wednesday morning storytime. oh nine and we've been going to that a lot. It's hit or miss how well my kids are open to that. I still think there's got to be something the way my kids and Unknown Speaker 28:00 With a live human versus a video one is just a different thing. And so I think they've got a better attention span for humans and they do videos, it seems. But of course Alyssa has gone to more of them than not that she gets something out of them. So we've been doing those and that's been good. And then we'll see what a video is. You can just stop it if they're not getting it. Right right now, but I mentioned like even the video like conferences, the the zoom call. Yeah, the in person. Yeah, I know. I know. It's hard, though. I get it. Right. But we're still doing it. I just have noticed. I didn't really think about it before, though, because I didn't have to. I didn't realize how much apparently my kids need a human versus a virtual human on a screen. They like humans on screens. I mean, they talk to our friends and family that way right now. It's not that they don't like it. It's just that it seems like there's something engaged differently. I just didn't do so we lived it. Okay, no. Unknown Speaker 28:55 Okay. Unknown Speaker 28:57 And Allison, I really encourage you to share what you thought about Unknown Speaker 29:00 It's different when it's coming from mom, that is true for us all the different ones come from parent, you have a different relationship with your child than a child does with the teacher and data. So the way it's supposed to be piano teachers don't even teach certain kids, can they get friends to switch like swaps? Because different relationship and I think you guys might need to be reminded of that, because like I said, parents throughout this country are being forced to be unpaid parents, to their child. Yes. And yes, it's not unschooling, because you're, you're, you have a straitjacket of what you're supposed to do. And it's not your choice. Unknown Speaker 29:40 And it's just you you need you need a lot more support than you're getting. Right. I admit, I mostly just didn't do we were getting when we were still in public school. We were getting the patterns pre k curriculum. Every week. She was dropping off in our mailbox, which was really nice. I realized, like, we were so much luckier than a lot of families, but we weren't doing most of it just because it wasn't something I could get myself. Unknown Speaker 30:00 Could you do for me? Unknown Speaker 30:01 As much? I'm sorry? Well, I believe that to be better than nothing, I suppose. Maybe not. But I guess the other thing is where I'm feeling like, I don't know where to go from here. And even once we're, I mean, hopefully we will all reach a point where the where, you know, social distancing is different, and we'll be able to go back to schools Unknown Speaker 30:19 still don't quite know where to go. Because we decided to homeschool not public school, we could certainly go back to public school. But I feel the problem I'm having is when I'm in public school, I'm giving all the ideas and it was literally creating a part time job for me, coordinate school. I went to parent teacher conferences in March just before everything closed down. It was in early March, we had our spring teacher conferences, and I could tell how overwhelmed the classroom teacher was by doing Braille. She'd never did adjust to it. It wasn't for lack of wanting to she just you could tell it made her anxious. She was really anxious about it. And the other problem is I looked around the classroom and yes, there was Braille on the classroom, but there were errors and this is only school Braille. This is not Unknown Speaker 31:00 equations. There were a lot of Brill errors, and I didn't see how my daughter could learn to read, which is surrounded with failures. Yeah, yeah. That and very funny fact of trying. We have an excellent IP, we have a very excellent IP we had, I would say, by and large, very caring staff. Our meetings in general were not battles. They mostly would do what they would work with us. They were willing to work with us. She was in an excellent school because our district has a public Montessori. So she was in Montessori whilst receiving IEP services, which is fabulous. And we had all these good things and I was still something I still wish those conferences and I left so sad because there's all these Braille errors and it just it and aside from her TVI time her classroom instruction was not really getting Braille Incorporated. It just wasn't. So then the alternative is I'm homeschooling which is great. But there again, you go back to that problem one, which is I'm working full time to is even when I'm with my daughter, I'm Unknown Speaker 32:00 Mom. And it's ironic to me that I know more about blindness than most of the teachers my daughter encounters. And yet because I Mom, I need to find other people who know less about blindness to teach her things. And it's so it leaves me with this, not knowing where to go next. It all seems pretty unsolvable. Well, awesome. I don't know how much scholarship money you have. But I will tell you, we have some LCB teachers. I'm thinking of one in particular and you might want to try her out with tech too. She's awesome. She's a blind mother, blind child who's also a teacher of blind students. Unknown Speaker 32:39 She is an amazing teacher and Unknown Speaker 32:42 she might be a choice and we have others. Other folks teach, who were LCP grads or not LCP, I'm sorry, Louisiana Tech, I know have master's degrees, their teacher, they're certified teachers. Unknown Speaker 32:56 So that may be something they said that you're not having any Unknown Speaker 33:00 I'm guessing that you're not going to have to Unknown Speaker 33:04 be the repository of everything. You have all the ideas, that would be great that I can share that information with you. Yeah, definitely make that message and messenger or an email or whatever works for you, that would be great. She's also a past winner of NFB distinguished educator blind children award. Okay. That would be great, because I'm always looking for, Unknown Speaker 33:27 for a new idea, and I really like tech vision. I want to stay with them to an extent, but I don't think I'm needing to stay with them all the time. Whereas that's very new. I almost hate to offer an opinion on it, because it's so new to us. I will say, part of my issue, which is, I guess a whole different animal they don't even really go is I really, truly think my four year old has something in addition, going on in addition to blindness, okay, and that is a whole different puzzle to try to solve because I don't, yes, I just don't know. Unknown Speaker 33:55 Yeah, I'll connect you with that person. Okay. Thank you. Unknown Speaker 34:04 But yeah, I that helps. I will look into that. Thank you Unknown Speaker 34:08 for that man. I think your points of really good one. Unknown Speaker 34:11 Yeah, we and I, Unknown Speaker 34:15 we, we do we need and more, more, you know more not even just but but more Unknown Speaker 34:25 somebody to actually look behind or the TVI to look behind themselves and make sure that they're doing the Braille correctly or that they're doing you know, I felt very similarly like okay, we have this good IEP but it's just not being Unknown Speaker 34:37 put into practice the way that I wish it would be. And so, you know, where do we go and not only Allison Are you mom, but if you're working full time, at the end of that day, do you really want to be Auckland curriculum to I know, there's only so much time in a day and there's only so much time and things Unknown Speaker 35:00 You know, happy mom is, is critical. A happy mom that has some time for self care is absolutely critical. And so I mean, I think you have to really look at all of that as well that, you know, that's kind of why I have until now when I'm being forced to, I've really gone away from homeschooling, even, even though I know, it might be the best thing, but I just I, I had very little faith in my ability to really do it to stick to that schedule to be, you know, to have my kids learn enough. Unknown Speaker 35:33 And that was just a barrier that I couldn't overcome. And I was very worried about just the accessibility of curriculums or you know, thing like I would always have to be okay, I'd love to do this program. Is it accessible? No, it's not okay, then I not only have to fight for myself to have access, but for my kids, I just all of that was just too exhausting. And so I completely understand where you're coming from, and I unfortunately, I don't know that there's a perfect answer. Unknown Speaker 36:00 Just the answer that works best for your family and it might change over time, perhaps, right? I can't decide which Unknown Speaker 36:09 drain on my energy I prefer, which is trying to like it. Whether it's I can't decide if it's easier or harder to try to, like force public school to implement the IEP they set up or if it's easier to try to homeschool what I basically am not quite positioned to homeschool. I don't actually know which I prefer except my my guess right now and is only a guess is that at least with homeschool, I can try to choose the teachers I'm outsourcing it to, for lack of a better word. It's not everywhere to put it but I have no that makes it whereas a public so I am stuck with who they have. Yep, yep. And since you have the money to actually hire teachers, that's awesome. You know, right. It is it is definitely awesome. It's not a lot of money, but it is at least more than none if I was homeschooling on my own, so that's Unknown Speaker 36:58 it makes it more doable. Unknown Speaker 37:00 Then homeschooling would be in other states for sure. Yeah. And what we did with my blind child is wasn't till High School, but finally pulled her out of the public school because it was so bad in so many ways. Unknown Speaker 37:14 And went to an online charter school. Now, obviously online is not necessarily where you want to go. But the reason it was so helpful is that my child was the first blind person they ever had funds to they ever had. So we didn't have to take the people who were local. Unknown Speaker 37:35 So we were able to just exactly like you're saying we could pick who would be providing that instruction. Right, right. made so much of a difference. Yeah, that's what I'm hoping that is, like I said, given those two kind of non ideal options that I just described, at least for now, this is the best guess I have. And that may change in six months because particularly with little kids, everything changed. Unknown Speaker 37:58 Yes, it took six weeks, but Unknown Speaker 38:00 Yeah, yeah, sometimes six minutes Unknown Speaker 38:03 pretty much, pretty much and so I'm just having basis because it's interesting too because I've got all this like blindness like stuff and accessibility stuff to coordinate. On top of that I just got regular kid problems too. I mean like my, my four year old has such high energy she does everything in very, very big ways that getting her to sit down for anything, whether it's me doing patterns or somebody doing a virtual storytime or someone trying to work with a Braille display like it that is also a lot of energy and yeah, people who are not more successful at it. Unknown Speaker 38:36 Although I do okay with it, we get we get some things done, but it's all hit or miss. Unknown Speaker 38:44 So it is getting to be almost five o'clock on the east coast. Um, I am really glad Alison that you were able to tune in and I really hope that we were able to give you at least some ideas and things to work with and I really appreciate you sharing all these struggles because they are very Unknown Speaker 39:00 Real struggles and very, very valid ones. I don't know, Carlton, do we have other people still on the call? And if we do, is there anybody else that wants to share anything? Either any ideas for Alison or Unknown Speaker 39:19 you know, things that they're looking for or resources? Stephanie's on the call? Unknown Speaker 39:31 I don't know. She's hearing us Stephanie. Can you hear us? Unknown Speaker 39:36 Yes, one second. All right. Okay, no problem. Unknown Speaker 39:42 Sorry, I had to step away for a second. No problem. No problem I had in So do you have anything else? I didn't have anything else. Nothing else. Okay. Unknown Speaker 39:57 Nobody has any ideas as far as Unknown Speaker 40:00 are fabulous Fridays what they'd like to see, aside from maybe something about how, you know, maybe Allison, maybe we could do something on Unknown Speaker 40:10 how to help, you know, where where are the good ideas to sort of help your TV, I start thinking, Carlton maybe, or something about sort of like, Unknown Speaker 40:24 how do you help, not just the ideas, but how do you help refocus, you know, because again, this is all new for our TV is to Yeah, and so maybe they're struggling just as much as we are. Maybe what can you do to sort of rein them in if they're really Unknown Speaker 40:41 seeming to be kind of more all over the place and not really having a lesson worked out? How can you sort of help that by bringing it back to the IEP or by saying, This is what I'd really like to work or this is what I'm seeing at home? Or could we work with my child on this, you know, for example, Unknown Speaker 41:00 Right now my daughter's just doing fractions with her with her teacher blind students. That's all she's doing. I'm doing reading with her now I'm in a very, you know, interesting position because I can do that with her. Unknown Speaker 41:11 But that's how we've decided to divvy it up even though in her IEP, she has reading goals and she has math goals, but I said right now with you. She really should work on math with me. I'll read with her I'll read with her all day long. And so kind of just maybe, maybe something about that might be helpful. I don't know. Unknown Speaker 41:34 One thing one thing Another thing I just thought of and I want to go you know, go hand in hand with some of that stuff as well. is up until today and I did see a couple of things raised like today and yesterday about it, but I haven't seen a whole lot is in terms of a lot since a lot of these things are being more like electronic like documents. Unknown Speaker 42:00 In different things on maybe what the maybe the parents can do if the if we're in terms of making like documents, or PDFs more accessible with, like note takers. Um, like I said up until like yesterday or today, I did see a couple of things for teachers about it making more like making sure like different documents or PowerPoints, or different things are accessible, but maybe even things that the parents couldn't do. Unknown Speaker 42:32 Yeah, and a lot of the TV eyes aren't doing that. Yeah, and we're talking about the math earlier. How to just make a spot me was first grade math, so it shouldn't be that difficult. But you know, yeah, um, how to clean stuff up maybe. Unknown Speaker 42:51 Quick planes. Yeah, that would be great. Unknown Speaker 42:55 Especially in terms of because a lot of schools now are using Google Classroom. Unknown Speaker 43:00 Man who knocks, right? Things like that, and how to, you know, incorporate that in what the parents can do to, you know, it's so funny what you're that you're saying that I just bought a book from national Braille press about Google Docs. I'm having so much trouble figuring out, my daughter can edit stuff when she looks at it without jaws. But I'm like, that's not what I want to do. And so I'm now teaching myself Google Doc stuff. And I'm also teaching myself about a new Braille display because we were able to borrow one. And so we're hoping that she's going to have a cue Braille, but I said, well, I've got to learn to use it myself before I can teach her. So I have my own homework, which again, I'm, I'm incredibly lucky in that way, not number one, I have the resources to get the book and to borrow the Braille display. Number two, I'm making the time and able to make the time to sit there and read about it and learn how to use it, which says a lot because a few weeks ago, I don't think I could have I wouldn't have had the bandwidth for that. So that's Unknown Speaker 44:00 Good. But I know there's so many parents that can't or don't even know, rock star, have, you know, so any little helpful? Like, I'm hoping that there's something really simple in Google Docs like a keystroke, but I just don't know, that will solve the issue. But I said, I need a book, because I don't know. And I could ask somebody, but I'd rather have a book for reference. So anyway, it's kind of interesting. And I know at least here, like they don't do it. And what's it like for home stuff into a nail the ones that can, but we start I mean, they start using Chromebooks in Google Classroom in third grade. Yeah, yes. Yep. Here. Yeah. District my daughter would have had one by first grade or my first grade. Oh, my goodness. Why? Yeah, yeah. And that's even in Montessori. If we have been we were set to stay in that the public Montessori and even they have Chromebooks at six. I don't know. First grade. Wow. I know, I know. But in the field, we do not Unknown Speaker 45:00 recommend Chromebooks for our students. We fight hard for actual real laptops and Chromebooks. Unknown Speaker 45:07 They're they're not quite the expensive doorstop. So they used to be, but I don't think much more of them than that. Unknown Speaker 45:15 And I've actually been told they're much better, later better, but you know, they're better see better doesn't mean good. Right? Doesn't do an interesting. I'm going to start looking at it because we bought Austin his own. So I said, ooh, I'd love to look at how this Braille display will work with it. Because that was what I was thinking for next year, possibly, so that she can have the same thing that her sighted peers are doing right there under her fingertips because the Braille note touch never worked well. But again, maybe that's not the best approach. So maybe it's just a laptop with the Google suite on it. And yeah, you know, easy to do. The regular lab. Yeah, she can do everything from books can do and Unknown Speaker 46:00 More, and she write so much more efficiently than she can with the Chromebook. You can't make it work but you know, you can make most anything work. Well, if you have no patience, you can. But but but that's not the key. I mean, that that's not the how we judge it. We have to it has to be as effective and efficient for our kids using accessible technology. And Unknown Speaker 46:28 you know, yeah, I was set to insist upon a PC when we got there, but we're just not there yet. I didn't have to worry about it right just yet. I do have a question for you guys that you may that to puzzle and see if you have any ideas for because I this was a new one to me. And I haven't seen a lot of new things. And the point is, this was a question I did not know the answer to. That is our funding from the state for homeschooling, does not allow us to use funding to purchase assistive technology. And of course, the maderos old Braille display the list was using Of course it died about as soon as distance learning happened. So Unknown Speaker 47:00 She's using an old smart piano, which is okay for now. But it's not great. It's not the greatest display. But I can't use that funding to purchase a T I can use that funding to rent a T. Oo, is there anywhere, anywhere that would rent a Braille display? Unknown Speaker 47:19 I sent that to the community of the other parents who are on the same scholarship account. I said, Does anyone rent at anywhere and they kind of like Yeah, not really. It's hard to find. And among the places that do there's very few of them that rent you know, Braille tech. Unknown Speaker 47:32 Um, I don't know if any, but honestly, I would probably reach out to whatever if you want to human where fist Pharaoh, I might reach out to my local dealer and see if they can make a rent to own agreement with you. Right, that's what I am. I actually did that. That's my best guess I had right now too. I just wondered if anybody had something I hadn't thought of. Unknown Speaker 47:54 The only other thing would be your state. You know, they might have like I know Maryland has Maryland technology Assistance Program. Unknown Speaker 48:00 Because anything I tried, they don't allow loans for longer than four weeks at a time a month. Yep. Yep. That's how that's how hard that's too. So I just I didn't know if they could do anything special, but I think the rent to own is a much better option. Yeah. And then that you know that people don't have to know that you're owning you know, exactly. If you're renting it out all they need to know. Unknown Speaker 48:22 Yeah, that's what I thought. And sometimes some states have low interest at loans that you will be buying it, you could get money for it. But you could do that. And, yeah, maybe you have a civic organization. Maybe you can do fundraisers? No, whatever. Yeah, I've also thought of that. I know some people get tech bought by Lions Clubs and such. That's also on my list of things to check into. I just was waiting for some of the social distancing stuff to change before I approaching local groups. But yeah, I was just curious if I mean, those. Those are things I thought you I'm just curious if somebody had another approach because it was definitely something I had not seen before. When I read that in the parent handbook. I'm like, Unknown Speaker 49:00 Renting Unknown Speaker 49:02 and you know why it might be worth asking is going up, said why is this rule and talk to your state representative talk to your state senator, this is a rule and that is really hurting my child. Can you help me make it makes change in the law? because supposedly there are new regulations coming in this fall actually that okay, because I also I belong to one of the groups of parents who are also on this scholarship, even though most of them don't have real readers. They at least have been around this process long enough that they supposedly there are some changes coming up this fall. I just, you know, we're not there yet. Because apparently, I'm not the only parent who looked at that. And I said, What? Unknown Speaker 49:43 Yeah, and the other thing is some state agencies for the blind do provide services for children. Not all they don't have to that that may be another place. I know in Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh is a hot mess now but at least four years ago, especially for home Unknown Speaker 50:00 school children pet, our state agency would have placed a refreshable Braille display with Alyssa, that would be great. I don't think ours does that. But I'll double check for sure. Unknown Speaker 50:12 Yes, that is a good point. I'm also going to check because I think we have a local like, I wonder if our school for the blind for example, might rent one out. They probably just because they don't really don't doesn't mean they couldn't. I'm just gonna check that. Yeah. Well, and the other thing is, you know, maybe it's not the best model but if it's in working, I mean, for now, since she's younger. Yeah, possibly something that's, you know, maybe they would let you like for example, I have an old brilliant I know now they have one that actually has like a scratch pad in it is really a little bit nicer, but mine works perfectly well. And maybe some of that stuff. It's just sitting on the shelf because it's older, and they might be willing to either rent you or just give you for now that it functions well and then you can look at other avenues to get stuff. She doesn't need any of the smart display features. She doesn't Yeah, definitely. I Unknown Speaker 51:00 Something very basic is preferred because if a smart meter would work The reason I'm not loving it it's because it's just an unstable device in general I mean so many of them are but I think it's particularly unstable plus that displays pretty time Yeah. But yeah, time you want you want being you know, 40 to 32 to 40 cells I would say at least just because you want her to gain some speed with her, you know, lines and tracking longer in that type of thing. Yes, we really can't track with this display, but it's working for the moment or something. Sure. No, you mean you know, you you make it work, like Carlton said, you can make almost anything work. Yeah, but yeah, those bro mechanics are so important in it if you're making flashcards for her, I'm a monster fan of lead in and lead outlines. So Oh, I love that. You think I'm the kind of mom who makes flashcards, thank you. Unknown Speaker 51:53 Well, maybe dad could do it too, because you know, Unknown Speaker 51:56 less likely it men need to feel useful. Unknown Speaker 52:00 But like I said, I would match them with those egg cartons with ping pong balls. But you know what you could also use Unknown Speaker 52:07 those horrible supermarket mailers that come and clog up your mailbox they make if you crunch them up really small, they make good ping pong balls. Oh, how about that too? Unknown Speaker 52:19 And I would do the trick. I'd actually almost prefer that because ultimately whatever balls I use me a card my kids are gonna throw anyway. So Unknown Speaker 52:26 I used to use the pipe water, the paper, whatever words and then aluminum foil. Anything Yeah, yeah. And then she can match the dots one and three to the flashcard. Okay. Unknown Speaker 52:42 Um, Unknown Speaker 52:44 so she can do to start doing self GRE or a character on the Braille display. If you're not going to do a flashcard you know, character on the Braille display or, you know, Unknown Speaker 52:53 anything, anything like that chicken Yeah, matching. Unknown Speaker 52:57 It's hard to get buy in from her but you Unknown Speaker 53:00 Yeah, I try a lot of things. Unknown Speaker 53:02 Oh, you have one of those two? Yes, I understand that. Her sister, thank goodness. It's not like that, like I think I might, which is I might have at least one kid who can be suggested to try and Unknown Speaker 53:18 make mistakes and have her catch your mistakes or catch dad's mistakes. Uh huh. That was really motivating for Anna when I was learning to Braille. I would pay her 10 cents for every mistake that he can do. You cannot I can't tell you. I do that with my students too. They love adults making mistakes. Unknown Speaker 53:38 I like that. That's a good point. Unknown Speaker 53:41 So funny. My para was with me from first grade all the way up through high school and she still when I see her will tell the story of when she was first learning to Braille and I was a first grader and I would come down and I would say, Miss Debbie, you will not Braille this right. You wrote this and it is supposed to be Unknown Speaker 54:01 My teacher blind students was like, Oh, it's wonderful. She's self advocating and Debbie's like, I really have to answer to a first. Unknown Speaker 54:10 Yep. And you know, the back row. Yeah. Talk to the school about it. Tell make it a learning thing. And maybe, maybe when she finds that Braille, she turns it in and gets a lunch pass to sit with a buddy or I don't know, whatever. The heck yeah, she's not quite enough of a reader to find mistakes just yet. Okay. Yeah. I don't think so. That's why I was worried. And I did talk to them. And I did fix it. But the point is, I wasn't there every day to check on their mistakes. Right. Right. Exactly. And then they think, Oh, my gosh, if I'm not seeing them every day, what is going by? I'm seeing these with the little worksheets that come home. What kind of stuff is being given to her at school? That's real wrong. Yep, yep. Unknown Speaker 54:53 Yep, yeah. Unknown Speaker 54:57 So we just need teachers like Stephanie that were you know, Unknown Speaker 55:01 One of my former students a zillion years ago. Unknown Speaker 55:05 It's all Unknown Speaker 55:08 I love. Yeah. Unknown Speaker 55:11 We I think I taught Unknown Speaker 55:13 computers and keyboarding when she was about nine. Oh, yeah. Very nice. It's pretty cool. Yeah. Unknown Speaker 55:24 He moved to Arizona though. Stephanie I have kids. I would love it if you could change Unknown Speaker 55:29 anytime you want to move to the desert, I don't know if this sounds appealing to you, but just like you know. Unknown Speaker 55:36 Mary Claire has joined us I think we're kind of wrapping up But Mary you Mary Claire, you're muted. I'm not gonna mute. Oh, there you're you're unmuted please. Hi, how are you? Hi, good. Thanks for organizing this. Unknown Speaker 55:51 We're kind of new to the area. Unknown Speaker 55:54 Just looking at assistive technology and stuff for our daughter so I don't I didn't know the content. Unknown Speaker 56:00 would be appropriate for us or not. But um, she just has a lot of functional vision challenges. She's eight and a half and just struggling. But um Unknown Speaker 56:11 Yeah, I just wanted to hear what what you guys were, what others were doing or being able to get their hands on to kind of enhance literacy literacy skills area. Unknown Speaker 56:26 So we have Allison I have I have two little girls who are both preschoolers, but they're they're four and almost two and they're Sorry about that. They're both low vision too. So I hear you. Unknown Speaker 56:37 I mean, we're kind of Unknown Speaker 56:39 like we're we have, um, she's not she has his usable vision. And so like her teachers are keep pushing for the reading, but she's eight and we're still working on like preschool reading skills. And so we're just at the point we've explored like, OCR pens and stuff to try to because she loves Unknown Speaker 57:00 For me to read chapter books to her, but I can't transfer the amount of people to her to do it independently. So, yeah, I got Braille for my kiddos early just because I figure my kids, I don't want them to be slowed down by trying to rely on limited sight. And they've got a lot of usable sight because they've got one of those like conditions that you start out with a lot and you lose some later but you start out with quite a bit. Oh, yeah, I really yeah, I really recommend Unknown Speaker 57:28 Braille. It's harder to start at eight, but I really recommend doing Braille if you can, because Unknown Speaker 57:36 the print doesn't get bigger, it gets smaller. And then there's more of it. The older they get. Yeah. Unknown Speaker 57:43 It's just such a battle with the school. It's like, you know, well, Unknown Speaker 57:48 legally, it shouldn't be a battle, frankly, because you have legally a child who has an IEP for visual impairment claim blindness, must be taught Braille. Unknown Speaker 58:00 Without Braille, unless the entire IEP team agrees that the assessment shows that Braille is in appropriate for the child. Unknown Speaker 58:10 Yes, it does. But not being able to read independently. And agent approval level for age appropriate Unknown Speaker 58:19 at eight years old is I don't even need to go further with assessment or would, but you don't need to because that's it. That's definitely in addition to that Braille is not inappropriate. Well, yeah, I mean, they made they made it so like, you know, she missed a dual meeting. I like 1.0 you know, that all that's illegal, completely illegal. And me it doesn't help it's just I can't just maybe go back and say let's rethink Unknown Speaker 58:54 Yeah. When did she when she did she get an assessment that you missed the dual media by one point was that really Unknown Speaker 59:00 Recently, Unknown Speaker 59:03 about a year ago, a little girl and maybe it's time for some new assessments because vision does change. And of course, like you're saying the print size is changing what what she's being required to read in class is obviously, where her peers I mean, are being required to read in classes obviously changing. So she, especially if she missed it by such a small margin. Unknown Speaker 59:31 There might be much more data now to say, Okay, this would be very appropriate for her, because like you were saying, you want to make sure she can have that. Unknown Speaker 59:45 That ability to read by herself, and, you know, I think Braille would be Unknown Speaker 59:53 could be a great tool for her. Unknown Speaker 59:57 Are you guys I'm assuming you guys are probably Unknown Speaker 1:00:00 Your school district is probably closed for the next couple months because of all this other stuff that's going on. I'm assuming they are. Yeah, they've actually been really great distance learning. Unknown Speaker 1:00:14 But you're probably not really going to be able to have a meeting with them for a little bit, I'm assuming, right? I was just thinking you know, since she likes chapter books and stuff has Have you looked into at least some audio books for the moment to kind of keep her entertained and so that you don't have to, I mean, I know I love reading to my kids, but I'm also a busy mom and always, always have time. So there is a Library for the Blind and print disabled. I don't know if you have looked into that for her. She could get books on audio for free and a special player to play them and then they also as she gets Braille, which, you know, we would be happy to help you explore that if you want to explore that more, but they can also send Braille books for free Unknown Speaker 1:01:00 For the male, so that could be a possibility just to have more books that she could enjoy. And that might also sort of Unknown Speaker 1:01:09 make her want to read more like you could talk to her about then, hey, you know, we're going to get you where you can read this kind of book to yourself as well. Again, I don't want audio to be the be all and end all because for nine year old who seems pretty intelligent, I'm guessing that the Braille she could just take off with that and really fly with that and not have to worry about her eyes hurting or getting headaches or not being able to focus on letters or, you know, whatever for her, you know, whatever slowing her down, but at least she would have right now. Some some ability to have some audiobooks that, you know, she might really enjoy. But another possibility does she have a book share too? Yep. Yeah, actually, Carolyn, you were awesome and Unknown Speaker 1:02:00 I sent her all the paperwork to news SCADA setup on that. So thank you for that. Great. Unknown Speaker 1:02:06 Oh, good. The only thing we don't we we don't have any devices, which I know sounds archaic, but, you know, just because Unknown Speaker 1:02:15 we we just struggled with her learning for so long. We didn't want to like let her just play with an iPad all the time. So but now we're looking at maybe getting an iPad because it seems I don't maybe I could be wrong. It's more accessible than the Chromebooks. I know. I came home early today. Yeah, I don't know if that's true or not just yes, no, that is a great choice, no iPads a good choice. And yes, she can get audiobooks, Unknown Speaker 1:02:39 either from Bookshare on the iPad or from the library. The Library for the Blind is nice because, yeah, because it actually has humans that narrate if you get it on Bookshare. A lot of them are more of a synthetic speech. Yes, and certainly, yeah. But kids books, especially I think having that human narrator can be really nice. Unknown Speaker 1:03:00 Yes, I did that was actually the hang up with the OCR pen. It freaked her out because it was like, yeah, it sound like a not a monster, but it was too. So my voice Unknown Speaker 1:03:11 is different voices and I'll say my coin child really took to being able to speed this speech up. So Unknown Speaker 1:03:21 I, I think kids need both. I think human readers are awesome. I think that they can add a richness and a depth that is unparalleled. But the computer speech number one, that's the kind that's what you're going to get if you're reading your emails online or searching the web. Right? But number two, you can fly my kid flew through Harry Potter now she did it slowly too. But get it quickly. Thank you like I listened to Harry Potter demo or whatever it was. Unknown Speaker 1:03:55 Once you get those pre wins your daughter gets to this preteen years. Let me tell you Unknown Speaker 1:04:00 Again, it's another tool. It's not one or the other. Yeah. Right. Is everything all the tool? box? Yes, that's good. That's good to know. And you can even speed up the bar like even the bar it's not as chaotic but you can even still speed that up too. Yep. In though you can you can have anyone read or read faster. Yeah, I can even had a student I was super excited because she was we were watching a video and like, she was telling me how you know, McHugh is able to increase her, you know, her listening speed. And then the next day, she was listening there. She was listening to a video or something in class and she and everyone else was like, man, they're talking fast and the student looked at me. That's nothing like wow, that's not fast at all. Unknown Speaker 1:04:50 Absolutely, yeah. My incredible jabber. This is my dog. Unknown Speaker 1:04:56 Um, other thing is have you heard Unknown Speaker 1:05:00 Have in it the bell Academy? Yes. Well, I actually signed her up for it, I think last summer the year before. And we Haley dare I think you mean? Oh, yeah, no, no. Yeah. She organized it here in Kalamazoo, Michigan. And but we're an up we weren't. We were at a point. She was still young. We were trying to, you know, we were doing vision therapy trying to hold on to whatever the vision she had, but we didn't really think it was very Unknown Speaker 1:05:31 you didn't seem to help her that much. So we're just trying to help her, you know, with the vision she does have and but we were gonna maybe do it this year round. I don't, it's virtual. I think what I've been reading, is that correct? It's gonna be awesome. Unknown Speaker 1:05:48 But it's gonna be good. But yeah, it's gonna be good virtual, you'll get a whole box of materials, which you guys can use at home. So go Oh, really? You're on the team. So yeah, it's gonna be awesome. You're gonna be okay. Unknown Speaker 1:06:00 I'm looking forward to it. Unknown Speaker 1:06:03 We'll definitely take a look at it again. Unknown Speaker 1:06:06 Just trying to get her to help any, you know, literacy any way we can do it. Right? Yeah, it sounds like it's gonna be a really good thing because there's, like, you'll get the box of materials and then there will be two times each day that you'll be able to like talk to a teacher that will, you know, help you with any questions or comments that you have with the with those lessons with the lessons, there is actually going to be a social hour every day and that day, and that's gonna be nationwide, not just within your state. So, I think that's going to be I think the social hour is gonna be pretty cool because a lot of kids even for Bill, you'll see kids in your state, but it's, I think it's gonna be cool to have people you know, kids from all over the country. Unknown Speaker 1:06:54 And I think especially for kids like your daughter and mine, my daughters are very much the same way. They have Unknown Speaker 1:07:00 Have some usable vision. So first of all, she's never, she's never not going to use her vision. And that's okay. What I tell my daughters is I want you guys to use your vision for the fun stuff. I want you guys to use your fingers at school to read your Braille so that when you come home and you want to play a video game, you can do it without your head hurting. Or I want you to use your Braille at school so that in art class, you can draw that picture which you love to do. And there's no reason you shouldn't be encouraged to do it. But you, you'll be able to do that because your eyes aren't so tired. And so not that she has to totally not use her vision ever. It's just teaching her that she has other senses that she has the ability to use those and that when she does use those, first of all, it's probably going to be much faster in a lot of cases for her to use those other senses and those other techniques. And then she has more time to do that fun stuff or the stuff that she really wants Unknown Speaker 1:08:00 To do, and I think the thing that has really helped both my daughters is meeting other kids who have vision like theirs that, you know, they feel sometimes like they're the only ones I'm blind. I'm totally blind. So what my daughter kept arguing with me was no, I'm not as blind as you Unknown Speaker 1:08:19 say, You're, you're right, actually, I mean, you're you're not. But there are other kids that are and you also can't see, as well as your brother can see it. It doesn't matter how much you can see it matters, what you can do, and you can do these things, but you can do them more efficiently. So I think the more that your daughter can kind of Unknown Speaker 1:08:38 meet other people who maybe can see some like her but are learning Braille and or other blind adults that can talk to her about, yeah, I know, I used to fight Braille to her. I didn't want Braille either. But then I started and it really helped me because of this, this, this and this and that's kind of where that social hour could really help that if she could connect Unknown Speaker 1:09:00 to other kids that are sort of in her same boat. Yeah, also might really help her and also could really help give you ammunition. Not that you should need much, but give you more ammunition for the schools to say, Look, she was in this program. And, you know, she wants she's eager for it now, you know, we did all this stuff, she understands it. She's making progress. All those things could really be helpful. So I would really Unknown Speaker 1:09:26 try it out. Look at it. Unknown Speaker 1:09:29 That's a great point. Unknown Speaker 1:09:31 Thank you. There's no registration fee this year. So that's no Unknown Speaker 1:09:38 you don't have to travel anywhere. We do different. Three different nice and not nice at the same time because I'm getting a little tired of my four four walls myself. Yeah. Unknown Speaker 1:09:51 It does make. Go ahead. No, no, go ahead. Unknown Speaker 1:09:55 I was just saying it does make it a little easier in the morning. You know, you don't have to get up Unknown Speaker 1:10:00 Quite so early to drive somewhere you can even just, you know, have school in your pajamas. But anyway, and there, there'll be pre teaching type videos. So there'll be before the lesson. Okay? The lesson will be much more interactive because it's because you'll have your seen what the lesson is about, at your leisure, repeating it as many times as you like, then when you're online interactive, then everybody can share what they did. It's kind of fun and hey, but I had trouble with this. Okay, let's work together. So it can be a lot more. You're not just slugging through it every. Yeah, every bit of it because you could you sludge through on your own, which is cool. And it's also kind of emotionally a safe place to be. Especially with new people. Yeah. See that? Yeah. Should we? Yeah. Unknown Speaker 1:10:55 And then there's the three different like, time there's like a one beginning Unknown Speaker 1:11:00 of the summer in the middle towards the end so yeah. Oh, today you have to the other two weeks sessions that you can choose the one that's going to work best for your family. Unknown Speaker 1:11:12 So, I think if there's I think they're loving us up lovely 11am sessions and for each two weeks since he sits pm Okay, well, you're Yeah, you're still Eastern. Yes. Unknown Speaker 1:11:28 It's the Unknown Speaker 1:11:30 each of the three weeks and then the social hour Stephanie was talking about is at 3pm Oh, nice. Yeah. So you can but you got to choose 11 or six but three is the everybody three is a social Unknown Speaker 1:11:44 nice. Unknown Speaker 1:11:49 Well, I do want to be respectful of everyone's time it is getting a little bit later and probably near dinnertime for some and maybe near some snack time for others. Unknown Speaker 1:12:04 Please, though, you know, feel free to reach out to us on our Facebook page or on our website and oh, PVC dot o RG their emails for Carlton Walker, who's the president? You know, you can definitely write to us and let us know. And we will definitely be having more of these types of Unknown Speaker 1:12:26 seminars or gatherings so that we can sort of help people through this strange time, but also, you know, help people just in general, because eventually we will get back to Unknown Speaker 1:12:39 maybe it'll be a different kind of normal, but it will be a little more normal than this new. Yeah. Unknown Speaker 1:12:46 I hope Unknown Speaker 1:12:48 so. I really appreciate all of you being a part of this and please feel free to reach out if there's anything that that we can do or to let us know how something went Unknown Speaker 1:13:00 Or if there's something else that you think of that we can help you with. We are definitely here to support you and we will definitely be putting out more announcements about what we're going to offer in the next few weeks. Carlton you have anything else to say? I just quick Welcome to Rick Casey Robertson. Unknown Speaker 1:13:16 We I don't know what to do for our fabulous Friday I have some ideas have to see who I can rope into healthy Unknown Speaker 1:13:26 beer my mouse going all time Unknown Speaker 1:13:29 but so hopefully we can have more fabulous Fridays and like most said, we really love these What do you want Wednesdays because we want to know what's going on what you need help with, not be able to solve it. But we can help Think it through with you and we definitely will give you all support we can. Unknown Speaker 1:13:51 Definitely. Unknown Speaker 1:13:54 All right, well, thank you all so much, and have a great evening. Stay well and stay safe. Unknown Speaker 1:14:00 We'll talk to you soon. Unknown Speaker 1:14:02 Take care. Bye Unknown Speaker 1:14:04 bye Unknown Speaker 1:14:07 Thank you Transcribed by https://otter.ai