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Tactile books for visually impaired children

Special book

Tactile books for visually impaired children have just received the most typical project award of the program “Young knowledge for education” in 2021, organized by the Central Youth Union, the Ministry of Education and Training, with a prize of 100 million VND. The product is researched and developed by two masters Trinh Thu Thanh and Nguyen Thi Hang (Vietnam Institute of Educational Sciences) and the companion and support of Ms. Louise France, a blind expert from the UK.

“This year, we will deploy a library of tactile books. The library will have a space for blind children to read on site, parents to read with their children. Children can borrow books to take home. To build a library The hospital needs large expenses from premises, books, operating costs, etc., therefore, needs the companionship and support of benefactors”.

Ms. Trinh Thu Thanh, in charge of the tactile book project for visually impaired children.

As a person who has been with children with visual impairments for more than a decade, Ms. Trinh Thu Thanh shared that bright-eyed children are familiar with books from a very young age, helping to prepare for learning to read. As with children with visual impairments, they need to be familiar with books to help develop tactile perception skills, thereby being ready to learn Braille. However, because the visual organ is affected, children with visual impairment need to perceive information through other senses, in which, touch plays a dominant role.

“Currently, there are no tactile books in Vietnam, blind children begin to learn how to read and write Braille without having experience with books, which makes children lack the discovery and joy of reading,” said Thanh. know.

Tactile book for visually impaired children - Photo 2.

Visually impaired children are excited about tactile books

With love and concern, helping blind children have a system of tools to develop and practice tactile skills to learn braille more easily, Ms. Thanh’s group tinkered, researched and invented the Book. touch for visually impaired children.

The book is specially designed, completely handmade, on thick canvas or cardboard. Tactile books are designed with small objects, patterns attached to pages of fabric, or different textures selected and arranged to create images, which can be felt by touch (called tactile images). The tactile page has both printed and braille text that can be read by the sighted.

The book is divided into 4 levels: A, B, C, D. Level A is the easiest level, with tactile books using real objects attached to the pages of the book, along with familiar tunes for visually impaired children. touch feel.

At level B, books are poems and stories using simple tactile pictures and models based on children’s experiences. At level C, books are simple stories, using complex tactile pictures. At this level, the painting has many abstract symbols such as trees and motorbikes.

The most difficult is the D level, the books are stories about the world outside the child’s experience using complex tactile pictures.

Wishing blind children to take control of their lives

It took Ms. Thanh and her colleagues nearly 2 years of research before they started implementing the Tactile Book for visually impaired children. From 2019, the first tactile books come out. Participating in making books are not only sighted volunteers but also deaf and blind people.

In particular, accompanying the Tactile Book project for visually impaired children, there was also Mrs. Louise France, who had 20 years of experience teaching blind children in the UK, in charge of visual design. She and her husband moved to Vietnam to live and work for 9 years.

With special affection for blind children, Ms. Louise France spent 2 years learning Vietnamese and volunteered to support Vietnamese blind children to learn braille and integrate into the community. Ms. Louise France said that braille books are very important for visually impaired children, so that they have the opportunity to study, find jobs, and control their own lives. She wishes that many individuals and organizations accompany the tactile book project so that all visually impaired children in Vietnam can learn and develop themselves.

Thanh added that the group has now made 50 tactile books on different topics. In the past two years, books have been brought to blind children in Hanoi to study and experience and sent to the northern provinces. The group also wrote a detailed guide, detailing the steps to make the tactile book so that schools teaching blind children can make their own books for their students.

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