What Is PRIOR?
PRIOR is a tactile pre braille letter shape system for visually impaired and blind children with extra additional needs.
PRIOR takes a simplified shape approach to braille dot formations, making it easier for children to access by allowing learners to hold enlarged physical versions of letter shapes. The idea is that learners will get used to the shape formations and later link this to braille dot formations.
Sighted people who learn braille do this by recognising the patterns the dots make. So why would it be any different for non sighted users? If anything they are better equipped for learning in this manner as everything they know about their environment is all learnt through touch and building up mental pictures in their mind.
Many SEN teachers with visually impaired children have stressed the need for a learning scheme prior to braille, as children facing other disabilities such as conditions affecting dexterity, struggle to feel the small dots making up braille letters and words etc. It is like giving early years children a harry potter novel to read rather than single enlarged letters to understand first.
PRIOR is broken down into 5 stages of development which works on understanding, fine motor skills and letter recognition. The idea is that PRIOR should help learners to progress onto braille when they are ready, but in some cases due to other factors, learners may never progress on to being braille users. This is why PRIOR is so important because children can learn the letter shapes and apply this to braille out in the community. For example they might not be able to feel the individual 3 dots in a letter ‘L’ for ‘lift’, but they could recognise the overall line shape that the dots make. Therefore able to understand that the letter ‘L’ shape is to indicate there is a lift.
For learners who will always find braille too difficult due to various other disabilities, PRIOR will not be waisted education as the skills learnt can still be applied in everyday life situations, enabling independence and facilitating self confidence.
The 5 Stages of PRIOR Pre-Braille Learning:.
P - Participate and Play
R - Realisation
I - Identification
O - Orientation
R - Recognition and Refine
The PRIOR learning booklet features activities covering each of these 5 areas, helping teachers, parents, carers, and learners to effectively work through the program.
Can you break it down further please?
PRIOR is a pre-braille tactile learning system using enlarged physical shapes, resembling a simplified formation of braille. The system was introduced to support the learning of visually impaired and blind children with additional needs and/or disabilities. As reading and writing braille requires refined fine motor skills, children experiencing difficulties with dexterity can have problems developing the necessary skills. This does not mean they cannot develop such skills, they may just need a helping hand or stepping stone along the way.
The system of PRIOR letters has a direct link from tactile shapes to braille, as shown below. PRIOR can be understood by braille users when presented with this for the first time. The shapes are ergonomically designed to fit comfortably in the palm of your hand, with a small notch cut out of the top right corner, or where your index finger placement would naturally sit. This allows the shapes to be orientated easily as well as making each individual shape unique. PRIOR has also been produced as a font which can be used with standard office programmes, making resources easy to produce for teaching staff and parents/carers etc. Individual PRIOR letters or even words can be printed on to swell paper, then raised using a Zychem machine, producing a quick and easy worksheet for learners.
Previously, the alphabet system known as ‘MOON’ was used, with this same idea of learning letters by feeling simplified tactile shapes. This is presented as a tactile learning system for SEN visually impaired pupils to use if braille would be too difficult for them to understand, at their current stage of development. When the founder of PRIOR, J Smith, started to teach the MOON system, she felt increasingly confused as to how this would help learners long term. MOON shapes are taken from elements of Latin and are of no resemblance to braille or even standard print. Smith believed learning this system would be of little help in facilitating a natural progression on to Braille. In addition, MOON is not used in everyday society so would therefore be of no use in adulthood.
PRIOR has also been produced as a digital font, facilitating easier access to the program for educators. Teachers, teaching assistants, parents, carers and family members etc., can all have the availability to print the letter shapes out onto card, then cut around them, creating a tactile PRIOR shape cut out for learners in their care to explore. Additionally if you have the facilities the font can be used to produce swell paper resources using a Zychem machine.
Education should be easily accessible for all and PRIOR strives to facilitate this in any way possible.
The prior or pre-braille learning system features levels of progression and differentiation. Each shape features small cut out holes, in place of where the braille dots would appear if the shape was presented as a braille cell. Once learners have understood the concept that each different shape represents a letter, then learnt the individual letters, they then can progress on to orientating the shapes by locating the notch, as well as identifying the number of holes in the shape. This one set of shapes provides many opportunities for differentiated, engaging and inclusive learning, and is of high value to the wider community seeking to learn braille.
The concept of ‘PRIOR’ is broken down into 5 stages, Participation, Realisation, Identification, Orientation, and Recognition. These stages of progression take learners through the initial steps of pre-braille learning, to transitioning on to reading and writing in the traditional braille system. The learning first starts with simply interacting with the shapes, holding them, exploring them, and pressing them into playdough etc. This progresses on to shape matching games, and linking letter shapes with initial letter sounds for physical objects. The latter stages consist of identifying the notches for orientation purposes and distinguishing difference between common letter shapes. Lastly, recognising the numbers of holes in each shape and being able to sort them into groups with other letters featuring the same number of holes. Each PRIOR stage takes learners through a journey of developing fine motor skills, refining fine touch sensitivity, and understanding the concept of the physical shapes representing a letter sound.
Level 1 – Play / Participation
Level 1 is all about learning through play, simply showing an interest, exploring, and interacting with the PRIOR letter shapes.
Level 2 – Realisation
Level 2 introduces meaning to PRIOR letter shapes. The aim is for learners to realise that each shape represents a different sound. (The light bulb moment.)
Level 3 – Identification
Level 3 focuses on learners making the link between PRIOR letter shapes,
initial letter sounds, and physical tactile objects.
Level 4 – Orientation
Level 4 introduces and develops fine motor skills by implementing the use of the notch. This section focuses on the understanding of letter orientation, and how holding it in different ways can represent different letter sounds. Learners are to hold the shapes in a pincer grip with their right index finger sitting on the notch.
Level 5 – Recognition
Level 5 implements the final stage of PRIOR Learning and aims to refine fine motor skills. This section focuses on identifying the holes cut out of the PRIOR shapes, which will later help to support development onto learning braille.
PRIOR was founded and put into practice by Jade Kathryn Smith, a qualified teacher of the visually impaired. Jade started life with fully functioning vision but aged 21 she developed a genetic condition known as Stargardts disease, a form of juvenile macular degeneration. She was first registered partially sight impaired but shortly after, registered blind. Jade originally qualified as a Design and Technology teacher specialising in Resistant Materials and electronics, but was then unable to continue a career in this field due to her limited vision. After working as a Teaching Assistant for a couple of years she started work again as a teacher, but this time at a school for the blind educating learners with difficulties similar to her own. Jade completed a master’s degree in teaching Learners with Visual Impairments, alongside her teaching role. It was at this point, Jade started to notice areas of weakness in the available support for Visually Impaired children, who have additional learning difficulties and/or physical disabilities.
Utilising her technology background, Jade started to develop her own unique methods of educating SEN pupils in the field of pre-braille. Jade designed and manufactured many laser cut products in order to provide an enlarged tactile method of reading and writing braille. Such designs consisted of wooden puzzle style frames, with circle recesses for placing chunky acrylic counters into. This allowed children to read and create letters or short words without having to understand how to use a Perkins Brailler as the change in orientation can be confusing. This method of learning proved to provide a steppingstone to using a Perkins Brailler, as children were allowed the opportunity to fully understand the formation of numbered dots in a braille cell first.
It was creating such resources that inspired Jade to develop the early stages of ‘PRIOR’ letter shapes. Jade recognised that sighted people who knew or were learning braille, did so by recognising the basic shape of the dot formation making up each letter. Testing this theory, Jade asked other QTVI teachers in passing, what a particular letter was in braille. She found that more often than not, the teacher would explain the letter by drawing the shape in the air using their finger. This provoked the idea of using this visual method to teach visually impaired learners. It is possible for blind and visually impaired people to be visual learners, despite not actually being able to physically see with their eyes. Jade noticed around her workplace various landmarks, objects of reference, and trail route indicators, with the idea of helping VI learners to build up a mental picture of their environment, known as visual mapping skills. So, in theory, blind and visually impaired people are far better visual learners than what is commonly thought.
Jade Kathryn Smith
Founder of PRIOR
MQTVI
Grandma Anne
Prior-Smith