Earlier this school year, the School for the Blind received a new, highly anticipated, fun braille-learning tool: LEGO® Braille Bricks, from the LEGO Foundation. As described on the LEGO Foundation’s website, the LEGO® Braille Bricks concept is a play-based methodology that teaches braille to children who are blind or have a visual impairment. Each brick in the LEGO® Braille Bricks toolkit retains its iconic form, but unlike a regular LEGO® brick, the studs are arranged to correspond to numbers and letters in the Braille alphabet. Each brick shows the printed version of the symbol or letter, allowing sighted and blind children to play and learn together on equal terms. This ingenious combination of features opens up a whole new world of playful learning that teaches children Braille in an enjoyable and tactile environment. The LEGO Foundation and LEGO Group are behind this pioneering project that will help children with blindness or visual impairment learn Braille in a playful and engaging way using moderated LEGO bricks. We have teamed up with blind associations to develop, test and launch the concept known as LEGO® Braille Bricks. Retrieved from https://www.LEGOFoundation.com
Students learning print are surrounded by vast amounts of toys, games, puzzles, books and many other materials that make learning print very fun, engaging, and meaningful. The equivalent types of materials for students learning braille have not always been so readily available. One of the reasons these LEGO Braille Bricks have been so highly anticipated is because of their “learning through play” benefit. Each LEGO Braille Brick kit contains braille bricks with letters, basic punctuation symbols, number signs for creating numbers, and signs of operation math symbols so these LEGOS can be used across a variety of subject areas.
What makes these LEGO Braille Bricks so exciting is that they are designed to support tactile learning skills while being fun, interesting, motivating, engaging, and meaningful materials students can use to build and play. When learning visually, we receive whole-picture information instantaneously; learning tactually initially takes more time to explore/figure out individual pieces of information and then putting all those pieces together to form the whole-picture concept. Braille is an amazing literacy code based on a set of six dots presented in individual braille cells or in combination with two or more braille cells but learning it can be tricky. What makes learning braille tricky is figuring out which dots of each braille cell are there, which dots are not there, and where each dot is located within each braille cell and in relation to the adjoining braille cells. Developing the tactile perception skills to figure this all out is often challenging and time-consuming. These braille LEGOS have very enlarged braille dots that provide more tactually distinct patterns, which in turn provide more tactual information for figuring out each braille symbol.
Students of various ages, abilities, and stages of braille-learning in the School for the Blind have been enjoying playing with the LEGOS since being introduced to them earlier in the school year. Students have given us positive feedback about how much easier it is for them to figure out the braille on the LEGOS. Students who have had a hard time with learning braille despite being provided with a wide variety of braille-learning activities, strategies, and techniques are already showing more success with using these braille LEGOS and are expressing more interest in and excitement about learning braille. We have a whole lot more playing and learning to do, but for now these initial successes are sure making our teacher hearts smile!
Picture 1 is an example of Braille LEGO letters set up on a Lego base as they (braille letters) would be on a worksheet or in a book. The first line has two letters a particular student has learned and can accurately/independently identify tactually, giving this student some “reading” success right away. The second line has letters this student has expressed interest in learning next because they are the first letters of names of characters from TV shows this student likes. The third line is the introduction of a new, more complex skill for this student to begin learning to recognize her name within a line of braille symbols/words.
Picture 2 shows a student using Braille LEGOS for a number-building and recognition game in math class. The student has a Lego base with a row of braille numbers along the entire length of the bottom line of the base. The student’s hands are close together on the Legos towards the center of the line.