How to Teach Somebody Braille

Wash your hands and the your student's hands in warm, soapy water. Dry them thoroughly. Reading braille is easier when the hands are free of grime or substances and not wet or cold.

Explain to your student the structure of the braille system. It's a sequence of cells with six dots arranged in some way. Reading begins by getting used to the braille cell. Let their fingers run across a few lines to understand what they'll be learning.

Begin with the individual letters. The phonetic method, associating letters with sounds rather than words, is the most effective way to read. Have them play with the different "a" sounds while becoming familiar with the braille sign for "a."

Teach your student common punctuation marks. Have them run their fingers over lines of braille and identify where they appear, ignoring the other cells.

Talk about special signs in braille like the ones for capital letters, numbers and italics. Your reader needs to understand how special formats are written since braille relies on the 6-dot cell.

Make sure they use two hands at the beginning of the line and touch the braille cells just enough to comprehend their forms.

Watch as they move both right and left hand along the line. At about the center, the student's left hand should move down to the next line and locate its beginning while the right hand finishes the previous line.

Instruct your reader to waste no time in turning the page when their left hand can't locate another line. Teach your student to read braille fluently rather than quickly.