Publications
New Research Study: Early Braille Education Vital in Establishing Lifelong Literacy
By: Ruby Ryles, Ph.D.
Editor's Note: The following article is re-printed from Future Reflections, Vol. 18, No. 2, Summer/Fall 1999. Future Reflections is a magazine for parents and teachers of blind children. It is published quarterly by the National Organisation of Parents of Blind Children, a Division of the National Federation of the Blind (NFB). Future Reflections is available in print and on cassette tape. A special introductory book issue is available free from the NFB. Here is the report:
An exhaustive study has cast aside some erroneous
stereotypes while underscoring the importance of Braille
education at an early age. The study has revealed that
literacy rates of blind high school students who began
their Braille education at an early age are consistent with
those of their sighted peers. The study further disclosed
that legally blind children who received infrequent or no
Braille training, or who began their Braille education
later in life, exhibit noticeably lower literacy rates. The
study was conducted by Ruby Ryles, Ph.D., who co-ordinates
the master's program in Orientation and Mobility at
Louisiana Tech University in conjunction with the Louisiana
Centre for the Blind. Ryles performed the study for her
University of Washington doctoral dissertation in special
education, titled "Relationship of Reading Medium to
Literacy Skills of High School Students Who Are Visually
Impaired". Results from that and a preliminary study
suggest that partially sighted children may be at greater
risk of literacy deficiencies than children who are totally
blind.
The study was intended to establish correlations between
present literacy rates and the early reading education of
high school students from 45 cities, towns, and rural
communities in 11 eastern and southern states. Of 60
students in the study, 45 were legally blind from birth,
had no other disabilities, spoke English as a first
language, were of average intelligence, and attended public
rather than residential schools. The study also included a
comparative group of 15 sighted students attending the same
schools as the legally blind subjects.
The 45 legally blind students were divided into three
groups of 15 students each, corresponding with the
initiation and consistency of their Braille instruction:
Early Braille-students who received Braille instruction
four to five days per week while in the first, second, and
third grades. Infrequent Braille-students who received
Braille instruction fewer than four days per week during
the first three grades; Non-Braille-legally blind students
who received no instruction in reading Braille, instead
using print material and optical aids. Ryles administered
comprehension, vocabulary, and other subtests of the
Stanford Achievement Test and the Woodcock Johnson R
(revised) assessment tests.
In comprehension tests, there was no significant difference
between the mean scores of the sighted students and the
group of blind students who received early frequent
instruction in Braille. Nor was there a significant
difference between the mean scores of the infrequent
Braille group and the non-Braille group on the two
comprehension tests. However, the students who received
instruction in Braille fewer than four days a week during
the first three grades of school (infrequent Braille group)
and the non-Braille group posted mean scores on both tests
significantly lower than those of the sighted and early
Braille groups.
In vocabulary, early Braille readers outperformed sighted
students by a 5 percent margin on the Stanford test and
nearly matched their sighted classmates on the Woodcock
Johnson R test. The infrequent Braille learners, producing
a mean score of 45 percent, registered significantly below
the early Braille and sighted groups on the Stanford test.
Legally blind students who received no Braille instruction
posted a mean score 6 percentage points lower than the
infrequent Braille group on the same test.
The infrequent and non-Braille groups also scored
significantly lower than the early Braille and sighted
groups on the Woodcock Johnson R vocabulary test. Spelling,
punctuation and capitalisation scores shattered
stereotypes. In the capitalisation and punctuation portion
of the Woodcock Johnson R test, early Braille readers
produced a mean score that was 7 percentage points higher
than their sighted peers, 25 percentage points higher than
the infrequent Braille group, and 42 percentage points
higher than their legally blind peers in the non-Braille
group. In the spelling portion of the Woodcock Johnson R
test, early Braille learners averaged 1 percentage point
higher than fully sighted readers, 32 percentage points
higher than infrequent Braille learning, and 38 percentage
points higher than the non-Braille group. Before beginning
work on the project, Ryles conducted a preliminary study in
the state of Washington evaluating the correlation between
adult literacy skills and employment. There, she studied 74
adults who were born legally blind and were patrons of the
Library for the Blind. Ryles discovered that 44 percent of
the study participants who had learned to read in Braille
were unemployed, while those who had learned to read using
print had a 77 percent unemployment rate. Those results
prompted her to conduct an in-depth study exploring the
childhood reading education of legally blind high school
kids. The two studies led Ryles to an inescapable
conclusion: "Low-vision kids need to be taught Braille,"
she asserts. "Early Braille education is crucial to
literacy, and literacy is crucial to employment."
For more information about the study, contact Ruby Ryles
at: lesr@lcb-ruston.com
