Home| Keynote Speeches| Workshop Papers| Other Documents
This paper summarises work undertaken in the School of Education over the last five years into the effectiveness of the line-based Moon code in helping to develop communication and literacy skills with a range of children and young people with a visual impairment and additional difficulties for whom Braille has not been found to be appropriate. The project arose from the concern of myself and my colleague Juliet Stone, that an increasing proportion of the population of blind children in the UK have additional disabilities and many of them appear unable to benefit from teaching through the medium of braille.
BACKGROUND
Population
In Britain, a survey by
the Royal National Institute for the Blind published in 1992 highlighted
the fact that 56% of children with a visual impairment were reported as
having another permanent illness or disability, with 27% having three or
more additional impairments. The survey also concluded that the poorer
children's sight was, the more likely it became that additional impairments
"in the areas of communication, physical integrity and mental functioning"
would be found present (RNIB 1992 )
The area of the development of literacy with these children is a particularly problematic one. According to Rex et al. (1994), the appropriate strategies for assessing and teaching functional literacy skills to students with additional disabilities are still largely unaddressed.
Traditionally judgements
about the potential for literacy in blind children have centred around
their ability to exhibit reading and writing skills in braille. However
there is evidence that significant numbers of children are unable to make
significant headway towards literacy through the medium of braille. For
example Lorimer (1978) concluded that there were factors relating to the
intrinsic design of the braille code which were likely to present particular
difficulties to children with learning disabilities and Nolan and Kederis
(1969) concluded that ‘retarded intellectual development' imposes a more
severe limitation on learning to read braille than it does on learning
to read print.
Moon
Moon is a simplified raised
line version of the Roman print alphabet devised by Dr William Moon in
1847. The embossed characters of the code provide a clear outline with
a distinct shape (Figure 1). Until the project, the use of Moon in the
UK was limited to the elderly blind and the Moon materials produced by
the RNIB and the National Library for the Blind were designed exclusively
for this audience. It had long been accepted that the bold outline offered
by the Moon characters made it a more suitable medium than braille for
the elderly blind person who wished to begin reading through touch. But
although it had been used in the last century as a reading medium for children,
there has been no formal research to determine its suitability as a reading
medium for children with learning difficulties who cannot read braille
(McCall and Stone 1992).
THE PROJECT
The research grew from a number of small scale studies by experienced teachers of the Visually impaired who were undergoing second level training at the School of Education. In 1992 a research grant was obtained from a major funding body which enabled a full time researcher to be employed for two years. The research continues today.
The first phase of the project focused on the identification of pupils who could potentially benefit from a course of instruction in Moon. Preliminary visits were made to a variety of schools and Colleges throughout the UK which catered for children and young people with severe visual impairments and additional disabilities.
The project was discussed with teaching staff, and data was collected on the techniques employed in the various establishments to develop communication and literacy in blind children with additional disabilities. On the basis of this teachers were asked if they could identify any pupils who they felt had reached the formal symbolic stage of communication, but were unable to make headway with braille.
The response was immediate and confirmed our belief that the research was addressing an area of real concern to many teachers. In addition to the schools we had targetted for inclusion in the project we received many unsolicited requests from the outset and throughout the project from teachers who were working with children who they felt would benefit from Moon and who wished to be involved in the project. These requests came from teachers in the UK and abroad.
Before the child embarked on the course of instruction in Moon, the researchers visited the student's school and held structured consultations with the child's teacher and where appropriate the child's parents. This yielded data which included information about the student's visual condition, related medical conditions, learning difficulties and emergent literacy skills. Most of the 20 children involved in the original study were congenitally blind, had complex physical and cognitive difficulties and were functioning at an emergent stage of literacy.
Readiness for formal reading instruction was signified by the child displaying a number of skills including:
showing interest in books
telling and showing interest
in stories
discriminating likenesses
and differences in abstract symbols
identifying letter sounds
at the beginning of words
A group of twenty children formed the basis of the initial study.
METHODOLOGY
The nature of the client
group to some extent determined the choice of methodology for the research
project. We used Routman's (1991) framework for gathering data on literacy
development which involved the collection of 'a variety of information
from multiple sources and from various learning contents" (p125). This
process included observations of students in authentic reading and writing
contexts, anecdotal reports, interviews with students, videotapes and the
collection of samples of work over a period of time.
TEACHING RESOURCES
A major limiting factor
to the more widespread use of Moon in the education of pupils with a visual
impairment had been the lack of suitable materials for use in the classroom.
A variety of resources were developed, and then trialled at the participating schools.
As no reading scheme was available in Moon, 'The Moon Cats' reading scheme was developed for the Project. A series of support materials were developed for use in conjunction with the reading scheme.
These included a teaching guide, word building frames, stencils, adapted computer keyboards and a Moon font for a range of computers to enable Moon to be produced within the classroom environment (McLinden 1993). subsequently the of the research, the Royal National Institute for the Blind have developed the prototype materials into a Moon Teaching Pack which is available for purchase.
MAIN FINDINGS
Using the materials developed
in the project teachers and children in a range of settings were identified
to participate in the research. They were supported throughout the project
by the investigators. This support took the form of the provision of advice
and assistance to teachers through visits, resources and a series of regular
seminars/mini conferences and, in some cases, through the direct teaching
of children by the investigators. Teachers were kept in touch with developments
nationwide through newsletters which included reports of s of teachers'
own experiences. The field was kept informed through a varitey of presentations
at schools, teacher training institutions and major national and international
conferences. Media interest also helped disseminate the work of the project.
During the course of the two years, the Moon Project generated a great deal of interest both in the UK and abroad. The results of the Project indicate that Moon is able to offer distinct advantages over Braille in the development of literacy for certain pupils. The findings of the study suggest a need for some rationalisation of the letter shapes in Moon, but as an established line based system it has provided a valuable starting point in researching alternative tactile codes for pupils unable to use Braille.
The advantages of Moon for blind children with additional disabilities may be summarised as follows:
1 A Moon character forms part of a line based system and as such presents a larger tactile stimulus than a Braille cell. This was found to be of particular benefit to the pupil with poorly developed tactile skills in learning to discriminate characters. This aspect of line based systems was successfully exploited in the development of the materials in the Moon Project.
Font Size 48 36 24
Letter A a a a
Letter O O o o
Line based systems appear to have a distinct advantage over dot systems in that letters may be enlarged or reduced and still retain their coherence. Enlargement serves to enhance the legibility of each letter, enabling the child to work from large to small and refining gross motor to fine motor movement. This is particularly use for children with learning difficulties.
2 Pupils with residual vision were able to utilise their remaining visual memory of print letters in learning the Moon alphabet. A number of pupils in the Project had sufficient residual vision to make use of high contrast Moon characters using a combination of both tactile and visual cues in their reading.
3 The teaching of the Moon alphabet can be linked to a developmental approach based on the discrimination of basic shapes found in the child's environment. The majority of the Moon characters are based on simple distinct shapes and the child's knowledge of basic shapes can be of great use in learning to discriminate the individual letters.
4 The similarity of the code to print meant that sighted adults were able to learn the basics of Moon in a relatively short time. Of particular note in this study was the enthusiasm with which sighted adults with little specialist knowledge of work with pupils with a visual impairment were able to acquire the basics of Moon and feel confident in its use in both the classroom and home environment.
Despite these findings, however, Moon suffers from a number of significant drawbacks which suggest the need for some modification.
1 Some letters are formed by rotations of the same basic shape. Children found some of these rotations confusing and modification of the code may be necessary to enable greater discrimination between certain potentially confusing characters.
2 Despite recent advances in technology and the development of appropriate computer fonts for the Project, the use of Moon in the classroom is hampered to an extent by the lack of an appropriate writing machine which is simple for pupils to operate. This became one of the foci of the research and is anticipated that a prototype machine will be available for trials in the classroom early.
Although the funded project Moon will be given increasing consideration in determining a medium for developing literacy for a wide range of pupils with a visual impairment in an area where the need is increasing and the options are limited.
FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS
The project has achieved has opened up tempting new areas for further research, for example it has not been possible in the length of the Project to determine which of the skills required to read Moon can be successfully transferred to the reading of Braille by the pupil at a later date if required.
Also while we were doing the research we realised that there were many blind children with severe learning difficulties who had not reached the developmental stage where reading from a raised alphabet was appropriate. These children and their teachers need materials which have been developed to encourage communication at a simpler level. The whole area of communication for the most severely disabled of the young visually impaired population has received scant attention. Communication methods for sighted children who have severe learning difficulties mostly rely upon signing or printed picture symbols, neither of these are accessible to blind children and very little work has been done on developing tactile substitutes or equivalents.
As part of a joint RNIB and University of Birmingham initiative, work from the Project will now be continued through a Moon Resource Base which will aim to support teaching and research developments in this area. In particular it is envisaged that the joint initiative will promote:
Co-ordination of Practice at a national level level
Further development of Resources
Monitoring and evaluation of approaches used in teaching Moon to a range of children with a visual impairment and additional difficulties
The Moon base welcomes enquiries
from around the world and csn be contacted at Moon base , Rushton Hall
School, Rushton, nr Kettering Northants, NN14 1RR, England.
REFERENCES
Lorimer J., (1978) The Limitations of Braille as as Medium for Communication and the Possibility of Improving Reading Standards. RCEVH, School of Education, University of Birmingham.
McLinden M.T., (1993) Writing in Moon. A Review of Moon Fonts Currently Available. For Production of the Moon Code. Centre Software. Newsletter No. 31 March 1993. RCEVH, School of Education, University of Birmingham.
Nolan C. Y., and Kederis C.J., (1969) Perceptual Factors in Braille Word Recognition. New York. American Foundation for the Blind.
Rex et al (1994) Foundations of braille Literacy New York, American Foundation for the Blind.
Royal National Institute
for the Blind, (1992) New Directions - towards a better future for multihandicapped
visually impaired children and young people: Report of the Working Party
on Services to Multihandicapped Visually Impaired Children and Young People.
London:RNIB.
The Moon Alphabet
a b c d e f g h i j k
A B C D E F G H I J K
l m n o p q r s t u
L M N O P Q R S T U
v w x y z
V W X Y Z