Sikeston student competes in national braille challenge

SIKESTON -- For third grader Kailey Couch, one dot makes all the difference when she's reading and writing braille.

The Matthews Elementary in Sikeston student has been learning those skills since preschool, and most recently, her work paid off with recognition on the regional and national levels.

In February, Kailey placed second at the regional Braille Challenge, which qualified her for the national competition this summer in Los Angeles. Kailey, who is the daughter of Brad and Laura Couch of Sikeston, was one of 12 students in her age group from across the United States to compete at the national competition.

"It was great," said Kailey's mother, Laura Couch. "It was a very, very awesome experience for her."

Since preschool Kailey who is visually impaired has enrolled in a dual curriculum, which means she learns her school work in both print and braille.

Couch said she used a parent advocate through the Missouri School for Blind when Kailey participated in the Parents as Teachers program. Then when Kailey started attending preschool at the Sikeston Kindergarten Center, the district contracted a teacher of the visually impaired, which it continues to do today.

While Kailey earns A's in school, it's nice for her work to be recognized at the regional and national levels through the competition, her mother noted.

"She works extremely hard," Couch said. The Braille Challenge is a national Braille contest created and sponsored by the Braille Institute. It's a two-stage academic competition designed to support and enrich the reading and writing of braille.

"She's participated in the regional Braille Challenge for two years and started in the first grade," Couch said. "Last school year was the first time she'd placed at regionals."

Both the regional and national challenge included Kailey competing in the apprentice division for first and second graders in three categories: reading comprehension, spelling and proofreading.

In reading comprehension, students silently read a story and answer multiple choice questions. For spelling, students braille vocabulary words in uncontracted braille. In proofreading, students read a faulty passage and look for braille, grammar, punctuation or spelling errors.

While she didn't place at nationals, Kailey's scores put her in the top 28 percent of her age level, her mother said.

"I started learning my alphabet and my numbers. In kindergarten, I started learning braille contractions,"said Kailey, who turns 9 on Oct. 10.

The contractions Kailey learned aren't standard contractions, she said.

"They're a short form for a word. For example, 'you' is just a 'y,'" Kailey said.

Kailey's learned the 187 literary braille codes, and this year is learning the Nemeth Braille Code for math and science with the use of an abacus.

Kailey said she prefers braille over math.

"I'm good at math, but I'm better at braille," Kailey said.

She likes braille because it's faster to keep up with the class, said Kailey's teacher, Pam Arbeiter, who is a teacher of the visually impaired and a certified orientation and mobility specialist. She meets with Kailey four days a week at her school.

"Kailey still has some residual vision; she uses large print occasionally, but it's just too hard to keep up," Arbeiter said.

This year all of Kailey's textbooks are in braille, and she's using them in the classroom, according to Arbeiter. Among her favorite books to read are those from the "The Boxcar Children" and "Little House on the Prairie" series.

Kailey follows an expanded core curriculum, which includes compensatory skills (including Braille, slate/stylus, abacus, adapted rulers, etc.); orientation and mobility, or travel skills; social interaction skills, career education, assistive technology, independent living skills, recreation and leisure skills, sensory efficiency skills and self determination.

Kailey uses a braille writer to type braille, and she's also learning keyboarding on a laptop computer as well. And she's learning daily living activities, such as walking across the street.

"I love Braille -- not all the time though," Kailey said.

Arbeiter agreed, clarifying her student's statement.

"Everyone sometimes gets tired of reading," Arbeiter said. "If she has a paper cut or hands are chapped, that can make it hard for her to read. She has to think about things other kids don't have to."

Arbeiter said when Kailey first began to learn literary braille, Kailey had to do a lot of tactile discrimination to increase sensitivity of her fingers.

"One dot makes a difference. It's a new word or changes the meaning of something," Arbeiter said.

The difference between the word "a" and "can" is one dot, Arbeiter explained. The codes for the letters "f"and "d "are reversals of each other, she said.

Arbeiter has nothing but praise for her pupil.

"She's a joy to work with," Arbeiter said. "I'm really proud of her and being able to go to the national competition. She's worked very hard, and she did very well -- and I'm really proud of the work she's done."