My name is Sandy Gillam. I am a wife and a mother of two boys and a TSVI (Teacher of Students with Vision Impairments). My youngest is 12 years old and has typical vision and hearing. My oldest Liam, age 15, is deafblind. I have struggled to teach Liam how to write using a slate and stylus. He would quickly become frustrated when using it, didn’t understand how to use it, and disliked it. I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that to get instruction he needed a hand free as his receptive language is tactile American Sign Language. I found a tool that Liam seems to like and something just clicked, and it was no longer frustrating for him. It was an erasable slate and stylus called a Versa. It is quite a bit more money than your typical slate and stylus but very helpful for a student that is just learning because they can erase their mistakes and instantly feel what they wrote.
I wanted a fun and motivating way to practice using a Slate and Stylus (or Versa). Liam loves to search for and find things, so I came up with a mystery word scramble game for him.
Mystery Word Scramble Game!
Versa Slate for the Blind | Braille Superstore
Mystery word scramble: St. Patrick’s Day theme
The first time we played it was near St. Patrick’s Day. I put a St. Patrick’s Day themed word on plastic gold coins (one letter per coin). I then put a number on the other side of the coin, so Liam knew what order to put the coins to form the mystery word. I then hid all the coins in our work room and gave him hints on how to find them! Once he found all the coins and put them in order, he wrote the mystery word on his slate. He really loved this game, we played it many times!
Example of mystery words: Green, St. Patrick, gold, or March.
Mystery word scramble: Spring/Easter theme
Now that it is April, we played the same game but used large Easter eggs with glow sticks and the letters that form the secret word on small squares of paper in the eggs. I would hide the eggs shortly before our lesson. We would shut the blinds and turn the lights off and Liam searched for the eggs. Once he found them, he brought them to his table and opened all the eggs. He would arrange the paper squares in order (the papers included their number order) and then write the mystery word onto his slate!
Example of words: Easter, Spring, candy, or basket.
Read more ideas and lessons from Liam’s mom
