Do you have any tips on making a tactile book for a child with vision impairment?

You can bring a story to life for a child with vision impairment through a tactile book. There are many ways to make a tactile book, you could use string to coil into shapes, or build up layers of paint (acrylic is best) to create different textured surfaces.

You could also gather together tactile objects such as fabrics (smooth, soft, rough, stiff or fluffy), things like bits of wool, twigs and straw or items from around the home that the child can identify with, such as buttons, sequins, coins etc. Lay everything out and see if any stories or themes come to mind. Have a play around and move the objects into groups, they could be items that are all smooth or all rough - this could inspire you to make a book based on opposites rough and smooth, big and small etc.

Once you've decided on your theme, layout each page and begin to construct it, take time to stop and remember what you are trying to achieve and ask yourself if you are still on track. If you're happy with your layouts, start to stick the objects into place, you can use a glue gun or some PVA glue. As tactile books are quite bulky you may need to think about the different ways you can bind your book together. You could punch holes on all the pages and place them into an A4 ring binder or you could tie the pages together using string threaded through the holes.

Further information, including hints and tips as well as examples can be found on the following websites:

Clear vision a free lending library for visually impaired children, has a range of tactile books available to borrow that you can look to for inspiration, they also have an excellent guide which you can download from their website.

Paths to Literacy is an American website for vision impaired students with a good blog entry providing tips on creating a tactile book.

Positive Eyes have some excellent free resources available on their website.

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