I just received the following in my Email and thought it might be of interest to some of you. Admittedly, this isn’t assistive technology related, but it could make a great gift especially as finding Braille toys can sometimes be a challenge.

Steve

–

The hottest item at all three national conventions this summer was The
Braille Caravan by Creative Adaptations for Learning, and now available
from National Braille Press.

This educational toy, made in the USA, consists of 30 goldenrod
non-toxic plastic blocks. Each block represents the braille cell,
designed with six black pegs that can be manually pushed up or down to
form dots 1-6. Using a finger, stylus, or pencil, a young child can
easily make letters, works, even whole sentences by manipulating the six
dots on each block, and joining them in a “caravan.”

This is the perfect tool, built like a toy, to get young blind children
acquainted with braille at the earliest age; to introduce braille to a
sighted parent in a friendly or non-threatening way; or to help person
who need to learn braille later in life, even those who may have reduced
tactile sensitivity.

And, we discovered that sighted kids also love playing with the blocks
and handing them to their braille-reading parents (or grandparents) to
check out what they wrote! They did this simply by studying the alphabet
chart that comes with each caravan.

In each set, you get 30 “refreshable” braille blocks, a canvas carrying
bag, a print Activity Guide, and an English Braille Symbols Chart. In an
effort to get these into the hands of children at the earliest age, we
are selling the Braille Caravan for only $30. We believe this is the
least expensive braille learning device on the market today. (If you
wish to have the Activity Guide in braille, pease call us at the number
below).

To order or read more about this book online, visit
http://www.nbp.org/ic/nbp/CARAVAN.html

******
To order any books, send payment to:
NBP, 88 St. Stephen Street, Boston, MA 02115-4302
Or call and charge it: toll-free (800) 548-7323 or (617) 266-6160 ext
20.
Or order any of our books online at
http://www.nbp.org/ic/nbp/publications/index.html .